My iMac is slow after updating to Sonoma

Raul_1581 wrote:

Sonoma itself is just too demanding for the 2019 Intel chips.

... either get a Macbook with a more powerful processor or downgrade to Mac OS Monterey or Ventura(might need assistance for this so that you don't lose any files or mess up your Macbook in the process).

You are entitled to your view on this, but we have several thousand Macs where I work, maybe half with the older Intel chips (my work MacBook Pro is a 2019 Intel model, purchased new in 2020; my personal Mac used at home is also a 2019 Intel Mac purchased new in 2020), and all are being migrated to Sonoma, this is required, and no such slowdowns are reported. My personal Mac is also on Sonoma with no issues, very fast still. I think it might make sense for Intel Mac owners to first look carefully at what is installed and whether it is compatible with the MacOS, as opposed to the very disruptive and lengthy process of erasing and installing an older operating system.

Posting the output here from Etrecheck, which provides anonymous listings of the configuration and installed extensions, might enable people to find the cause of the slowdown. Common culprits are "cleaning" type utilities, security suites, antivirus, network monitoring tools, and utilities that claim to "optimize" the OS operation. Things that always run in the background are usually the first to examine and check.

Try and boot the Mac in the safe mode to see if the issue persist

1. Turn on or restart your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Shift key until you see the login window.
2. Log in to your Mac.
3. You might be asked to log in again.
4. On either the first or second login window, you should see “Safe Boot” in the menu bar.

If it does not persist in the safe mode, the issue is caused by an external piece of software, you might want to evaluate the software installed to your Mac

If it does persist in safe mode and you think that the upgrade to sonoma caused this, you want to provide feedback for apple using this form

Product Feedback - Apple

I had the same and went back and forth with Apple support but to no avail, until my last visit when I spoke with an Irish chap that had heard it all a hundred times before and didn't suffer fools gladly! He told me to stop messing with all these short fixes and simply back everything up and reinstall (not restart) Sonoma. Sceptically I followed his advice and BINGO! my 2019 Intel Mac is flying once again. Thanks Paddy!

Where I work, the Macbook airs that have the M1 chip run quite smoothly with the Sonoma update, but the Macbook airs with the Intel chips have been having a hard time. A lot of articles say the same thing and give you tips on things to do to speed up your computer, but it doesn't return it to the smoothness of when you were on Monterey or even Ventura. Sonoma itself is just too demanding for the 2019 Intel chips.

I had to save all my files on the cloud and reset my Macbook so I that could put it back on Mac OS Monterey, where I remember my mac being at it's best. In short, if none of the tips you find online work for you, either get a Macbook with a more powerful processor or downgrade to Mac OS Monterey or Ventura(might need assistance for this so that you don't lose any files or mess up your Macbook in the process).

The only way to resolve this issue is to downgrade your device to Ventura or any of its predecessors.

I had this problem and I tried more than you can imagine to solve it without factory reseting my hard drive and make it all empty, but as I don't use the bootcamp, the only option was to remove everything and start again.

FWIW - I fixed this by...NEVER shutting the iMac down.

Weirdly the iMac now runs smoothly but I dread the thing shutting down by itself as it always takes between 5-30 mins to reboot, reindex or what ever the **** it's doing. I had particularly bad/odd problems with Lightroom rebooting. So after a week of heartache the fix for me was to simply only ever put it to sleep only and never shut down. What I appear to have now is a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. For me I just want to get to back to work!

Apple really does need to try harder to support things that came before the M1, M2 all sounds good and so special in the publicity but so tiresome for the people who don't buy new computers ever single year of their lives...

mgillies1118 wrote:

Thank you. I thought that 😧 can’t believe how slow it’s gone. Dreadful ….

More than likely you have something installed that is not 100% compatible with Sonoma. It certainly didn't cause any slowdown on my Macs.

My iMac Is slow and lots of spinning balls, and have had many visits to Apple. It would seem the problem lies with the Intel chip on 2019 Macs.

I have just updated to 14.1.1 which has not resolved the problem but my Mac M1 Mini is flying.!

STOP using intel ONLY applications and use only Universal or silicon versions of software! most of OLD intel only programs tend to eat RAM hard!

I have just installed Sonoma (14.4.1) onto my 2019 Desktop iMac. It is working well. I use Logic Pro X with Mackie Onyx 16 mixer. Are you all talking about MacBook or Desktop iMac. In my case it is good with desktop iMac

That's really interesting! I'm running it on an iMac Pro, desktop. I wonder if it would work just as well for that – – or was yours a desktop and not a MacBook? Regardless, – – famous last words – – I can't see the harm in reinstalling it if I've got everything backed up. Perhaps I will give that a try this weekend. If only to give a workout to my vocabulary of profanities.

Hi,

If you didn't take backup, you need to wait till Sonoma 14.1 is released.

On our three Macs that can take Sonoma it's delightful ... quick and visually pleasing.