Does Spotlight slow MacBook startup?

Once your Desktop is present and you have signed in, then there are several System processes performing housekeeping chores. Spotlight will launch a couple dozen MD_Worker processes to satisfy indexing chores; software update will check for those; the Mac App Store will check for updates; the periodic processes will run, and Time Machine will begin preparing for the first backup after boot. All of this can make the first few minutes after login quite slow.

What can be slowing your Mac is installed applications such as anti-virus scanning your drive, and any so-called Mac cleaner applications or memory management apps. Some of these may have their own login items that run every time you boot your Mac (after sign-in). In Ventura, visit System Settings : General : Login Items and see what is there. Also, what applications have you enabled to work in the background below what should be an empty Login Items section?

I would also follow the Apple Silicon procedures for booting into Recovery mode and then running Disk Utility First Aid on your MacIntosh HD drive name. While there, consider also doing first aid on your Time Machine drive. There might be something there or not. Then reboot normally.

sweetride22 wrote:

Does Spotlight slow MacBook startup?

It shouldn't. Do you have many external devices connected? If so, try unplugging them and test.

Download and run Etrecheck. Be sure to give it Full Disk access before running.

Copy and paste the results into your reply. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support  to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

Copy the report

and use the Additional Text button to paste the report in your reply.

Then we can evaluate the report to see if we can determine the cause of the problem.

As often happens, you migrated everything from a previous mac (and probably have been upgrading in place, year over year).

By keeping all the old stuff and some bad stuff (why oh why MacKeeper still fools people into paying for it...)

you are shooting yourself in the proverbial feet.

Make a full Time Machine backup, then do System Settings->General->Transfer or Reset and then click

"Erase All Content and Settings".

When your mac restarts, and asks if you want to bring stuff, choose "From another mac, disk or Time Machine backup", select your backup and CRUCIALLY check ONLY the user accounts.

Yes, you may have to install a few applications that you really use, but in one fell swoop you will get rid of all the old cruft and unnecessary system modifications that are crippling what should be, and will now be a highly performing mac.

Have you checked System Settings-->General-->Login Items to see what's loading when you reboot? My guess is something in there is causing the issue.

Install EtreCheck and post the report. Allow Full Disk Access.

https://etrecheck.com/

Use the Additional Text icon to paste in the report.

There’s some stuff here I wouldn’t choose to install.

This install has been around since High Sierra or earlier too, judging by the old “cleanup_installer” bug that’s still lurking here.

If the printers you are using support AirPrint, I’d look to migrate to that, and not the vendor drivers.

If you’re not using NTFS or can migrate to a file share on macOS or Windows, I’d remove the NTFS app, as well.

And I’d remove that cleaning app.

Given the apparent age of this install, I’d probably back up, back up again to a second time, factory reset, and then migrate my data and preferences and such and not apps.

Not appreciably.

This is what would make startup slow:

System extensions installed - This computer has system extensions installed. System extensions can be difficult to uninstall.

Apps with heavy CPU usage - There have been numerous cases of apps with heavy CPU usage.

Clean up - There are orphan files that could be removed.

Unsigned files - There are unsigned software files installed. These files could be old, incompatible, and cause problems. They should be reviewed.

System modifications - There are a large number of system modifications running in the background.

You have a lot of garbage installed. Whether it is useful to you is the question to ask yourself.

I would consider MacKeeper malware itself, but that is up to you to decide whether it is not. It functions much like a Trojan Horse in that it purports to do one thing, but doesn't, and only causes problems with the OS.

For the orphaned executables, you need to use the app developer's uninstaller to remove those types of apps. You just dragged the front-facing application to the trash and left behind the system modifications that run in the background. Every startup it tries to run the missing app thousands of times. Etrecheck may be able to help you remove them. I'm not sure.

For other system modifications, you must decide if they are useful enough to live with the system penalties.

If you decide to remove them, use the developer's uninstaller app.

MacKeeper is malware. Get rid of it completely.

First, there is no reason to ever install or run any 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus, VPN or security apps on your Mac.  This documents describe what you need to know and do in order to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community and Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support.  

There are no known viruses, i.e. self propagating, for Macs.  There are, however, adware and malware which require the user to install although unwittingly most of the time thru sneaky links, etc.   

Anti Virus developers try to group all types as viruses into their ad campaigns of fear.  They do a poor job of the detecting and isolating the adware and malware.  Since there are no viruses these apps use up a lot of system resources searching for what is non-existent and adversely affect system and app performance.

There is one app, Malwarebytes, which was developed by a long time contributor to these forums and a highly respected member of the computer security community, that is designed solely to seek out adware and known malware and remove it.  The free version is more than adequate for most users.  

Also, unless you're using a true VPN tunnel, such as between you and your employer's, school's or bank's servers, they aprovide false security from a privacy standpoint. 

sweetride22 wrote:

"you would consider MacKeeper malware itself". What do you recommend?? It does use a lot of memory.

Cleaners and add-on anti-malware apps and add-on first-few-hops VPN apps generally don’t provide all that much positive benefit, past those of the built-in macOS self-maintenance and anti-malware capabilities.

One of the better-known add-on anti-malware choices turned out to be selling users’ personally-identified web browsing activities and web purchasing activities, and other no-logging first-few-hops VPN services were later found to be logging when the “non-existent” logs were found leaked. And add-on first-few-hops VPNs are perfectly positioned to collect metadata, personally identified, and for little or no added security benefit.

The difference between add-on cleaners and add-on anti-malware apps and actual malware and actual adware can unfortunately be far too little.

And to be clear, end-point security tooling, and end-to-end VPNs, and other such, are different tooling for different requirements, and these tools can sometimes necessary.