Very slow machine and sudden disappearance of mail and Pages

I'm hoping to help a friend who has problems with what she calls "slippage". Here's what she tells me.

"The two main problems are unbelievably slow in booting up with frequent attacks of the whirring dervishes and slippage. I can be working on a document eg in pages and it will suddenly revert to the home page.

"This also happens with mail - its though I’ve got a slippy screen. Sorry to be so untechnical but that’s where I am."

The lady's computer is an iMac Retina 4K 21.5 Late 2015

Processor 31GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5

Memory 8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3

Graphics Intel Iris Pro Graphics 62001536 MB

Software is Big Sur version 11.5.2 and everything is up to date, and as far as I know and no updates are needed on her updates.

The home page is presumably the desktop.

I have not come across this before on all my Macs. I said I'd see what I could do.

Best wishes

Posted on Sep 4, 2021 12:56 AM

Similar questions

1 reply

Jack-19

Level 8

46,248 points

Sep 4, 2021 2:12 AM in response to corpsman20

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities.

I believe we need to proceed with an EtreCheck report. EtreCheck is a useful App to diagnose and identify issues, both hardware and software. It is trusted by many users. Please follow the steps outlined below:

Navigate to: https://etrecheck.com and get the free version of EtreCheckPro.
Download it. It is a free and trusted app. It is often recommended here on Apple Support Communities.
Open EtreCheck, and before running the report, be sure to check “Allow full Drive Access” at the bottom of the EtreCheckPro window.
Run the report, and put it in a post, as seen here: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250000211. We will then examine the report for issues in your Mac.

Please also run DriveDx and upload the report(s): https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250004005.

Jack

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Very slow machine and sudden disappearance of mail and Pages