Q: I recently upgraded from Snow Leopard to Mavericks and my Mac is painfully slow and web pages often don't load on the first try.&n ... more
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May 31, 2014 8:32 PMby imsomebody,I need to add that I do have Time Machine backups on an external drive going back to when I had Snow Leopard, though I have added files since then, and don't want to lose them. If I have to reformat the drive, can I move the new files over afterwards, even though they were added after the OS upgrade? I haven't added any applications other than the OS upgrade.
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Jun 1, 2014 5:24 AMby Barney-15E,How much RAM do you have? While the min required is 2GB, it isn't enough.
There are a couple of tips to revert back, and one about Slow Macs after upgrading in the User Tips section: https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/os_x_mavericks?view=documents
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Jun 1, 2014 8:01 AMby Linc Davis,Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES â–¹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View â–¹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then try the action that you're having trouble with again. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
☞ The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
☞ Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.
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Jun 1, 2014 11:38 AMby Drew Reece,Mac Mini's that support 10.9 are not maxed out at 2GB of RAM. You should be able to go to 8GB or possibly more, but you will need to remove all of the existing RAM modules to fully upgrade it.
I'd suggest you look at the Model via 'System Information' (in Applications/Utilities) and then see what the RAM upgrade procedure is for that model on http://www.ifixit.com (or in Apple's user manuals).
If you reinstall 10.6.8, Migration Assistant will be able to restore the last full backup of 10.6.8 you have in Time Machine. Then you will need to manually find & restore the newer files that have been made on 10.9. I think it's simpler to gather all the new files up now on another disk & then copy them back them after the 10.6.8 restoration is complete.
When you upgraded to 10.9 did you do a clean install or did you 'upgrade'? An upgrade can leave incompatible software in place.
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Jun 1, 2014 11:39 AMby imsomebody,I am not able to find a combo updater on the Apple site newer than 10.4.11. I'm pretty angry about this, because the reviews and other info I looked up before the update said I shouldn't have any problems. It looks like rolling back is extremely time-consuming and risky. So, Apple wins again, and I'll probably have to buy a new machine. Thank you for trying to help. I'm pretty upset with Apple about this!
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Jun 1, 2014 11:47 AMby andyBall_uk,HelpfulOS X Mavericks 10.9.3 Update (Combo)
although I suggest that you post some log extracts, as Linc Davis asked.
Ram upgrades for 2009 Mac mini & 2010 Mac mini unibody models
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Jun 1, 2014 12:01 PMby andyBall_uk,>> I can go to 4GB RAM
Mavericks requires a Mac mini (Early 2009 or later), and those models can take up to 16GB.
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Jun 1, 2014 12:04 PMby Drew Reece,imsomebody wrote:
I did an upgrade. I'm trying to figure out if I can upgrade my RAM, because that would solve most of the problems.
Throwing RAM at a Mac will not 'solve most of the problems'.
2GB is too little RAM for many tasks however you haven't shown us anything to that makes it clear your issues are only because of RAM.
If you upgraded & have incompatible software setup to run inside the system more RAM will not help. Removing or updating the software should help.
I'd suggest you take a look at an EtreCheck report to see what is running, if there are a lot of kernel extensions, startup items and launchd background jobs you would be wise to remove them or make sure the software is compatible with 10.9.
Post the report here if you want help with it.
To diagnose a 'lack of RAM' you need to reboot (to reset the RAM figures) and look at the 'swap used' in the memory tab of Activity Monitor. If the machine is slow/ buggy/ unreliable and the 'swap used' figure doesn't grow the bad performance is probably something else.
Also do the normal tasks that worked on 10.6 - does the 'swap used' grow to a few GB? The size of it can indicate how much memory you should consider buying (personally I can't see the point of just a 4GB upgrade, max it out to 8GB if you are going to be opening the case).
