Advice on upgrading 2019 iMac

Completely agree regarding the Fusion Drive.

Just out of curiosity, I fed the report into ChatGPT to see if it would find anything that I didn't. I hate to admit it did a surprisingly good job.

Here is what it generated. I can't say I disagree with any of it:

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Thanks for sharing the full EtreCheck report — that gives a really clear picture of where your iMac’s bottlenecks are. Here are my recommendations, grouped by priority:

🔴 Major Issue: Storage

• Problem: The 2019 iMac is running on a Fusion Drive (slow 5400 RPM HDD + tiny 28 GB SSD). That is the single biggest cause of poor performance. Modern macOS and apps are heavily optimized for SSDs, and the spinning hard drive is dragging everything down.
• Fix:
  • The best performance upgrade is to replace the internal Fusion Drive with a full SSD. A 1–2 TB NVMe SSD via Apple Authorized Service Provider would transform performance.
  • Cheaper alternative: boot macOS from a fast external SSD (Thunderbolt 3 or USB 3.1 Gen 2). Samsung T7, Crucial X9 Pro, or SanDisk Extreme are good options. Format as APFS, install macOS fresh, and migrate data.
  • Keep the internal Fusion Drive only for bulk storage if you don’t replace it.

🟠 Other Performance / Reliability Recommendations

1. RAM Pressure

• • You have 16 GB RAM, but swap is at ~10 GB. That means the system is paging memory to disk constantly → slowdowns.
  • If your workload involves heavy multitasking or apps like Affinity/Photoshop, upgrading to 32 GB would help.

1. Background Processes

• • Many launch agents/daemons (Adobe, Dropbox, Synology, Java, Google, Microsoft AutoUpdate, VPN, Zoom). These eat resources.
• Recommendation: Audit login items and background processes. Disable/remove what you don’t use:
  • • Outdated Java plugin → uninstall if not needed.
    • Old Adobe SwitchBoard (2013!) can go.
    • Synology SIMBL agent is old and can cause Finder instability — remove if not actively using.
• Dropbox updater agents duplicate Apple’s built-in iCloud features — consider consolidating.

1. Heavy CPU Usage

• • Processes like backupd, Safari/WebKit, Spotlight (spotlightknowledged), photoanalysisd spike CPU.
  • These often happen when indexing or during Time Machine runs.
• Fixes:
  • • Let Spotlight fully index, then it should calm down.
    • Exclude large external drives from Spotlight if not needed (System Settings > Siri & Spotlight > Privacy).
• If Time Machine is backing up multiple large externals, performance will take a hit — maybe dedicate one fast external drive only for Time Machine.

1. External Drives

• • Several large USB externals (5 TB, 4 TB, 500 GB). One is USB 2.0 (480 Mb/s) — that can slow I/O when accessed.
  • Recommendation: Use only USB 3.0+ drives for active work. Relegate the slow USB 2.0 drive to archive storage.

🟡 Security & Maintenance

• Unsigned / legacy files: Most are OK, but old Java, Canon, and Flip4Mac plugins are obsolete and could be removed.
• Kernel extensions (kexts): Dropbox, Canon, and Silicon Labs drivers won’t be supported forever. Remove if unnecessary.
• Sharing enabled: Printer sharing is on — turn off if not needed (System Settings > Sharing) to reduce security risk.
• Backups: You have both Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner — excellent. Just make sure Time Machine isn’t filling your Fusion Drive with local snapshots unnecessarily.

✅ Summary of Best Actions

1. Replace Fusion Drive with SSD (internal or external boot drive). This alone will make the Mac feel like new.
2. Upgrade RAM to 32 GB if budget allows.
3. Trim startup/background apps (remove old Adobe, Synology, Java, Dropbox extras).
4. Manage Spotlight & Time Machine (exclude big externals from Spotlight, possibly dedicate one SSD/HDD just for TM).
5. Clean up old plugins and kexts (Flip4Mac, Java, Canon drivers, etc).

👉 Do you want me to give you step-by-step instructions on how to set up macOS on an external SSD as a boot drive? That’s the single most effective upgrade without opening the iMac.