Activity monitor shows significant CPU % from opendirectoryd and kernel_task, Mac is running slow and fans running high.

The first thing should be to have your battery replaced.

In the meantime, there are things you can do.

Start by completely uninstalling avast. This is wasting resources and offers no protection.

Effective defenses against malware and other threats

Also, vpn should only be used to connect to your work or school network, according to their instructions.

Public VPN are anything but private

The kernel task is the system servicing requests from third party, and that could be anything - starting with the two things above, and also including huge resource hogs like er.... Chrome and its "keystone" minions.

I am at a loss about the high usage of opendirectory, though. Is your mac part of a workplace network?

A home mac would not normally use opendirectory.

Battery failure - Your battery is reporting that it needs to be serviced.

That is really all you need to know.

Batteries - Service and Recycling - Apple

However,

Antivirus software: Apple and Avast

Uninstall "Avast" in strict accordance with its instructions. Rule 1 of Macs is don't install junk.

That line should read exactly as follows:

Antivirus software: Apple

Make it so.

And get rid of "Macs Fan Control". There is one and only one valid reason to install such a thing, and that is to hide the symptoms of a problem that must be fixed. Fix the problem, not the symptom.

It is quite possible that the battery problem is having an impact, even if the machine is connected to power.

It may, for example, be overheating, due to its poor condition - heat is a known cause of spikes in kerneltask.

Regarding copying things from backup:

If all you do is erase, then install and restore everything, you just get back to where you started.

On the other hand, you could erase, install and then migrate only the user accounts.

This should get your mac to a more stable condition.

Note: I can't say if the option is available for the 2018 macs, but on my 2019 mac, and in more recent macs, you can actually just erase the data portion, while keeping the system volume intact. This is great because the system is read only; it saves a LOT of time, too. There is no need to install the OS, only to to migrate the user accounts from Time Machine, and install the applications, from the App Store or their websites.

achille113 wrote:

Ok thanks, I’ve uninstalled the fan control app. What are your thought on resetting the computer?

If you take the computer in for repair, you are definitely going to need a backup. Your EtreCheck report doesn't have details about a Time Machine backup. (That's a long story).

I don't see any need to reset the computer. I do agree that you should properly uninstall Avast. Regardless of what anyone may think about 3rd party antivirus on the Mac, your installation is definitely corrupted. That could be what is causing some of the performance problems. It's hard to say. But you definitely have a partial installation, which is a bad idea for low-level software like antivirus apps.

Obviously you need to make a BACKUP first. You are already using Time Machine, right?

Make sure that your backup is up to date.

Then the procedure that I am talking about would keep the OS intact, but delete applications and user files, and other settings - hence you need a BACKUP (actually, preferably you should have TWO backups, because the moment you delete your stuff from the drive, the backup becomes your only copy).

System Settings->General->Transfer or Reset, then click "Erase Content and Settings..." (You did do the BACKUP, right?).

When done, your mac will restart as if launched for the first time.

You will be asked if you want to bring content from "another mac, drive, or Time Machine backup".

Of course you do!

Connect the Time Machine drive, select it and then you will have a list of things to migrate.

Check ONLY the user accounts, and nothing else.

.

Also make sure to remove any "fan control" software. This is one of the few kinds of software that can physically damage your computer. Unfortunately, it sounds that that may have already happened.

When you take the computer in for the battery, make sure they run a full diagnostic on the computer. It might be more than just the battery in this case.

achille113 wrote:

Ok will do, thanks a lot. When you say two backups, do you mean on two different hard drives?

Yes.