Please Help! Unusable Finder after Updating from Catalina to Big Sur and Monterey. 4 very Painful Weeks

MacPro (Late 2013), Tin Can.

Music Production Computer, working perfectly up to Catalina, but I was forced to do one more Upgrade, so I Tried Big Sur first. Update went smooth, but after attempting to restore Time Machine Backup, nightmare started. The Finder became totally heavy and slow, everything that is related to moving Files/Folders, Opening menus, selecting items, basically everything. I tried moving Up one more, to Monterey, Same problem, but worse. I Erased the HD, and reinstalled Big Sure, restored the Backup, again, and again, and again. No improvement.

I have tried to find the conflicting software, but no luck. I already Erased/Reinstalled/Restored so many times, i'm sick of it. Zero Improvement.

I Am trying Etrecheck, but the possible solutions are so many, that I don't know where to start. I'm trying it, though. I don't know how to find Software Conflicts, really. Any help will be immensely appreciated. I'm stuck


MacPro (Late 2013 )

3.5 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5

RAM 32 GB

Storage Aura SSD Upgrade 2.0 TB Almost ( Almost 931 GB Free )

Logic Pro X


And yes, the big problem: Hundreds of Third party Plugins. I'm trying to delete everything I haven't used in a long time or never.


Pretty Frustrating

Mac Pro, OS X 10.11

Posted on Oct 5, 2023 12:58 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 7, 2023 7:56 AM

The other approach, which is by no means a guaranteed win, is to start removing the stuff that is making your Mac so slow.


More than one antivirus app - This computer has multiple antivirus apps installed.


 Antivirus software: Apple, CleanMyMac, and Malwarebytes


although we like MalwareBytes ability to identify potential malware on ONE scan, no one here EVER recommends you run it non-stop. scan once, then un-install.

CleanMyMac is, and always has been scare-ware. Cleaning by discarding caches NEVER makes your Mac faster, only slower. remove BOTH versions you have installed.


"unsigned Files" section

each and every item listed under "unsigned Files" section of the report is likely very old version, or has no place on a modern Mac. Up-to-date Serious Commercial Software Developers pay about US$1000 to obtain a Developer software-signing Certificate from Apple and use it to sign their software when issued. That way you know it is legitimate, and not just some hacked-up junk. If signed software misbehaves in the field, Apple can (and has) revoked Developer certificates.


you have remnants of incomplete removal of VirtualBox and MacKeeper


You are showing OneDrive AND DropBox running at all times, and your diagnostics messages section lists bird (interface to iCloud). Except for bird, which is MacOS native, those third-party sync services scan your files non-stop, looking for changed items. This punishes performance enormously.


once you get your iCloud items synced, we would expect bird to reduce its resource use. The others will keep hammering away incessantly. The appropriate way if you MUST use non-Mac file sync services is to launch when needed (NOT at startup, NOT at login) and quit them when they are finished copying the files of the moment.


you have some sort of scare-ware called MemoryClean. your Mac RAM and disk space do not benefit from such apps. Removing caches makes you Mac SLOWER, and interfering with the disk drive leads to spectacular disk problems and crashes. This is JUNK.

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5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 7, 2023 7:56 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

The other approach, which is by no means a guaranteed win, is to start removing the stuff that is making your Mac so slow.


More than one antivirus app - This computer has multiple antivirus apps installed.


 Antivirus software: Apple, CleanMyMac, and Malwarebytes


although we like MalwareBytes ability to identify potential malware on ONE scan, no one here EVER recommends you run it non-stop. scan once, then un-install.

CleanMyMac is, and always has been scare-ware. Cleaning by discarding caches NEVER makes your Mac faster, only slower. remove BOTH versions you have installed.


"unsigned Files" section

each and every item listed under "unsigned Files" section of the report is likely very old version, or has no place on a modern Mac. Up-to-date Serious Commercial Software Developers pay about US$1000 to obtain a Developer software-signing Certificate from Apple and use it to sign their software when issued. That way you know it is legitimate, and not just some hacked-up junk. If signed software misbehaves in the field, Apple can (and has) revoked Developer certificates.


you have remnants of incomplete removal of VirtualBox and MacKeeper


You are showing OneDrive AND DropBox running at all times, and your diagnostics messages section lists bird (interface to iCloud). Except for bird, which is MacOS native, those third-party sync services scan your files non-stop, looking for changed items. This punishes performance enormously.


once you get your iCloud items synced, we would expect bird to reduce its resource use. The others will keep hammering away incessantly. The appropriate way if you MUST use non-Mac file sync services is to launch when needed (NOT at startup, NOT at login) and quit them when they are finished copying the files of the moment.


you have some sort of scare-ware called MemoryClean. your Mac RAM and disk space do not benefit from such apps. Removing caches makes you Mac SLOWER, and interfering with the disk drive leads to spectacular disk problems and crashes. This is JUNK.

Oct 5, 2023 2:10 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks for replying, Brent.


Since I posted a while ago, the RAM Memory was upgraded to the max 128 GB


As I explained, I understand there are many plugins, many years of installing stuff, but it was working relatively fine until Big Sur.

I don't know If I followed your instructions correctly.

Now I'll be leaving the Computer and I'll be back tomorrow.


Again, I really appreciate your help.


Best


Juan


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Please Help! Unusable Finder after Updating from Catalina to Big Sur and Monterey. 4 very Painful Weeks

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