tonydi31
Level 1 (15 points)
Desktops

Q: Slow iMacOS Sierra

Hi Community,

 

I recently installed MacOS Sierra, and I find my Mac is running slower than when I had Mavericks OS X 10.9.5?

 

I have a 499.25 GB Hard Drive of which the system takes up 195.25, Documents 53.95 GBs, Other 29.45GBs, Apps 16.99GBs, Photos 13.65 GBs, Mail 9.95, iClaud 7.48 GBs.

 

Free space 156.73 GBs.

 

MEMORY PRESSURE READINGS TODAY:

Physical Memory 8GBs,

Memory Used 5.83 GBs,

Cash Files 2.14 GB

Swap Used 16.MB

App Memory: 2.22 GB

Wired Memory 1.42 GB

Compressed: 2.17 GB

 

So you know, additional memory cannot be added to my iMac.  Now I know why it was on sale when I bought it. If I had known I could not add memory like I did on my Mac Pro I would have never have bought the thing.

I have

 

My Questions:

 

1. What can I do to speed up the OS?

2. Would disabling Spotlight Search to stop it from indexing?

3. What is the difference between Finder and Spotlight any? 

4. Moving Docs & Photos to an external  hard drive freeing up more hard drive space?

5. What is the minimal amount of Hard Drive space I should have on my iMac anyway?

6. How can I set my Time machine to do a backup at the end of the day? I only see backup Automatically as an option?

 

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

iMac, macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Oct 12, 2016 7:17 AM

by John Galt,Apple recommended
John Galt John Galt
Level 9 (50,389 points)
Mac OS X
A:
  1. Find out what's slowing it down. Use Activity Monitor to identify processor-intensive tasks, or to determine if its performance is being limited by available memory: Use Activity Monitor on your Mac - Apple Support.
    • It's very easy to determine if your Mac would benefit from additional memory. If Activity Montor's unitless "Memory Pressure" graph is frequently "red" your Mac will benefit from additional memory. If not, it won't.
    • You did not identify which model iMac you have. There are dozens. Most have user-upgradable memory; some do not.
  2. Yes.
  3. Finder is a visual file organizational tool. Spotlight is a means of locating files and their contents.
  4. Read Free up storage space on your Mac - Apple Support
  5. As much as is necessary to do whatever it is you're doing.
    • No specific minimum exists, neither as some arbitrary percentage of its total capacity or some equally arbitrary number of bytes.
    • If available storage space becomes insufficient macOS Sierra will let you know. If that should occur, do something about it, as in #4 above.
  6. Disconnect or otherwise unmount your backup device, making it unavailable.
    • There is no reason to constrain when Time Machine operates, since it is designed to run automatically and unobtrusively, whenever it can.
    • Time Machine automatically slows down or will be delayed when your Mac is preoccupied with higher priority tasks.

Posted on Oct 12, 2016 10:15 AM

Close
tonydi31

Q: Slow iMacOS Sierra

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Rudegar,

    Rudegar Rudegar Oct 12, 2016 7:31 AM in response to tonydi31
    Level 7 (28,980 points)
    Apple TV
    Oct 12, 2016 7:31 AM in response to tonydi31

    try using the free program etrecheck to scan and post the result

  • by dwb,

    dwb dwb Oct 12, 2016 7:34 AM in response to tonydi31
    Level 7 (24,460 points)
    Notebooks
    Oct 12, 2016 7:34 AM in response to tonydi31

    Download, run and post the result of EtreCheck. This will let us see what's running on your computer. You have plenty of free drive space so that isn't the problem. If Spotlight is acting up that could be a problem but ordinarily it has minimal impact on the computer. Apple recommends about 15-20GB of free space. TimeMachine is made to backup every hour or so and except for big backups like after an OS upgrade it takes very little time and has no impact on the computer's speed.

  • by John Galt,Apple recommended

    John Galt John Galt Oct 12, 2016 10:15 AM in response to tonydi31
    Level 9 (50,389 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 12, 2016 10:15 AM in response to tonydi31
    1. Find out what's slowing it down. Use Activity Monitor to identify processor-intensive tasks, or to determine if its performance is being limited by available memory: Use Activity Monitor on your Mac - Apple Support.
      • It's very easy to determine if your Mac would benefit from additional memory. If Activity Montor's unitless "Memory Pressure" graph is frequently "red" your Mac will benefit from additional memory. If not, it won't.
      • You did not identify which model iMac you have. There are dozens. Most have user-upgradable memory; some do not.
    2. Yes.
    3. Finder is a visual file organizational tool. Spotlight is a means of locating files and their contents.
    4. Read Free up storage space on your Mac - Apple Support
    5. As much as is necessary to do whatever it is you're doing.
      • No specific minimum exists, neither as some arbitrary percentage of its total capacity or some equally arbitrary number of bytes.
      • If available storage space becomes insufficient macOS Sierra will let you know. If that should occur, do something about it, as in #4 above.
    6. Disconnect or otherwise unmount your backup device, making it unavailable.
      • There is no reason to constrain when Time Machine operates, since it is designed to run automatically and unobtrusively, whenever it can.
      • Time Machine automatically slows down or will be delayed when your Mac is preoccupied with higher priority tasks.

  • by tonydi31,

    tonydi31 tonydi31 Oct 18, 2016 1:54 PM in response to tonydi31
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 18, 2016 1:54 PM in response to tonydi31

    Hi DWB, Here is the EtreCheck Run with performance rated as Poor. I was aware that Google Chrome Helper was taking up 2.52 GB of Processor Memory. I am going to use another browser because of it. I am aware that I cannot increase Ram. I cleared files off my desktop and now have access to them on an external hard drive. I don't have the money to go out and buy a new Mac.

    if I was made aware that Ram could not be added to this Mac I would not have bought it!!!

     

    Any suggestion on how to improve the performance would be greatly appreciated.

     

    EtreCheck version: 3.0.6 (315)

    Report generated 2016-10-18 12:35:36

    Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

    Runtime 20:02

    Performance: Poor

     

    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: ⓘ

        iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2014)

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

        iMac - model: iMac14,4

        1 1.4 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core

        8 GB RAM Not upgradeable

            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/ac

     

    Video Information: ⓘ

        Intel HD Graphics 5000

            iMac 1920 x 1080

     

    System Software: ⓘ

        macOS Sierra  10.12 (16A323) - Time since boot: about one day

     

    Disk Information: ⓘ

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

            EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

            Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /  [Startup]: 499.25 GB (162.30 GB free)

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

     

    USB Information: ⓘ

        Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

            Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

        Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

        HLDS Inc. SLIM Portable Blu-ray Drive

        Western Digital My Book 1230

        Western Digital My Book 1110

        Hewlett-Packard hp LaserJet 2300 series

     

    Thunderbolt Information: ⓘ

        Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

     

    Configuration files: ⓘ

        /etc/sudoers, File size 1275 but expected 1563

     

    Gatekeeper: ⓘ

        Mac App Store and identified developers

     

    Kernel Extensions: ⓘ

            /Library/Extensions

        [loaded]    com.Apowersoft.driver.AudioDevice (1.6.7 - SDK 10.11 - 2016-10-14) [Support]

        [not loaded]    com.FTDI.driver.D2XXHelper (1.0 - SDK 10.11 - 2016-10-14) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.sophos.kext.oas (9.5.50 - SDK 10.11 - 2016-10-14) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.sophos.nke.swi (9.5.52 - SDK 10.11 - 2016-10-14) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.symantec.internetSecurity.kext (7.2.1 - SDK 10.11 - 2016-10-14) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.symantec.ips.kext (7.2.1 - SDK 10.11 - 2016-10-14) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.symantec.nfm.kext (7.2.1 - SDK 10.11 - 2016-10-14) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.techsmith.TACC (1.0.2 - SDK 10.10 - 2016-10-14) [Support]

     

            /System/Library/Extensions

        [not loaded]    com.wacom.kext.wacomtablet (Wacom Tablet 6.3.15-2 - SDK 10.11 - 2016-10-14) [Support]

     

    System Launch Agents: ⓘ

        [not loaded]    8 Apple tasks

        [loaded]    165 Apple tasks

        [running]    77 Apple tasks

        [killed]    21 Apple tasks

        21 processes killed due to insufficient RAM

     

    System Launch Daemons: ⓘ

        [not loaded]    37 Apple tasks

        [loaded]    158 Apple tasks

        [running]    90 Apple tasks

        [killed]    18 Apple tasks

        18 processes killed due to insufficient RAM

     

    Launch Agents: ⓘ

        [not loaded]    com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (2016-01-18) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.adobe.CS5ServiceManager.plist (2016-01-27) [Support]

        [not loaded]    com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist [Support]

        [loaded]    com.parallels.mobile.prl_deskctl_agent.launchagent.plist (2016-10-03) [Support]

        [running]    com.sophos.uiserver.plist (2016-09-20) [Support]

        [running]    com.symantec.uiagent.application.NFM.plist (2016-05-26) [Support]

        [running]    com.wacom.wacomtablet.plist (2015-11-03) [Support]

     

    Launch Daemons: ⓘ

        [loaded]    com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist (2016-01-27) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (2016-09-23) [Support]

        [running]    com.macpaw.CleanMyMac3.Agent.plist (2016-09-22) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.malwarebytes.HelperTool.plist (2016-06-28) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist (2015-06-04) [Support]

        [not loaded]    com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist [Support]

        [running]    com.parallels.mobile.dispatcher.launchdaemon.plist (2016-10-03) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.parallels.mobile.kextloader.launchdaemon.plist (2016-10-03)

        [running]    com.sophos.common.servicemanager.plist (2016-09-20) [Support]

        [failed]    com.symantec.SymLUHelper.NFM.plist (2016-05-26) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.symantec.UninstallerToolHelper.NFM.plist (2016-05-26) [Support]

        [running]    com.symantec.deepsight-extractor.NFM.plist (2016-05-26) [Support]

        [failed]    com.symantec.liveupdate.daemon.NFM.plist (2016-05-26) [Support]

        [running]    com.symantec.nfm.wps.plist (2016-05-26) [Support]

        [running]    com.symantec.sharedsettings.NFM.plist (2016-05-26) [Support]

        [running]    com.symantec.symdaemon.NFM.plist (2016-05-26) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.symantec.symqual.detail.NFM.plist (2016-05-26) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.symantec.symqual.panicreporter.NFM.plist (2016-05-26) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.symantec.symqual.submit.NFM.plist (2016-05-26) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.wacom.displayhelper.plist (2015-11-03)

     

    User Launch Agents: ⓘ

        [loaded]    com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (2016-01-27) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist (2016-01-25) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.citrixonline.GoToMeeting.G2MUpdate.plist (2016-07-12) [Support]

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

        [loaded]    com.macpaw.CleanMyMac3.Scheduler.plist (2016-10-18)

        [running]    com.parallels.mobile.startgui.launchagent.plist (2016-10-17) [Support]

     

    User Login Items: ⓘ

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

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

        Google Chrome    Application Hidden (/Applications/Google Chrome.app)

        Wondershare Helper Compact    Application  (~/Library/Application Support/Helper/Wondershare Helper Compact.app)

     

    Internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

        FlashPlayer-10.6: 23.0.0.185 - SDK 10.9 (2016-10-12) [Support]

        QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (2016-09-13)

        Flash Player: 23.0.0.185 - SDK 10.9 (2016-10-12) [Support]

        AdobePDFViewer: 9.5.5 (2016-04-05) [Support]

        SharePointBrowserPlugin: 14.6.8 - SDK 10.6 (2016-09-14) [Support]

        PepperFlashPlayer: 23.0.0.185 - SDK 10.9 (2016-10-11) [Support]

        WacomTabletPlugin: WacomTabletPlugin 2.1.0.6 - SDK 10.9 (2015-11-03) [Support]

        JavaAppletPlugin: 15.0.1 - SDK 10.7 (2016-09-29) Check version

     

    User internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

        CitrixOnlineWebDeploymentPlugin: 1.0.105 (2013-04-25) [Support]

        ZoomUsPlugIn: 3.5.53922.0613 - SDK 10.11 (2016-06-15) [Support]

     

    Safari Extensions: ⓘ

        Norton Security - Symantec Corporation - http://www.norton.com/mac (2016-09-29)

        Open in Internet Explorer - Parallels - http://www.parallels.com (2016-04-21)

     

    Time Machine: ⓘ

        Skip System Files: NO

        Mobile backups: OFF

        Auto backup: YES

        Volumes being backed up:

            Macintosh HD: Disk size: 499.25 GB Disk used: 336.95 GB

        Destinations:

            MacBackUp1 [Local]

            Total size: 2.00 TB

            Total number of backups: 6

            Oldest backup: 9/25/16, 11:54 PM

            Last backup: 10/17/16, 3:11 AM

            Size of backup disk: Excellent

                Backup size 2.00 TB > (Disk size 499.25 GB X 3)

     

    Top Processes by CPU: ⓘ

            20%    launchd

            15%    sysmond

            12%    secd

             9%    loginwindow

             7%    Google Chrome Helper(45)

     

    Top Processes by Memory: ⓘ

        2.52 GB    Google Chrome Helper(45)

        991 MB    firefox

        809 MB    kernel_task

        246 MB    mdworker(21)

        238 MB    Google Chrome

     

    Virtual Memory Information: ⓘ

        99 MB    Free RAM

        7.90 GB    Used RAM (1.37 GB Cached)

        910 MB    Swap Used

     

    Diagnostics Information: ⓘ

        Oct 18, 2016, 12:25:17 PM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/firefox_2016-10-18-122517_[redacted].cpu_resour ce.diag [Details]

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

        Oct 18, 2016, 10:41:22 AM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Google Chrome_2016-10-18-104122_[redacted].hang

            /Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome

        Oct 18, 2016, 10:14:17 AM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Google Chrome_2016-10-18-101417_[redacted].hang

        Oct 18, 2016, 10:13:59 AM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Google Chrome_2016-10-18-101359_[redacted].hang

        Oct 18, 2016, 09:50:31 AM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Google Chrome_2016-10-18-095031_[redacted].hang

        Oct 18, 2016, 12:55:00 AM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/suggestd_2016-10-18-005500_[redacted].cpu_resou rce.diag [Details]

            /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreSuggestions.framework/Versions/A/Support/ suggestd

        Oct 17, 2016, 01:36:34 PM    ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Google Chrome_2016-10-17-133634_[redacted].crash

        Oct 17, 2016, 12:41:49 PM    Self test - passed

        Oct 17, 2016, 11:28:59 AM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/prl_client_app_2016-10-17-112859_[redacted].han g

            /Applications/Parallels Desktop.app/Contents/MacOS/prl_client_app

        Oct 17, 2016, 11:20:31 AM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Mail_2016-10-17-112031_[redacted].hang

            /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail

        Oct 17, 2016, 11:18:18 AM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Contacts_2016-10-17-111818_[redacted].hang

            /Applications/Contacts.app/Contents/MacOS/Contacts

     

     

  • by John Galt,

    John Galt John Galt Oct 18, 2016 2:12 PM in response to John Galt
    Level 9 (50,389 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 18, 2016 2:12 PM in response to John Galt

    .

  • by John Galt,

    John Galt John Galt Oct 18, 2016 2:13 PM in response to tonydi31
    Level 9 (50,389 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 18, 2016 2:13 PM in response to tonydi31

    if I was made aware that Ram could not be added to this Mac I would not have bought it!!!

     

    Your Mac would run just fine with half the RAM it has.

     

    Your Mac will not run well, or at all, having installed "CleanMyMac", "Sophos" and "Symantec". None of those products are capable of providing any benefit. You could have twice the RAM and your Mac still wouldn't work. Get rid of them and your Mac will run the way it should.

     

    Follow their respective uninstallation instructions with care.

     

    Rule 1 of Macs is don't install garbage.

  • by dwb,

    dwb dwb Oct 18, 2016 2:24 PM in response to John Galt
    Level 7 (24,460 points)
    Notebooks
    Oct 18, 2016 2:24 PM in response to John Galt

    Yah beat me and I agree on all counts