Mac Air Apps very slow to open

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Level 1

5 points

Mac Air Apps very slow to open

I'm running Catalina 10.15.7 on a 2014 mac air and have about 27GB free space. My mac turns on quickly but when I try to open apps like Excel, Keynote or some others it is very slow... the icon just bounces in the doc for over a minute. I don't use anti virus.

Once it does open it seems to respond normally given my device. Activity mon doesn't show anything unusual as far as my untrained eye can tell. First aid didn't show anything. The problem got bad before I updated to 10.15.7 and I hoped the update would take care of it. No such luck.

Suggestions?

MacBook Air

Posted on Sep 28, 2020 1:29 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

John Galt

Level 10

150,220 points

Sep 30, 2020 4:29 AM in response to jackbootthug

I can only suggest getting rid of "App Clean" and "Memory Clean". In general any third party app with "clean" in its name is certain to degrade performance, and using them often results in corruption that requires reinstalling macOS, at a minimum. They are scams that should never be installed on any Mac.

In light of that try reinstalling macOS again, and perhaps any other app that takes too long to open (such as Excel) but only after getting rid of the scams.

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Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

150,220 points

Sep 28, 2020 5:44 PM in response to jackbootthug

Yes, "and make sure that your Apple software and third-party apps are up to date."

Merely booting Safe Mode often fixes that particular problem. Since it has persisted though, the next step is to reset that Mac's SMC: How to reset the SMC of your Mac. Yours doesn't have the T2 chip so skip to the section titled "Reset the SMC on other computers."

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Answer 3

John Galt

Level 10

150,220 points

Sep 29, 2020 8:26 AM in response to jackbootthug

It's still supported. Apple will not summarily dismiss your concern, and they are likely to have more helpful suggestions.

At your option consider using EtreCheck: Using EtreCheck - Apple Community. Post its report in a reply if you wish. It often reveals actionable information, and has literally no effect on a Mac after quitting the app.

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Answer 4

jackbootthug Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 29, 2020 8:14 PM in response to John Galt

Etrecheck Test..

Note: I selected slow computer but overall speed once the apps are open isn't too bad. Power on is fine.

Most surprising to me is the "low disk space comment". I don't get it. About this mac now indicates I have almost 40GB available. (Doing a reinstall of Catalina seemed to clean over 10GB of space.)

Also, perhaps unrelated but I'm experiencing a high number of "gateway timeouts" lately.

Thanks to any and all that can point me in the right direction.

Etrechek Results

EtreCheck version: 5.6.1 (5217) Report generated: 2020-09-30 09:30:08 Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com Runtime: 6:15 Performance: Below Average Sandbox: Enabled Full drive access: Disabled Problem: Computer is too slow Description: Apple and 3rd party apps are very slow to open. The time needed seems to relate to the size of an app- larger apps take longer. Excel takes 3-4 mins to open. Major Issues: None Minor Issues: These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems or opportunities for improvement. SSD too slow - SSD is showing poor performance. Low disk space - This computer is running low on free hard drive space. Clean up - There are orphan files that could be removed. Unsigned files - There are unsigned software files installed. Apple has said that unsigned software will not run by default in a future version of the operating system. Low performance - EtreCheck report took an unusually long time to run. Vintage hardware - This computer may be considered vintage. 32-bit Apps - This computer has 32-bits apps will not work on current versions of the operating system. Limited drive access - More information may be available with Full Drive Access. Kernel extensions present - This computer has kernel extensions that may not work in the future. Sharing enabled - This computer has sharing services enabled that could be a security risk. Hardware Information: MacBook Air (13-inch, 2013 - 2014) - Vintage! MacBook Air Model: MacBookAir6,2 1.4 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 (i5-4260U) CPU: 2-core 4 RAM - Not upgradeable BANK 0/DIMM0 - 2 GB DDR3 1600 BANK 1/DIMM0 - 2 GB DDR3 1600 Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 40 Video Information: Intel HD Graphics 5000 - VRAM: 1536 MB 2D FHD LG TV 1920 x 1080 Drives: disk0 - APPLE SSD SD0128F 121.33 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes) Internal PCI 5.0 GT/s x2 Serial ATA disk0s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB disk0s2 [APFS Container] 120.47 GB disk1 [APFS Virtual drive] 120.47 GB (Shared by 5 volumes) disk1s1 - Macintosh HD - Data (APFS) [APFS Virtual drive] (Shared - 82.02 GB used) disk1s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] (Shared) disk1s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] (Shared) disk1s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] (Shared - 1.07 GB used) disk1s5 - Macintosh HD (APFS) (Shared - 11.12 GB used) Mounted Volumes: disk1s1 - Macintosh HD - Data [APFS Virtual drive] 120.47 GB (Shared - 82.02 GB used, 39.68 GB available, 25.52 GB free) APFS Mount point: /System/Volumes/Data Encrypted disk1s4 - VM [APFS VM] 120.47 GB (Shared - 1.07 GB used, 25.52 GB free) APFS Mount point: /private/var/vm disk1s5 - Macintosh HD 120.47 GB (Shared - 11.12 GB used, 39.68 GB available, 25.52 GB free) APFS Mount point: / Encrypted Read-only: Yes Network: Interface en7: Thunderbolt Ethernet Interface en0: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Interface en2: Bluetooth PAN Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge Printer sharing: Enabled System Software: macOS Catalina 10.15.7 (19H2) Time since boot: Less than an hour Notifications: Notifications not available without Full Drive Access. Security: Gatekeeper: Enabled System Integrity Protection: Enabled Antivirus software: Apple Printer sharing: Enabled Unsigned Files: Launchd: /Library/LaunchAgents/org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist Executable: /opt/X11/libexec/launchd_startx /opt/X11/bin/startx -- /opt/X11/bin/Xquartz Details: Exact match found in the legitimate list - probably OK Launchd: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.google.keystone.agent.plist Executable: ~/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent -runMode ifneeded Details: Exact match found in the legitimate list - probably OK Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Executable: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Flash Player Install Manager/fpsaud Details: Exact match found in the legitimate list - probably OK Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/net.sourceforge.MonolingualHelper.plist Executable: /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/net.sourceforge.MonolingualHelper Details: Exact match found in the legitimate list - probably OK Launchd: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.google.keystone.xpcservice.plist Executable: ~/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent -runMode xpchost Details: Exact match found in the legitimate list - probably OK Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist Executable: /opt/X11/libexec/privileged_startx -d /opt/X11/lib/X11/xinit/privileged_startx.d Details: Exact match found in the legitimate list - probably OK Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.tunnelbear.mac.tbeard.plist Executable: /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.tunnelbear.mac.tbeard Details: Exact match found in the legitimate list - probably OK Plugin: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin/Contents/PlugIns/FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin Plugin: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/nplastpass.plugin Plugin: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin Plugin: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/SharePointBrowserPlugin.plugin Preference Pane: /Library/PreferencePanes/Flash Player.prefPane Apps: 10 32-bit Applications: 5 32-bit apps Kernel Extensions: /Library/Extensions AX88772.kext (1.4.0 - SDK 10.10) AppleRTL815XComposite109.kext (1.0.15 - SDK 10.9) AppleRTL815XEthernet109.kext (1.0.15 - SDK 10.9) System Launch Agents: [Not Loaded] 16 Apple tasks [Loaded] 186 Apple tasks [Running] 111 Apple tasks System Launch Daemons: [Not Loaded] 35 Apple tasks [Loaded] 194 Apple tasks [Running] 108 Apple tasks Launch Agents: [Loaded] com.microsoft.update.agent.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2020-09-29) [Loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist (? 8c13f787 - installed 2016-10-26) Launch Daemons: [Loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (? 2afb3af7 - installed 2016-05-10) [Loaded] com.apple.installer.osmessagetracing.plist (Apple - installed 2019-08-21) [Loaded] com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2020-09-29) [Loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2019-10-14) [Loaded] com.tunnelbear.mac.tbeard.plist (? a1f7621a - installed 2015-09-17) [Loaded] net.sourceforge.MonolingualHelper.plist (? 2a1d8e29 - installed 2015-09-17) [Loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist (? e9b47e8e - installed 2016-10-26) User Launch Agents: [Loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (? 0 - installed 2020-08-20) [Loaded] com.google.keystone.xpcservice.plist (? 0 - installed 2020-08-20) [Other] com.lastpass.LastPassHelper.plist (? 0 - installed 2016-04-01) User Login Items: [Running] AppCleaner SmartDelete (Julien Ramseier - installed 2018-12-15) Modern Login Item /Applications/AppCleaner.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/AppCleaner SmartDelete.app [Not Loaded] DashlaneAutoStartHelper (App Store - installed 2020-09-20) Modern Login Item /Applications/Dashlane.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/DashlaneAutoStartHelper.app [Running] P72E3GC48.com.dashlane.DashlaneAgent (App Store - installed 2020-09-20) Modern Login Item /Applications/Dashlane.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/P72E3GC48.com.dashlane.DashlaneAgent.app [Not Loaded] Evernote Helper (App Store - installed 2020-04-14) Modern Login Item /Applications/Evernote.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/EvernoteHelper.app [Not Loaded] EvernoteLauncher (App Store - installed 2020-04-14) Modern Login Item /Applications/Evernote.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/EvernoteLauncher.app [Not Loaded] MemoryCleanHelper (App Store - installed 2018-08-03) Modern Login Item /Applications/Memory Clean.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/MemoryCleanHelper.app Internet Plug-ins: FlashPlayer-10.6: 21.0.0.242 (? - installed 2016-05-13) nplastpass: 4.1.2 (? - installed 2016-04-01) Flash Player: 21.0.0.242 (? - installed 2016-05-13) SharePointBrowserPlugin: 14.7.7 (? - installed 2017-11-29) User Internet Plug-ins: User Internet Plug-ins need Full Drive Access User Audio Plug-ins: User Audio Plug-ins need Full Drive Access User iTunes Plug-ins: User iTunes Plug-ins need Full Drive Access Safari Extensions: Dashlane (App Store - installed 2020-09-20) 3rd Party Preference Panes: Flash Player (? - installed 2016-05-10) Backup: Time Machine information not available without Full Drive Access. One local snapshot Oldest local snapshot: 2020-09-29 14:18:14 Last local snapshot: 2020-09-29 14:18:14 Performance: System Load: 1.52 (1 min ago) 3.28 (5 min ago) 3.02 (15 min ago) Nominal I/O speed: 3.33 MB/s File system: 39.52 seconds Write speed: 232 MB/s Read speed: 397 MB/s CPU Usage Snapshot: Type Overall System: 3 % User: 5 % Idle: 92 % Top Processes Snapshot by CPU: Process (count) CPU (Source - Location) Other processes 19.77 % (?) EtreCheck 10.89 % (App Store) P72E3GC48.com.dashlane.DashlaneAgent.app 0.86 % (App Store) trustd 0.23 % (Apple) AXVisualSupportAgent 0.17 % (Apple) Top Processes Snapshot by Memory: Process (count) RAM usage (Source - Location) EtreCheck 166 MB (App Store) Backup and Sync 154 MB (Google, Inc.) Microsoft Excel 106 MB (Microsoft Corporation) Finder 67 MB (Apple) accountsd 62 MB (Apple) Top Processes Snapshot by Network Use: Process (count) Input / Output (Source - Location) Other processes 110 KB / 84 KB (?) SystemUIServer 0 B / 64 B (Apple) spindump_agent 0 B / 0 B (Apple) backgroundtaskmanagementagent 0 B / 0 B (Apple) SafariBookmarksSyncAgent 0 B / 0 B (Apple) Virtual Memory Information: Physical RAM: 4 GB Free RAM: 31 MB Used RAM: 2.62 GB Cached files: 1.35 GB Available RAM: 1.38 GB Swap Used: 0 B Software Installs (past 30 days): Install Date Name (Version) 2020-09-08 Canon Inkjet Printer Software Update (3.4) 2020-09-11 OCRApp (3.4.4) 2020-09-15 GIHO_RePicvid_V4 2020-09-17 Safari (14.0) 2020-09-18 XProtectPlistConfigData (2131) 2020-09-20 Dashlane (6.2037.0) 2020-09-23 Mobile Device (1.0.0.0) 2020-09-23 Pages (10.0) 2020-09-24 Keynote (10.0) 2020-09-28 iMovie (10.1.16) 2020-09-28 macOS Catalina 10.15.7 Update 2020-09-28 Gatekeeper Compatibility Data (1.0) 2020-09-29 Microsoft AutoUpdate 2020-09-29 Microsoft Word 2020-09-29 Microsoft Excel 2020-09-29 MRTConfigData (1.66) 2020-09-30 EtreCheck (5.6.1) Clean up: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.lastpass.LastPassHelper.plist ~/Library/Application Support/LastPass/LastPassHelper.app/Contents/MacOS/LastPassHelper Executable not found Diagnostics Information (past 7-30 days): Directory /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports is not accessible. Enable Full Drive Access to see more information. End of report

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Answer 5

jackbootthug Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 30, 2020 8:28 PM in response to John Galt

Thanks for your help on all of this.

I will delete and reinstall as suggested.

Previously you said Apple will support it. But when I go to support they ask for the serial number and then say my mac is not supported (via chat, call etc). Is there another avenue for apple support that is less obvious? I can't seem to find it.

I have a bad feeling that the root is a failing SSD. Not based on any tech knowledge I have, mind you... just the way things seem to go. The latest odd thing that Airdrop to my mac doesn't seem to work.

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Answer 6

John Galt

Level 10

150,220 points

Sep 30, 2020 8:49 PM in response to jackbootthug

I have a bad feeling that the root is a failing SSD.

That's possible. I would only begin to suspect that after ruling out all other possible contributing factors though. SSD failure is rare, even for Macs older than yours, but EtreCheck's "poor performance" conclusion is something I have not seen on a stock MBA before. Bear in mind I am no expert at interpreting its report and don't know the criteria by which it makes that determination, but I have no reason to question it.

The good news is that it can be replaced fairly easily. You can double its existing minisule capacity for $100 and quadruple it for not much more than that. I think that Mac is worth the investment. Start here: https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/macbook-air/2013-2014-2015

Do that only after ruling out everything else: remove the junk, reinstall macOS, and be sure to create a backup.