Q: Yosemite made my macbook pro slow

Try these in order testing your system after each to see if it's back to normal:

1. a. Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM

    b. Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

2. Restart the computer in Safe Mode, then restart again, normally. If this doesn't help, then:

     Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the

     COMMAND and R keys until the Utilities menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the

     computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager

     screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.

3. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.

When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list.  In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive.  If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.

4. Reinstall Yosemite: Reboot from the Recovery HD. Select Reinstall OS X from the Utilities menu, and click on the Continue button.

Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

Check your FielVault option , if this is enabled it will encrypt ur Hard Drive and every time it tries to read, it will decript .. i had the same issue ,

Activity Monitor - Mavericks  also Yosemite

Activity Monitor in Mavericks has significant changes

Performance Guide

Why is my computer slow

Why your Mac runs slower than it should

Things you can do to resolve slowdowns  see post by Kappy

I'm having the same problem. Here is my info.  There's stuff in red so I know that's not good!

Problem description:

after installing yosemite, my system has been really slow.

EtreCheck version: 2.0.11 (98)

Report generated November 15, 2014 at 7:00:29 PM CST

Hardware Information: ℹ️

  MacBook (13-inch, Late 2009) (Verified)

  MacBook - model: MacBook6,1

  1 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2-core

  2 GB RAM Upgradeable

  BANK 0/DIMM0

  1 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok

  BANK 1/DIMM0

  1 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok

  Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported

  Wireless:  en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Video Information: ℹ️

  NVIDIA GeForce 9400M - VRAM: 256 MB

  Color LCD 1280 x 800

System Software: ℹ️

  OS X 10.10 (14A389) - Uptime: 0:12:12

Disk Information: ℹ️

  TOSHIBA MK2555GSXF disk0 : (250.06 GB)

  S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified

  EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

  Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /  [Startup]: 215.17 GB (124.97 GB free)

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

  BOOTCAMP (disk0s4) /Volumes/BOOTCAMP : 34.03 GB (3.89 GB free)

  MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-898 

USB Information: ℹ️

  Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

  Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

  Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub

  Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Gatekeeper: ℹ️

  Mac App Store and identified developers

Problem System Launch Agents: ℹ️

  [failed] com.apple.CallHistoryPluginHelper.plist

  [failed] com.apple.CallHistorySyncHelper.plist

  [failed] com.apple.coreservices.appleid.authentication.plist

  [failed] com.apple.coreservices.uiagent.plist

  [failed] com.apple.icloud.fmfd.plist

  [failed] com.apple.pluginkit.pkd.plist

  [failed] com.apple.secd.plist

  [failed] com.apple.security.cloudkeychainproxy.plist

  [failed] com.apple.spindump_agent.plist

  [failed] com.apple.telephonyutilities.callservicesd.plist

  [failed] com.apple.xpc.loginitemregisterd.plist

Problem System Launch Daemons: ℹ️

  [failed] com.apple.awdd.plist

  [failed] com.apple.cache_delete.plist

  [failed] com.apple.ctkd.plist

  [failed] com.apple.icloud.findmydeviced.plist

  [failed] com.apple.ifdreader.plist

  [failed] com.apple.nehelper.plist

  [failed] com.apple.nsurlsessiond.plist

  [failed] com.apple.softwareupdated.plist

  [failed] com.apple.spindump.plist

  [failed] com.apple.tccd.system.plist

  [failed] com.apple.wdhelper.plist

  [failed] com.apple.xpc.smd.plist

Launch Agents: ℹ️

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

  [loaded] com.mcafee.menulet.plist Support

  [loaded] com.mcafee.reporter.plist Support

Launch Daemons: ℹ️

  [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support

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

  [loaded] com.mcafee.ssm.Eupdate.plist Support

  [loaded] com.mcafee.ssm.ScanManager.plist Support

  [failed] com.mcafee.virusscan.fmpd.plist Support

User Launch Agents: ℹ️

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

User Login Items: ℹ️

  iTunesHelper UNKNOWNHidden (missing value)

Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

  JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 15.0.0 - SDK 10.10 Check version

  FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.223 - SDK 10.6 Support

  Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10

  AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 11.0.09 - SDK 10.6 Support

  AdobePDFViewer: Version: 11.0.09 - SDK 10.6 Support

  Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.223 - SDK 10.6 Support

  o1dbrowserplugin: Version: 5.38.6.0 - SDK 10.8 Support

  QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

  googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 5.38.6.0 - SDK 10.8 Support

  iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0

3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️

  Flash Player  Support

Time Machine: ℹ️

  Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️

      6% WindowServer

      0% launchd

      0% AppleSpell

      0% taskgated

      0% notifyd

Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️

  60 MB kextcache

  56 MB soagent

  47 MB System Events

  34 MB Memory Clean

  32 MB Finder

Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️

  381 MB Free RAM

  395 MB Active RAM

  229 MB Inactive RAM

  407 MB Wired RAM

  2.06 GB Page-ins

  107 MB Page-outs

mac is super slow.. can someone help? here's the results of etrecheck:

EtreCheck version: 2.1.3 (106)

Report generated December 15, 2014 at 9:30:34 PM EST

Hardware Information: ℹ️

  MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009) (Verified)

  MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro5,5

  1 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2-core

  4 GB RAM Upgradeable

  BANK 0/DIMM0

  2 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok

  BANK 1/DIMM0

  2 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok

  Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported

  Wireless:  en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Video Information: ℹ️

  NVIDIA GeForce 9400M - VRAM: 256 MB

  Color LCD 1280 x 800

System Software: ℹ️

  OS X 10.10.1 (14B25) - Uptime: 4 days 4:26:1

Disk Information: ℹ️

  ST9250315ASG disk0 : (250.06 GB)

  EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

  Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /  [Startup]: 249.20 GB (13.17 GB free) (Low!)

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

  OPTIARC  DVD RW AD-5960S 

USB Information: ℹ️

  Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

  Apple Internal Memory Card Reader

  Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

  Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

  Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub

  Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Configuration files: ℹ️

  /etc/hosts - Count: 2

Gatekeeper: ℹ️

  Mac App Store and identified developers

Kernel Extensions: ℹ️

  /System/Library/Extensions

  [not loaded] com.ZTE.driver.ZTEUSBCDCACMData (1.3.9) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.devguru.driver.PTUMWDrv (11.1.28) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.lge.driver.LGEMobilSolutionFamily (1.5.4) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.novatelwireless.kext.wwan (3.0.24) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.pantech.driver.PTRayUSBFamily (1.2.8 - SDK 10.4) [Support]

  [loaded] com.rim.driver.BlackBerryUSBDriverInt (0.0.68) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.rim.driver.BlackBerryUSBDriverVSP (0.0.68) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.sierrawireless.driver.SierraDevSupport (2.0.2) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.sierrawireless.driver.SierraFSCSupport (2.0.2) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.sierrawireless.driver.SierraFSRSupport (2.0.2) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.sierrawireless.driver.SierraHSRSupport (2.0.2) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.smithmicro.driver.SMSIWirelessModem (3.2.7 - SDK 10.4) [Support]

  /System/Library/Extensions/LGEMobileSolutionFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns

  [not loaded] com.lge.driver.LGELTEBus (1.5.4) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.lge.driver.LGELTEMdmControl (1.5.4) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.lge.driver.LGELTEMdmData (1.5.4) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.lge.driver.LGELTENicControl (1.5.4) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.lge.driver.LGELTENicData (1.5.4) [Support]

  /System/Library/Extensions/NovatelWirelessWWAN.kext/Contents/PlugIns

  [not loaded] com.NovatelWireless.driver.NovatelWirelessUSBCDCECMControl (3.0.24) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.NovatelWireless.driver.NovatelWirelessUSBCDCECMData (3.0.24) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.novatelwireless.driver.3G (3.0.24) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.novatelwireless.driver.3GData (3.0.24) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.novatelwireless.driver.DisableAutoInstall (3.0.24) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.novatelwireless.driver.NWVBE (3.0.24) [Support]

  /System/Library/Extensions/PTRayUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns

  [not loaded] com.pantech.driver.PantechBus (1.2.8 - SDK 10.4) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.pantech.driver.PantechCDFree (1.2.8 - SDK 10.4) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.pantech.driver.PantechCm (1.2.8 - SDK 10.4) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.pantech.driver.PantechMdmControl (1.2.8 - SDK 10.4) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.pantech.driver.PantechMdmData (1.2.8 - SDK 10.4) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.pantech.driver.PantechSer (1.2.8 - SDK 10.4) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.pantech.driver.QmiDriver (1.2.8 - SDK 10.4) [Support]

  /System/Library/Extensions/PTUMWDrv.kext/Contents/PlugIns

  [not loaded] com.devguru.driver.PTUMWCDFree (11.1.28) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.devguru.driver.PTUMWCSP (11.1.28) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.devguru.driver.PTUMWDIAG (11.1.28) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.devguru.driver.PTUMWMdmControl (11.1.28) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.devguru.driver.PTUMWMdmData (11.1.28) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.devguru.driver.PTUMWUSBMergeNub (11.1.28) [Support]

  /System/Library/Extensions/SMSIWirelessModem.kext/Contents/PlugIns

  [not loaded] com.smithmicro.driver.SMSIWirelessCDC (3.2.7 - SDK 10.4) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.smithmicro.driver.SMSIWirelessSerial (3.2.7 - SDK 10.4) [Support]

Problem System Launch Agents: ℹ️

  [killed] com.apple.AirPlayUIAgent.plist

  [failed] com.apple.CallHistoryPluginHelper.plist

  [killed] com.apple.cmfsyncagent.plist

  [killed] com.apple.coreservices.appleid.authentication.plist

  [killed] com.apple.recentsd.plist

  [killed] com.apple.sbd.plist

  [failed] com.apple.scopedbookmarkagent.xpc.plist

  [killed] com.apple.secinitd.plist

  [failed] com.apple.security.cloudkeychainproxy.plist

  [killed] com.apple.spindump_agent.plist

  [failed] com.apple.xpc.loginitemregisterd.plist

Problem System Launch Daemons: ℹ️

  [failed] com.apple.AssetCacheLocatorService.plist [Details]

  [killed] com.apple.awdd.plist

  [killed] com.apple.coreservices.appleid.passwordcheck.plist

  [failed] com.apple.coresymbolicationd.plist

  [killed] com.apple.ctkd.plist

  [killed] com.apple.emond.aslmanager.plist

  [killed] com.apple.findmymac.plist

  [killed] com.apple.icloud.findmydeviced.plist

  [failed] com.apple.ifdreader.plist

  [failed] com.apple.Kerberos.digest-service.plist [Details]

  [killed] com.apple.nehelper.plist

  [killed] com.apple.nsurlsessiond.plist

  [killed] com.apple.periodic-daily.plist

  [killed] com.apple.periodic-weekly.plist

  [killed] com.apple.sandboxd.plist

  [killed] com.apple.secinitd.plist

  [failed] com.apple.softwareupdate_download_service.plist [Details]

  [killed] com.apple.spindump.plist

  [killed] com.apple.tccd.system.plist

  [killed] com.apple.wdhelper.plist

  [killed] com.apple.xpc.smd.plist

Launch Agents: ℹ️

  [not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Support]

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

  [loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist [Support]

Launch Daemons: ℹ️

  [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Support]

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

  [loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist [Support]

  [loaded] com.smithmicro.vzwwirelessd.plist [Support]

User Launch Agents: ℹ️

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

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

  [running] com.spotify.webhelper.plist [Support]

User Login Items: ℹ️

  None

Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

  o1dbrowserplugin: Version: 5.38.6.0 - SDK 10.8 [Support]

  Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 7.1 [Support]

  Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10

  AdobeAAMDetect: Version: AdobeAAMDetect 1.0.0.0 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

  FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.246 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

  AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 11.0.09 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

  Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.246 - SDK 10.6 Mismatch! Adobe recommends 16.0.0.235

  QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

  googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 5.38.6.0 - SDK 10.8 [Support]

  iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0

  AdobePDFViewer: Version: 11.0.09 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

  JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 8 Update 25 Check version

3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️

  Flash Player  [Support]

  Java  [Support]

Time Machine: ℹ️

  Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️

      12% WindowServer

      12% mds

      0% Google Chrome

      0% fontd

      0% AppleSpell

Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️

  120 MB Google Chrome

  116 MB Finder

  77 MB WindowServer

  72 MB Google Chrome Helper

  34 MB ocspd

Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️

  38 MB Free RAM

  1.36 GB Active RAM

  1.34 GB Inactive RAM

  659 MB Wired RAM

  35.28 GB Page-ins

  974 MB Page-outs

You just need more RAM.

Your machine is critically low of both hard drive space and RAM. Yosemite really wants a big SSD and a whole lot of RAM. All of those "failed" and "killed" entries are evidence that the system is cannibalizing itself due to critically low memory.

Thanks. This is frustrating because obviously it's a very old Mac and I wish there was a warning or something about how much RAM and space it would need before it offered me this lovely "upgrade". Can I downgrade back? That's what I'm thinking would be the best move now... but I already upgraded my iPhoto library to some new format required by Yosemite........ugh. Suggestions?

It would be best to start your own thread to discuss these options. If you have already updated your data and you don't have a backup, there may be no going back. I am not sure how much RAM your machine can take. If it can take 8 GB, then you could upgrade your RAM and hard drive quite easily and inexpensively - much more easily than a software upgrade or downgrade. Unfortunately, you don't seem to be using Time Machine. You would need to buy an external Time Machine drive too. Backup your machine, then add RAM and new hard drive, then restore it all.

The very first step turned my 2007 Macbook into a blazing fast young colt again. Thank you so very much.

Hi, I've had the same problems apart from when I have more than on application open it most of the time  freezes and crashes. Any ideas ?