2nd account gets very slow

[MAINEMAN2026]

I bought a Mac Mini M4 a few years ago. This year, my wife's account gets extremely slow (even the arrow can't keep up with mouse movements).

She ends up having to reboot the Mac, which fixes it. She's so pissed about it that she wants to dump the Mac and get a PC, which we haven't had for like 15 years!!

We have tried to find applications that may be using up the CPU, but there's nothing obvious.

My account always runs fine???

 

[Bigwaff]

When this is happening, open Activity Monitor, select menu View > All Processes, select the CPU tab, and make sure the '% CPU' column is sorted with the little arrow pointed down. Take screenshot. Then select the Memory tab and make sure the 'Memory' column is sorted with the little arrow pointed down. Take screenshot. Post screenshots.

Another option which would help diagnose. Download and install EtreCheck. Generate a report and post report file.

EtreCheck

etrecheck.com

All of this information will help community provide advice, suggestions, and diagnose.

 

[Fishrrman]

How much RAM in the Mini?
How much SSD space?

If nothing seems to be helping, you could try this:
You will need an EXTERNAL drive of some sort (SSD, USB flashdrive, HDD) -- large enough to hold her account files.
Then...
Log her out of all the online stuff (iCloud, etc.)
Then...
Copy your wife's user account folder to the external drive.
Verify that "everything is there" (on the external drive).
Then...
DELETE your wife's account on the INTERNAL SSD.
Don't archive it -- delete it completely.
Then...
In users and groups, create a NEW [empty] account for her. Just a username and password for the moment.
Then...
Connect the external drive.
You will need to overcome permissions problems by doing a "get info" on the drive, unlocking the lock at the bottom, and then put a checkmark into "ignore ownership on this volume".
Now...
Start copying things back over, a little at a time. Example... do the pictures folder first, reboot, let her log in and see if things are better.

The idea is to "rebuild" her user folder from scratch, and hopefully you will discover (or simply leave behind) what was slowing things down.

IMPORTANT note about copying from one user folder to the other.
You CANNOT copy "the top level" of folders -- the ones specifically named pictures, movies, music, downloads, documents, etc.
HOWEVER -- you CAN copy what is INSIDE OF these folders (that includes both files and folders).

Again, deleting and then rebuilding the user folder can be tedious, but [also] again, it may work when nothing else does...

 

[ignatius345]

Before you go through all this: on the off chance, do either of you use multiple desktops when you’re working? (I mean, the feature under Mission Control that lets you put different windows/apps on different virtual desktops?)

I used to use those a lot, at the same time I was running separate user accounts on the same Mac. I found that specific combo (multiple desktops and two user accounts) was absolutely murdering graphics performance to the point where I was seeing some of the same UI issues you describe, and the machine would end up almost unusable. I no longer recall whether the issues presented more in one account or the other.

Anyway, I stopped working that way, and the problem went away -- but it’s entirely possible the underlying bug is still there.