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El Capitan running slowly?

Is anyone else having the issue of your Mac running wicked slow after the new El Capitan update? Word, Safari, Preview, and iTunes wouldn't open- they froze and I had to force quit them. Even typing this there is a major lag and the pinwheel appears. What's up with that? So far I hate how slow it's making my mac.

Posted on Sep 30, 2015 2:22 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 21, 2017 8:38 AM

I had the same problem with my mid-2010 IMac, but then I upgraded from El Capitan to Sierra. Huge improvement! Problem solved.


Since I figured it was also a RAM issue, I ordered 16MB of it (from 4MB), but I never installed it. Now I'm wondering whether I even need to.


Huge relief as I was almost ready to order a replacement computer.

454 replies

Aug 24, 2016 2:58 PM in response to Heli A

go to apple logo and go to about my mac. click the memory tab there and tell me how much memory you see or what it says there.. 4GB

becareful do not write here any user data info.

then ckick below the tab it says systen report and at the left click the diagnostic.. if it says passed ok for now PASSED

then more down again look at memory and compare it with the other result 4GB

then write here anything it says for the power or take a screenshot if you dont know how ask me

User uploaded file

then below coose the software tab and while is highlighted look at the right if it says system integrity enabled and secure memory too also there compare your user name if it is correct. BOTH ENABLED

Aug 24, 2016 3:07 PM in response to Otelina

Otelina wrote:


Ok. I guess I will start a new post although this post's question fits my problem. Thanks for your help, Heli A

If your problem has not been solved over the past year when this thread was created and in the 30 pages of responses by multiple posters, I doubt very much that your issue will ever be resolved in this thread.


Start your own thread and get focused current advise.

Sep 17, 2016 11:10 AM in response to mkgr

Here go my results,

if anyone could help.. plz!!


Worst upgrade ever!

not happy!


EtreCheck version: 3.0.3 (307)

Report generated 2016-09-17 19:06:16

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime 3:09

Performance: Good


Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Click the [Remove] links to remove adware.


Problem: Computer is too slow


Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)

[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,2

1 2,9 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 2-core

8 GB RAM Upgradeable - [Instructions]

BANK 0/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported

Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 666


Video Information:

Intel HD Graphics 4000

Color LCD 1280 x 800


System Software:

OS X El Capitan 10.11.5 (15F34) - Time since boot: less than an hour


Disk Information:

TOSHIBA MK7559GSXF disk0 : (750,16 GB) (Rotational)

EFI (disk0s1) /Volumes/firmwaresyncd.8CpFVt : 210 MB (198 MB free)

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 749.30 GB (134.93 GB free)

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


MATSHITADVD-R UJ-8A8 ()


USB Information:

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller


Thunderbolt Information:

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus


Configuration files:

/etc/hosts - Count: 17


Gatekeeper:

Anywhere


Adware:

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.MyUpdater.agent.plist

One adware file found. [Remove]


Kernel Extensions:

/Library/Application Support/PeerGuardian

[not loaded] xxx.qnation.PeerGuardian (1.1.13 - SDK 10.8 - 2015-10-28) [Support]


/System/Library/Extensions

[not loaded] com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower (1.4.3 - 2016-07-11) [Support]

[not loaded] com.wacom.kext.wacomtablet (Wacom Tablet 6.3.8-2 - SDK 10.9 - 2016-07-11) [Support]


Startup Items:

ProTecVb: Path: /Library/StartupItems/ProTecVb

Startup items are obsolete in OS X Yosemite


System Launch Agents:

[not loaded] 7 Apple tasks

[loaded] 168 Apple tasks

[running] 63 Apple tasks


System Launch Daemons:

[not loaded] 48 Apple tasks

[loaded] 163 Apple tasks

[running] 79 Apple tasks


Launch Agents:

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (2016-09-16) [Support]

[loaded] com.adobe.CS5ServiceManager.plist (2013-01-11) [Support]

[failed] com.extensis.FMCore.plist (2016-09-06) [Support]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (2016-07-12) [Support]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist (2014-08-13) [Support]

[running] com.wacom.wacomtablet.plist (2014-03-31) [Support]


Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.MyUpdater.agent.plist (2016-09-15) Adware! [Remove]

/Applications/MyUpdater/MyUpdater

[not loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist (2016-09-16) [Support]

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (2016-06-29) [Support]

[loaded] com.disc-soft.DAEMONTools.PrivilegedHelper.plist (2013-08-08) [Support]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist (2016-09-02) [Support]

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac3.Agent.plist (2016-09-16) [Support]

[loaded] com.malwarebytes.MBAMHelperTool.plist (2015-12-28) [Support]

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist (2010-08-25) [Support]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist (2014-08-13) [Support]

[loaded] com.rogueamoeba.instanton-agent.plist (2014-03-25) [Support]

[loaded] com.teamviewer.Helper.plist (2015-03-02) [Support]

[loaded] xxx.qnation.PeerGuardian.locum.plist (2015-10-28) [Support]


User Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac3.Scheduler.plist (2016-09-17)

[loaded] com.spotify.webhelper.plist (2015-06-08) [Support]


User Login Items:

Caffeine Application Hidden (/Applications/Caffeine.app)

Suitcase Fusion 6 Application Hidden (/Applications/Suitcase Fusion 6.app)

CleanMyMac 3 Menu Application (/Applications/CleanMyMac 3.app/Contents/MacOS/CleanMyMac 3 Menu.app)


Internet Plug-ins:

o1dbrowserplugin: 5.41.3.0 - SDK 10.8 (2015-12-28) [Support]

Default Browser: 601 - SDK 10.11 (2016-09-16)

Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: 3.2.0.16 - SDK 10.8 (2013-06-07) [Support]

WacomTabletPlugin: WacomTabletPlugin 2.1.0.6 - SDK 10.9 (2014-03-31) [Support]

AdobeAAMDetect: AdobeAAMDetect 1.0.0.0 - SDK 10.6 (2016-09-16) [Support]

FlashPlayer-10.6: 22.0.0.209 - SDK 10.9 (2016-09-16) [Support]

Silverlight: 5.1.20513.0 - SDK 10.6 (2016-09-16) [Support]

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (2016-05-05)

Flash Player: 22.0.0.209 - SDK 10.9 (2016-09-16) Outdated! Update

googletalkbrowserplugin: 5.41.3.0 - SDK 10.8 (2015-12-11) [Support]

SharePointBrowserPlugin: 14.0.0 (2010-08-25) [Support]

AdobePDFViewer: 10.1.1 (2016-09-16) [Support]

JavaAppletPlugin: Java 8 Update 66 build 17 (2016-09-16) Check version


3rd Party Preference Panes:

Flash Player (2016-06-29) [Support]

Flip4Mac WMV (2013-03-29) [Support]

Growl (2016-09-16) [Support]

Java (2016-09-16) [Support]

WacomTablet (2016-09-16) [Support]


Time Machine:

Time Machine not configured!


Top Processes by CPU:

5% WindowServer

2% kernel_task

1% fontd

0% com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(5)

0% FMCore


Top Processes by Memory:

579 MB kernel_task

549 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(5)

156 MB softwareupdated

66 MB Suitcase Fusion 6

66 MB WindowServer


Virtual Memory Information:

3.65 GB Free RAM

4.35 GB Used RAM (3.02 GB Cached)

0 B Swap Used


Diagnostics Information:

Sep 17, 2016, 06:58:43 PM Self test - passed

Sep 17, 2016, 02:48:15 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/firefox_2016-09-17-144815_[redacted].cpu_resour ce.diag [Details]

/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox

Sep 17, 2016 11:42 AM in response to VLBB

Hi dear VLBB.

Etrecheck is a nice utility for troubleshooting but it needs a lot of knowledge to fix something.

Also sometimes even if does not report a problem does not mean that there is no problem.

Apple official does not monitor this site as they told me at phone support.

I suggesting you to contact official Apple support here or take your machine to an Apple official store if you can.

http://www.apple.com/contact/

Official Apple Support

Sep 20, 2016 1:41 AM in response to mkgr

Absolutely. I just got a Macbook Air and it's the first time I'm using El Capitan. Rather than use Migration Assistant, I decided to start fresh and redownload apps as I need them, only pulled a couple of essential documents from my last computer to work on. All the Apple apps (Preview, Mail, Safari) run slow as molasses, crash all the time... each of them has crashed at least once in the last few hours. I've only had this computer for 2 days. This is a complete and total nightmare, I got a new computer so things would be better, not worse. But they're worse.

Sep 20, 2016 11:01 AM in response to John Galt

John,

Thank you so much for your reply..!

Believe me I have been looking around, but so far - and after several days, the problems don´t seam simple.

Time consuming and stressing - I need to work, and this machine is now very slow.

Also, I cant find a more recent question to this problem on the Community Support..

If you could help I would be very very appreciated!

Thank you!

Sep 20, 2016 11:39 AM in response to Eric Root

Hi Eric Root!

Thank for the advice. I have the same issue, everything running extremely slowly and I can't even open a basic Word documents without having to wait and force quit a few times.


Ran the EtreCheck - below are the results.


EtreCheck version: 3.0.4 (308)

Report generated 2016-09-20 21:34:31

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime 3:43

Performance: Good


Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.


Problem: Computer is too slow


Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)

[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,2

1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core

4 GB RAM Upgradeable - [Instructions]

BANK 0/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported

Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 8


Video Information:

Intel HD Graphics 4000

Color LCD 1280 x 800


System Software:

OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 (15G1004) - Time since boot: about 2 days


Disk Information:

APPLE HDD HTS545050A7E362 disk0 : (500.11 GB) (Rotational)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

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

Macintosh HD (disk1) / : 498.88 GB (344.49 GB free)

Core Storage: disk0s2 499.25 GB Online


MATSHITADVD-R UJ-8A8 ()


USB Information:

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller


Thunderbolt Information:

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus


Configuration files:

/etc/hosts - Count: 31


Gatekeeper:

Anywhere


Startup Items:

TuxeraNTFSUnmountHelper: Path: /Library/StartupItems/TuxeraNTFSUnmountHelper

Startup items are obsolete in OS X Yosemite


System Launch Agents:

[not loaded] 7 Apple tasks

[loaded] 153 Apple tasks

[running] 62 Apple tasks

[killed] 16 Apple tasks

16 processes killed due to insufficient RAM


System Launch Daemons:

[not loaded] 47 Apple tasks

[loaded] 151 Apple tasks

[running] 78 Apple tasks

[killed] 14 Apple tasks

14 processes killed due to insufficient RAM


Launch Agents:

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (2016-08-28) [Support]

[running] com.adobe.AdobeCreativeCloud.plist (2016-08-28) [Support]

[failed] com.promethean.activhardwareservice.plist (2014-10-03) [Support]

[failed] com.promethean.activmgr.plist (2014-10-03) [Support]

[failed] com.promethean.flashextension.plist (2014-10-03) [Support]

[not loaded] com.teamviewer.teamviewer.plist (2016-08-22) [Support]

[not loaded] com.teamviewer.teamviewer_desktop.plist (2016-08-22) [Support]

[failed] ru.yandex.desktop.PuntoSwitcher.UninstallReporter.plist (2016-07-11) [Support]


Launch Daemons:

[running] com.adobe.adobeupdatedaemon.plist (2016-08-28) [Support]

[running] com.adobe.agsservice.plist (2016-09-15) [Support]

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper.plist (2016-04-11) [Support]

[loaded] com.teamviewer.Helper.plist (2016-07-06) [Support]

[not loaded] com.teamviewer.teamviewer_service.plist (2016-08-22) [Support]


User Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.bittorrent.uTorrent.plist (2016-08-21)

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (2016-08-21) [Support]


User Login Items:

iTunesHelper Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

Dropbox Application (/Applications/Dropbox.app)

PuntoSwitcher Application (/Applications/PuntoSwitcher.app)


Internet Plug-ins:

Default Browser: 601 - SDK 10.11 (2016-07-09)

AdobeAAMDetect: 3.0.0.0 - SDK 10.9 (2016-08-28) [Support]

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (2016-07-09)


3rd Party Preference Panes:

Tuxera NTFS (2016-08-21) [Support]


Time Machine:

Time Machine not configured!


Top Processes by CPU:

20% thunderbird

7% WindowServer

5% Microsoft Word

3% kernel_task

1% fontd


Top Processes by Memory:

926 MB Google Chrome Helper(11)

576 MB kernel_task

188 MB thunderbird

127 MB Dropbox

123 MB Google Chrome


Virtual Memory Information:

30 MB Free RAM

3.97 GB Used RAM (692 MB Cached)

158 MB Swap Used


Diagnostics Information:

Sep 20, 2016, 09:27:26 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Microsoft Word_2016-09-20-212726_[redacted].hang

/Applications/Microsoft Word.app/Contents/MacOS/Microsoft Word

Sep 20, 2016, 09:26:31 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Skype_2016-09-20-212631_[redacted].hang

/Applications/Skype.app/Contents/MacOS/Skype

Sep 20, 2016, 09:26:29 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Microsoft PowerPoint_2016-09-20-212629_[redacted].hang

Sep 18, 2016, 03:15:25 PM Self test - passed



El Capitan running slowly?

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