Slow Mac after upgrading to Sonoma 14.0 OS

I am here to report my answer

After the update to sonoma my mac was slow but there was a storage issue. my application storage and icloud drive storage was saying it was using up 80% of my existing storage.

I used the tool cleanmymacx and discover the following behaviors

if I put it into desktop/document it will save another copy onto the icloud drive file location

which is here

/Library/application support/cloud drive

but when I delete the file from desktop/document, the iCloud drive file location doesn't delete it's copy

this becomes a problem since sometimes it may also save multiple copies of the same file

so if the file is large like 25 gigs

or if you open a large zip file there in desktop or documents

this will quickly use up all the storage

this also poses a secondary issue since if you use applications like zoom, it will store the meeting recording files there as well

this will quickly use up all your storage and your mac becomes slow

My recommended, move every file that doesn't need to be in desktop / documents, to the downloads folder

then after clean up your files with cleanmymacx

if you delete from

/Library/application support/cloud drive

it does not delete your local copy.

Even though I have understood well what you are saying, the question of the century is: why does it happen only after updating the operating system to Sonoma? This problem didn't exist before. My problem however is at startup. 7 MINUTES to get it fully operational. Then it's fast... So it's a problem at startup. I used CleanMyMac but it didn't help

I have to say something strange. Every time I put CleanMyMac on I have had problems (and I pay for it... it's not downloaded illegally. I pay for the subscription). So I hope it doesn't CAUSE problems. It would be serious. However, since Apple can check if I send reports, it could tell if it is potentially harmful

my macbook is like 3 years or less old. i had NO ISSUES prior to this upgrade. now my battery says it needs to be looked at. one of the portals for chargers doesnt even work anymore. the loading is slow. the cursor moves slower. things load weirdly. what have you guys done. they need to fix these issues. this is ridiculous. to have us all upgrade and then ask us to go through 50 steps to try to fix them. i literally had NO problems with my macbook. this is like my 5th macbook, we have a museum at our family home. 3 years or less is not old. please advice apple to fix these issues.

After the installation of Sonoma the computer - M1 - has become overheated fast and on the software side with MSOffice365 onenote does not work anymore (endless color ball syncing up to 9 hours) and the other office packages show a slow syncing response. Tried login/out, reinstall and issue persists. Can work on Onenote perfectly through the browser. MS escalation and Apple escalation resulted in no solutions and suggestion is to backup the computer and reinstall everything.

I have the same exact issue after upgrading to Sonoma 14.0 and 14.1. My iMac is 2019 3.2 GHz 6 Intel Core i7 16 GB memory with over 480 gb storage available. I did safe more and restart cycles several time but it gets slow after a while. StreCheck reposts major performance issues but does not suggest anything. Any suggestions?

For my case: Sonoma 14.1.1, Mac Studio M1 MAX, 32GB memory, 2T SDD. Of course, Safe mode has been done. EtreCheck said that there are CPU consuming processes such as WindowServer, launchservicesd, fonts, kernel_task and so on (Activity Monitor also displayed them). I also turned off an anti-virus temporarily, but the load average keeps around 20--30. In this circumstance, everything goes slow, even a keyboard typing may delay :-S

Can anyone salvage this situation?

I faced this same problem, i changed my hard drive to a SSD drive and resolved the problem. I think it's the fusion drive + legacy 7200 rpm drives that slow the booting and opening of apps, including safari.

Hope this helps.

I have the same problem as everyone else. I have a 2019 iMac which is on the compatibility list of Sonoma but just doesn’t work. Everything is slow, internet doesn’t work properly, mouse and keyboard lose connection…..essentially it’s unusable. Did Apple actually test this software. It seems to me that this is Apple building in obsolescence. It’s just not good enough

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

Kernel extensions present - This computer has kernel extensions that may not work in the future.

This might be the reason for you slow down!

Thank you very much Apple! My iMac is now running very slow after Sonoma 14.0 update. Very frustrating indeed. System Settings advises 'Software Update Available' & that macOS Sonoma 14.1.1 update is ready, it will not update.

After 1 hour the remaining time is still showing as - About 4 minutes remaining.

Have tried to do all the saving data & reverting back... what a waste of time & energy.

After discussing my issue of the colorful beachball turn - endless and renders the onenote software non functional, word slow, excel slow etc - and having had contact with both Microsoft and Apple all the way to the highest support, the conclusion, for now, is to create a backup and reinstall your computer completely and hope that solves the problem. As I am travelling I will do that later and will post the result.

I just want to interject here. I have 2 macs. One is a 2020 27" iMac with a 256 GB Apple SSD, The other is a 2017 13" MacBook Pro (2 Thunderbolt - no touchbar model). I did a clean install on the iMac and did an install on the Macbook Pro using OCLP (OpenCore Legacy Patcher v1.20) with Sonoma 14.2. For those of you scratching your heads or otherwise unfamiliar with OCLP, it is simply a Python App that allows macOS Big Sur and up to install on unsupported Macs. It does not change or alter Apple's macOS code and simply adds the kexts, frameworks and so on that Apple drops when the release a new version of macOS because (I'm guessing) Apple wants to force their perfectly good systems into obsoleteness so drive demand for new sexier systems that cost as much as a used car. Apple likes to say that the features and demands of the newer OS are beyond what the hardware they dropped support for can run efficiently. I have to question that serioiusly after a buddy showed be he is running the latest macOS Ventura of a 24" 2007 iMac. Granted, he added an SSD, maxed out the RAM to 6GB and spent $15.00 for a compatible Penryn CPU from AliExpress - but it runs like a dream. And for that matter my unsupported MacBook Pro is running Sonoma 14.2 like a boss from the very first boot. It's a very stark comparison to what is happening on my fully Sonoma Supported iMac. Everything is so s-l-o-o-w it's pretty much unusable. Even start-up and shut down are painfully slow and my iMac fan . . . that I have never heard before, is spinning at what has to be a top maxed out speed that can be heard across the room. I have cleared the NVRAM several times (1 chime, 2 chimes, 3 chimes) no change. I have reset the SMC and the NVRAM, no change. I wiped the SSD with a lengthy secure erase and reinstalled Sonoma. . . same lackluster performance and very loud fan. I have checked the logs in console and sifted through all the processes in Activity Monitor and ran Etercheck on the iMac. I see a very high CPU usage across all 6 cores but nothing . . . NOTHIING showing in Activity Monitor consuming that much CPU. So all I can say is there is CLEARLY an issue with something in Sonoma that is not playing nice with certain hardwareOh, and my buddy just picked up a 2012 non-retina MacBook Pro, used OCLP and installed Sonoma and it's running smoothly on a 10 year old MacBook Unibody with 16 GB RAM that stiill has a DVDRW+ drive!!! So what in the heck is up here?

[Edited by Moderator]

I have a 2020 27" iMac 3.3 GHz i5, 16GB Memory with SSD, running 14.1.1. I am having the same problems everyone is describing after moving to Sonoma. Does anyone know if there is a response from Apple on these reports?

I wanted to add I am also having a very difficult time getting WiFi to connect to Xfinity on my iMac with the Xfinity Wireless config profile installed or without. Even manually entering the info will result in WiFi trying and trying only to suddenly say that the network (which is clearly being received with a strong signal and showing a strong signal in diagnostics) cannot not be found. This is also happening when trying to connect to my iPhone hotspot - but only on the iMac - only weird wireless issue on the unsupported MacBook Pro is the Chrome browser resets connection and loses the page constantly, Safari won't open a single page at all. Just sits there without doing a thing, but both Brave and Firefox cruise fine. Weird.