iMac running super slow

Thank you for posting the report. Someone else may have some other observations, but I will offer these. First, you have only 8 GB of RAM, which is not really enough. A minimum of 16 GB is recommended for most users, particularly with Catalina. You also have a very slow hard drive. Catalina OS does use more RAM than some older ones. Adding RAM to your Mac is difficult and expensive as it should be done by an expert. You could add an external SSD and install Catalina on it, then use it as your startup drive. That will be faster. Otherwise, there are some things you can do which will help. Often times there is a specific cause for slowness and other times any of the following actions may be helpful. They are “maintenance” steps which are often ignored by many people.

·      It is important to occasionally restart a Mac. Ideally, once a week or more often. This does some system cleaning.

·      Regularly clearing the history of your browsers can help as all the data is stored in RAM. Clearing frees up RAM for system use. The Chrome browser uses a lot more RAM than other browsers do, so you may not want to use it.

·      Some people seldom empty their trash. If you haven’t, then do so. Also empty your email trash.

·      Some programs use a lot of RAM. (Like many Adobe apps and games.) When using them, close any other apps not being used.

·      Doing a restart in the safe mode can clear a number of problems. This is done by holding down the shift key at start up. This process can take up to ten minutes while the computer is doing its maintenance and cleans the cache. You may then restart normally.

·      It is also a good idea to periodically run the Disk Utility app. If it reports some issues, then rerun it repeatedly as needed until the final report is ok.

·      On some computers such as yours the problem is simply that there is not enough RAM installed for RAM hungry programs that are being used. The very minimum amount of RAM we would recommend for computers running the Catalina OS is 16 GB.

·      Last, and most important, you should never install anyl Mac cleaner or anti virus programs. They will cause problems and will significantly slow your computer.

I hope these suggestions are helpful and enable you to speed up your computer somewhat.

The report indicates there is one notification from CleamMyMac. However, I don;'t see any other files from CMM in the report. Did you run it at one time and then remove it?

Other than the above, your main problem is that you have the slowest Mac offered by Apple at the time of purchase: 8 GB of RAM and a 5400 rpm hard drive. With that setup you'll have to limit what you have open at any one time.

You should remove Chrome because it's a known resource hog. If you don't like Safari give Firefox a try. It's much more efficient than Chrome and more secure.

You could speed up boot time, app opening time and file opening and saving time with an external SSD drive with USB 3 connectivity. An excellent choice for that would be this unit: OWC Envoy Pro EX

However, RAM is not upgradeable on a 21.5" iMac.

IF you think you removed CMM then run a fresh EtreCheck report and look through it carefully for any evidence of CMM. If you do not find any then you know you uninstalled it correctly.