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2018 Mini slowing down?

M

Momof9

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 22, 2018
499
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So I have an i5 2018 Mac mini.... I bought it when it came out.... I added 32 GB ram, has 256 ssd. Right now I have about 25 gb left on the ssd. I moved Time Machine to an external drive years ago.

So right now, I have 18 tabs opened in Safari (way down from what I have been doing for many many years). The other apps that are open are Finder, Calendar, App Store, Photos, OneNote, System Preferences and activity monitor. So it says I am using

20.6 GB of the memory
Cached 10.94gb
Swap 25.5 mb

Mac is up to date. I restarted 2 days ago because of power outage. I can use the browser for awhile and then it won't even open pages. Ie yesterday, I restarted Safari. I noticed the slow down several weeks ago when I was playing Sims 4 on it. It was also getting super hot.... Right now it is a bit warm, but I just woke it up today.....

I bought and external ssd Samsung t7 to maybe make a boot up drive, but not sure how to do it. I do have several external hard drives hooked up to it. So is there any way to make this run any better? I do a lot of browsing on it, because of my 2 28" monitor 4k and HD. Plus I have Affinity Photo opened on it a lot, plus other apps if I am doing something productive on it. I was sick this past month, so did not do a lot other than play some games or browsing. Now I am getting a lot better and picking up what I am doing and noticing the lag. My thoughts were to wait and see what comes out in November??? But not sure if I can wait that long....

I also want M? Pro model.... This is my first i5 in forever, first Mac. I would buy high end Windows laptops and they would last about 2 years before I saw them slow down - would hand them down to kids. I do own 2 12.9" iPads M1 and 2018 and use them all the time as well. At night I am doing something on 1 and or both and watch something on the 2018 when hubby goes to sleep early.... I do most of my graphic design on my iPad - but I want to try some new things with photography and it might be easier??? or different on the Mac. But even, I do quality control on the Mac... updates to iPadOS might change that since I could easily connect the monitor to the iPad with a much better view, than before....

I have been looking at getting a 14" M1 Pro MacBook or even the Mac Studio.... with at least 512 GB.... but also looking at how I can either get my mini to work better. I really don't want to get a M1 since they are soon to be updated....

Thanks for your help.....
 
I would back everything up and reset it to factory settings. This will fix anything that's not a hardware problem and it's really unlikely to be that.

Erase your Mac and reset it to factory settings - Apple Support

Use Erase All Content and Settings to quickly and securely erase all of your settings, data, and apps, while maintaining the operating system currently installed.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
 
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Momof9 said:
So I have an i5 2018 Mac mini.... I bought it when it came out.... I added 32 GB ram, has 256 ssd. Right now I have about 25 gb left on the ssd. I moved Time Machine to an external drive years ago.

So right now, I have 18 tabs opened in Safari (way down from what I have been doing for many many years). The other apps that are open are Finder, Calendar, App Store, Photos, OneNote, System Preferences and activity monitor. So it says I am using

20.6 GB of the memory
Cached 10.94gb
Swap 25.5 mb

Mac is up to date. I restarted 2 days ago because of power outage. I can use the browser for awhile and then it won't even open pages. Ie yesterday, I restarted Safari. I noticed the slow down several weeks ago when I was playing Sims 4 on it. It was also getting super hot.... Right now it is a bit warm, but I just woke it up today.....

I bought and external ssd Samsung t7 to maybe make a boot up drive, but not sure how to do it. I do have several external hard drives hooked up to it. So is there any way to make this run any better? I do a lot of browsing on it, because of my 2 28" monitor 4k and HD. Plus I have Affinity Photo opened on it a lot, plus other apps if I am doing something productive on it. I was sick this past month, so did not do a lot other than play some games or browsing. Now I am getting a lot better and picking up what I am doing and noticing the lag. My thoughts were to wait and see what comes out in November??? But not sure if I can wait that long....

I also want M? Pro model.... This is my first i5 in forever, first Mac. I would buy high end Windows laptops and they would last about 2 years before I saw them slow down - would hand them down to kids. I do own 2 12.9" iPads M1 and 2018 and use them all the time as well. At night I am doing something on 1 and or both and watch something on the 2018 when hubby goes to sleep early.... I do most of my graphic design on my iPad - but I want to try some new things with photography and it might be easier??? or different on the Mac. But even, I do quality control on the Mac... updates to iPadOS might change that since I could easily connect the monitor to the iPad with a much better view, than before....

I have been looking at getting a 14" M1 Pro MacBook or even the Mac Studio.... with at least 512 GB.... but also looking at how I can either get my mini to work better. I really don't want to get a M1 since they are soon to be updated....

Thanks for your help.....
Click to expand...

The heat you mention sounds like the processor is getting thrashed. I’m inclined to think its OneNote given my experience with my former 2018 15” MBP (used OneNote in undergrad).
My solution in that case was to transition to GoodNotes or Notability. Their Mac apps are pretty good, their iPad apps blow OneDrive out of the water.

What does Activity Monitor -> CPU show when it’s slowing down / hot?
 
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I might have to try resetting to factory settings.... but ooh all the apps I will need to re-install.... But there ones on here that I don't use...

I have use OneNote for so many years - I have a LOT of info in it.... I use GoodNotes for journaling etc. I do have it installed on my Mac, just haven't used it yet. OneNote - just has ALL my important info - bill paying, etc

Since its not hot right now, I will have to get back to CPU when it does....
 
Momof9 said:
So I have an i5 2018 Mac mini.... I bought it when it came out.... I added 32 GB ram, has 256 ssd. Right now I have about 25 gb left on the ssd. I moved Time Machine to an external drive years ago.

So right now, I have 18 tabs opened in Safari (way down from what I have been doing for many many years). The other apps that are open are Finder, Calendar, App Store, Photos, OneNote, System Preferences and activity monitor. So it says I am using

20.6 GB of the memory
Cached 10.94gb
Swap 25.5 mb

Mac is up to date. I restarted 2 days ago because of power outage. I can use the browser for awhile and then it won't even open pages. Ie yesterday, I restarted Safari. I noticed the slow down several weeks ago when I was playing Sims 4 on it. It was also getting super hot.... Right now it is a bit warm, but I just woke it up today.....

I bought and external ssd Samsung t7 to maybe make a boot up drive, but not sure how to do it. I do have several external hard drives hooked up to it. So is there any way to make this run any better? I do a lot of browsing on it, because of my 2 28" monitor 4k and HD. Plus I have Affinity Photo opened on it a lot, plus other apps if I am doing something productive on it. I was sick this past month, so did not do a lot other than play some games or browsing. Now I am getting a lot better and picking up what I am doing and noticing the lag. My thoughts were to wait and see what comes out in November??? But not sure if I can wait that long....

I also want M? Pro model.... This is my first i5 in forever, first Mac. I would buy high end Windows laptops and they would last about 2 years before I saw them slow down - would hand them down to kids. I do own 2 12.9" iPads M1 and 2018 and use them all the time as well. At night I am doing something on 1 and or both and watch something on the 2018 when hubby goes to sleep early.... I do most of my graphic design on my iPad - but I want to try some new things with photography and it might be easier??? or different on the Mac. But even, I do quality control on the Mac... updates to iPadOS might change that since I could easily connect the monitor to the iPad with a much better view, than before....

I have been looking at getting a 14" M1 Pro MacBook or even the Mac Studio.... with at least 512 GB.... but also looking at how I can either get my mini to work better. I really don't want to get a M1 since they are soon to be updated....

Thanks for your help.....
Click to expand...

Two things leap out:

1) Your drive is very full, which will impact performance. If you can, move some files elsewhere. If you're not sure what's taking up drive space, run GrandPerspective on your drive to get a visual map of all the files on your drive and then investigate any larger items (represented by a larger block on the map) that you might be able to delete or move. Don't delete things if you're not sure what they are.

2) Your RAM looks constrained. Open Activity Monitor, click the Memory tab, then click the Memory column header to sort by usage from greatest to least. Quit any apps that are using large amounts of RAM, reboot your machine to clear the RAM, and then avoid running any app that uses lots of memory except when needed. (I suspect your numerous browser tabs might be the culprit here.)

Report back on what you find.

Also, what version of macOS are you running? You can find this on the Apple menu > About this Mac.
 
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I got GrandPerspective - but I can't figure out my Mac Drive - where it is???

I do have the latest version of OS - I keep it up to date.
 
Momof9 said:
I got GrandPerspective - but I can't figure out my Mac Drive - where it is???

I do have the latest version of OS - I keep it up to date.
Click to expand...

If your drive is not shown in the list when you open GrandPerspective, double-click Select Other Folder. A window allowing you to select a folder opens from there. In this window, you can find your drive either in the column on the left (it might not be shown there, depending on your Finder settings) or by clicking on the dropdown menu at the top center of the window.

After you select your drive, click the Scan button and you should have a visual map of your drive usage after just a few minutes.
 
Last edited:
SO I ran it... the biggest is Photos, then Sims 4, Reminders, than another game....

I just bought a 14" M1 Pro MB Pro - if I could get that config in a Mac mini..... but NOT yet. I may end up trading it for the Mac Studio - which would be way overkill, but I can get it for the same price as the MBP....

I was thinking of using the Mini for Apple Music and access to my external hard drives. So I need to figure that out. I am having to restart Safari at least once per day....

After I get things set up on the MBP, I may delete the Sims 4 and see if that helps....
 
I have a better option than Grand Perspective...

Download DiskWave from here:
It's small in size and free.

Open DiskWave and go to the preferences.
Put a checkmark in "show invisible files".
Close preferences.

The DiskWave window shows you all your volumes and drives in plain English (no ridiculous graphical formats).
Click on any item "on the left".
Now, you'll see what's ON the volume, listed in order of "largest to smallest".
You can easily locate what's eating up your space.
 
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Fishrrman said:
I have a better option than Grand Perspective...

Download DiskWave from here:
It's small in size and free.

Open DiskWave and go to the preferences.
Put a checkmark in "show invisible files".
Close preferences.

The DiskWave window shows you all your volumes and drives in plain English (no ridiculous graphical formats).
Click on any item "on the left".
Now, you'll see what's ON the volume, listed in order of "largest to smallest".
You can easily locate what's eating up your space.
Click to expand...
Just downloaded it, nice app.
 
I never finished working on this, but I now have my Mac mini setup as a music and external hard drives server!!! I am using my iPad mini 5 as it's display.... and universal control for my apple keyboard and trackpad!!!
 
I went and got a 14" M1 pro MacBook, I am not totally happy with it. Might need to return it tomorrow. i am frustrated with trying to make it like my Mac mini.

so I have been looking at new or wait on any upcoming releases. So how can I figure out what would be the equivalent upgrade for my Mac mini, it has worked pretty good for my work loads.

2018 Mac mini i5
32 gb Ram ( I upgraded)
265 ssd (I will definitely upgrade this)

i did see someone say that the m1 is even faster than the I7???? But unless I can get a fantastic deal on a M1, I will wait hopefully until it’s updated.

i am stuck on the Ram, trying to figure how much I would need. I know I would want at least 16.
 
What is wrong with the MBP 14"?
What does not suit you?

It's a fool's errand to make one Mac "exactly like" another one.
Just let each Mac "be its own Mac".

I have both a 2018 Mini -and- a 2021 MacBook Pro 14".
I enjoy both of them "for their differences" and never even thought of making the MBP replicate the Mini.

One maintains a desktop Mac "for desktop things".
And one maintains a portable Mac "for portable things".
Works for me.
 
Fishrrman said:
What is wrong with the MBP 14"?
What does not suit you?


One maintains a desktop Mac "for desktop things".
And one maintains a portable Mac "for portable things".
Works for me.
Click to expand...
The issues I have been having: might have to get a $200-300 dock to make it more convenient.... But I may rarely take it anywhere???? So I have it open beside my desk, just got a different stand, that might make it a bit closer for Touch ID. I am short, so it is a bit ways for me to reach.... or I pay $150-200 for a new apple magic keyboard with Touch ID.... It took me a week to figure out HOW to set my small desk with 2 28" monitors and the MB.... I did get a really good deal on it....

But for all the hassles, I was wondering how much to get an equivalent upgrade for the Mac mini.... When I look at Apples' website to try to figure out what an M2 (maybe pro) might cost, I am looking at maybe $1300+ or more.... Then I will just stick with the 14".... I keep going back and forth....

For portable Mac, I have 2 12.9" iPPs, they do most of what I would want or need for going elsewhere..... I did read a long thread about those who bought the 14" because there is really no desktop right now between the Mac mini and Mac studio....

Boyd01 - I wrote a bit about the issues I was having with my Mac mini slowing down.... Some is ssd is too full..... I have a T7, whether I make that a boot drive or what.... But when I last used it for browsing, earlier this week, I had to restart it several times with maybe 10 tabs in Safari....

Right now, I have 2 windows with 21 tabs open between them. I just close at least 6+ since I was done with them. This is on the 14".... no slow downs on it....
 
My i7 model has slowed down quite a lot recently. I've done everything short of resetting it completely and installing programmes again one by one. I've just accepted it and will buy the rumoured M2 Pro version. Pretty annoying after my previous Mac last 7 years without missing a beat.
 
gusping said:
My i7 model has slowed down quite a lot recently.
Click to expand...

That is odd. I push my 2018 Mini very hard running a 32gb Windows 10 VM and processing terabytes of GIS source data into (literally) millions of .png map tiles, often running 24 hours a day. Have also filled the 2tb disk to the point of getting warnings a few times, then moved over 1tb of data to an external drive and cleaned it out. I also have done a lot of video and audio editing in Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro.

No slowdowns, it seems just as fast as when I got it in 2020. It is arguably my favorite Mac (and I go back to the 512k "Fat Mac" in 1985). Now, I have 64gb of originial Apple RAM so perhaps that makes a difference? But I'd be willing to bet that it's more related to the fact that I'm still running Catalina, which was pre-installed on the Mini when I got it.

Have you been upgrading to each new version of MacOS on yours?
 
I purchase my 2018 i5 at launch, it came with 8gb ram, 256 ssd.... I upgraded the ram to 32gb.... maybe it has some to do with how many years we have been running it? my SSD is really full.... eventually I will delete the games etc. But working on finishing setting up the 14 MBP....
 
Boyd01 said:
That is odd. I push my 2018 Mini very hard running a 32gb Windows 10 VM and processing terabytes of GIS source data into (literally) millions of .png map tiles, often running 24 hours a day. Have also filled the 2tb disk to the point of getting warnings a few times, then moved over 1tb of data to an external drive and cleaned it out. I also have done a lot of video and audio editing in Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro.

No slowdowns, it seems just as fast as when I got it in 2020. It is arguably my favorite Mac (and I go back to the 512k "Fat Mac" in 1985). Now, I have 64gb of originial Apple RAM so perhaps that makes a difference? But I'd be willing to bet that it's more related to the fact that I'm still running Catalina, which was pre-installed on the Mini when I got it.

Have you been upgrading to each new version of MacOS on yours?
Click to expand...
I'm on Monterey 12.3.X. I should have never upgraded the OS on this Mac tbh. It was most stable within the first year or two I owned it. The last few updates have given me so many problems that have taken months to fix/are not fixable. But my hatred of Mac OS is another story entirely, lmao. An M2 Pro mini cannot come soon enough.
 
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Momof9 said:
i did see someone say that the m1 is even faster than the I7????
Click to expand...
The M1 Pro in the 14"? It definitely is - in my everyday work (Android Studio, Xcode, React Native, Flutter etc.), 2-3 times faster than exactly the same 2018 Mac Mini you have, with these only differences:

1, I only have 16GB of RAM
2, my Mini has been completely formatted & reinstalled from scratch to get rid of garbage left by years of OTA updates. This has made it much more responsive but still way slower than my 16".
 
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It’s most likely to the lack of disk space, you should ideally have 2x onboard ram remaining as swap and graphics buffer. As you have 32gb of ram MacOS is probably filling up the ram and then writing backwards and forwards to the small amount of scratch disk that’s left as it swaps.

It’ll be especially bad if you let the mac fall asleep as the entire contents of your ram would be dumped onto the disk as the mac goes into hibernation. With this not being possible due to low disk space stuff will be purged instead and will have to be run up from scratch upon waking.

The delays all add up.
 
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OP wrote:
"my SSD is really full.... "

HOW full is it?
How much free space is left?
This can definitely impact overall performance.
 
Storage seems like the likely culprit. Instead of trying to boot off the external, maybe try moving files over to it to clear up the built in drive.

I will say, it sounds like you’re pushing the Mini pretty hard over all. Since this is a regression, can you think of any other changes you‘ve made lately?
 
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