Mac Studio M2 Max is running slowly and freezing

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Level 1

18 points

Mac Studio M2 Max is running slowly and freezing

Hello,

My Mac Studio seems to have recently slowed down for reasons unknown. Video sourced online or from internal/external drives continually freezes for several seconds until it catches up. Typing in online apps like email, Safari, or Messages or using internal drive apps like Pages and Numbers continually freeze after a few typed words before catching up. Using advanced software like iMovie is horribly slow. The pinwheel is constantly making an appearance.

I ran a hardware diagnostic and everything looked fine. I tried re-indexing (I think I did it right). I updated all software. Still, no change. I have included an attachment screen shot of the activity screen.

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards,

Mike

Mac Studio 2023

Chip Apple M2Max

Memory 64GB

Storage HD 1.17 available of 2TB

macOS Tahoe 26.5.1

Apple Studio Display

[Edited by Moderator]

Posted on Jun 17, 2026 3:33 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

den.thed

Level 10

95,862 points

Jun 17, 2026 10:00 PM in response to shadow2350

1) Completely remove the Bitdefender VPN and it's System Extension as per the developers directions.

2) After the latest update, spotlight is having a conflict with Pages and possible BackBlaze in your case.

Spotlight lagging issues on Tahoe anyone? - Apple Community

Mac overheating with Pages and Spotlight;… - Apple Community

https://mjtsai.com/blog/2025/12/02/runaway-spotlight-with-pages-document-on-icloud-drive/

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Answer 2

shadow2350 Author

Level 1

18 points

Jun 18, 2026 6:05 AM in response to den.thed

Hello Den,

As per your link regarding Spotlight, I removed ~/Library/Metadata/Corespotlight. The file was 260GB. The new file is 100MB. The computer is running smoothly again. Thank you.

A year ago, I removed all Bitdefender apps using the uninstall features provided by the developer. I see that for some reason, remnants of the VPN are still on the computer. Any suggestions on how to remove what is left?

Regards,

Mike

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