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Diagnosing slow iMac

This iMac has always been slower than I would expect. It works fine for the most part, but applications can be slow to load and there's occasional beachballing. I've attached the EtreCheck report. (Ignore the bit about Time Machine.)


iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 11.5

Posted on Sep 4, 2021 5:27 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 4, 2021 5:45 PM

The best antivirus, cleaning app, and overall maintenance app for Mac OS is Mac OS itself. All you need to do with Mac OS to keep it secure and running well is to keep it up-to-date and do periodic (about 1x per week) restarts. Other than that, leave it alone. Adding third party antivirus, cleaning, security and other types of maintenance apps to Mac OS adds no additional level of security. The only thing these apps do is have the opposite affect users want. They make Mac OS slow, unstable, generate odd behavior (much like you are experiencing) and make Mac OS appear buggy. 

 

Please locate the developers uninstall instructions for Symantec and follow to the letter. Then restart in Safe Mode per the directions in Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac and then restart normally. 


What you need to do is get an external SSD and after uninstalling Symantec and the third party VPN app and then restart in Safe Mode, clone your internal HD to the external SSD and you should should see a pretty dramatic improvement in performance. The external SSD I recommend for you would be a https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3ENVPSX01/.


5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 4, 2021 5:45 PM in response to _Ayu_

The best antivirus, cleaning app, and overall maintenance app for Mac OS is Mac OS itself. All you need to do with Mac OS to keep it secure and running well is to keep it up-to-date and do periodic (about 1x per week) restarts. Other than that, leave it alone. Adding third party antivirus, cleaning, security and other types of maintenance apps to Mac OS adds no additional level of security. The only thing these apps do is have the opposite affect users want. They make Mac OS slow, unstable, generate odd behavior (much like you are experiencing) and make Mac OS appear buggy. 

 

Please locate the developers uninstall instructions for Symantec and follow to the letter. Then restart in Safe Mode per the directions in Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac and then restart normally. 


What you need to do is get an external SSD and after uninstalling Symantec and the third party VPN app and then restart in Safe Mode, clone your internal HD to the external SSD and you should should see a pretty dramatic improvement in performance. The external SSD I recommend for you would be a https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3ENVPSX01/.


Sep 11, 2021 8:24 PM in response to _Ayu_

Your internal drive should not be your exclusive Time Machine drive, but in theory it could be.


Follow these steps. This will erase all data on the drive, and these steps must be carried out AFTER an external SSD is setup as your startup disk:


  1. Go to Disk Utility (Finder > Go > Utilities)
  2. In Disk Utility, select “View” > “Show All Devices”.
  3. Select the top and non-indented drive in the internal section of Disk Utility that matches the name of your internal drive. 
  4. Click Erase
  5. Name: any name you want
  6. Format: Use Mac OS Extended (Journaled) if you are using macOS Catalina or earlier, or APFS if you are using macOS Big Sur.
  7. Scheme: GUID Partition Map
  8. Click Erase


Finally, setup Time Machine: Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support.


Jack

Sep 4, 2021 5:35 PM in response to _Ayu_

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities.


Delete Symantec.


Other than that, the reason your iMac is very slow is due to the 5400 rpm hard drive. Very slow. If you use an external SSD and run macOS from that, it will make your Mac 10 to 30 times faster for storage. For more info, instructions, and what external SSD to buy, please read: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250003583.


Jack

Diagnosing slow iMac

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