Macbook Air Retina, 13-inch, 2019 slow on Sonoma

Delays like this are usually indicative of some background app run amuck.

Etrecheck - the handy reporting tool for … - Apple Community

is very good at identifying all background apps and if you have any that are unnecessary or take up too much overhead on your Mac. Once you share the report, we can help you identify what you don't need or can optimize.

Three potential problems:

• Low free disk space, less than 10% available. This can cause huge slowdowns, with 8 GB RAM (the minimum) and running software like Adobe, paging to disk will be necessary and very slow due to lack of free space. You should have at least 20% free space.
• CleanMyMac -- the software has caused problems like this ("slowdowns") for thousands of posters here. The only remedy is to COMPLETELY remove it with uninstaller from the vendor and search for all leftover pieces.
• You have bit torrent. If it is running this will use disk space and slow your Mac down.

From your Etrecheck report:

"Low disk space - This computer is running critically low on free hard drive space."

"External drives and performance - There are external drives connected that could be affecting performance."

"Antivirus software: CleanMyMac"

"[Running] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac4.Agent.plist (MacPaw Inc. - installed 2024-02-07)

Executable: /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac4.Agent"

"User Launch Agents:

[Loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac4.Updater.plist (MacPaw Inc. - installed 2024-02-07)"

"[Running] CleanMyMac X Menu (MacPaw Inc. - installed 2024-02-07)

Modern Login Item"

"[Loaded] uTorrent Web (BitTorrent, Inc - installed 2022-11-17)

Application

/Applications/uTorrent Web.app"

Who installed this stuff if not you? CleanMyMac was installed just ~ days ago!

"Mounted Volumes:

disk1s1 - Macintosh HD - Data [APFS Virtual drive]

Filesystem: APFS

Mount point: /System/Volumes/Data

Encrypted

Used: 85.14 GB

Shared values

Size: 121.02 GB

Free: 19.14 GB

Available: 60.35 GB"

Free is different from "available," as the latter means could be freed up by the system if it deems it to be necessary. But since it hasn't been released, you have just 19 GB to work from as "free" which is too little, especially for Adobe CC, which you also have. My daughter running Lightroom often uses over 100 GB of scratch space.

Sometimes Macs that ran ok under older MacOS versions slow down with the latest because they don't have adequate resources to handle the changes in disk and memory management that come with the latest versions. Your Mac appears to be a minimal configuration, 128 GB disk and 8 GB RAM, it is also 5 years old, it might not be able to handle well the latest demands from the latest versions of software and MacOS.

Remove Cleanmymac using AppCleaner.

Cleanmymac is the cause of more Mac slowness than any other software other than maybe Mackeeper.

Amended comments to MacKeeper tip - Apple Community

Neither should be installed. Don't try to optimize Mac OS, optimize your space usage and your background app usage.

sorin26 wrote:

Thank you for your response.

Sorry, my mistake. I went to a friend a couple of days ago with the same problem, and probably he installed this app.

Deleted!

Do you think that I should downgrade to another version?

Thank you

Deleting the program is not enough. You will need to run a thorough uninstaller from the vendor.

If your friend installed things you are not aware of, one of those items could be slowing down your Mac.

You could try to downgrade but if you have been using your Mac for a while under Sonoma, that could be challenging unless you still have a good backup from the earlier version of the MacOS. For example, some formats for Mail, Photos, and other software built into the MacOS may have changed under Sonoma versus what you had before. So trying to use the older MacOS with those updated files might not work.

I think a better approach would be to eliminate problematic installations and extensions, and free up disk space. But they need to be completely uninstalled, not just deleted.