MacBook Pro 2015 is terribly laggy, after subsequent High Sierra OS updates

Hello everyone

My MacBook Pro 2015 is lagging terribly, after subsequent High Sierra OS updates. I'm desperately looking for a solution as my work is really suffering. I work as a Video Content Creator and find it really frustrating to work on my system now, as the performance has really dropped.

I am a frequent user of Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop and Lightroom. Besides, I use Chrome on a regular basis.

A month back I started noticing a lag while using these apps. I was hoping that with subsequent updates, the bugs would go away. However, on the contrary, it has become worse. Pages take forever to upload. YouTube is even worse, as the audio starts playing, but the video takes ages to show up.

I went through this Forum and noticed that several others are facing the same issue. It can't be anything else but the the bulky OS High Sierra, as my laptop used to be smooth like butter before one of the last few updates.

Do you guys think that DOWNGRADING to Sierra or El Capitan will be Helpful?

I am also posting this report from EtrCheck, as suggested by some folks here. Thanks in advance.

EtreCheck version: 4.3.2 (4D034)

Report generated: 2018-06-26 14:55:24

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 14:43

Performance: Poor

Problem: Computer is too slow

Major Issues:

Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.

No Time Machine backup - Time Machine backup not found.

Poor performance - EtreCheck report took over 10 minutes to run. This is very unusual.

Heavy CPU usage - Some processes are using an unusually high amount of CPU.

Minor Issues:

These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems.

Kernel extensions blocked - There are blocked kernel extensions awaiting user approval.

Heavy RAM usage - This machine is using a large amount of RAM.

High battery cycle count - Your battery may be losing capacity.

Apps crashing - There have been numerous app crashes.

Apps with heavy CPU usage - There have been numerous cases of apps with heavy CPU usage.

Unsigned files - There is unsigned software installed. They appear to be legitimate but should be reviewed.

32-bit Apps - This machine has 32-bits apps that may have problems in the future.

Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)

MacBook Pro Model: MacBookPro11,3

1 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 (i7-4980HQ) CPU: 4-core

16 GB RAM - Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0 - 8 GB DDR3 1600 ok

BANK 1/DIMM0 - 8 GB DDR3 1600 ok

Battery: Health = Replace Soon - Cycle count = 1228

Video Information:

Intel Iris Pro - VRAM: 1536 MB

NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M - VRAM: 2048 MB

Color LCD

DELL U2412M 1920 x 1200

Drives:

disk0 - APPLE SSD SM0512F 500.28 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

Internal PCI 5.0 GT/s x2 Serial ATA

disk0s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

disk0s2 500.07 GB

disk1s1 - Macintosh HD (APFS) 500.07 GB (354.22 GB used)

disk1s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] 500.07 GB (21 MB used)

disk1s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] 500.07 GB (518 MB used)

disk1s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] 500.07 GB (1.07 GB used)

disk2 - Western Digital My Passport 25E2 4.00 TB

External USB 5 Gbit/s

disk2s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

disk2s2 - O*****y (ExFAT) 4.00 TB

Mounted Volumes:

disk1s1 - Macintosh HD 500.07 GB (144.08 GB free)

APFS

Mount point: /

disk1s4 - VM [APFS VM] 500.07 GB (144.08 GB free)

APFS

Mount point: /private/var/vm

disk2s2 - O*****y 4.00 TB (2.57 TB free)

ExFAT

Mount point: /Volumes/O*****y

Network:

Interface en0: Wi-Fi

802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

One IPv4 address

Interface en4: iPhone

Interface en3: Bluetooth PAN

Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge

System Software:

macOS High Sierra 10.13.5 (17F77)

Time since boot: About an hour

System Load: 2.36 (1 min ago) 2.70 (5 min ago) 3.63 (15 min ago)

Configuration Files:

/etc/hosts - Count: 34

Security:

Unsigned Files:

Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist

Executable: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/SwitchBoard/SwitchBoard.app/Contents/MacOS/launch.switchboard

Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK

Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist

Executable: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Resources/Helper-Tool

Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK

Launchd: /Library/LaunchAgents/syncmateStarter.plist

Executable: /Library/Application Support/EltimaSyncMate/SyncMateStarter.app/Contents/MacOS/Starter

Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK

Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.malwarebytes.mbam.settings.daemon.plist

Executable: /Library/Application Support/Malwarebytes/MBAM/Engine.bundle/Contents/PlugIns/SettingsDaemon.app/Con tents/MacOS/SettingsDaemon

Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK

Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.malwarebytes.mbam.rtprotection.daemon.plist

Executable: /Library/Application Support/Malwarebytes/MBAM/Engine.bundle/Contents/PlugIns/RTProtectionDaemon.app /Contents/MacOS/RTProtectionDaemon

Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK

Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

Executable: /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper

Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK

Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/rapiback.plist

Executable: /Library/Application Support/EltimaSyncMate/BackService.app/Contents/MacOS/rapiback

Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK

Launchd: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.ManicTime.mac.start.plist

Executable: /Applications/ManicTime.app/Contents/MacOS/ManicTime

Launchd: /Library/LaunchAgents/com.sony.WirelessAutoImportLauncher.agent.plist

Executable: /Library/Application Support/WirelessAutoImport/WirelessImporterDaemon

Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK

32-bit Applications:

38 32-bit apps

Kernel Extensions:

/Library/Extensions

[Loaded] com.malwarebytes.mbam.rtprotection.kext (Malwarebytes Corporation, 3.0 - SDK 10.12)

[Blocked] usbserial.kext (Jiangsu Qinheng Co., Ltd., 1.1.1 - SDK 10.9)

/System/Library/Extensions

[Not Loaded] EltimaAsync.kext (0.2.4b9)

[Not Loaded] SONYDeviceType04.kext (Sony Corporation, 1.3.0.06030 - SDK 10.10)

System Launch Agents:

System Launch Daemons:

Launch Agents:

Launch Daemons:

User Launch Agents:

User Login Items:

Android File Transfer Agent Application (Google, Inc. - installed 2017-11-02)

(/Users/***/Library/Application Support/Google/Android File Transfer/Android File Transfer Agent.app)

MacBreakZ 5 Application (? - installed 2015-03-11)

(/Applications/MacBreakZ 5.app)

com.adobe.SwitchBoard.monitor.plist MachInit (?)

(/etc/mach_init_per_user.d/com.adobe.SwitchBoard.monitor.plist)

Internet Plug-ins:

AdobeExManDetect: AdobeExManDetect 1.1.0.0 (installed 2016-11-16)

FlashPlayer-10.6: 18.0.0.232 (installed 2015-08-12)

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2018-06-23)

Flash Player: 18.0.0.232 (installed 2015-08-12)

AdobeAAMDetect: 3.0.0.0 (installed 2018-05-25)

PMCADownloader: 1.3.0.06130 (installed 2017-07-30)

SharePointBrowserPlugin: 14.0.0 (installed 2010-08-25)

PepperFlashPlayer: 30.0.0.113 (installed 2018-06-18)

JavaAppletPlugin: Java 8 Update 121 build 13 (installed 2017-02-08)

Audio Plug-ins:

DVCPROHDAudio: 1.3.2 (installed 2015-04-08)

Safari Extensions:

3rd Party Preference Panes:

Flash Player (installed 2018-06-02)

Java (installed 2017-02-08)

Time Machine:

Time Machine Not Configured!

Top Processes by CPU:

Top Processes by Memory:

Top Processes by Network Use:

Top Processes by Energy Use:

Virtual Memory Information:

Software Installs (past 30 days):

Diagnostics Information (past 7 days):

2018-06-26 13:11:47 QuickLookUIService Crash

/System/Library/Frameworks/Quartz.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/QuickLookUI.fr amework/Versions/A/XPCServices/QuickLookUIService.xpc/Contents/MacOS/QuickLookUI Service

2018-06-23 17:49:15 qmasterd Crash (394 times)

/usr/sbin/qmasterd

2018-06-23 16:43:50 Spotlight.app Crash

/System/Library/CoreServices/Spotlight.app

2018-06-19 20:36:57 Adobe Media Encoder CC 2017.app CPU (8 times)

/Applications/Adobe Media Encoder CC 2017/Adobe Media Encoder CC 2017.app

2018-06-19 18:21:29 Android File Transfer.app Hang

/Applications/Android File Transfer.app

2018-06-19 16:46:50 Google Chrome.app Hang

/Applications/Google Chrome.app

End of report