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macOS Big Sur very laggy, sluggish and slow!

Hello guys,


since updating my MacBook Pro 13" 2016 to macOS Big Sur, I have been noticing a sluggish and laggy performance overall!


I saw, that a lot of users have posted similar issues, but the suggested solutions there did not help at all!


Whether running a program, switching on the mac or even watching YouTube in 4K+ resolution is the performance horrible! I cannot even load a 4K Video on YouTube without having it lagging hundreds of times. I have a good internet connection and on other devices on the same network things run just fine, even with 8K resolution! Running a program needs a long time!! Version 11.2+ did not bring any noticeable performance improvements!


Is there any possible solution other than resetting the mac, reverting to Catalina or reinstalling the system?! Is macOS Big Sur a buggy performance disaster?


Thanks all!

Posted on Apr 23, 2021 11:32 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 23, 2021 1:58 PM

I don't see any of the usual suspects in the report. You do have a couple of online backups running in the background, OneDrive and Backup and Sync. OneDrive was noted as having hight CPU use.


Just so we're all on the same page you do know that online/cloud backup facilities are not compatible with Photos libraries, right. They don't offer the same drive formatting that is needed for the complex ecosystem of permissions and hard links that make up a Photos library.


For my 2017 iMac Big Sur has been the best system I've used with it.


Run Activity Monitor and keep an eye on the CPU section to see what's eating up all of the CPU cycles when you notice performance gets sluggish.


You might remove all items from the System/Users & Groups/Login Items preference pane and see if there's any improvement. If there is then add them back one at a time and see if you can narrow down the culprit.



Similar questions

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 23, 2021 1:58 PM in response to Dr.Anmar

I don't see any of the usual suspects in the report. You do have a couple of online backups running in the background, OneDrive and Backup and Sync. OneDrive was noted as having hight CPU use.


Just so we're all on the same page you do know that online/cloud backup facilities are not compatible with Photos libraries, right. They don't offer the same drive formatting that is needed for the complex ecosystem of permissions and hard links that make up a Photos library.


For my 2017 iMac Big Sur has been the best system I've used with it.


Run Activity Monitor and keep an eye on the CPU section to see what's eating up all of the CPU cycles when you notice performance gets sluggish.


You might remove all items from the System/Users & Groups/Login Items preference pane and see if there's any improvement. If there is then add them back one at a time and see if you can narrow down the culprit.



Apr 23, 2021 12:57 PM in response to Dr.Anmar

Download and run Etrecheck. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support  to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.


IMPORTANT:

Before running Etrecheck assign Full Disk Access to Etrecheck in the Etrecheck's Privacy preference pane so that it can get additional information from the Console and log files for the report:


Also click and read the About info to further permit full disk access.



Copy the report



and use the Additional Text button to include the report in your reply.



Then we can examine the report and see if we can determine what might be causing the problem.


macOS Big Sur very laggy, sluggish and slow!

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