Level 1

6 points

Beach ball and slower performance of new iMac and MacBook Pro

I recently upgraded from my old iMac and from my older MacBook Pro. In both cases, I used the Time Machine backup from my old iMac to set up the new computers. I find beach balling frequently, especially with the Finder window freezing at times. Moving files from one folder to another takes a long time. I think somehow it all goes through DropBox. I am afraid I am somewhat technically naive. I bought EtreCheckPro and have run a check and there are numerous issues...very few of which I understand. I have a lot of apps and files I do not want to lose. I have Catalina 10.15.7 loaded.

Please advise. Do you want me to send the EtreCheckPro generated report?

Many thanks in advance

AVAL

iMac 27″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Feb 10, 2021 5:52 PM

Top-ranking reply

Old Toad

Level 10

215,778 points

Posted on Feb 16, 2021 9:30 AM

Log into another vanilla admin user account, Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac, and see if the problem persists. (This tells us if the problem is limited to your user account or is system wide).

The mds_stores process seems to be running away. It's associated with Spotlight and indexing of files on all mounted hard drives. Check it out in the Activity Monitor/CPU section. Then boot into Safe Mode by booting with the Shift key held down, open Activity Monitor and check there to see if the problem persists, particularly when you try to drag a file . Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing the following;

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

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46 replies

avalani Author

Level 1

6 points

Feb 10, 2021 6:23 PM in response to avalani

EtreCheck report for AVAL for MacBook pro

Hope you get this report.

avalani Author

Level 1

6 points

Feb 10, 2021 6:28 PM in response to Jack-19

I will have to run to work shortly. Can I post the iMac report tomorrow and how can I continue on this thread? Sorry about this.

AVAL

avalani Author

Level 1

6 points

Feb 10, 2021 6:38 PM in response to Jack-19

Thanks! Will pick up tomorrow with iMac report as well.

avalani Author

Level 1

6 points

Feb 12, 2021 3:45 PM in response to Jack-19

Thanks Jack. Will do so...and see how it does.

AVAL

avalani Author

Level 1

6 points

Feb 14, 2021 4:48 PM in response to avalani

Thanks for your patience Jack-19. FYI I removed a lot of other apps from the iMac and also have installed Malwarebytes as per your recommendation. My iMac went through an auto update overnight to OS Big Sur so I will see how it does. Have not run a new Etrecheck post the update .

For the MacBook, removed the same offending apps and have re run the Etrecheck check - report is attached. It too looks better fewer Major and Minor issues.

I usually only have a limited time to be at the computer so sorry if I don't respond quickly as you do.

AVAL MacBook Etrecheck report 14Feb2021

avalani Author

Level 1

6 points

Feb 15, 2021 1:47 PM in response to Jack-19

Removed external drive.

Removed the remaining Intego files

Ran the new Etrecheck as attached.

I seem to have a lot of 32 bit files still on the computer

Have a problem with uninstalling DropBox. Realized that for some reason, when I try to move files from one folder to another, Finder freezes for a while and then the transfer occurs after a minute or so. The reason appears to be that the document or file is not being moved within iCloud but may be going via Dropbox. Hence when I move, say, a file from Downloads I get the message if I move it out, I will be moving it out of dropbox and lose ability to sync across all devices.

I think I may have made a mess when I set up this new MacBook but just creating all files etc from the Time Machine back up of the old iMac.

Sorry this is becoming a bigger problem then you may have hoped to help me with. :-(

AVAL macbook pro report

avalani Author

Level 1

6 points

Feb 17, 2021 10:06 PM in response to Jack-19

Jack did you mean screen shots from the Disk Utility ?

avalani Author

Level 1

6 points

Feb 17, 2021 10:21 PM in response to avalani

Sorry but I will not be able to follow up now till the morning as I have some office related things to complete....thank you for sticking with me on these issues.

Old Toad

Level 10

215,778 points

Feb 18, 2021 9:07 AM in response to avalani

Jack-19 is right. Evidently the drive was not erased properly when updating to Big Sur. Here's how the drive should look:

Follow Jack-19's instructions to set things right.

avalani Author

Level 1

6 points

Feb 19, 2021 12:12 PM in response to Old Toad

Thank you OT. Will do as you recommended when I’m back home at my iMac later today.

Old Toad

Level 10

215,778 points

Feb 19, 2021 2:04 PM in response to avalani

Unless you're using a true VPN tunnel, such as between you and your employer's or bank's servers, they are useless. Public VPN's are anything but private.

Jack-19

Level 8

46,248 points

Feb 14, 2021 11:51 PM in response to avalani

Hi again,

MacBook Notes:

Try running EtreCheck again without external hard drives connected.
You still have orphan files from Intego. Go to Finder > Go > Go to Folder > enter "/Library/LaunchDaemons/" > delete Intego files.
DropBox might also be slowing you down. Try temporally uninstalling and see if it gets better.

Cheers,

Jack

avalani Author

Level 1

6 points

Feb 12, 2021 6:14 PM in response to Jack-19

Report just generated. It is much shorter! I guess there are still a few kinks to be ironed out but the diagnostic scan ran much faster. Here it is....

Thanks a lot. Am looking forward to seeing how the MacBook does tomorrow.

New report for AVAL iMac Etrecheck

Old Toad

Level 10

215,778 points

Feb 15, 2021 2:36 PM in response to avalani

Unless you're using a true VPN tunnel, such as between you and your employer's or bank's servers, they are useless. Public VPN's are anything but private.

Jack-19

Level 8

46,248 points

Feb 10, 2021 6:32 PM in response to avalani

Sure. No worries!

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Beach ball and slower performance of new iMac and MacBook Pro