Slow Application Launch Time

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Level 1

5 points

Slow Application Launch Time

I have a 13in Macbook (Mid 2012) bought in 2014. 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 4GB 1600 MHz DDR3.

Operating system: OS X El Capitan 10.11.2

I've been experiencing slow application launch times, ranging from 15 seconds to launch iWork applications, 20 seconds to launch Chrome and iTunes, and up to 50 seconds to launch Microsoft Office (2013) applications. Once the applications are up and running for a few minutes they function quickly and without issue.

I've attempted a few troubleshooting options for general mac slowness but they have not improved launch time:

Updated all software
Moved old documents to an external hard drive and erased them from the laptop
Booted up in "Safe Mode" and attempted launching slow applications
Ran "First Aid" under Disk Utility
Cleared the library cache
Removed unnecessary Chrome & Safari plugins.

What could be causing the slow launch times and how can I solve this issue?

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)

Posted on Jan 2, 2016 4:41 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

my ginger

Level 5

4,904 points

Jan 2, 2016 9:06 PM in response to grogers2

Could be an application such as an antivirus program using memory resources in the background. You could open the activity monitory and see if anything is using too much memory. Or download and run EtreCheck and post it here. http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

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Answer 2

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Jan 2, 2016 5:53 PM in response to grogers2

Did the applications launch just as slowly in safe mode?

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Answer 3

grogers2 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 2, 2016 9:05 PM in response to Linc Davis

Unfortunately they opened just as slowly in safe mode.

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Answer 4

grogers2 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 2, 2016 9:06 PM in response to my ginger

EtreCheck was a huge help and it looks like insufficient RAM is the problem. Thank you!

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Answer 5

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Jan 2, 2016 9:18 PM in response to grogers2

it looks like insufficient RAM is the problem

Very unlikely.

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Answer 6

etresoft

Level 8

46,654 points

Jan 3, 2016 8:55 AM in response to grogers2

grogers2 wrote:

EtreCheck was a huge help and it looks like insufficient RAM is the problem. Thank you!

Hello grogers2,

EtreCheck will only report insufficient RAM if the operating system reports that it has experienced significant memory pressure and was forced to kill various system processes in an attempt to recover the RAM that they are using. Plus, you are using Chrome which is one of the most RAM-hungry apps available.

Considering the fact that you will have to open up the machine to add more RAM, you should strongly consider upgrading to an SSD at the same time. You can purchase the RAM and SSD from OWC (http://macsales.com) if you are comfortable doing he job yourself. For someone experienced with hardware repair, replacing the RAM and hard drive in an older MacBook Pro is literally a 5-10 minute job. If you don't want to do it yourself, I suggest contacting a local Apple Authorized Service Provider (https://locate.apple.com/).

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Answer 7

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Jan 3, 2016 9:20 AM in response to grogers2

You're getting the usual results of posting "etrecheck" stuff on this site. If your computer is abnormally slow, there is no reason to believe that a hardware upgrade will do any good at all unless a hardware component is failing, and you've given no evidence of that.

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