macOS Sequoia Slow startup/login compared to previous macOS

You have done some Good Work 👍 there, thus far in trying to isolate this issue.

Would second the idea of using Etrecheck application to get a better overall view of both the Hardware and Software used on this machine.

Forget about the SMC / NVRAM Reset as this is an Apple Silicon Computer

The closest the M-Class computer to doing either would to shutdown the computer, pause about 10 seconds and restart

Reset the SMC of your Mac

Reset NVRAM on your Mac

Just to compare

Using a M1 Desktop Mac Mini, M2 Desktop Mac Mini each running the initial Sequoia 15.0 and updated to version 15.0.1

Both machines with only 1 Display each, and no external drives

The Bootup from a Cold Boot ( Off ) is definitively different than when using Sonoma 14.6.1

The loading bar may load 50% and pause, or other times, loads 100% and pause before the Log In Screen is presented

If suspect, but can not confirm, there might be some work still needed by Apple to bring back the fast bootup times

Other than that, both units function just fine

A M3 MBA Laptop also with Sequoia 15.0.1 behaves a bit better.

Still getting wink-out during the initial bootup.

Thought the loading bar to Log In Screen is much faster

If your Mac Studio is slow to start after upgrading to macOS Sequoia, try resetting the NVRAM/PRAM, checking for background processes in Activity Monitor, and clearing system caches in Safe Mode. If the issue persists, consider a clean reinstall of macOS and ensure you have the latest updates installed. If these steps don’t help, contacting Apple Support might be necessary.

Nothing sticking out that much but...

Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes.

Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

Open Terminal and run each of these one at a time

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

sudo will ask you for an Admin password that won't be echoed.

Carefully type your admin password when asked & hit enter.

sudo /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -seed -lint -r -f -v -dump -domain local -domain system -domain user -domain network

killall Dock

sudo mdutil -E /

sudo mdutil -i on /

Rebuilding a drive index can take a long time, so be prepared to wait whether you do it through the System Preference panel or the command line.

I reset SMC and NVRAM ... no difference.

I then booted into safe mode ... no difference.

I pulled 1 of the 16gig OWC memory modules ... boot / login time went from 10-12 minutes down to about 2-3 minutes.

Wrote to OWC, who I bought the RAM from, and waiting to hear back from the company. I used their tool for picking memory for my 2019 iMac.

I would expect diagnostics to do some simple memory walk but it doesn't report any problems. Etrecheck doesn't show any HW problems either. However, pulling a memory module certainly made a difference.

Interesting. I'll add info back here if I learn anything further.

Cleaned the contacts on both SIMMs with an eraser. Then, put them both in the first bank of sockets. Boots and logins are much faster. Still hear drive in background banging away. Seems crazy how much disc I/O there is during a login and how unresponsive the system is during this time. Mind you ... none of the diagnostics reported any problems with RAM. Thanks for the help. -d

Add on

In Good Faith, I am providing a recent Etrecheck Report for the M2 Mac Mini.

Just give you some idea of what this report may look like

We need to see what all is running, a report from this will not display any personal info...

Using EtreCheck - Apple Community

EtreCheck is a FREE simple little diagnostic tool to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac. It will not display any personal info. Give it Full Disk Access.

https://www.etrecheck.com/

Give etrecheck Full Disk Access before running.

Thanks for Old Toad’s etrecheck instructions…

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255121100?answerId=259529290022#259529290022

Mind if I attach a report to this thread? Took it a few days ago. Installed 15.1 today. Still have the problem. Problem being insanely slow login after a boot. Then, the iMac runs very well.

Report shows app crashes but honestly haven't seen any. Well maybe I killed a process or two in anger.

The whole time I am trying to login you can hear the internal hard drive busy with something. System is tied up and you can't get any work done. If I can get activity monitor up it shows "kernel task" busy.

Thanks, Don

I've been having the same issue on my 2019 iMac, but bootup is noticeably worse on my profile compared to my wife's. A cold startup takes 20mins on mine, and about 5-10 on her profile. Trying to avoid doing a clean install.

My spec is

• 3.6 Ghz Quad Core Intel Core i3
• Radeon Pro 555X 2 GB
• 16GB RAM

Running Sequoia 15.1.1

Aside from the slow bootup I have to occasionally reset my chrome browser as it takes ages to wake up, and also find that Slack often fails to start and has to be force reloaded - even after reinstalling it.

One thing I wonder is whether having a large-ish Photo library (54k ~2k clips), and whether moving that off to an SSD drive might help?

I have used 590GB of a 1TB drive of which Photos is using 440GB.

You have a few kernel extensions which to me serve no purpose whatsoever. You’ve got a VPN kernel extension that only serves the purpose of bundling all of your Internet search habits into one nice little package they can sell off at a higher price since it’s everything you do.

The printer kernel extensions might provide some minor feature for you, but since a kernel extension necessarily reduces secure and introduces other problems, a kernel extension written by a printer manufacturer doesn’t seem very wise.

The only other thing I see is you have Internet plug-ins that were installed 14 years ago. They are doing nothing right now, but it makes me wonder what other croft you have migrated from your older systems.

And I just realize you hijacked this thread

I appologize for the hijack. Kinda thought I would contribute a report from someone else experiencing the same slow boot/login issue.

I started with a snow leopard iMac back in 2007. Been backing it up and when I got my current iMac in 2019 it restored from the external TM drive.

I hear you on VPN but don't want to get side tracked.

I'll devote some time to cleaning up old software. Probably about time. I guess I was thinking that kernel extensions would not be loaded if not needed. Therefore ...

Surprised that Apple would be writing drivers for hardware they don't sell. Would have expected Epson to have authored the driver for their printer.

Thanks for looking at the report I posted. Even more so .... realizing that you were up at 4:30am looking at it.

Yeah, kinda crazy long boot time. My 2019 is still in the 10 minute range with 15.1.1. I just looked at a macbook yesterday with Sonoma 14.x on it and the boot was like 1 minute. I think I am hearing the drive in mine, a SATA 7200rpm, and was wondering if we are seeing the diff between SSD and a Mech. Still no idea why it would hit the drive so hard during boot. Also, my etrecheck report showed the signpost_reportd using a lot of CPU time. I think this is a performance tool that measures time between instrumented locations in code. A benchmark. If so, then why in the heck is it running in production and does it explain the looonnnng boot times? Dunno. This is an interesting conversation. I think I may create another volume and do a clean install on it and see if my boot time changes. Kinda busy but I'll get to it.

Follow on 😎

Since the release of Sequoia 15.1 October 28 - all is good again with a Fast Bootup across all 3 machines

👍