Slow boot

Robert Paris wrote:

I have a 16 inch MacBook Pro, Apple M1 Pro chips, running macOS Ventura 13.1... For some time now, when I restart the machine, it takes a long time to complete the boot process and start the login items... Something is holding it hostage... I can improve this by, now and then, doing a SAFE install, followed immediately by the next full boot being quite fast... That lasts a short while and then it goes back to taking way too long to boot... I've looked at the system.log and and seeking other diagnostics I can look at that might help me clean up whatever is bogging down the boot process... Works I get it booted, it's fine from that point forward... Any suggestions??? thanks...

Besides your SafeBoot mode—which tells you something about third party interference; extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.

Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS

To trouble shoot further you can:

Test issue in another user (or guest user) account Change Users & Groups settings on Mac - Apple Support

This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account.