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ClubFilth wrote:

Yes the sysctl has an 'i' in a circle next to it.

That's very strange : when I press it it shows the path : Macintosh HD >usr>sbin>sysctl. But the 'usr' path is greyed out! (see screenshot)

But I never created this directory!

That is part of the macOS system. The gray folder is because it is hidden. Some app must be using that 'sysctl" utility and that is the part of the app which runs in the background. Since it is listed with background app controls for Login Items, I would expect it to be associated with one of your Login Items. I probably wouldn't concern myself with it.

Anyway,funny you start about Etrecheck Pro as this is the reason why Im looking into my Login Items.

As a music producer I always lag 1 OS behind for compatibility reasons. So a few weeks ago I upgraded my Intel iMac2020 from Monterey to Ventura. After each macOS upgrade I run Etrecheck Pro (Full version).

When I was on Monterey the report says the performance is EXCELLENT. Now when I upgraded to Ventura it depends on the run : sometimes POOR PERFORMANCE (below average) or GOOD…Ofcourse GOOD is not good (as stated in the Etrecheck app); Good is ok when you have a mechanical HD,when you have an SSD it should always be excellent.

Unfortunately I'm not a macOS software expert and you have a lot of plugins installed which I know nothing about. As for the other software listed, I don't see anything that stands out as a problem. Maybe another more knowledgeable forum contributor can chime in to provide some perspective on the EtreCheck report.

The most worrisome issue I see is all those ProxiedDevice-Bridge error logs. Those errors indicate some issue with the Logic Board. "ProxiedDevice-Bridge" is the software which manages the interface between the Intel part of the Logic Board and the software of ARM based T2 security chip. I have seen a lot of these errors listed in EtreCheck reports for the 2018-2020 Intel Macs....more so with the 2019 models.

Many times these "ProxiedDevice-Bridge" errors indicates a hardware issue with the Logic Board. However, if you didn't have any issues until after upgrading to Ventura, then maybe it could be something else....it seems these errors only started 12/10/2023 so it may coincide with the upgrade to Ventura. I suggest trying a firmware "Revive" which resets the T2 security chip & system firmware to see if those errors stop accumulating. Unfortunately you need access to another Mac running macOS 14.x unless you already have an older copy of the Apple Configurator 2 app (v2.16 or earlier) which only requires another Mac running macOS 12.4+. The firmware "Revive" should not destroy any data, but you should make sure to have a good backup first just to be safe.

How to revive or restore Mac firmware - Apple Support

Just out of curiosity, do you use the fingerprint recognition feature of the TouchID button? If not, if you have an Apple keyboard with a TouchID button, then try enrolling a fingerprint and confirming you can unlock the Mac using your fingerprint. You will first need to reboot the Mac after enrolling a fingerprint and log in with your password. Put the system to sleep using the Apple menu. Press any key on the keyboard to wake the system and use the fingerprint to attempt to log in. Try this before the firmware "Revive".

Also try running the Apple Diagnostics to see if any hardware issues are detected.

Keep in mind after an OS upgrade that the system may be doing a lot of maintenance for a while before things settle down. One of the biggest issues could be related to iCloud, so you may want to try turning iCloud off if enabled or maybe just disconnect the Mac from the network to see if that makes any difference.

It is hard to say because any third party app could have a component named anything they want so it may not be the "sysctl" you found online. Either you added the item as a Login Item (it may have had a different name since the background component of the app may be identified differently), or one of your third party apps automatically added it as a Login Item.

Does that "sysctl" item have the letter " i " in a circle next to it?

You can try running the third party app EtreCheck and posting the report here so we can review it for clues.

Since it is just a Login Item, turning it off or deleting it from the Login Items list will just prevent it from running automatically when you log into that particular macOS user account. It should be possible to add it back again later on. Keep in mind that the Background App option settings is a newly implemented feature in the System Settings which was never presented to users before so all these odd names were always there in older versions of macOS but users were not aware of it.

Unfortunately the Background Items settings is not well implemented in macOS, nor is it documented at all so that third party developers can properly design their apps so they show up properly here. This means that you may see the oddest named items here for legitimate apps, but according to a respected forum contributor who also happens to be a third party developer, there is no way to figure out which oddly named item matches up with a particular third party app. However, I do see some of mine have a small circle with in " i " indicating "More Information".....when I click the circle with an " i ", it opens the Finder showing the actual app so maybe this is a new addition to fix the broken nature here.

ClubFilth wrote:

Alas my Apple keyboard doesn’t have touch ID so can’t test that way.

I could even buy a Magic Keyboard with Touch ID for testing but that would be a bit expensive I think. Other option is to bring it to Apple but I would have to pay a lot too as AppleCare is finished :(

Don't worry about this. I just thought it would be a good data point to compare if fingerprint recognition failed, but then worked after a firmware "Revive".

I have a second Mac but it’s an old MacPro 8core with max OS it can run (El Capitan) so reviving the T2chip will be impossible. I have 2 friends ‘in the neighbourhood’ with Mac’s but they are also music producers working with older OS (Mojave and Catalina).**** why can’t Apple let you revive the chip with an iPad or iPhone..(security reasons I guess). I could maybe rent a MacBook to do this.Or install Monterey with open legacy on my Macpro?

FYI, Monterey won't work unless you have already downloaded Apple Configurator 2 version 2.16 or earlier since the latest version 2.17 is listed as requiring macOS 14.x Sonoma.

I don't know, it definitely is frustrating especially since they keep increasing the system requirements for the host Mac needed for the process. I just consider it poor design & programming, but I think it also shows Apple's blindness that most people won't have another Mac which meets that requirement. Or it is just another way to force people to buy a new computer or force them to pay for support services out of warranty especially considering that it appears Apple may have turned off the online servers for reinstalling macOS through Recovery Mode & Internet Recovery Mode for older systems and/or operating systems (it is unclear). Really hard to say, but it would not surprise me it is a little of all of these things.

Anyway,maybe this all won’t be necessary as /library/logs/diagnosticreports/proxieddevice-bridge last crash was on 2023-12-10 but hasn’t crashed on me ever since! I booted up my MAC ALOT during the weekend (restart but also after complete shutdown) and I see in my logs (console) it hasn’t crashed anymore.

Use the Finder to look for your logs since the Console app doesn't always list all the logs that are available. Also, if you don't see any logs, then look in the "Retired" subfolder since macOS tends to file logs away rather quickly sometimes.

There was a point update of Ventura in the middle of last week,Apple mentions bug fixes and stability fixes…Maybe it’s coincidence but I have the feeling that fixed the crash,will keep an eye on it.

I also did the Apple diagnostics (pressing D during boot) and it showed no issues (ADP000).

So the last proxieddevice-bridge crash was 8 days ago,fingers crossed it won’t crash again.

But ofcourse the Etrecheck rapport still isn’t excellent,still is between below average and ‘good’ (for an SSD it isn’t so good ofcourse).

Let's hope so. I did not expect the diagnostics to reveal anything, but it never hurts to try.

Thinking about : reinstall Ventura in recovery mode or downgrade to Monterey again.

You can create a new APFS volume next to your existing macOS installation and install any compatible version of macOS into the new APFS volume. This won't interfere with your existing installation and does not require any risky manipulation of partitions, plus it is very easy to delete the new APFS volume when you are finished with it. Just make sure to give it a unique name because you will end up with issues if you give it the same name as your existing macOS boot volume which by default is "Macintosh HD" unless you changed it (even then, you still may have one of the volumes still retaining the old name since macOS doesn't always change the name of both APFS volumes).

Add, delete, or erase APFS volumes in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

I always stayed away from Clean My Mac but would it maybe help?

Good, continue to stay away from CMM and all other such apps. CMM will only introduce more problems making things harder to troubleshoot and it will degrade system performance even more.

Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community

Anyway maybe I’m making too big of a deal of the Etrecheck performance report as I am mainly a (heavy) Logic Pro user and I don’t see or feel performance issues.

Possibly. It may just be that the system was working harder when you checked it with EtreCheck. Or it could still be related to the upgrade where certain components may still be working to update or sync. I would suspect cloud based services (especially iCloud) since they have been implicated in causing battery drain with Sonoma....sometimes an older OS can get the same patch so it could have introduced the same issue with Ventura.

Here is an Apple article which mentions the various APFS volumes (including Preboot) utilized by recent versions of maccOS:

Role of Apple File System - Assistance Apple

The size of the Preboot volume should not impact system performance once the system has booted.

If you click the Help menu in EtreCheck, then select EtreCheckPro Help, then click on the link "Things To Know", you will see how EtreCheck computes the performance ratings. From that note, it would appear the section I quote below is the part which is giving you that poor performance rating since everything else in your report is in the range for an Excellent performance rating:

Good:

* The non-performance checks of EtreCheck ran in under 4 minutes.

Below average:

* The non-performance checks of EtreCheck ran in under 8 minutes.

If your system is performing well for you with Ventura, then I wouldn't worry so much about the poor performance listed in the EtreCheck report since I would expect you would see some signs when performing some of your heavier more intense workloads. Maybe it is a bug, or like you theorize it may be due to taking longer to tally the apps since you definitely have more software items listed than I've seen in most EtreCheck reports.

I would definitely keep checking to see if any more of those ProxiedDevice-Bridge appear again.