macOS Sierra 10.12.4 Update Problem (extremely slow)

I think that Apple should have to do the reinstalling of all the operating systems if that is what needs to be done. Why should we be required to do this, when we know that installing Sierra 10.12.4 messed up our computers!! I am totally ****** that my computer is running slow and it has messed up my Mail account. I too was told that I have to start from when I first bought my MacBook Pro in 2012 and reinstall all the operating systems.

I do not use Dr. Cleaner but I do Disk Repair regularly and, after the installation of 10.12.4 deleted a bunch of cookies. Same symptoms, same attempts to correct as yours.

One additional symptom: different programs pop up unbidden, e.g. when I tried to drag a photo from iPhoto onto desktop, suddenly iMovie opened.

Updated a few days ago. Should have waited longer. My MacBook pro mid 2012 is almost unusable. The day before I was editing 4k time lapse videos. Now nothing really works or runs fast enough to be useful. I did all the basic trouble shooting, like booting into safe boot, resetting pram and smc. Got rid of any login items. Turned off siri, iCould, and file vault just to get it to run fast enough to use safari. I get the spinning ball every minute but goes away. Memory is all used up according to the activity monitor, but memory pressure is low. I even tried to reinstall mac os through the internet recovery, twice. However, both times they hung at the grey installation screen after the download. Waited 5 hours each time. I can't roll back because i don't use time machine and I don't have a backup drive to spare. Considering getting one now after all this headache.

BE VERY, VERY WARY OF !)>!@>$!

I downloaded Sierra 10.12.4 to my Mac Mini (late 2014) as soon as it was available. My computer was never able to fully load the update and start. Finally it would do nothing. A trip to the Genius Bar told me my logic board was bad. Apple replaced the logic board at no cost, the computer was 5 1/2 months old. I took it home every thing was fine. The OSX was 10.12.3. I again clicked to update to 10.12.4. It never would fully load, however I was able to use Time Machine to go back to 10.12.3.

Problems continue. Freezing on waking from sleep, etc. Not reliable at all and barely usable. Extremely frustrating as 10.12.3 had fixed some similar problems with the previous release and ran very well.

Can you tell me the steps you use to roll back to the previous version Sierra 10.12.3? I am not real tech savvy and need assistance (I am scared to do the wrong step). Any assistance would be appreciate. I use Time Machine.

Updating to Sierra 10.12.4 was a huge mistake and headache for me. It has made my computer slow to open upon turning on, sometimes 3-4 minutes go by before anything happens on the screen, but the biggest headache was not being able to get in my Mail account (its the one that came with my MacBook Pro) I still haven't been able to get in, it just crashes. But I did read your post, and I have signed out of my iCloud, and it has made a few things speed up better. My Mail continues to crash, so that has not fixed that. Not sure what I am going to do at this point. Thanks for suggesting the iCloud sign off.

Hi there!

I have been struggling with the "kernal_task" issue as well on my MBP Mid-2015 Retina (13") with Sierra (latest) for the last month (can't pinpoint exactly when it started) or so as well. My MBP had been running on higher than normal temps and saw "kernal_task" in the activity monitor.

While "kernal_task" on my MBP was running at about 20-30% it had been nowhere near the kind of CPU utilisation reported by some of the users here. However what was alarming for me was the size of disk reads/writes (70GB / 30GB) over a 24 hour period by "kernal_task" on my computer. This is bound to fry any SSD if it goes unchecked.

I went through a lot of posts with no real answer (other than disabling SIP and modifying some KEXT - not a solution I am comfortable with). Eventually did a reinstall (latest Sierra from bootable USB) yesterday - and started installing software one by one.

The problem (i.e. kernel_task process) re-appeared around the time I setup Google Chrome or Skype and I'm not really sure which is the culprit. Uninstalling both using "CleanMyMac" didn't solve the problem - I presume that some remnants remain which causes the "kernal_task" problem to persist even after uninstalling and a few reboots etc.

So I reinstalled Sierra (latest Sierra from bootable USB) ONE MORE TIME. This time I have skipped installing Skype & Chrome while installing all my other software. It's been over 48 hours and "kernel_task" has still not appeared. My CPU temps are around 50 and dropping as Spotlight etc. do their thing (indexing etc.)

I am pretty certain the culprit is either Chrome or Skype - If you folks are using the latest versions of either of these software and are having this issue - a clean reinstall without either of these software is what seems to have worked for me so far.

Hope this helps!

Note: The "kernel_task" problem hasn't turned up on my iMac (2013 27") or other MBP (late-2011 13") - both running Sierra - but I haven't updated Skype or even opened Chrome (it autoupdates) on either of them in more than 2-3 months.

I'm experiencing something of the same sort. Odd thing is, I have two 2012 13" MacBook Pros each pretty much configured the same way. One has 16GB of ram and the i7 processor and the other 8GB with I5. After the update, the beefier config works just the same. No issues. The lesser model is very laggy and typing stalls, often spinning beach ball while doing simple things. I basically use it for communications. The other one connects to stuff for Adobe work.

I tried the usual things like safe booting, booting from a new user account, etc., Basically after the update, the MBP is booting with close to 6GB of memory being used, 1.7 of that cached, so app memory is over 4GB with only the system running and the only startup activities are Default Folder and Adobe Creative Cloud, same as on the other MBP. Removing those makes no significant difference. The beefier MBP uses around 2.2GB of memory for the system, so it's about half what is occurring in this problematic one, making it act very slow and I noticed it immediately after updating. I downloaded the combo version and installed that and booted into safe boot once again. Still no change.

Isn't that interesting? Two similar computers; the one with 16GB of memory uses about half the ram for system operation as the other one that has only 8GB. Why is the 8GB MBP requiring over 4 gB of memory just to sit idle with no apps launched while the 16gB model uses almost half that amount? Seems odd.

If there isn't some idea of how to fix it, I'll simply wipe the drive and reinstall from scratch. It's mostly just basic apps and Apple products anyway. Weird to see this happen, though. Something must have gotten screwed up during the update is all I can figure; or there's some bug that affects only this system config that isn't impacting the other MBP.

I had 3 days of booting to a black screen with just a gray apple and no status bar load...did all the suggested fixes, only a time machine restore worked and only for a little while...finally tried bringing it back to 10.12.1 and spending a full day manually moving files, assuming I was headed to the Genius bar. The rollback seems to have fixed the issue. I was getting a Kernel Panic message.

So, no updating until I hear this is fixed for me either.

Making sure Chrome remains closed seems to have solved most of my problems, although I think memory may have a role as well on my aging late 2011 MBP 8 Gb.

Skype can also cause the machine to run hot. This is not new. I leave Skype closed unless I am actively using it. I removed Rapport from the computer for the same reason some time back. Erratic, slow operation and overheating do not always seem to correlate with anything on the Activity Monitor for some some reason.

I had similar problems. I finally took my computer to the Apple Store; a technician there erased my hard disk, and I started over with El Capitan, the system that was on my computer when I bought it ten months ago. That fixed everything. A senior technician at the store told me that my download of Sierra 10.12.4 might have been corrupted. However, I'm still afraid to go back to Sierra. I don't know when I'll be willing to do another update, but I'm told that I can get it done at the Apple Store, so that's my plan--perhaps after a new operating system has been developed and is out for a while!

If you use Time Machine to fully backup your Mac, I suggest you go back to 10.12.3. After a number of issues with my Mac Mini (Late 2014) after this update and finally this unbelievably slow Safari, I restored my Mac back just before the 10.12.4 update. Safari is back to normal and I will wait until they come up with a fix in another update.

All of these "Mac Geniuses" out there suggesting to upgrade your RAM or rid your computer of google crapapps might of had good points, however, What does that have to do with the fact that 10.12.4 IS F@CKED! My MBP is not only crawling, the CPU is winding up as if it were a jet plane on take-off and seizing my computer until the only alternative is to manually shut down? Running software like On1 is almost completely out of the question. Is this apples attempt to fry out the motherboards on all of older model MBP's because if it is... they weren't very subtle about it! This update is extremely flawed and it appears that apples response to the issues will be similar to it's response to the 2011 MBP's fried graphics card issues. In which people were experiencing "strange" artifacting and or shapes in the monitor. Looks like that one also just made a comeback! I would just prefer them to be honest and give us a patch than ignore us and render my computer, next to useless.

I have the same problems on a MacbookPro 13,3 with 10.12.4.
Safari is slow : After confirming an url it takes a lot more time to open than before (different sites).

Several actions show the spinning beach ball.