Why is my MacBook Pro performance so bad?

that seems fine, except for one thing:

• Back up smarter with included device management software[2]

DON"T do that.

Discard the included software and completely ERASE the physical device by its immutable manufacture-given device-name when brand new.

You already have far more capable tools built into your Mac, and using the manufacturer's Utilities will leave the drive as Windows New Technology File System (NTFS) with Mac volumes Simulated in slow motion.

Erase and reformat a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

.

"On the cloud" is great for sharing photos, but is not a viable backup solution for everything you have. The stuff is not under your control, and is subject to sloppy handling, arbitrary changes in policy, theft, accidental deletion, data loss [are they making frequent backups using best practices?], and discontinuation or throttling of the service. It can easily take three days to restore it at ordinary Internet speeds.

If you do not have a recent local, disk-based backup, your computer is like a ticking Time bomb. You are only one disk failure, one crazy software, or one "oops" away from losing EVERYTHING! Drives do not last forever. It is not a question of IF it will fail, only WHEN it will fail. In addition, you never know when crazy software or Pilot Error throws away far more than you intended.

If you are using another direct-to-disk backup method that you prefer, and you currently have a recent disk-based backup, that is great. If not, you should consider using Built-in Time Machine. Take steps to acquire an external drive as soon as possible. If you buy one, a drive 2 to 3 times or larger than your boot drive is preferable for long term trouble-free operation. Do not pay extra for a drive that is fast.  (You can get by for a while with a "found" smaller drive if necessary, but it will eventually become annoying).

Attach your external drive and use

System preferences > Time machine ...

... to turn on Time Machine and specify what drive to store your Backups on.  It may ask to initialize the new drive, and that is as expected. APFS format is default format if running MacOS 11 Big Sur or later.

Time machine works quietly and automatically in the background, without interrupting your regular work, and only saves the incremental changes (after the first full backup). Time machine backs up every connected drive that is in a Mac compatible format. it can not back up Windows format drives.

Time Machine's "claim to fame" is that it is the backup that gets done. It does not ruin performance of the rest of the computer while doing its backup operations. You do not have to set aside a "Special Time" when you only do backups. When you need it, your Time machine Backup is much more likely to be there.

How to use Time Machine to Backup or Restore your Mac:

Use Time Machine to back up - Apple Support

Here are the things that I've noted:

• • Trend Micro - I saw a HouseCallForMac helper line.
  • Little Snitch - This has been know to cause issues with other users
  • BlockBlock - This can create issues, and it appears to run all the time.
  • Pace Anti Piracy - Appears to be an anti virus app. Can cause issues.
  • WireShark - Are you in the business of analyzing data packets/
  • Radio Silence - I can see this would interfere with things.
  • AppCleaner - Not sure about this one, but most apps like it can create issues.
  • Haze Overlauncher - Is this really needed?
  • Avast - Known to create issues
  • CCleaner - This type of app can create issues
  • Samsung Magician - Normally this is found preloaded on external drives. Have seen this create issues.

Hard to know for sure, but it would appear you're a software developer (based on the listed installs)?

I would look closely at the above apps I've mentioned, as most have been known to create issues with other users. (As one Apple Support Community member pointed out: "Just because it's available in the App Store doesn't mean it can't create problems".)

But essentially, the following app types have always been know to create more issues than they prevent, and simply aren't needed. We recommend you use the software vendor's uninstaller to rid your Mac of the entire app, as most often dragging the app to the trash will leave behind a whole ton of stuff:

• Anti Virus
• Mac "Cleaners"
• Mac "Optimizers"
• Mac "Speeder Uppers"
• VPN clients (the only time they should be used would be if required to connect to a corporate system)

One other note: Based on the staggering number of apps on your Mac, I'd begin a project to ensure that each and every one has been updated to the latest available version, and to ensure all are compatible with MaOS Sonoma.

I hope this helps.

By far the easiest way to cause poor performance, instability, overheating and crashing is to install ANY third-party speeder-uppers, Cleaners, Optimizers, or Virus scanners. or a VPN that you installed yourself. The main reason is that they are relentless in scanning your files, non-stop, looking for virus-like patterns in Everything. When completed, they do it all again.

  2024-02-17 Avast Security (15.7.5)

2024-02-17 AvastHUB (3.1.41)

  2024-02-17 Avast Cleanup Premium (4.9.413)

--------

 [Running] AppCleaner SmartDelete (Julien Ramseier - installed 2023-07-05)

    Modern Login Item

    /Applications/AppCleaner.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/AppCleaner SmartDelete.app

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Top Processes Snapshot by CPU:

Process (count) CPU (Source - Location)

mdworker_shared (17) 50.56 % (Apple)

bird 44.24 % (Apple)

fileproviderd 31.82 % (Apple)

Maschine 2 29.66 % (Native Instruments GmbH)

diagnosticd 21.42 % (Apple)

so it looks like you have several things consuming CPU. Mdworker and MDS are the tasks that do the heavy lifting for Spotlight indexing, and also prepare for Time machine backups. You Mac has been on for three hours, so spotlight index should have finished, but you are not using Time machine backups, and you SHOULD..

¿Do you have a.Local, disk-based backup that you are using instead?

bird is the daemin that syncs with iClould. if you have a lot of stuff on iCloud this can be very slow.

FileProviderd is related to retrieving non-local files as well. Mosts of your files should be local to your Mac, not in the Cloud.

You are running the biggest resource hog that is not obvious Malware, Chrome.

That seems fine.

Buy it! Use it! Live happily ever after...

...Just DON'T install their software.

whichever you like, you can shop by price:

If you buy one, a drive 2 to 3 times or larger than your boot drive is preferable for long term trouble-free operation. Do not pay extra for a drive that is fast.

Time machine does all its backups at low priority in the background. It can not benefit from faster drives, so don't pay extra for speed.