SLOW. SLOW. SLOW. SLOW. SLOW!

Greeting LILU2!

We see you are having some trouble with your iMac running slowly. We can absolutely see how that would be an issue and we want to help get that device running full speed again! We recommend following the steps listed in this article: If your Mac runs slowly.

Take care!

Download and run Etrecheck. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support  to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

Copy the report

and use the Additional Text button to include the report in your reply.

IMPORTANT: ⬇︎ ⬇︎ ⬇︎

Before running Etrecheck assign Full Disk Access to Etrecheck in the Etrecheck's Privacy preference pane so that it can get additional information from the Console and log files for the report:

Also click and read the About info to further permit full disk access.

Then we can examine the report and see if we can determine what might be causing the problem.

You might also want to see if Etrecheck discovers any issues with your mac. Also what is the configuration of your iMac? (RAM, Disk size and available disk space) Is your hard drive an SSD or spinning disk drive.

You have two computers and they operate at different speeds. There is a reason. At this point we don't know what that reason is, however. It could simply be that the slower computer has a slower mechanical drive and insufficient RAM. Or it may be something else. I strongly second the advice to run EtreCheck and post the report here under the "Additional text" icon. That report will be very useful in diagnosing your computer's slowness. I hope the following is helpful to you in dealing with a slow computer. Often times there is a specific cause and other times any of the following actions may be helpful. They are “maintenance” steps which are often ignored.

·      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.

·      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.) When using then, 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 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 the problem may simply be 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. This information is found by going to the Apple logo in the upper left corner of the finder and clicking on About This Mac. Note; not all computers are able to have RAM user installed. Some upgrades must be done by a qualified Apple service specialist.

·      Last, and most important, you should remove any and all maintenance and anti virus programs. They will cause problems and will significantly slow your computer.

·      As noted, it is also very useful to download and install the free app EtreCheck. Be sure to enable full disk access and run it. You can post the results here at the bottom. It will tell us exactly what you have installed which might be problematic.

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

+1 on posting your EtreCheck report, without any specifics on what is installed, troubleshooting is extremely difficult. There is no private information in the report so you don't have to worry about that.