MacBook Air M1 chip SO slow?

I recently bought the newest MacBook Air with M1 chip, an upgrade from my very old MacBook Pro which was getting on a bit and had hardly any storage left.

But so far, I am SO disappointed with it - it’s so much slower than my old MacBook and I hardly have anything saved on it yet at all so it shouldn’t be a storage related issue?

Ive been trying to use Adobe CC such as Illustrator and Photoshop on it but it takes me twice as long to get anything done as it is constantly freezing, crashing, loading etc. I’ve heard that the issue here could be that Adobe hasn’t updated its software/applications to run on an M1 chip device?

Is anyone else having issues with theirs, or does it sound like I have perhaps got a faulty device? This was seriously not at all what I was expecting and right now I wish I bought the 2020 version, but thought the newest one would be best. I was expecting to have these sort of issues (lagging, constant loading etc) once the MacBook is a few years old and I’ve saved a lot onto it, but so far I have yet to be able to get anything finished to save because of how unresponsive it is!

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated! I’m debating ringing technical support too.

MacBook Air

Posted on Dec 15, 2020 7:19 AM

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36 replies

imdxo Author

Level 1

16 points

Dec 15, 2020 8:18 AM in response to woodmeister50

Ah, I did (sigh)

to be honest, I felt a bit clueless when trying to decide on which one to get. But so far, I’m regretting choosing this one!

As I still have time to return; would you recommend me doing so and purchasing a device without M1 chip and more than 8GB? I’m thinking this might be the best idea as if I can’t use Adobe CC, there’s no point in me even using the MacBook.

imdxo Author

Level 1

16 points

Dec 15, 2020 8:22 AM in response to KiltedTim

So frustrating - really wish I understood more about this before purchasing (my bad!)

I think Adobe have already began or completed updates for Photoshop and Lightroom, but from what I’ve read there seems to be no timeline for Illustrator - which is the problem application for me, PS seems to work smoothly.

You don’t happen to have any insight or idea of how long it could take Adobe to release an M1 native version of Illustrator do you? I’m completely clueless about these types of things and am currently trying to decide between waiting for an update with my M1 or returning and purchasing a 2020 version...

Dec 16, 2020 12:53 AM in response to ZahirMamdani

I found the solution to the issue. I first added Rosetta 2 and it became faster. I than got a call from my supplier who said this issue is due to migration from the old Mac. I am now removing all the data I had migrated, formatting it and will then add the apps. I am told M1 runs very slow if you migrate the data.

Branta_uk

Level 7

33,194 points

Dec 23, 2020 5:39 PM in response to Juanwingo

Juanwingo wrote:

Hi, I'm having the same issue with the M1 computer. I have a MacBook Pro and to be frank it does not work at all. I'm using Slack, Chrome and Apple Music and it freeze all of the sudden. Any idea what ti do?

I have seen several reports that Chrome does not behave well and has all the characteristics of a 5 tonne anchor dragged behind a sports car. For test try removing Chrome and see if it makes a difference.

tbirdvet

Level 6

17,819 points

Dec 15, 2020 9:42 AM in response to imdxo

Mine is faster than my 2019 iMac maxed out. I have 16GB Ram, however all the tests on Youtube using 8GB indicate it is very fast (M1) model. Perhaps you have an app that is slowing things down.

Dec 15, 2020 11:53 PM in response to Trovador

Could it be the 16GB is the option that's faster. I am in Kenya and my supplier got only one unit. In Kenya the base model costs so much. Don't know what to do

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MacBook Air M1 chip SO slow?