MacBook Pro 2012 slow after latest update (10.12.6)

Question

Mac was working fine about 3 days ago, it was always a bit slow due to only 4GB RAM but it was usable. After the recent update it has become barely usable, Photoshop takes 10 minutes to open, if I open Finder and a folder which has lots of images, the thumbnails take about 10 minutes to generate. Since this was an incremental update, I am not sure why it has slowed down the Mac so much, I disabled iCloud drive from settings which improved the performance but it&#x27;s still way slower than earlier. I will be upgrading to 16GB RAM but would appreciate it if some one can help me bring it&#x27;s performance back to way it was.

alex7375 · Answer

I have the same MBP upgraded with 16gb ram and a 500gb SSD.Runs Sierra fine now. No problems and is very reliable.Highly recommend you upgrade the ram to at least 8gb and replace the hard-drive with SSD.I use Crucial MX300 SSD and Crucial ram.

macjack · Answer

More RAM will probably improve your Mac&#x27;s performance, but since it is slower than it was before the update, something else seems to be the issue. As Esquared suggests, check your hard drive.If that&#x27;&#x27;s not it, then please download and run EtreCheck, created by one of own helpers here in ASC. It is a diagnostic tool that&#x27;s very useful to us in finding problems. Also it will give us further specs on your Mac. After it runs post the log file here. It will contain no personal information.

iRJM · Answer

Hi Macjack,I checked with DriveDx, hard disk is okay. Here is the result of EtreCheck:EtreCheck version: 3.4.2 (436)Report generated 2017-08-07 19:48:07Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.comRuntime: 8:01Performance: Below AverageClick the [Lookup] links for more information from Apple Support Communities.Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.Problem: Computer is too slowHardware Information: ⓘ    MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)     [Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty &amp; Service]    MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,2    1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-3210M) 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 &#x3D; Normal - Cycle count &#x3D; 85Video Information: ⓘ    Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: 1536 MB        Color LCD 1280 x 800Disk Information: ⓘ    APPLE HDD HTS545050A7E362 disk0: (500.11 GB) (Rotational)    [Show SMART report]        EFI (disk0s1 - MS-DOS FAT32) &lt;not mounted&gt;  [EFI]: 210 MB         (disk0s2) &lt;not mounted&gt;  [CoreStorage Container]: 499.25 GB        Recovery HD (disk0s3 - Journaled HFS+) &lt;not mounted&gt;  [Recovery]: 650 MB     MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-8A8  ()USB Information: ⓘ     USB20Bus          hub_device              hub_device                 Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad                 Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver                 Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub                     Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller      USB20Bus          hub_device             Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)      USB30Bus           USB OPTICAL MOUSE         HP v215b             v215b disk2: (16.13 GB)                HP Mac Pro (disk2s1 - ExFAT) /Volumes/HP Mac Pro : 16.13 GB (15.10 GB free)Thunderbolt Information: ⓘ    Apple Inc. thunderbolt_busVirtual disks: ⓘ    Macintosh HD (disk1 - Journaled HFS+) /  [Startup]: 498.88 GB (245.61 GB free)        Encrypted AES-XTS Unlocked        Physical disk: disk0s2 499.25 GB OnlineSystem Software: ⓘ    macOS Sierra  10.12.6 (16G29) - Time since boot: about 14 hoursGatekeeper: ⓘ    Mac App Store and identified developersSystem Launch Agents: ⓘ    [not loaded]    7 Apple tasks    [loaded]    182 Apple tasks    [running]    80 Apple tasks    [killed]    13 Apple tasks    13 processes killed due to insufficient RAMSystem Launch Daemons: ⓘ    [not loaded]    40 Apple tasks    [loaded]    177 Apple tasks    [running]    93 Apple tasks    [killed]    8 Apple tasks    8 processes killed due to insufficient RAMLaunch Agents: ⓘ    [not loaded]    com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-08-06) [Lookup]    [failed]    com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.cc24aef4a1b90ed56a725c38014c95072f92651fb65e1bf9c8e43c37a 23d420d.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-01-13) [Lookup]    [running]    com.adobe.AdobeCreativeCloud.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-08-06) [Lookup]Launch Daemons: ⓘ    [loaded]    com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-01-13) [Lookup]    [loaded]    com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-01-13) [Lookup]    [running]    com.adobe.adobeupdatedaemon.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-08-06) [Lookup]    [running]    com.adobe.agsservice.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-05-21) [Lookup]User Launch Agents: ⓘ    [loaded]    com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-08-06) [Lookup]    [loaded]    com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2017-07-10) [Lookup]User Login Items: ⓘ    iTunesHelper    Application (Apple, Inc. - installed 2017-08-03)        (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)Internet Plug-ins: ⓘ    AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: 15.020.20039 (installed 2016-10-14) [Lookup]    AdobePDFViewer: 15.020.20039 (installed 2016-10-14) [Lookup]    QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2017-08-03)    AdobeAAMDetect: 3.0.0.0 (installed 2017-08-06) [Lookup]3rd Party Preference Panes: ⓘ    NoneTime Machine: ⓘ    Time Machine not configured!Top Processes by CPU: ⓘ        10%       kernel_task         7%       mdworker         6%       mdworker         5%       WindowServer         4%       psTop Processes by Memory: ⓘ    639 MB        kernel_task    418 MB        firefox    84 MB         Adobe Photoshop CC 2017    63 MB         DriveDx    61 MB         WindowServerTop Processes by Network Use: ⓘ    Input         Output        Process name    725 KB        313 KB        mDNSResponder    40 KB         27 KB         netbiosd    12 KB         11 KB         firefox    9 KB          10 KB         apsd    7 KB          2 KB          NotesTop Processes by Energy Use: ⓘ      6.62    WindowServer      4.42    CEPHtmlEngine Helper      0.32    launchd      0.30    firefoxVirtual Memory Information: ⓘ    521 MB        Available RAM    56 MB         Free RAM    3.49 GB       Used RAM    466 MB        Cached files    1.34 GB       Swap UsedDiagnostics Information: ⓘ    2017-08-07 04:46:02    Last shutdown cause: 3 - Hard shutdown    2017-08-06 10:07:25    Finder.app Crash [Open]        Cause:        objc_msgSend() selector name: setHighlighted:    2017-08-06 07:06:53    quicklookd.app Crash [Open]        Cause:        quicklookd seems struck trying to quit, crashing        abort() called    2017-08-05 14:56:36    Adobe CEF Helper.app Crash [Open]    2017-08-05 05:03:34    CCXProcess.app Crash [Open]    2017-08-05 04:52:45    Creative Cloud.app Crash [Open]Thanks

alex7375 · Answer

Not Cosrair !I use "Crucial" components.ramCrucial 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR3L 1600 MT/s (PC3L-12800) SODIMM 204-Pin Memory - CT2KIT102464BF160B at Amazon.comssdhttps://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX300-525GB-Internal-Solid/dp/B01IAGSD68/ref&#x3D;sr_1 _1?s&#x3D;electronics&amp;ie&#x3D;UTF8&amp;qid&#x3D;1502116745&amp;sr&#x3D;1-1-spons&amp;keywords&#x3D;mx300&amp;psc&#x3D;1

macjack · Answer

There&#x27;s no obvious problems in your EtreCheck report, other the application crashes and being light on RAM. I&#x27;m not sure why the update slowed your Mac so dramatically. Adding more RAM will certainly help. Macs are pretty fussy about RAM.  Crucial, and OWC. are both reliable vendors.You may want to try a clean install on an external hard drive and see if good performance returns. If that works, then re-install third party applications one at a time, checking for problems.

iRJM · Answer

Thanks for the help. I installed 16GB RAM and now it&#x27;s working smoothly. MacBook is using 6GB of memory on system startup itself and just opening Photoshop consumes another 2gb, it&#x27;s a good thing that this system unofficially supports 16GB. Also, thanks for the tip on installing Mac OS on external drive, didn&#x27;t know that was possible, will definitely give it a try.

Esquared · Answer

Check the state of the hard disk. You can use the trial version of DriveDX for that: https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx

iRJM · Answer

Hi, I checked with DriveDx, hard disk is okay, the "Health Indicator" list shows every thing at "100% OK", only "Power Cycle Count" and "Temperature" is at 98% but status is "OK" on those too.

iRJM · Answer

Thanks Alex, I have placed order for 16gb Corsair RAM.

iRJM · Answer

I didn&#x27;t misread, I always buy Corsair RAM, installed 16gb of it and now the Mac is working fine. Thanks.