macOS Monterey takes 25+ minutes to boot

That's interesting, seems it might be just older Intel Macs that have upgraded from Big Sur that have the slow boot problem then. Might be something to do with over-zealous Kernel Integrity Protection. Hope Apple get round to fixing it, although not holding my breath as MacOS is geared towards for M1 machines now.

Regardless, both Intel and M Chip based computer running Big Sur and above all boot from the now " Sealed and Read Only Volume ." Kernal extension unless allows to be installed by Apple will always reside outside that volume.

The "Sealed and Read Only Volume " was introduced in Big Sur and a refinement of the Catalina Read Only Volume whee kernel extension may have been written to that volume but not any more.

System and kernel extensions in macOS

I've noticed the same problem, but only a few days ago, after updating from Big Sur to Monterey. At the beginning everything was running smoothly and fast. But now it takes several minutes until startup is done.

To be honest don't know what to do, although I'm a power user since decades.

Intel iMac 2019, 128 GB RAM, 2 TB internal NVMe-SSD.

I have an external SSD on a 4K retina, late 2015 iMac and I suffer the same fate. I only use the iMac for office work, which is basic documentation and video conferencing. But the start up routine consumes 20 mins at the least, so I have switched on the pre-timed start-up feature. But this means I won't be able to apply software updates at will from any other apps I have installed.

I have an intel based 2020 MBP 13 too and am desisting from installing Monterey.

I have the same issue. Running a Mac Pro (late 2013) with an external SSD drive (LaCie Mobile SSD 500GB). Internal drive is too small to run Monterey.

I did a Safe boot today and it took 12 minutes. Then a regular boot took 21 minutes and had the message "Your Mac was restarted because of a problem.." displayed twice during the boot process.

I'm leaving the Mac running full time now until this is resolved.

I bought external SSD drive, Lacie 2TB and after installing it, I noticed that iMac boots slower than before , some issues when using Login Pro etc. Then I did format SSD and tried to re-install Monterey, after 30 minutes staring at my iMac´s screen " about 10 hrs 30 minutes left", I cancelled installation. And now I am using iMac´s own internal HDD and everything is working fine. So it seems that this SSD issue has something to do with Monterey(?)

I wrote to Lacie support and they advised me to call Apple support. I called to Apple support but they had no solution.

Then I called to store where I bought this SSD from. They said that it should be compatible, because Apple is selling those same products on their own website store.

Now I have a new 2TB SSD, but actually no use for it. :D

Yes have seen a few reports of extremely slow boot times with internal drives too. Could it be a Monterey incompatibility with Intel Macs, or an SSD chipset issue then? Not seen this reported with M1 Macs.

Thanks, glad I read this as was going to try installing from scratch. Sounds like the slow startup is still a problem even with a clean install on SSD then. Maybe 3rd party SSD/NVMe storage is just not fully supported in Monterey 12.0.1.

CosmicTraveller wrote:

Thanks, glad I read this as was going to try installing from scratch. Sounds like the slow startup is still a problem even with a clean install on SSD then. Maybe 3rd party SSD/NVMe storage is just not fully supported in Monterey 12.0.1.

Maybe via a USB-C connection. I am currently running my 2013 Mac Pro for an NVMe drive in an external enclosure connected to the Mac via one of the Mac's USB3 ports. It takes a minute or two to boot but is usable. I have yet to swap the NVMe drive with the internal Apple SSD. I had to reinstall the Apple SSD internally in order to update to Monterey.

Glad you found a drive that boots faster, although 3 minutes still sounds a long time. My old 2013 MBP with Big Sur boots in well under a minute. Have abandoned MacOS Monterey for now, it virtually bricked my 2015 iMac. Ended up going back to Big Sur.

It’s shocking that MacOS Monterey was released in such a state… it’s wasted far too much of everyone’s time. There’s just too many bugs and I’m doubtful they’ll all be fixed quickly or properly anytime soon. It wasn’t just the slow startup for me… bluetooth didn’t work properly & it kept freezing the whole computer. 

In future I’ll be sticking with the previous version of MacOS. Been burnt too many times upgrading early, and not much fun being an unpaid beta tester.

I have 2019 Mac Mini that I upgraded to Monterey.

Start up now takes 4 minutes.

The task bar populates immediately

but the desktop takes 4 minutes to populate and the computer will not work until desktop items show up.

I Had 4 sessions with Apple support without any fix. Reloaded Monterey,

cleared cache, etc.

I have 2 external drives.

Interesting is that delay does not occur in guest mode.

Can I go back to Big Sur? Any suggestions?

Running 2014 Mac mini.

I'm seeing boot time to login screen went from about 45 sec to 4+ minutes. From login to finish of loading apps is about the same time as before. Monterey had short boot time for first couple of weeks after install then became slow. At the same time, it keeps requesting password for Time Machine ** after login, which is in Keychain. I have two external drives that are just for backup. Disconnected both but didn't help. Reinstalled Monterey and everything was cool with first startup, then it reverted back to slow startups.

Didn't have any problems with Big Sur.

hi there sure you have to modify it but it does work and i have had not one poor boot speed at all, here is the one i have you can get them on ebay , this is thunderbolt 2 if you have thunderbolt 3 look for one in that. lacie d2 thunderbolt-2 | eBay , you will also need this adapter plate if you put a ssd in the enclosure, NEW 2.5" SSD to 3.5" Converter HDD Tray Caddy Hard Disk Drive Adapter 654540-001 | eBay. that will get you up and going, now if you are going to do a nvme drive in it thats a different adapter and not sure if they make them you will have to search. the Lacie is just that a drive enclosure, it was made to come apart and works quit well with good speed. Now keep in mind when you do this the USB 3 may or may not disable thats the usb 3 port on the drive not your system it was done so by design when SSD was used in these cases , as Lacie did have a ssd add on card for these dries at one time. they are no longer made so you have to do a full on modify , lacie support says it's supported , and should work with any ssd drive with the adapter i listed above , you can use any adapter like that if you find one cheeper the adapter brand don't matter. Good luck and have a safe happy holiday.

Thanks. It appears to be indeed a software but to me more interesting was the files stem used. I am on APFS and ever since I upgraded to Monetary, the boot up time from my external sandisk ssd has increased to 15-20 minutes atleast. The internal drive is still on Big Sur and boot up time from that is normal.

Pretty annoying and seems like apple has not even acknowledged it as problem. From external ssd, I have seen significant increase in kernel panics and random restarts. I upgraded to newly released upgrade to Monetary to absolutely no avail.

I am not familiar how to to file a ticket for it.