Severe lag and freezing after macOS Tahoe update on MacBook Pro M1

The experience has been terrible for the last week. After a few hours of use, restarting becomes imperative. The mouse pointer and windows lagging behind every click and drag, sometimes appearing and disappearing randomly all over the desktop.

Please Apple, update Tahoe ASAP!

I'm running it on MacBook Pro M1 Pro 1TB (half empty) 32Gb Ram

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: MacOS Tahoe becoming extremely sluggish. Anybody else too?

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 26.0

Posted on Sep 23, 2025 6:27 AM

Top-ranking reply

BopCat

Level 1

58 points

Posted on Nov 8, 2025 8:14 AM

Time Machine backing up was the problem. It’s related to indexing, and the new Spotlight.

My computer was useless for days until I was able to erase my Time Machine backup drive and remove it from settings.

My computer is running fine now. Hallelujah!

I suspect Tahoe was re-indexed every Time Machine backup and trying to backup normally at the same time, without a state to backup from.

Indexing will slow things down a bit until it finishes. Not too much, though. In Time Machine settings, remove any external drives.

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136 replies

Dec 8, 2025 12:56 PM in response to mgilbert75

In Finder, press Command-Shift-G and paste

~/Library/MetaData/CoreSpotlight

Then drag the contents of the folder to the trash, and restart.

Severe lag and freezing after macOS Tahoe update on MacBook Pro M1