How to fix my Mac running slow?

The Fusion Drive on this computer uses a 7200 rpm hard drive - but has a very small amount of fast SSD space. (Wikipedia says 32 GB; the EtreCheck report says 28 GB. Either way, a small amount, compared to the 128 GB included with the original 1 TB Fusion Drives.)

That might not be the only, or main, cause of the slow performance. But it does suggest that the machine might benefit from starting up from an external SSD.

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This part of the EtreCheck report suggests that the computer has enough RAM.

Virtual Memory Information:

Physical RAM: 8 GB

Free RAM: 51 MB

Used RAM: 5.58 GB

Cached files: 2.37 GB

Available RAM: 2.42 GB

Swap Used: 3 MB

It appears that nearly all of the 8 GB of RAM was needed by the system or applications (5.58 GB of "Used RAM"), or was being used to cache files as a performance optimization. However, if applications had asked for more memory, macOS could have dumped any of the 2.37 GB of cached copies of file data to make that RAM available.

"Swap used" is non-zero, indicating that the virtual memory system was pushed hard enough that the Mac had to swap some data out to the Fusion Drive (not just to "compressed RAM"). But 3 MB is not a lot - so I don't believe that virtual memory swapping would have been a large factor in dragging performance down.

It might be nice to have confirmation from Activity Monitor.

Do not spend time with trying to remove Avast Antivirus / WireShark and all the left over elements

That could take days or longer and still not get everything off the computer

Suggest  from these links and Start Over from Scratch

For Intel computer >> Use Disk Utility to erase an Intel-based Mac followed by How to reinstall macOS

Thereafter to start from scratch and install all Required Applications directly from the Apple Apps Store or Directly from the Developer.

If going this route - I suggest Not using Startup Assist to migrate things back as this will probably Re-Introduce the existing  issue at the time TM Backup was made .

From and well respected contributor @MrHoffman

Avast AntiVirus

FTC Order Will Ban Avast from Selling Browsing Data for Advertising Purposes, Require It to Pay $16.5 Million Over Charges the Firm Sold Browsing Data After Claiming Its Products Would Block Online Tracking 

FTC says despite its promises to protect consumers from online tracking, Avast sold consumers' browsing data to third parties

PRP_53 wrote:

Do not spend time with trying to remove Avast Antivirus / WireShark and all the left over elements

That could take days or longer and still not get everything off the computer

Suggest  from these links and Start Over from Scratch

For Intel computer >> Use Disk Utility to erase an Intel-based Mac followed by How to reinstall macOS

Thereafter to start from scratch and install all Required Applications directly from the Apple Apps Store or Directly from the Developer.

Might want to make a bootable backup of the Mac (problems and all), first. The idea is to not have to depend solely on the Recovery Partition / Internet Recovery to get back a system that works "well enough" to download and run a macOS installer (How to download and install macOS - Apple Support).

Or leave the internal drive alone, do a "clean installation" of macOS on an external drive, reboot from the external drive, and then finish setting things up.

If going this route - I suggest Not using Startup Assist to migrate things back as this will probably Re-Introduce the existing  issue at the time TM Backup was made .

I wonder if it would make sense to use the Assistant, but to uncheck the boxes for Applications, Other Files & Folders, and System & Network – telling it to migrate only user account data. I'm guessing that the applications and extensions that are causing problems are scattered around the application and system areas – not so much, the user account area. Whereas most of the OP's data is probably in the user account area …

In spite of the small SSD Apple used in your Fusion drive setup, it is performing within expected speeds for that iMac model:

Performance:

System Load: 1.58 (1 min ago) 1.59 (5 min ago) 1.65 (15 min ago)

Nominal I/O usage: 2.09 MB/s

File system: 34.08 seconds

Write speed: 903 MB/s

Read speed: 1456 MB/s

Those are far faster than any mechanical-only iMac drive, whose max transfer speeds are 140- 200MB/sec). For your iMac model, I expect to see EtreCheck Fusion drive scores of Writes 600-900MB/sec and Reads 1400-2000MB/sec.

The File System numbers suggest the drive system is relatively healthy. Those start to climb toward the 120-second mark on drives that are struggling.

Like the others, I believe your performance issues are the result of useless "protection" add-ons. All of these are like strapping a 1000-pound weight on a VW Bug and expecting it to go faster Your Read speeds may well improve after you completely evict all the fearware.

Not even Windows computers need all that extra stuff. It's all Marketing By Fear.

I'm not as interested in the Activity Monitor numbers for individual processes, as I am in the area below the list. The area that looks like this:

The Memory Pressure graph is color-coded.

• Green means you have enough RAM for what you are doing.
• Yellow means the amount of RAM is marginal.
• Red means you don't have enough RAM for what you are doing, and this is hurting performance.

Besides Yellows and Reds, the other thing to watch out for would be high Swap Used.

I suspect you're going to see Greens on your Memory Pressure graph, and a low number for Swap Used – which would be consistent with the EtreCheck report. It would just be nice to have confirmation that you are seeing the "Mac has plenty of RAM" results at the time that you are actually running applications.

Any of the below should be removed as per Developers Instructions 

Disk Cleaner 

This will include CleanMyMac , aka “ BrickMyMac “

By the very aka naming of CleanMyMac - one can decree what this application can and ofter does to the computer

Suggest revises ones' thoughts on this and any similar type of Disk Cleaner or Disk Optimizer

MacKeeper,

Dr Cleaner Pro Plus

Open Cleaner one Pro

Macmechanic

Clean my Mac x.

MacBooster

Macscan

Lloydleducsusan wrote:

This is what is marked

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/488d3306-f249-40ff-83b1-b1ff0ce89c0b

Memory Pressure is all Green. That's good.

The Swap Used seems a little high, but I'm going to assume that it's not the cause of your problems. Given the Green on the Memory Pressure graph, and the Cached Files number of 2.05 GB (which suggests that you had a couple of GB of RAM that applications could have used, if they had asked for them), I'm inclined to say that your performance issues are due to

• Things that you have installed on your system, or that have left bits and pieces of themselves on your system (like those anti-virus programs), or
• The slow nature of a 1 TB Fusion Drive that has only 28 – 32 GB of SSD storage.

In the unlikely event that you need more RAM, you're in luck. You have a 27-inch iMac that can take up to 64 GB of user-installed RAM. If you do start running applications like Adobe Photoshop / Lightroom / Lightroom Classic, or Parallels Desktop, which could benefit from more RAM, then at that time you could look at:

Install memory in an iMac - Apple Support

Other World Computing – OWC Memory Upgrades For 27" iMac with Retina 5K Display (2017)

Crucial – Apple iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch 3.4GHz Intel Core i5, 2017) iMac18,3 RAM & SSD Upgrades

For now, it looks like we have crossed "insufficient RAM" off the suspect list.

Servant of Cats wrote:

PRP_53 wrote:

Do not spend time with trying to remove Avast Antivirus / WireShark and all the left over elements

That could take days or longer and still not get everything off the computer

Suggest  from these links and Start Over from Scratch

For Intel computer >> Use Disk Utility to erase an Intel-based Mac followed by How to reinstall macOS

Thereafter to start from scratch and install all Required Applications directly from the Apple Apps Store or Directly from the Developer.

Might want to make a bootable backup of the Mac (problems and all), first. The idea is to not have to depend solely on the Recovery Partition / Internet Recovery to get back a system that works "well enough" to download and run a macOS installer (How to download and install macOS - Apple Support).

Or leave the internal drive alone, do a "clean installation" of macOS on an external drive, reboot from the external drive, and then finish setting things up.

If going this route - I suggest Not using Startup Assist to migrate things back as this will probably Re-Introduce the existing  issue at the time TM Backup was made .

I wonder if it would make sense to use the Assistant, but to uncheck the boxes for Applications, Other Files & Folders, and System & Network – telling it to migrate only user account data. I'm guessing that the applications and extensions that are causing problems are scattered around the application and system areas – not so much, the user account area. Whereas most of the OP's data is probably in the user account area …

Thank for the query

I think you have made some good technical points 👍 and suggestions

Let us hope the Author follows through on them

Looks like this computer is, or was, running two or three different "security" applications.

There are two System Extensions for "SurfShark". The descriptions suggest that the "not loaded one" supports anti-virus features and that the one that is loaded lets SurfShark connect using "WireGuard" (scan anything that comes in over network interfaces?!?

There's a System Extension called "Avast Antivirus Network Extension". There are two kernel extensions – both disabled – for Avast.

Is it a great idea to run two anti-virus applications at the same time?

That Mac has problems.

Major Issues:

Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.

Security updates disabled - Security updates are disabled. This computer is at risk of malware infection.

Poor performance - EtreCheck report shows poor performance. This is unusual.

Apple security disabled - Apple security software is disabled. This computer is at risk of malware infection.

Antivirus software: Avast

That entry should resemble exactly the following:

Antivirus software: Apple

... and nothing else.

Make it so.

Rule 1 of Macs is don't install junk.

Servant of Cats wrote:

Is it a great idea to run two anti-virus applications at the same time?

Nope - "deadly embrace" is a likely result.

Remove them all.

Turn on security updates.

If possible, download the CleanMyMac app, and it will help clear your device cache as well as detect different types of malware and viruses that on hiding on your device.

Before you do this, please try and go through your files, and deleted all of your unnecessary documents, PDFs, and files. Or, you can save them to an external hard drive!

Or get App Cleaner & Uninstaller, which is my goto cleanup app…

https://nektony.com/mac-app-cleaner

+1⁹ on Avast...

On AVG & Avast…

https://x704.net/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=8803&p=115715&hilit=avg#p115715

My iMac keeps crashing! Catalina 10.15.5 - Apple Community

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/02/ftc-order-will-ban-avast-selling-browsing-data-advertising-purposes-require-it-pay-165-million-over

Re: "No Time Machine backup - Time Machine backup not found."

I hope you're making some sort of backup. It doesn't have to be a Time Machine one. A Carbon Copy Cloner one, or SuperDuper! one, or even a cloud one (BackBlaze?), could work, too.

If you're not making backups, all of your data is one drive failure, break-in, or house fire away from being lost.