iMac Retina 5K, 27", 2017 has suddenly become very slow to at times unresponsive.

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Not trying to hijack the thread, but having almost identical issues.

Ran the EtreCheck report and will attach, along with the Drive DX. The only major issue my layperson eyes can see is I do not autoupdate the security updates from Apple.

Not opposed to spending money to regain performance, but want to make sure it goes to the best solution.

Thanks in advance.

Two major issues:

#1 Your HD is failing. Considering the computer is a vintage and obsolete machine I would not invest time or money into it. IMHO it is time to replace it.

#2 The computer has NORD VPN installed which is very bad stuff.

Going forward, please never install the following types of third parts apps:

• Antivirus
• Cleaning
• VPN
• Maintenance
• Security

Yes, Nord is that bad. Please locate the developers uninstall instructions and uninstall. Then it would be wise to run a new EtreCheck report and look for any evidence of Nord. If you find any (look carefully) then download FindAnyFile and have it locate

• Nord

and Trash all files and empty the Trash.

Hi rickfles,

please create your own thread and we will be happy to look over your EtreCheck report.

Unless you're using a true VPN tunnel, such as between you and your employer's, school's or bank's servers, they provide false security from a privacy standpoint.  Read these articles:  Pubic VPN's are anything but public and Security Risks: The Dangers of Using Free VPNs (eccu.edu).  

And they are known to severely affect system and application performance. Uninstall according to the developer's instructions. Then rerun Etrecheck to see if it detects any left over supporting files and remove them.

Next, you only have 2f4 GB of free space. One should strive to maintain a minimum of 100 GB of free space in order to facilitate optimal system and application performance.

One possible solution to the failing drive is to get a Thunderbolt external SSD, clone you boot drive (it'll take a while with the read and write speeds you're experiencing) with Carbon Copy Cloner and boot and run from the external. That would be lest expensive than replacing the internal Fusion drive.

Please download and run Etrecheck.  The free version is sufficient.

Copy the report as shown in this animated screenshot

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

Then we can examine the report and see if we can determine the cause of the problem.

Thanks for the EtreCheck report!

From the report, it appears that you might have a failing Fusion Drive. EtreCheck also indicates that you don't have an up-to-date backup, which is important if your Fusion Drive might be having issues. To check the health of your Fusion Drive, you can use DriveDx. The free edition/trial is fine for troubleshooting. If any errors appear, the Fusion Drive is failing.

Let us know what DriveDx says.

-Jack

From my experience, VPN software, while not always necessary, does not harm a Mac as much as antivirus software does. Chances are, any negative performance effects from Nord VPN are minimal.

I suspect the reason you're Mac is slow is due to the Fusion Drive, as rkaufmann87 and I have pointed out. Let us know what DriveDx says. Most likely, moving forward as your solutions, you might be able to operate the Mac from an external SSD as your startup disk, but you might be better off with a new Mac, regrettably.

-Jack

Unfortunately, I am also having this snail pace issue with my iMac27" 2017, in addition to Blutooth disconnecting several times a day (keyboard and mouse). I ran the EtreCheck, there aren't any major issues, but several minor. There are installs around December 17th for XProtectPayloads, which ironically is when the slowness really hit. There are also crashes (GoogleChrome, suggestd, blutoothd, AppleSpell and BiomeAgent). Not sure how to fix. Advise is much appreciated... Grazie!

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Software Installs (past 60 days):

    Install Date Name (Version)

    2024-12-11 Safari (18.2)

    2024-12-11 macOS 13.7.2 (13.7.2)

    2024-12-17 XProtectPlistConfigData (5284)

    2024-12-17 XProtectPayloads (149)

    2025-01-07 Mobile Device (1.0.0.0)

Diagnostics Information (past 60 days):

    2025-01-07 11:15:14 Google Chrome.app - Hang

        Executable: /Applications/Google Chrome.app

    2025-01-06 19:36:29 suggestd - Crash (25 times)

        First occurrence: 2025-01-06 13:19:55

        Executable: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreSuggestions.framework/Versions/A/Support/suggestd

    2025-01-06 19:05:30 bluetoothd - Crash (46 times)

        First occurrence: 2025-01-06 13:52:09

        Executable: /usr/sbin/bluetoothd

        Details: 

            libsystem_c.dylib: abort() called

    2025-01-06 18:24:03 AppleSpell - Crash (25 times)

        First occurrence: 2025-01-06 12:59:52

        Executable: /System/Library/Services/AppleSpell.service/Contents/MacOS/AppleSpell

    2025-01-06 18:19:08 BiomeAgent - Crash (25 times)

        First occurrence: 2025-01-06 13:26:02

        Executable: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/BiomeStreams.framework/Support/BiomeAgent