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my iMac is super slow even after restoring the apps take forever to open, there is absolutely nothing on this mac
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 12.6
Very clean looking system!
Follow these steps, testing after each step:
Need more help?
You have the same issue as thousands of owners of 21.5-inch iMac sna=made between 2012 and 2019. Unless you ordered it with upgraded storage—a Fusion (hybrid) drive or a factory solid-state drive (SSD)—the underspec SATA 3G) and slow (5400rpm) laptop-class mechanical hard drives install as base storage cannot keep up newer versions of macOS.
Your drive's performance is in the report:
Performance:
System Load: 1.97 (1 min ago) 1.94 (5 min ago) 2.23 (15 min ago)
Nominal I/O usage: 2.63 MB/s
File system: 33.16 seconds
Write speed: 60 MB/s
Read speed: 69 MB/s
That is not far off nominals for a drive with low expectations. The fastest I've seen that drive model post are only about 80MB/sec.
Because the iMac case is sealed and should be opened only by a trained pro, doing internal upgrades is not a realistic option. Labor costs on that model can exceed parts costs. Some Apple Authorized Service Providers will not work on sealed-case iMacs.
NOTE: 8GB RAM is NOT the problem. Unless the hard drive is dealt with, all the RAM in the world won't change anything.
There is a cost-effective option that can be done at home by a novice without opening the computer. An external USB3 external drive enclosure holding an SATA 6G SSD is what most people do in your case and report excellent mprovments. You CLONE (not copy) the internal drive to the external, then set the computer to boot from the external.
That wil give write/read speeds of around 400MB/sec, 8X what you now have. Cost is usually under US$100 and, when you get a new computer, the external drive can still serve as a back-up drive or extra storage.
My iMac is super slow
