Q: Is Mavericks making your machine run slow?

I've been using Macs since they were first available commercially.  This OS is a failure. My guess is there are too many listeners and too much system resource allocated to special effects.  For people working in multimedia, we need a way to turn off all the glitter so we can make some.  I have a brand new machine and it runs like a pig now.  Come on, Apple. Fix this mess.

All my Macs work great with Mavericks. I don't see any 'glitter'.

But you can tell Apple

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Pete

Gravity Brain wrote:

Fix this mess.

Gravity Brain if you want to fix whatever mess is affecting your Mac then please start a new Discussion.

Apple isn't listening here.

If your Mac is brand new, you should be contacting AppleCare.

I would suggest maybe increase the memory to 16GB as you already have 8GB and running SSD .

I am running a Mac-Mini

which i installed a SSD running 8GBRam will soon increase to 16GB  but the SSD made a huge difference to speed Black Magic shows over 370 Write over 470 Read and although start up speed only improved slightly

open photos or apps is very quick . 

Pete -

I am having similar issues.... My Iphoto will open, but then it will say Application not responding.  It does it with my itunes at times and I've been scouring threads today to see what I can do to fix things.  I have done a reinstall of Maverick, but still having issues after 24 hours.  Trying to decide if if a clean reinstall is the answer.... Here is what EtreCheck results were:

Hardware Information:

          iMac (20-inch, Mid 2007)

          iMac - model: iMac7,1

          1 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2 cores

          3 GB RAM

Video Information:

          ATI,RadeonHD2600 - VRAM: 256 MB

Audio Plug-ins:

          BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0

          AirPlay: Version: 1.9

          AppleAVBAudio: Version: 2.0.0

          iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3

Startup Items:

          PACESupport - Path: /Library/StartupItems/PACESupport

System Software:

          OS X 10.9 (13A603) - Uptime: 0 days 2:43:7

Disk Information:

          ST3500418AS disk0 : (500.11 GB)

                    EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

                    disk0s2 (disk0s2) <not mounted>: 499.25 GB

                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

USB Information:

          Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

          Apple, Inc. Keyboard Hub

                    Generic Mass Storage 8.18 GB

                              EFI (disk4s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

                              Untitled 1 (disk4s2) /Volumes/Untitled 1: 7.83 GB (7.8 GB free)

                    Apple Inc. Apple Keyboard

          Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

          Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

FireWire Information:

          LaCie d2 Quadra v2B 800mbit - 800mbit max

                    EFI (disk3s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

                    LaCie d2 Quadra 2 TB (disk3s2) /Volumes/LaCie d2 Quadra 2 TB: 2 TB (14.43 GB free)

Thunderbolt Information:

Kernel Extensions:

          com.oxsemi.driver.OxsemiDeviceType00          (1.28.13)

          com.LaCie.ScsiType00          (1.2.9)

          com.paceap.kext.pacesupport.snowleopard          (5.7.2)

Problem System Launch Daemons:

          [failed] com.apple.wdhelper.plist

Problem System Launch Agents:

Launch Daemons:

          [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

          [loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist

          [loaded] com.lacie.desktopmanager.service.plist

          [loaded] com.paceap.eden.licensed.plist

          [loaded] PACESupport.plist

Launch Agents:

          [loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist

          [loaded] com.lacie.eventsactions.launcher.agent.plist

User Launch Agents:

          [loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist

User Login Items:

          iTunesHelper

          AdobeResourceSynchronizer

          TomTomHOMERunner

          apple-scc-20120611-151939

          LDMStatusItem

3rd Party Preference Panes:

          Flash Player

Internet Plug-ins:

          AdobePDFViewer.plugin

          AdobePDFViewerNPAPI.plugin

          AmazonMP3DownloaderPlugin101750.plugin

          Default Browser.plugin

          DirectorShockwave.plugin

          Flash Player.plugin

          FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin

          Google Earth Web Plug-in.plugin

          googletalkbrowserplugin.plugin

          iPhotoPhotocast.plugin

          JavaAppletPlugin.plugin

          npgtpo3dautoplugin.plugin

          o1dbrowserplugin.plugin

          QuickTime Plugin.plugin

User Internet Plug-ins:

Bad Fonts:

          None

Time Machine:

          Skip System Files: NO

          Mobile backups: OFF

          Auto backup: YES

          Volumes being backed up:

          Destinations:

                    LaCie d2 Quadra 2 TB [Local] (Last used)

                    Total size: 2 TB

                    Total number of backups: 56

                    Oldest backup: 2013-03-06 18:16:55 +0000

                    Last backup: 2013-11-19 23:38:35 +0000

                    Size of backup disk: Excellent

                              Backup size 2 TB > (Disk size Zero KB X 3)

          Time Machine details may not be accurate.

          All volumes being backed up may not be listed.

Top Processes by CPU:

               5%          storeagent

               2%          WindowServer

               1%          Safari

               1%          sysmond

               1%          EtreCheck

               1%          App Store

               0%          PluginProcess

               0%          Mail

               0%          mds_stores

               0%          lacie_dm_service

Top Processes by Memory:

          74 MB              com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

          61 MB              Safari

          43 MB              Mail

          34 MB              com.apple.coremedia.videodecoder

          25 MB              Finder

          25 MB              com.apple.WebKit.Networking

          22 MB              PluginProcess

          18 MB              storeagent

          18 MB              mds_stores

          18 MB              WindowServer

Virtual Memory Statistics:

          22 MB              Free RAM

          821 MB             Active RAM

          812 MB             Inactive RAM

          396 MB             Wired RAM

          2.26 GB            Page-ins

          1.07 GB            Page-outs

any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated!  I run time machine for backups and am a little daunted at the thought of having to restore all music, doc and some apps.

I tried out a suggestion to disable the Safari plugins (via the checkbox under the Privacy preferences) and it made all the difference.

jdien wrote:

 

I tried out a suggestion to disable the Safari plugins (via the checkbox under the Privacy preferences) and it made all the difference.

So now you need to figure out which plug-in causes your issues.

Re-enable plug-ins and I would start by going to Uninstall Flash Player and reinstall it from here, since that's been the source of many user issues.

If that doesn't work, then you'll need to remove all of them and replace one at a time until the problem returns.

MadMacs0 wrote:

 

michaelvee wrote:

 

I've installed it and OnyX and honestly haven't noticed too much of an improvement. Frankly, I'ma little scared of OnyX: it's a bit deep for an idiot like me, but I managed to grasp some basics.

OnyX is a good tool when it's really needed, but does nothing unless you tell it to. It's also not something you want to run routinely since OS X takes very good care of it's own routine maintenance, so it's only a tool to fix something that broken, such as clearing out a corrupt cache (which is a rare occurrence anyway). I truthfully don't remember the last time I used it for anything.

I'm not unhappy with Mavericks to the degree of some unfortunate people, but I have to say that I'm a little disappionted with the slowness factor, relating to certain Apple ,er apps. It's not disastrous, but I still keep thinking that maybe I should reinstall.

Most people will be disappointed for a day or two since there are a lot of housekeeping chores that need to be done with any new OS. TimeMachine needs time to back thousands of new files associated with Mavericks and as applications are updated, either in the background if you allow it, or by installing them yourself they two must be newly backed up. Spotlight has a lot of work to do, also.  It's only after TimeMachine, Software Update and Spotlight have caught up that you can really judge how it will be for the long haul.

 

Not to say everything will be perfect. We're told that 10.9.1 to fix many of the items found during developer and seed testing that were not dealt with prior to release and that 10.9.2 will add some features that were likewise not ready at release. One such item being discussed in these forums is that icons are slow to show up in a newly opened Finder window. Some aren't seeing the problem, but many others believe they are.

 

I have personally observed some difference in the way Internet DNS queries are handled that delay some aspects of Internet services. I can't say that I've noticed browsing to be any different, but database updates seem to be failing and resorting to work-arounds routinely with Mavericks.

 

Once, after two days of using Mavericks, everything suddenly slowed to a crawl. Reboots, Safe Mode, guest accounts were all effected, so I resorted to using the Restoration Partition to reinstall the OS and it's been smooth sailing ever since.

 

I was probably fortunate in that I spent a considerable length of time moving from an old iMac G5 running Leopard to a new iMac with Mountain Lion. Most of that time was spent in preparation by tracking down all the PPC only code that had been there for years and knowing what apps needed to be updated. I chose to not migrate any Applications, installing everything I needed from original source. I believe that has paid dividends in reducing the effort needed to move to Mavericks.

 

One tip on repairing permissions that has changed. Disk Utility (and probably all 3rd party utilities) will not touch User permissions. The only way I'm aware of to accomplish that is by following these instructions:

 

Boot to your Recovery partition (holding down the Command and R keys while booting) and open Terminal from the Utilities menu. In Terminal, type:  ‘resetpassword’ (without the quotes), hit return, and select the admin user. You are not going to reset your password. Click on the icon for your Macs hard drive at the top. From the drop down below it select the user account which is having issues. At the bottom of the window, you'll see an area labeled Restore Home Directory Permissions and ACLs. Click the reset button there. The process takes a few minutes. When complete, restart.

I didn't notice any improvement to Mail. If anything, it got a little worse for a time.

I'm told the only improvements to Mail were for Gmail users.

So, Mad,Macs, I finally found time to attempt the restore Home directory, etc.etc, that you recommended. I'm afraid nothing happened. I got into the dilaogue and pressed the Reset button, but the Done button never came of its grey status. I waited. And waited. And waited. I gave up after an hour, because I undertstandably thought that it should have completed its task by that time. Really rather puzzling. Or is it one of those wait overnight operations? Surely not, from what you said.

Sorry for being a little OT, but it was posted in this thread earlier. Thanks for your suggestion: I really would have liked to have seen if it worked.....

I had this same problem.  Running slow after install.  Beach ball of doom whenever I would open something new.  Long delays between clicks and result.  Especially with web browsing.  On a few other forums I read that Google Chrome browser was taxing the system a lot.  I installed it, but rarely used it (as a backup, non-cached broswer) but it was running.  I closed it and deleted the app.  Now my computer is back to normal speed.  Not hot.  Fan not running loud.  In good shape.  May not work for all, but thought I would post it because it worked for a few people and its a quick easy thing to try.

Thanks for you input, mosterfeld. It all helps.  Personally I am not using Chrome, so my little ( but irksome ) issues lie somewhere else. Honestly, I still believe it'll all come out in the wash, when further revisions are forthcoming. But I reiterate that this has been, far and away, the most troublesome and puzzling upgrade from Apple, for me. Ever.

michaelvee wrote:

 

I finally found time to attempt the restore Home directory, etc.etc, that you recommended. I'm afraid nothing happened. I got into the dilaogue and pressed the Reset button, but the Done button never came of its grey status. I waited. And waited. And waited. I gave up after an hour, because I undertstandably thought that it should have completed its task by that time. Really rather puzzling. Or is it one of those wait overnight operations?

It depends greatly on how many files you have in your home directory, whether or not they need to be repaired, as well as the speed of your CPU, hard drive, etc. Although I don't recall any of mine taking over an hour, there wasn't much for it to do, but I can see it taking over an hour for some users. I believe the first time I ever tried it was late one night and I left it, so not sure how long it took.

In that case, I will retry. Mine is the newest iMac, i7, 32 GB RAM. Didn't really expect it to take that long, though, to be perfectly honest . I thought we were talking about a permissions repair - type process, here: excuse my ingnorance. Thing is, I also expected to see some kind of data processing progress bar, or something meaningful about the repairs . Nothing. Many thanks for the quick response.

@michaelvee Keep in mind -- Repair permissions is HORRIBLE in estimating time to completion. Always has been.

The time it will take to accomplish its taks is dependent upon two things -- the size of the disk you are scanning and the number of files being scanned.

My      iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010)

          iMac - model: iMac11,3

          1 2.93 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4 cores

          8 GB RAM

Repair permissions starts at less than a minute and increases over the next 15 minutes to 4 minutes remaining; until it finally completes.

Sorry if this has already been suggested as there are multiple threads on this issue and I can't go through 14 pages of posts to check, BUT

I've read this thread and at least one other as I have been having the same issue since upgrading. I am looking at all these potential fixes including re-installing Mavericks and am scratching my (cyber) head since I am not nearly as sophisticatd and many of you obviously are.

EVERYTHING was slow and one site on the 'net was ridiculous (although most of the others worked just fine)

I mean everybody's probably heard the story about the truck stuck under an overpass and all the engineers stumped at how to get it unstuck when a little boy happened to walk by and suggested letting some air out of the tires,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I realize this is pretty simplistic but nowhere did I read about anybody suggesting to simply re-boot. "Shut down" (totally) and then re-start with your "power" button ???

I was "afraid" to do it for fear the machine wouldn't boot at all but finally just couldn't stand it. I shut down totally (NOT "re-start") and then clicked the power button to restart.

It came up at "normal" speed and EVERYTHING is back to normal (except for one "Numbers" document I happene to have open when I did the install (Pages documents I had open during the instal are fine))

Just a thought from a not very sophisticated user,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Again, sorry if this has already been suggested,,,,,,,,,

CharliSinn

I have the EXACT same problem. Things start to run slowly, I check the activity monitor to find applications have stopped responding.  And there always seems to be a plugin, component, kit, a helper, etc that has stopped responding.

Never happened before now.  Frustrating.