How do I resolve performance issues with macOS Tahoe on my MacBook Pro?

shawn258 wrote:

Is there a major fix for Tahoe coming?

Ever since installed.. Runs slower, Fan which hardly ever ran runs constantly, And I use the Adobe suites a lot for work and they run slower as well as crash. Yes it is a 2021 Macbook Pro but this truly feels like Apple out dating you by software again.

We have been using Tahoe with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom, including the AI extra capability in Photoshop which works computers very hard, and have seen no issues on a 2019 MacBook Pro 16" nor on a MacBook Pro M4 Max purchased in December 2025. The M4 is much faster than the 2019 Intel MacBook Pro but both handle those Adobe apps easily, with very large image portfolios (100+ GB in size).

This is not to discount that you are experiencing an issue ... obviously you are. But I would first make sure your MacOS and your Adobe apps are all updated to the latest versions. Then I would look to see how your Mac is set up, configured, and what else is installed. Just one example, anti-virus can DRAMATICALLY slow down Macs and should be completely uninstalled.

Please follow Owl-53's suggestion to download and run Etrecheck and post its report here.

Owl-53 wrote:

There is a Beta Tahoe 26.6 in the wings. As to when it will be released only Apple could answer

Whether that update will or will not fix " the Adobe suites " ?

As mentioned above, we have very old and newer Macs on Tahoe running the Adobe photography suite including the very demanding Adobe Photoshop AI tools, and they run fine.

Part 1 of 2

There is a Beta Tahoe 26.6 in the wings

As to when it will be released only Apple could answer

Whether that update will or will not fix " the Adobe suites " ?

If they do not work well under the current Tahoe

You might be well advised to check with Adobe

More often that not

A macOS update may or may not make the situation worst for third party software

Though to be fair to Apple

They usually make the Beta Update available to responsive Third Part Developers well before it is released , so they can Test their software against it

Part 2 of 2

To avoid a game of 20 questions   

Download the Application Etrecheck  ( External Link ) directly from the Developer.

This is a Diagnostic Tool that makes no changes to the computer.

It makes a coherent and readable inventory of both the Hardware and Software used on the computer 

The application is free or paid for added features. 

The Report will Not Reveal Any Personal Information. 

Post back the Full Report - Share Report >> Copy , then  paste  >>>> using the Additional Text Icon  <<<<

It is possible there are processes running in the background that are using significant resources. Check Activity Monitor, CPU tab (sort by % CPU) and Memory tab (sort by Memory) to see what's running hard.

Activity Monitor User Guide for Mac - Apple Support

How much free space do you have on your internal storage? If that gets low, your system will struggle. The absolute minimum is ~20-25 GB free space, and as a rule of thumb you should aim to have 15-20% of your total internal storage as free space. Terminology is important here – free space is not the same thing as available space. The one that matters is Free space, but what macOS shows in most places is Available space. Available space includes both free space and ‘purgeable’ space, the latter comprises system caches, snapshots and other data that macOS can delete if it decides more free space is needed. However, there is no way the user can force those data to be purged.

The place to check how much Free space you have is in Disk Utility (in Applications > Utilities), by selecting the main container disk below the drive itself (you may need to select View menu > Show all devices to see it). For example, on my M4 MacBook Pro, the Storage settings pane and Get Info on the internal drive show 1.24 TB of Available space, whereas Disk Utility shows there is 1.15 TB of actual Free space, 90 GB less than ‘available’. 

Note that you can also see the Free space in the System Report (System Settings > General > About > System Report button, at the bottom > Storage). 

I suspect you have third party processes installed on your computer that are slowing it down. I also recommend posting the free EtreCheck report using the Additional Text option when posting.

How to use the Add Text Feature When Post… - Apple Community

This is typically seen when junk is installed on your computer, such as Cleaners, Antivirus, or VPN's and removing those apps will solve that problem. Specifically for Adobe, they have had updates to their apps that you may be missing for compatibility with Tahoe. You can review their chart here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/apps/system-requirements/apps-compatible-macos.html

I have a 2019 MacBook Pro that runs fine without any issues crashing, slowness, or fan usage on Mac OS 26.5.2, so there is definitely something unique to yours that can be solved, especially since my Mac is 2 years older than yours.