My iMac with Big Sur is suddenly very slow

ProntoInstaller wrote:

OK i will. I am not sure how to submit it. Also, is there a security and privacy issue?

There's no privacy issue at all. Here's how to submit it:

Copy the report

and use the Additional Text button to paste the report in your reply.

Then we can examine the report and see if we can determine the cause of the problem.

Ok, just done a quick review of the report. Thanks for providing it.

The only thing that stands out, would be Avast Security. Your Mac already has excellent anti-virus protection built-in. Using third-party AV products only serve to make your Mac perform poorly and provide a means to keep those AV vendors in business. We get numerous posts here from folks complaining about their Mac's performing "slowly" to find out that they installed these types of apps.

Generally, many of us recommend that you do NOT use any types of AV or "cleaner" apps with your Mac.

Ref:

• macOS - Security - Apple
• https://eclecticlight.co/2023/10/20/what-security-updates-does-my-macos-get/
• Protect your Mac from malware - Apple Support
• Effective defenses against malware and ot… - Apple Community

... so completely removing Avast would be the first step. I suggest doing so to see if this resolves the performance issue with your Mac.

Next, follow thru the recommendations in the Clean Up section of the report. In this case, a "leftover" from the Elements Auto Creation app, is still present on your Mac. It, in itself, should not cause any performance degradation, but it should be removed as it's no longer needed. Both the file "com.adobe.ElementsAutoCreator-19.0.plist," and its location: /Library/LaunchAgents, are provided.

Lastly, in the Diagnostics Information section, an Apple process was noted as using a significant amount of CPU processing. This process is called the "signpost_reporter."

Signposts is a developer feature created by Apple to help developers diagnose performance problems in applications. Essentially developer can create a “signpost” marking the beginning and end of performance critical operations. The signpost system then automatically times these intervals and makes them available to profiling tools on the local machine. What we don't know is what app caused this. Regardless, it was only reported twice in the last 60 days ... and no other issues were reported at all. Which would signify a pretty "healthy" Mac.

Should removing Avast not solve the problem, we would need to start looking for potential hardware issues.

Well your computer is now over 10 years old so the chances are pretty high that the HD portion of your Fusion Drive may be failing. A 2014 is also pretty obsolete too meaning it will not run current versions of Mac OS. At this point, I would recommend downloading DriveDX and run a report on the HD, NOT the Fusion Drive or the SSD just the HD.

If any errors appear then that confirms my hunch. Because the computer is so old my recommendation at that point would be to replace the computer. If for some reason you don't want to replace it then just get an external USB 3 SSD and use the following How to setup an external SSD as your startup disk to get it setup so you can replace the Fusion Drive altogether.

I'm not sure where. you are getting a $5000 figure from but you can get an extremely nice Mac mini and an external display for about $1200-1300 which will far out-perform your current iMac!!

Also, my hunch was correct the HD portion of your Fusion Drive is failing. It's time for that new computer. By the way, Apple also offers free (no interest) financing too.

rkaufmann87 was spot on! Your Mac's HDD is failing. At this point your next step would be to make a complete backup BEFORE it completely fails.

Ok, please submit it then.

Ref: Using EtreCheck to Troubleshoot Potential… - Apple Community

There are neither security or privacy issues with these reports. This app was developed by a valued forum member and is recommended by many of us here for assisting others with troubleshooting difficult Mac hardware or software issues. The user tip article I provided you, tells you how you can submit it, using the forum editor's "Additional text" tool.