My Mac is extremely slow and freezes up

When the machine freezes 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.

When you post the log extract, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the text on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.

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

Slow Mac After Mavericks

Things you can do to resolve slowdowns see post by Kappy

6 Easy Tips to Speed Up OS X Yosemite on Your Mac

17 Reasons Why Your Mac Runs Slower Than it Should

There are many possible causes for problems with web browsing. Below are some simple steps that may help either to solve the problem or isolate the cause.

Back up all data before making any changes.

1. Restart your router and also your broadband device, if they're separate.

2. If you connect to the the router with Wi-Fi, turn Wi-Fi off and then back on.

3. If you connect with Wi-Fi and you can also connect with Ethernet, do that and turn off Wi-Fi.

4. If your browser is Safari, then from the Safari menu bar, select

Safari ▹ Preferences... ▹ Privacy ▹ Remove All Website Data

and confirm. If the Downloads button (with the icon of a downward-pointing arrow) is showing in the toolbar, click it and then click Clear in the box that appears. The download history will be removed.

5. Select the Extensions tab in the Preferences window. Turn all extensions OFF and test. If there's an improvement, turn extensions back ON and then disable them one or a few at a time until you find the culprit.

6. If you're running OS X 10.10 or later, select the Search tab. Uncheck the box marked

Enable Quick Website Search

if it's checked.

7. If you're running OS X 10.9 or later, select the Advanced tab and uncheck the box marked

Stop plug-ins to save power

Quit and relaunch the browser.

8. Enable guest logins* and log in as Guest. Don't use the Safari-only “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac.”

While logged in as Guest, you won’t have access to any of your documents or settings. Applications will behave as if you were running them for the first time. Don’t be alarmed by this behavior; it’s normal. If you need any passwords or other personal data in order to complete the test, memorize, print, or write them down before you begin.

Test while logged in as Guest.

After testing, log out of the guest account and, in your own account, disable it if you wish. Any files you created in the guest account will be deleted automatically when you log out of it.

*Note: If you’ve activated “Find My Mac” or FileVault, then you can’t enable the Guest account. The “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac” is not the same. Create a new account in which to test, and delete it, including its home folder, after testing.

9. Are any other web browsers installed, and are they the same? What about other Internet applications, such as iTunes and the App Store?

10. If other browsers and Internet applications are also affected, follow these instructions and test.

11. If Parental Controls is active for any user, please turn it off and test.

12. Open the iCloud preference pane and uncheck the boxes marked Safari and Photos, if they're checked.

13. Are there any other devices on the same network that can browse the Web, and if so, are they affected?

14. If you can, test Safari on another network.

15. Start up in Recovery mode. In the OS X Utilities screen, select Get Help Online. A clean copy of Safari will launch. No plugins, such as Flash, will be available. While in Recovery, you'll have no access to your saved bookmarks or passwords, so make a note of those before you begin, if they're needed for the test.

Disk Space - Free Up

Disk Space – Free Up (2)

Disk Space - Free Up - Mavericks

Disk Space Filling Up – OmniDiskSweeper

Disk Space Filling Up - WhatSize