macOS Monterey takes 25+ minutes to boot

I have no issue have mac os Monterey installed on a modified lacie thunderbolt enclosure with a SSD in it boot time is the same as internal drive here on my end i notice no difference. This is on a late 2015 intel Imac.

I leave my late 2015 Imac on 24x7 it goes to sleep , on the occasion i do shut down or reboot i have not noticed a difference in boot times and i'm running a modified LaCie thunderbolt drive with a SSD in it.

After unplugging my external drive, my boot time is now 1 ½ minutes. The problem I was having with bluetooth cutting out also seems to be resolved now.

Looks like Apple needs to do more testing on their releases.

This is Apple's way of making up for those that were fortunate enough to avoid the same issue after updating to Big Sur w/ a Fusion Drive . 😉🙄

My iMac Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2019 had same issue last year after Big Sur update from Catalina. After that, I avoided restart.

I'm still considering upgrading it to SSD, but really waiting until the new 27"+ "M" series iMac is released.

It's a good thing it doesn't affect all Mac users, otherwise Apple would have to do something about it. And what they should have done is offered to upgrade (FOC) the Fusion Drive to SDD for those affected. They said it was compatible with my iMac. I shouldn't have to downgrade macOS or upgrade the Fusion Drive.

I am not sure why apple should give a free upgrade. This bug can be fixed by switching out your external SSD's enclosure to a JMS one (for $15 - $45), doing a clean install, and restoring from a TM backup. What apple should do is have a dev committee fix the bug with the RTL9210 external enclosure so that the fix can be software-only (either an update or a clean install and restore).

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 BU 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.

Similar problem in MacPro 2013, with external 1TB SSD for storage of one of the user folders.

In my case, it takes 5 min to show desktop files "after" login.

Removing external SSD and logging in other users seems OK.

So I checked this external SSD with disk first aid. It took 5 min to finish, because it spent 4 min on trimming unused blocks steps.

Does Monterey check external devices every time after rebooting?

There seem not to be a home made solution at time being. My iMac (2019), 128GB RAM and two internal SSDs (1x NVMe 2TB, 1x 2,5' SSD 2TB), worked fine for 1-2 weeks after Monterey installation. Then bang without any warning or anything I could lead back to, iMac started to boot about 5 minutes long, instead of the previous 20-30 seconds. At least one thing ist resistent; boot time is almost every time the same.

I have been instructed by many Apple users to NOT upgrade to Monterey. Apparently the OS is super bad with many bugs and needs many fixes.

I will continue to use Big Sur until I know Monterey is safe to install. I don't need slow! Using an iMAC is slow enough.

I think my days of using an Apple OS are numbered. If this is the best software engineering Apple can do, I am out of here!

I had a colleague allow me to use his Windows PC with latest OS on it. It will burn smoke around Apple. No contest.

I am having the same problem. Right now my MBP '17 still it's freeing up to me to use. The desktop shows, but Sophos is downloading new signatures and OneDrive is starting. I been seeing the rotating beach ball for the last 30 minutes. (Typing on my Windows Laptop). Work great on Monterey for about a month. Now it is giving me issues. Had the same thing happen when I upgraded to Big Sur. (Long Boot Time). When I had the Big Sur issues, I wiped the SSD, did a clean install of Catalina. If this keeps up much longer with Monterey, I will need to back down to Catalina. I hope Apple is monitoring this thread.

Why are you using sophos antivirus mac os needs none , this is probably why your mac is slow, is anyone else in this thread using antivirus 3rd party , as if so try removing that and see if it still happens. for the person using it , you don't need that on mac os , only thing ever recommended is Malwarebytes free and i see that very rarely come up in threads as well.

I just upgraded from Mojave > Monterey. Although it does not take 25+ minutes to boot up, I would say it takes at least twice as long as it did with Mojave.

I'm booting into an internal 2 TB Fusion Drive on late 2015 iMac.

wired i have a late 2015 iMac 27 in , booting from a modified LaCie ssd enclosure with a 1 tb crucial ssd and it boot pretty close to the speed of my internal SSD drive which is the apple ssd drive. i haven't seen any of the slow downs these people are having, which makes me wonder how many are using 3rd party antivirus.