System running ridiculously slow after installing Yosemite and Adobe CC

Get rid of the antivirus app Intego by locating their uninstall instructions. Once it is fully uninstalled there is a very good chance your performance will return. Not only is it 100% worthless (as are all antivirus apps for OS X) they tend to create more problems than they solve.

When you see a beachball cursor or the slowness is especially bad, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.

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 and start typing the name.

The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select

SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages

from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select

View ▹ Show Log List

from the menu bar at the top of the screen.

Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above.

Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first.

Copy the messages 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 it useless for 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.

This could be a problem:

Configuration files: ℹ️<etrecheck://help/configurationfiles>

/etc/hosts - Count: 30

Please read this article written by the author of Etrecheck for help on resolving multiple configuration files.:

Fixing a hacked /etc/hosts file

Performance issues can appear where users have upgraded to OS X Yosemite/Mavericks, and hence upgraded their Adobe Creative Suite standalone applications to Adobe CC (since certain older CS versions are either unreliable or won't work at all), but not removed the /etc/hosts entries by which they prevented the Adobe applications from "phoning home" in the first place. They can also appear simply due to older Adobe services still running in the background.Occasionally also there are support services left behind from a previous (possibly incompatible) version of Adobe applications that, whilst the applications themselves no longer function, still run in the background. Here's my proposed way of approaching the issue.

1. Uninstall all Adobe CS/CC services and applications - both older and current versions.
2. Remove all Adobe CS/CC application support files from both the system and user /Library directories.
3. Delete any loopback entries from /etc/hosts as linked to by the poster above: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-8091
4. Restart your computer. Check to see if there are any remaining Adobe support services running in the background via Activity Monitor.
5. Verify that system performance has returned to normal before reinstalling anything. If trouble persists, restart your computer in Safe Boot by holding down the Shift key during startup, then restart OS X into normal boot. This will clear various system caches. Finally, inspect processes, memory and disk I/O in Activity Monitor to look for potential causes of system resources being unavailable and to verify that no Adobe services appear to be running. Particularly, check for high CPU tasks in Activity Monitor that could be monopolising system resources.
6. If these steps return system performance to normal, then attempt to reinstall Adobe Creative Cloud and its downloaded applications, and see if system performance remains positive or whether the system then returns to a degraded performance state. Should system performance then deteriorate after the CC reinstallation I would recommend completing a clean install of Mac OS X Yosemite after having backed up your data to a Time Machine volume, and restore your data from the backup via Migration Assistant without any applications.

Please let me know whether these steps above resolve your issue or not so that I can provide you with further guidance if necessary.

Updated instructions:

Performance issues can appear where users have upgraded to OS X Yosemite/Mavericks, and hence upgraded their Adobe Creative Suite standalone applications to Adobe CC (since certain older CS versions are either unreliable or won't work at all), but not removed the /etc/hosts entries by which they prevented the Adobe applications from "phoning home" in the first place. They can also appear simply due to older Adobe services still running in the background.Occasionally also there are support services left behind from a previous (possibly incompatible) version of Adobe applications that, whilst the applications themselves no longer function, still run in the background. Here's my proposed way of approaching the issue.

1. Uninstall all Adobe CS/CC services and applications - both older and current versions.
2. Remove all Adobe CS/CC application support files from both the system and user /Library directories.
3. Delete any loopback entries from /etc/hosts as linked to by the poster above: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-8091
4. Restart your computer. Check to see if there are any remaining Adobe support services running in the background via Activity Monitor.
5. Verify that system performance has returned to normal before reinstalling anything. If trouble persists, restart your computer in Safe Boot by holding down the Shift key during startup, then restart OS X into normal boot. This will clear various system caches. Finally, inspect processes, memory and disk I/O in Activity Monitor to look for potential causes of system resources being unavailable and to verify that no Adobe services appear to be running. Particularly, check for high CPU tasks in Activity Monitor that could be monopolising system resources.

If these steps return system performance to normal, then attempt to reinstall Adobe Creative Cloud and its downloaded applications, and see if system performance remains positive or whether the system then returns to a degraded performance state. Should system performance not improve, or system performance deteriorate after Adobe Creative Cloud reinstallation, proceed as follows:

1. Back up all of your data to a Time Machine volume.
2. Verify that your Time Machine backup is current and complete.
3. Follow the steps given in OS X Yosemite: Erase and reinstall OS Xto perform a clean install of Mac OS X Yosemite.
4. Restore your data using Migration Assistant as described in OS X Yosemite: Transfer your info from a computer or storage device but without transferring any applications or system settings.
5. If system performance has returned to normal, gradually reinstall your applications starting with Adobe Creative Cloud, noting any changes in system performance to identify the potential cause. If at this point system performance remains poor, please take your computer to your nearest Apple Authorised Service Provider or Apple Store for hardware troubleshooting.

Please let me know whether these steps above resolve your issue or not so that I can provide you with further guidance if necessary.

Nothing obvious in your EtreCheck report. Have you run Apple's Hardware Test in extended mode 2-3 times back to back? If not, that is what I'd recommend now to see if you may have some failing hardware such as a HD issue. By the way, I also see no Time Machine drive is configured, you are backing up this computer daily aren't you???

This is an old thread, but I came upon it researching the same problem, and have more information to share for those who also end up here...

I've experienced extreme (and extremely frustrating) slow downs primarily with finder system operations -- accessing files on the desktop, using the open/save dialogue, etc. Any activity would lead to the beachball for several seconds, and when performance did return, it was poor and choppy.

With all applications (but Finder) closed, I opened Activity Monitor and quit the background Adobe CC processes. There were four or five. That restored the computer performance.

I have a very similar issue with iMac and Adobe CC. My slowdowns and beachball freezes aren't consistent though. I have a new theory that it may be influenced by internet connection speed.

I say this because I have moved my iMac next to the router, plugged in via Ethernet and the system is running perfectly. Moving the machine into another room with noticeably worse wifi performance and then I get the issues.

Hope this is helpful!