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

dash039 - Search through this thread for instructions on how to fix (at least sometimes) by deleting contents of ~/Library/Metadata/CoreSpotlight/ . This suggestion worked for me after updating to macOS 26.2 (which had caused significant disruptions) and again to macOS 26.3 (which had cause minor issues).

Please Apple, update Tahoe ASAP!

You have done the tech equivalent of walking into the doctor's office and asking patients in the waiting room to fix you. We are all other end users, and Apple cannot see bug reports here among the estimated tens of thousands of new posts every day.

If you are serious about Apple hearing you, you must use this for mac OS issues:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

Thank You Big Time, Tony. I had the same problems after Tahoe and deleting Metadata/CoreSpotlight seems to have cured things. CoreSpotlight was always at the top of the activity list hogging all the resources.

Thanks again for the post.

You'll need to take a full backup of your system ideally on two different devices/targets just to be safe, then wipe it and reinstall the system from scratch. Apple never provides the option to downgrade because they assume they're always right and you'll never need to and they don't want to do the work to provide that feature. Luckily all M4 and earlier hardware will always be compatible with Sequoia or earlier OS's. But any new M5 hardware shipping over the next few months will only work with the garbage v26 OS's and they'll ship with that by default.

Did you try the proposed solution of deleting the contents of

~/Library/Metadata/CoreSpotlight/

It seemed to have worked for several users.

In Finder, press Command-Shift-G and paste

~/Library/MetaData/CoreSpotlight

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

Forkingaround wrote:

I will admit I accidentally jumped on the bandwagon and did the Tahoe upgrade, when it first came out. ..... When I asked about reloading Sequia I was told they no longer have it. I was finally able to figure out how to create startup with Sequoia and started from scratch.

Yesterday I decided to take a chance and try again with Tahoe. Things are better-ish, but still going back to Sequia for now. Still having to many glitches, restarts, over heating you name it. At least this time I am prepared for the hassle of wiping and starting from scratch.

FYI, instead of jumping full into the upgrade, people should instead install the new OS to an external SSD & test things out. Follow the instructions in the following Apple article....there is a very critical detail to avoid using the Mac's DFU Port during the install process on an M-series Mac:

How to use an external storage device as a Mac startup disk - Apple Support

It is also possible to create a new APFS volume on the internal SSD & install the new OS there, but this requires at least 100GB+ of Free storage space just for the barebones macOS installation. Most people probably don't have enough Free space to install all their apps, much less migrate their data. Once the test is over, delete the new APFS volume & upgrade your original older macOS installation. FYI, ignore the "Available" storage value shown every where in macOS since "Available" is not synonymous with Free. The Free storage value is only shown in Disk Utility.

Also, for most people there is no reason to immediately jump into a new major OS upgrade. There are always problems at the launch of a new OS since companies just cannot wait until the bugs are ironed out since the Internet is available to push out fixes at any time....so what if things break for people. I won't upgrade until at least the x.1 or x.2 release at the earliest, and only after seeing if there are any wide spread issues & confirming all my third party apps & my workflows are all compatible with the new OS. Tahoe certainly has a lot of graphical/visual bugs for an OS which is so focused on its new visual look & style. That really says a lot about Apple releasing Tahoe like this.

And before anyone says anything about the cloud. I DO NOT USE THE CLOUD!!!!! It would be nice if Apple kept it easy to not use it without jumping through hoops to make sure it is all turned off. But that is a different rant for a different day.

FYI, I only use Contacts & Messages on my Mac so I do not log into my AppleID as such during setup or within the System Settings to avoid having everything activated & syncing automatically. I launch the Messages app & authenticate with my AppleID which only activates Messages. I agree everything should not be automatically enabled since there are potential privacy & security risks involved, but Apple these days is only about simple personal non-business use of their products.

hdulc wrote:

Having the same problem. I ran EtrePro - here's what it reports - the major issues were No system uptime found and No operating system found. Huh?!?!?!

Any ideas?

<EtrePro Report.log>

re: [Loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac5

It has already been posted in the thread...

Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS

read "cleaner"

<CleanMyMac5> do not install garbage apps— consider it malware with a convincing marketing scheme.

you are better off starting your own thread for your own issue for best results and more willing eyes to look at your specifics, not pile on to an existing thread 6 pages deep.

I am not dismissing anything. Running in Safe Mode is a test. If things work normally in Safe Mode but don’t work when you start normally that is an important indicator. You can try to troubleshoot or you can just blame it on a bug. I offered a standard test in good faith. If you can’t be bothered to test that is your choice.

If anyone is not particularly keen on all the new "glass" look, you might try this and see if it helps your performance:

Enable Reduce Transparency in System Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size

Tahoe freezing… I found help online that recommended turning off spotlight. I turned it off for everything and no more freezing and it did pick up speed; not like Sequoia but better than Tahoe and Spotlight together.

AppleFanPerson wrote:

Same here but it is for my M4 Macbook Pro!! I just got it in June this year! And it it slower than my old M1 Macbook pro which is running Macos 15 (my old mac)

I suggest that you start a new thread and post an Etrecheck report. What you are experiencing is not normal. It's not just that you are on Tahoe, it's something else.

AlexPetr wrote:

Biggest question so far - 26.2 is more stable?

The memory & storage release issues I encountered with earlier versions of Tahoe are definitely very much improved since I updated to 26.2.

For those still struggling with this, you might be well-served to grab OnyX (free) and run the default tasks on the Maintenance page/tab of the app.

That will run the tasks and then reboot. There's a good chance you'll find yourself in better shape after this.

Same for me with M2. Initially it was BackgroundShortcutRunner hogging 95% of a CPU, and now after a reboot is Shortcuts - looks like shortcuts have issues ... and I never user them!