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Slow running Mac

What can I do to make my MAC run faster?

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Aug 27, 2020 10:01 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 27, 2020 10:18 AM

That depends in what’s causing the iMc to run slowly.


The iMac 21.5” was variously sold with 8 GB and a slow hard disk, and there’s not a good option for making that faster. That iMac works for mail and light web-browsing and FaceTime and such, but won’t ever be speedy. Booting from an external SSD on USB 3.0 or faster is about the only reasonable choice for improving that, short of replacement.


Some Macs have add-on tools that slow things. Common culprits include add-on anti-malware, add-on anti-virus, add-on cleaner apps, add-on VPN apps, and such.


Sometimes a network setting is wrong.


Sometimes a hard disk is failing, and those can cause a Mac to get slow.


If you do not have a current backup, get that first. Before any other tasks.


Download and enable full device access for and run EtreCheck. Then open a new reply here and then press the button that looks like a printed page to get a text input box big enough to paste the hardware and software configuration report here. That report will provide some insight into the hardware and software.


1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 27, 2020 10:18 AM in response to glennfromelgin

That depends in what’s causing the iMc to run slowly.


The iMac 21.5” was variously sold with 8 GB and a slow hard disk, and there’s not a good option for making that faster. That iMac works for mail and light web-browsing and FaceTime and such, but won’t ever be speedy. Booting from an external SSD on USB 3.0 or faster is about the only reasonable choice for improving that, short of replacement.


Some Macs have add-on tools that slow things. Common culprits include add-on anti-malware, add-on anti-virus, add-on cleaner apps, add-on VPN apps, and such.


Sometimes a network setting is wrong.


Sometimes a hard disk is failing, and those can cause a Mac to get slow.


If you do not have a current backup, get that first. Before any other tasks.


Download and enable full device access for and run EtreCheck. Then open a new reply here and then press the button that looks like a printed page to get a text input box big enough to paste the hardware and software configuration report here. That report will provide some insight into the hardware and software.


Slow running Mac

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