Reformat Macbook

allykatsmom wrote:

Does that report mean anything to you?

There were a handful of log-in items(?)

You use a VPN? certainly known to have cause issues in general.

  It would be interesting to trouble shoot further:

  Try a SafeBoot https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

  Takes noticeable longer to get to the login screen, does a 5-15 minute disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, including dynamic loader cache,  etc.  Login and test. Reboot and test will take a little longer as caches get rebuilt.

This test will tell you if third party interference; extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode. 

  Test issue in another user (or guest user) account  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204443

  This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account. 

All users have to be logged out.

Always advise to have more than one backup, more than one backup method included.

Time Machine is great when it works...

Yes everything should be restore just as you left it—

What is the issue to have to resort to a full restore?

3-2-1 Backup Strategy: three copies of your data, two different methods, and one offsite.

Boot clone https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-10081

How to use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250

Use DiskUtility Restore feature https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/restore-a-disk-dskutl14062/mac

note: >System Preferences>Security & Privacy >Privacy>Full Disk Access

unlock the padlock, press the + button and add Disk Utility

allykatsmom wrote:

Thanks for your response.

The laptop is very slow and things are crashing so I figured reformatting would be the best solution.

To get a good look at your System config. for conflicts or issues, you can download/run this trusted utility https://etrecheck.com  

If you need help interpreting the report you can post it here in its entirety in the "Additional Text" box in the editing toolbar below, in your reply.

You can set its preference to "Allow full Disk Access",  with this you get a digest of issues from the last 7 days that are saved in your system.

No.

Cleaner, anti-virus, optimizers, speeder uppers are the worst to install on the macOS—they cause nothing but issue.

I would recommend you share the report—but that is up to your own discretion obviously.

FWIW ... give leroydouglas a chance to save you from a reformat ... he has a good track record.