I have a 2014 27" i7 Retina iMac. It has slowed to the point of being unusable after upgrading to High Sierra. Simply opening Finder takes more than 5 minutes before the files are done displaying and the beachball stops.
Is there anything that I can try before I restore from a backup?
MacBook Pro, Windows 7
High Sierra rendered my 2012 MB Pro nearly useless, while my 2011 iMac with identical i5 CPU, system and applications hummed along smoothly. The problem turns out to be that the OS is optimized for SSD storage, and it will bog down horribly if storage I/O isn't as fast as it expects. I upgraded the MB Pro to an SSD, and the machine instantly became wildly fast and glitch-free. The 4 GB of RAM is more than enough for routine work, w/ MS Office, a browser, and Acrobat reader all in use - probably because caching is so effective with an SSD.
The giveaway was the one difference between the machines: the iMac already had an SSD. The upgrade is a no-brainer at today's prices; my 500 GB SSD was $45 delivered. More effective than a memory upgrade, and cheaper to boot. Just do it, folks.
I updated to High Sierra several months ago after 10.13.1 was released. My 2012 MacBook Pro ran noticeably slower after the upgrade. I have a 768 GB SSD, and 16GB Ram. Fine, I have been upgrading since Yosemite without a clean install and had lots of 3rd party crap. But after the upgrade to High Sierra it became appalling slow. I did the right thing and did a perfectly clean install. No restore, just clean wipe and move documents over manually while resetting my preferences individually. No garbage got transferred over and I eliminated lots of unused 3rd party utilities and apps as well as shed 200 GB of garbage and unneeded files to boot. Couldn't get a cleaner setup. The result, still horribly slow and painful to work on. Based on what I've been reading in this thread, perhaps the 5 yo SSD is the culprit. If that doesn't cure it than I will chalk my experience up to a poorly designed OS. I am hopeful though about the SSD upgrade though. BTW, I was having performance issues before the upgrade that I attributed to a junked up OS. I will now run Etrecheck and post that next.
Whereas I recently updated both a 2012 MacBook Pro and a 2013 27" iMac and both HDs have been destroyed by the High Sierra update.
A spinning hard drive that lasted for 6 years. That's pretty good performance. 3 to 5 is about all you can reliably expect.
Hi! I have a MacBook Pro 2014 with an SSD and after the update the computer is VERY slow. So the problem is not specific to Fusion drive, I think. I have also two other computers (an Air and a MacBook 12"), on these two the update was ok.
Careful about these "free upgrades." Apple is not warning people if their hardware will not handle them properly. I have spoken with many people who's computers have slowed to a crawl after the "upgrade". And be sure that the software you use regularly is compatible. Finally - remember too that the is what Apple is calling a "public beta." Meaning - let them find the bugs.
I noticed that iMac slowed down considerably after High Sierra upgrade. I thought something was wrong with my system, but I see other users are having same problems.
What an incredibly patronising answer. Not helpful, just irritating.
I had the exact same problem on the same system as you. They told me I had to replace the HDD portion of my fusion drive, $400 +. What a screw job.
DanielDay wrote:
I noticed that iMac slowed down considerably after High Sierra upgrade. I thought something was wrong with my system, but I see other users are having same problems.
Yes, and perhaps thats true however the VAST majority of users have no problems at all.
I tried resetting SMC and PRAM. No improvement.
I tried letting it sit for a day; I figured perhaps the system needs to sort out which files go to which physical drive. No Improvement.
I tried to repair the disk from Disk utility. no improvement
I tried to restore a backup of Sierra. It started out fine but then slowed to a crawl, stating that it will take 388. I stopped it.
I then erased the fusion drive (HSF) and reinstalled the Yosemite from Internet Recovery. I then upgraded to High Sierra from the App Store.
I planned to copy my files (1.5TB)from the backup to the new OS. I had started it up and came back to check the progress. As before, the process had slowed to a crawl (28 days to finish copying??). The entire system has again slowed; opening the activity monitor takes 5 minutes.
I suspect that one or both of my physical disks are bad. Is there any way I can diagnose this further?
Edit: In theactivity monitor, processor usage is near zero, and disk read/write is mostly zero with an occasional split-second blip at 5 mb/s. This is with the system working at copying my data back to the computer. The connection is over 1gb LAN and the NAS is fast when accessed from other systems. Also, a disk speed check on the system says zero mb/s.
The NAS is network attached. I have tried it with all peripherals (except for mouse/keyboard) disconnected.
The odd part is that I can format and do a clean install OK, but run into problems as soon as I try to fill the hard drive. Perhaps it's the nature of the fusion drive ...
The system is still under AppleCare warranty, so I will take it in.
Thanks.
The NAS could be the issue too, Mac OS does not support NAS technology. Check with your NAS developers to see if the developers have updated their software to support the version of Mac OS installed. If they haven't then eliminate the NAS as that may also be the problem.
I wondered exactly the same thing. My Mac has never been the same since I did this 'upgrade' - they should term these things 'retrograde' as they inevitably ruin your computer. I almost lost all of my photos and had to reload them from the 'master' because this ridiculous 'upgrade' stopped me actually accessing Photos. If they have slowed the older Macs down, as they have for the older iPhones, they should come clean and tell us. I'm never - ever - doing another 'upgrade' and that's a fact.
I'm never - ever - doing another 'upgrade' and that's a fact.
Well, enjoy! Let us know how that's working for you in about three years.
What you and the OP have observed ins not systemic by any means. As rkaufmann87 has alredy pointed out, the majority of users have not such issues. I recently upgraded a five-year old MacBook Pro form 10.2 to 10.13 and it runs the same as it did before.
By far the most common cause of upgrade issues I've handled here--and I've been here a looong time--are due to Mac owners treating their Macs like Windows computers and loading them up with steaming piles of useless third-party utilities that falsely promise to protect, clean, and even paint the kitchen.
It might be frank but it is neither factual or correct as there is no evidence that either the OP or alpacas09 are 'treating their Macs like Windows computers and loading them up with steaming piles of useless third-party utilities that falsely promise to protect, clean, and even paint the kitchen', or that the majority of users are not having such issues. How could he, or you, possibly know that?
alpacas09 might be ranting but I agree that the answer is irritating and not helpful in any way.
I am seeing the same slowdown issues since upgrading my iMac AND MacBook. Two entirely separate hardware devices showing the same problem after the High Sierra update. Also, no software was added since the upgrade. How can that ever be a hardware problem?
iMac Unusably slow after High Sierra Upgrade
