Xcode slows down my computer

Question

Xcode slows down my computer

Hi all, I have run into a problem where xCode slows down my iMac while it isn't even running.

Earlier this year I purchased a 21" 4K 3.0GHz 8Gb iMac for the sole purpose of running Xcode. The first thing that I did after unboxing was to install Xcode. The computer became so slow that it was unusable. Some examples.es to

~5 minutes to open Notes
~15 min to transfer 15MB between SD Card and HDD
Regular beach balls for more than 10 min.

Xcode was about the only thing installed on the machine, there was plenty of disk space and no giveaways in Activity Monitor.

The iMac was so unusable that I had no option but to replace it ($1800 down the drain) I replaced it with a 27" model with a fusion drive. I set up this as a new machine however without my permission, a stack of files downloaded from iCloud. Again the first thing that I did was to install Xcode.

Again I this computer was extremely slow, albeit nowhere near as slow as the first iMac. Examples:
~5 min to transfer 15MB
720P video won't play without "glitching"

Regular beach balls for around 2 minutes

again no giveaways in activity monitor.

I tried a system reset with a fresh install of OSX, and did some testing before installing Xcode, things seemed alright without Xcode. I thought that I would install Xcode but not open it and continue my incremental fault finding/testing. With Xcode installed but having never even been opened, the iMac was back to its old ways. by this point, my standardised test is to play a 720P video and see if it glitches or not. I uninstall Xcode again and all seems fine.

I am stuck now because I purchased both computers solely to run Xcode but it seems the very presence of the program causes to the computer to be very slow and pretty much unusable.

I understand that many others have problems with Xcode itself being very slow but has anyone had issues with it slowing down the machine even when the app isn't running?

Any pointers on solving the issue? I couldn't really afford the initial $1800 machine let alone an additional $2700 machine. I don't want to spend money upgrading the machine unless I am certain that it will solve the problem.

One idea that I had was to run Xcode from an external SSD. Can I even do this? do you think it will help?

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017), macOS High Sierra (10.13.6)

Posted on Sep 1, 2018 11:57 PM

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Answer 1

Allan Jones

Level 9

77,786 points

Sep 2, 2018 9:42 AM in response to samfromaustralia

I see none of the "usual suspects" but, for anything that compiles, I think 8GB RAM may be a little light today. Adding RAM to that model is fast, easy, and a do-at-home upgrade. Your model will accommodate up to 64GB RAM but I suspect that anything from 12-24G total RAM would suffice.

You have two empty RAM slots now. Leaving the two factory 4GBs there now and adding two more 4GB modules in the empty slots would put you at 16GB. Adding two 8GB modules will have you at 24GB.

There are not a lot of XCode users in this particular forum section. Have you looked in the Developers' forums?

Developer Forums

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Answer 2

Sep 2, 2018 3:29 AM in response to dialabrain

Thanks,
Below report is with Xcode running and no other user applications installed or running

EtreCheck version: 4.3.6 (4D041)

Report generated: 2018-09-02 19:53:17

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 4:53

Performance: Good

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.

Minor Issues:

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

Heavy network usage- This machine has recently restarted and has high network usage.

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

Abnormal shutdown- Your machine shut down abnormally.

Hardware Information:

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017)

iMac Model: iMac18,3

1 3.4 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-7500) CPU: 4-core

8 GB RAM - Upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0 - 4 GB DDR4 2400 ok

BANK 0/DIMM1 - Empty

BANK 1/DIMM0 - 4 GB DDR4 2400 ok

BANK 1/DIMM1 - Empty

Video Information:

Radeon Pro 570 - VRAM: 4096 MB

iMac

S27D390 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz

Drives:

disk0 - APPLE HDD ST1000DM003 1.00 TB (Mechanical)

Internal SATA 6 Gigabit Serial ATA

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

disk0s2 [Core Storage Container] 999.35 GB

disk2 - Macintosh HD (Journaled HFS+) [Fusion Drive] 1.03 TB

disk0s3 - Recovery HD (Journaled HFS+) [Recovery] 650 MB

disk1 - APPLE SSD SM0032L 28.00 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

Internal PCI-Express 8.0 GT/s x2 NVM Express

disk1s1 - EFI [EFI] 315 MB

disk1s2 [Core Storage Container] 27.55 GB

disk2 - Macintosh HD (Journaled HFS+) [Fusion Drive] 1.03 TB

disk1s3 - B*******X (Journaled HFS+) [Recovery] 134 MB

disk3 - Built In SDXC Reader 15.93 GB

Internal Secure Digital

disk3s1 - N*****E (MS-DOS FAT32) 15.92 GB

Mounted Volumes:

disk2 - Macintosh HD [Fusion Drive] 1.03 TB (967.47 GB free)

Journaled HFS+

Mount point: /

disk3s1 - N*****E 15.92 GB (11.57 GB free)

MS-DOS FAT32

Mount point: /Volumes/N*****E

Network:

Interface en0: Ethernet

One IPv4 address

Interface en5: iPhone

Interface en1: Wi-Fi

802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

One IPv4 address

Interface en4: Bluetooth PAN

Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge

iCloud Quota: 365 MB available

System Software:

macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65)

Time since boot: About 7 hours

System Load: 1.63 (1 min ago) 1.76 (5 min ago) 1.88 (15 min ago)

Security:

System	Status
Gatekeeper	Mac App Store and identified developers
System Integrity Protection	Enabled

32-bit Applications:

2 32-bit apps

System Launch Agents:

[Not Loaded]	8 Apple tasks
[Loaded]	159 Apple tasks
[Running]	126 Apple tasks
[Other]	One Apple task

System Launch Daemons:

[Not Loaded]	40 Apple tasks
[Loaded]	168 Apple tasks
[Running]	126 Apple tasks
[Other]	2 Apple tasks

User Login Items:

iTunesHelper Application (Apple - installed 2018-09-02)

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

Internet Plug-ins:

QuickTime Plugin: (installed 2018-07-04)

Time Machine:

Time Machine Not Configured!

Top Processes by CPU:

Process (count)	Source	% of CPU	Location
bird	Apple	24
sandboxd	Apple	11
WindowServer	Apple	5
kernel_task	Apple	4
Finder	Apple	1

Top Processes by Memory:

Process (count)	Source	RAM usage	Location
kernel_task	Apple	1.00 GB
Xcode	Apple	720 MB
mdworker (15)	Apple	324 MB
SourceKitService	Apple	193 MB
MTLCompilerService (13)	Apple	122 MB

Top Processes by Network Use:

Process	Source	Input	Output	Location
kernel_task	Apple	47 MB	23.33 GB
mDNSResponder	Apple	4 MB	837 KB
netbiosd	Apple	244 KB	29 KB
apsd	Apple	150 KB	122 KB
cloudd	Apple	16 KB	246 KB

Top Processes by Energy Use:

Process (count)	Source	Energy (0-100)	Location
WindowServer	Apple	3
Finder	Apple	3
nsurlsessiond (2)	Apple	2
bird	Apple	2
mds	Apple	1

Virtual Memory Information:

Available RAM	2.47 GB
Free RAM	84 MB
Used RAM	5.53 GB
Cached files	2.39 GB
Swap Used	157 MB

Software Installs (past 30 days):

Name	Version	Install Date
Novabench	4.0.1	2018-09-02
Disk Speed Test	3.1	2018-09-02
Gatekeeper Configuration Data	153	2018-09-02
MRTConfigData	1.35	2018-09-02
iTunes	12.8	2018-09-02

Diagnostics Information (past 7 days):

2018-09-02 12:31:23 Last Shutdown Cause: 3 - Hard shutdown

End of report

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Answer 3

dialabrain

Level 10

135,575 points

Sep 2, 2018 7:23 AM in response to samfromaustralia

I don't know what is going on. Kernel task is showing a large amount of network use. A large amount of ram is being used although it's really not reflected under Top Processes by Memory.

Someone else will look at your EtreCheck report I'm sure.

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Answer 4

Sep 2, 2018 2:14 PM in response to Allan Jones

Thanks guys, I suspect network use may be iCloud D/L following the fresh install. though I can confirm the symptons still exist when there is no network traffic. I will try the developer's forum. I was keen for a quick resolution because here In Australia, most places will allow you to return the product within 7 days of purchase and will just swap it over if it is defective. Although I don't think this one looks like a hardware fault anyway. I will order some ram and try it out, it will be at least a week before the ram arrives so if there is a hardware fault and ram doesn't solve this issue, I will have missed my window for return.

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Answer 5

Sep 2, 2018 2:37 PM in response to dialabrain

Likewise, it doesn't make any sense to me at all. Especially as Xcode does most of its "unpacking/initialisation" on first run not actually on initial download and install. This unpacking/initialisation takes a couple of hours and I would imagine that if the app made any system changes then it would be here rather than at install time.parti

However, I am not familiar at all with Apple hardware, software or OSX

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Answer 6

Sep 2, 2018 2:45 PM in response to dialabrain

Also, I forgot to mention in the initial post. My with "standardised test" of trying to play a 720p video, the glitching only happens when I play the video from the internal drive, if I play the video from either the SD card, or a network drive, it plays fine. This is consistent with the other test that I run, like transferring data between 2 external drives is fine but to/from the internal drive and the speed is about 1% (literally) of what it should be.

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