Upgrading RAM on a 2019, 21.5-inch iMac

SalvatoreMele wrote:

Will upgrading my memory from 8GB on a 2019 3.yGHz QuadCore Intel iMac fix the issue of what's become a very slow mac, which also sometimes freezes and needs to be restarted?

Not necessarily, and it would require complete disassembly of the iMac in order to upgrade the RAM. It is not an easy job, and it is not something the average owner should attempt.

It would be better if you download & run Etrecheck and post a copy of the report here. It provides detailed technical information about your Mac that people here could use to help diagnose the problem. It does not reveal any personal information.

Based on long sad history here, well over 90% of reports of slow 21.5-inch iMacs made between 2012 and 2019 are due to slow, entry-level mechanical hard drives.

If your iMac has Apple's Fusion Drive or their all-SSD option and is slow, then something else is afoot that more RAM is not likely to change.

The other factor in slow MAc sins usleless third-party utilities like anti-virus and so-called "cleaning" apps. More RAM won't neuter those bad actors

I can confirm the others' remarks that, if you have the all-mechanical factory HDD, no amount of extra RAM will remedy that incarnation of "Slow."

The Etrecheck report will show exactly what class of storage device you have and give hard data as to its current drive performance. It will let us make recommendations specific to your computer rather than throwing out generalities.

Also, the nearly total teardown of sealed-case iMacs is so fraught with hazard that some Apple Authorized Service Providers will not add RAM to that model.

As the forum software does not allow simply pasting long text blocks like Etrecheck's directly, please see this user-submitted tip on how to successfully embed the report in a window:

How to use the Add Text Feature When Post… - Apple Community

Embedding also avoids garbling of the text and insures the report is scrubbed of any personal or security information.

This can make your Mac faster, but the slow issues can also be caused by a faulty harddrive, so don;t expect everything to be fixed with more RAM