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Hi
My iMac 14,2 has been running really slowly for many months. Opening programs or webpages typically takes 5-10 seconds. I've deleted all my old programs and have plenty of HD space. I have 8GB of RAM and activity monitor says that I am using very little %CPU. I've deleted caches. Updated to latest OS. Turned off completely and restarted. Tried without Time machine. Nothing helps.
Can anyone advise please. Here is my EtreCheck:
Thanks
I have added another 16GB of Crucial RAM. But no improvement.
I have emptied the LaunchAgents file. Still no improvement.
I have run another Etre check which still shows some User Launch Agents !
I have attached the new Etre Check.
Still can't open in Safe Mode
Any suggestions
PS "Day One "is a journal I use
Hi,
Boot in Safe mode, then normal boot could solve the slowness.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262
+1 Safe mode.
Second you are almost out of memory (RAM). If/when MacOS ever resorts to using swap space as virtual memory the system will slow down.
Third you have a huge pile of 3rd party software running on startup. You have a half dozen auto-updaters plus associated application helpers. Dropbox, Google, Adobe, Microsoft, Oracle, Epson, and more. I would expect a 7200rpm HDD could keep up but it is possible these may be contributing to slow performance.
Thanks - but I've been unable to start up in safe mode. Used a USB keyboard. I've made sure that FileVault is not enabled. I've tried to reboot into the Recovery volume too but no luck.
Any suggestions
Continue holding down the Shift Key until the computer restarts in Safe Mode, this can take up to 10 minutes.
In addition, the computer is completely starved for RAM. Please add a minimum of an additional 16GB of either Crucial.com or Macsales.com RAM. 8 GB of RAM is the bare minimum to run Mac OS so it's no wonder the computer is slow, it is likely doing a lot of RAM swapping.
Finally, it is possible your hard drive may be distressed so you may want to take the computer to your local Apple Authorized Service Provider to have the HD tested to check it's health. It is 8 years old!
Thanks
I've checked in system preferences / users and groups / Login items - and there are no programs listed to open at start up. But there are in the EtreCheck so I am confused. I suspect this could be the issue because my husband has no issues when he logs in to her profile - which is very light in programs.
Any suggestions?
An important clue!
If only your account is slow while other accounts work normally we can narrow the problem down to applications/agents that only launch on your account.
In addition to Login Items (Applications) each user also as Launch Agents (scripts) that run. These can be found in:
Finder > To > Go to Folder
~/Library/LaunchAgents
Your user specific launch agents are:
[Loaded] com.dropbox.DropboxMacUpdate.agent.plist (Dropbox, Inc. - installed 2019-08-22)
[Loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (? 0 - installed 2020-03-12)
[Loaded] com.google.keystone.xpcservice.plist (? 0 - installed 2020-03-12)
[Loaded] com.logmein.GoToMeeting.G2MAIRUploader.plist (? 0 - installed 2020-03-30)
[Loaded] com.logmein.GoToMeeting.G2MUpdate.plist (? 0 - installed 2020-03-30)
[Loaded] com.skype.skype.shareagent.plist (Skype Communications S.a.r.l - installed 2019-05-05)
[Running] com.spotify.webhelper.plist (? 0 - installed 2016-04-12)
To test if one of those is a problem go to your "~/Library/" folder, create a new folder named something like "OldAgents", and move everything from the ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ folder into the new ~/Library/OldAgents folder (or whatever you named it). Finally restart your computer. If there is no improvement feel free to move them back.
Also it is odd that no Login Items are listed... Etrecheck might be picking up login items for other users, except that "Day One" is listed as active. Does that application sound familiar?
Well, I'm stumped. Your computer looks like it is performing strong from the Etrecheck report. Drive speeds have improved, no ram pressure, CPU mostly idle... It sure doesn't look slow.
I'm also surprised that the launch agent trick didn't work. You restarted after emptying the LaunchAgents file, correct? After the restart were had the files moved themselves back in ~/Library/LaunchAgents or were there now copies on both folders?
Safemode not working is also odd. When are you pressing shift? When are you releasing shift?
The computer has adware installed, the OP needs to download and install Malwarebytes and let it help him get rid of the malware. If that does not help, he needs to do an erase and install and start over again. Then manually install his apps (DO NOT RESTORE FROM BACKUP) and then restore his data files.
Slow iMac
