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slow

My iMac (2017) runs really slowly after updating to Monterey! I have just updated to 12.2 and remains slow. It’s almost unusable. Is anyone having the same issue? Or has anyone got a fix? It’s on the internal 1Tb HDD, 8mb ram, 1.5 gig graphics, intel chip.

iMac 21.5″, macOS 12.2

Posted on Jan 27, 2022 10:27 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 27, 2022 10:31 AM

Devfish12 wrote:

My iMac (2017) runs really slowly after updating to Monterey! I have just updated to 12.2 and remains slow. It’s almost unusable. Is anyone having the same issue? Or has anyone got a fix? It’s on the internal 1Tb HDD, 8mb ram, 1.5 gig graphics, intel chip.


How much free storage do you have...?


To trouble shoot further you can:


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



Takes noticeable longer to get to the login screen, does a 5 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 as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.


In Safe mode third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled, it removes malware, etc hampering smooth operation, however a reboot will put it back to normal mode.


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/guide/mac-help/set-up-other-users-on-your-mac-mtusr001/mac

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



Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS


13 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 27, 2022 10:31 AM in response to Devfish12

Devfish12 wrote:

My iMac (2017) runs really slowly after updating to Monterey! I have just updated to 12.2 and remains slow. It’s almost unusable. Is anyone having the same issue? Or has anyone got a fix? It’s on the internal 1Tb HDD, 8mb ram, 1.5 gig graphics, intel chip.


How much free storage do you have...?


To trouble shoot further you can:


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



Takes noticeable longer to get to the login screen, does a 5 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 as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.


In Safe mode third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled, it removes malware, etc hampering smooth operation, however a reboot will put it back to normal mode.


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/guide/mac-help/set-up-other-users-on-your-mac-mtusr001/mac

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



Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS


Jan 27, 2022 10:32 AM in response to Devfish12

Suggest downloading the Application Etrecheck directly from a well Respected ASC Contributor. 


The application is free or paid from added features. 


Run the application with Full Disc Access ( Security & Privacy - Full Disc Access ).


It will take a Snap Shot -  both the hardware and software.


 The Report will Not Reveal Any Personal Information. 


Post back the Full Report - copy and paste - using the Additional Text Icon ( 3rd Icon to last )


We can have a look at the report for possible issues and may have possible suggestions to resolve the issues.


Any Third Party Applications that will interfere with the normal operation of the OS, alter, modify, remove or delete or attempt to do so is an invitation for disaster and may require a Reinstallation of the OS.


This includes AntiVirus, Disk Cleaners, Disk Optimizes, UnInstaller etc.


This will include CleanMyMac 


This will include BitDefender 


The The Built in Security  is all that is required.

Jan 27, 2022 10:42 AM in response to Devfish12

Devfish12 wrote:
It’s on the internal 1Tb HDD

does the mac actually have an HDD? or is it an SSD? if it really is an HDD, it will run glacially slow running monterey. if it's an HDD, the easiest way to speed things up would be to purchase an external SSD and install monterey on it and boot from it.


please see this informative user tip: How to Setup and Use an External SSD as your Startup Disk - User Tip

Jan 27, 2022 11:14 AM in response to PRP_53

Thank you for your reply. Please see attached report via Etrecheck. Hope this is helpful. I have no antivirus, disk cleaners, optimisers or uninstaller on the system.

Thanks in advance. By the way, I rebooted as suggested by leroydouglas' post into safe mode and it has somewhat speeded up boot time and system but not to the usual speed.

Hope this helps.



Jan 27, 2022 10:51 AM in response to Devfish12

as cheap as they have become, i would get another SSD to run monterey. i have a samsung T7 that i use to run Catalina and it works spectacularly. and as long as the host mac has monterey installed on it, you should have no issues putting monterey on the external SSD using the steps in the above user tip. i tested that about a month ago with a different T7 SSD, and i successfully had monterey running on it.

Jan 27, 2022 1:16 PM in response to Devfish12

Performance:

System Load: 2.96 (1 min ago) 3.38 (5 min ago) 1.72 (15 min ago)

Nominal I/O speed: 11.52 MB/s

File system: 37.18 seconds

Write speed: 62 MB/s

Read speed: 70 MB/s


You have 5400RPM HDD and the read/write is slow.

I am running my Mac from a NVME SSD in an external enclosure connected to a USB3 port on my Mac) and get these speeds which is about 5 times faster than yours

Performance:

    System Load: 3.02 (1 min ago) 2.28 (5 min ago) 2.47 (15 min ago)

    Nominal I/O speed: 1.42 MB/s

    File system: 25.06 seconds

    Write speed: 355 MB/s

    Read speed: 359 MB/s


You likey have a thunderbolt post so you can get a fast SSD with enclosure compatible with your Mac's ports.and uses that as your startup disk.


Yur startup disk speed is the only problem I see in the report.


I am using external startup disk because I had to reinstall internally my original Apple SSD in order to upgrade to Monterey and have got around to putting the NVME drive back internally.

Jan 27, 2022 1:27 PM in response to lllaass

Thanks for your response. Yeah I thought the HDD read/write was slow. I do have an external 500gb SSD which I can connect to a thunderbolt port. Do I need to have Monterey installed on both internal HDD and on the external SSD to use the external as a boot drive? I think it would match your speeds if I could. My SSD is sandisk extreme 500gb portable nvme ssd.

Jan 27, 2022 1:35 PM in response to Devfish12

Devfish12 wrote:
Do I need to have Monterey installed on both internal HDD and on the external SSD to use the external as a boot drive?

to install monterey on an external, the host mac needs to already have monterey installed because of the firmware needed for the monterey upgrade. but i'm unsure if you could then use the external monterey drive on a mac that hasn't had monterey installed yet.

slow

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