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Chrome browser slows on MacBook Pro

cryellow

cryellow

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 13, 2015
18
2
California
I am running the latest Catalina OSX on a MacBook Pro 16 inch (2019). Chrome is my
main, default browser. It works fine, until for some reason it just starts
slowing down, with a noticeable delay lag in accessing web pages. When this lag
issue appear, even trying to access Chrome "Preferences" takes a long
time.

To resolve the Chrome lag issue, I restart the MBP, and typically, it takes longer
than usual for the system to restart, but when it does come back, the Chrome
browser is fine again...until the lag issue appears again.

When this happens, no other program or browser on my MBP is slow, not Safari, not
Firefox.

I have tried toggling hardware acceleration on and off within Chrome settings.

I have tried uninstalling Chrome completely, both the program itself in the
Applications folders and its bits and pieces in Library/Google/Google Software
Update (not sure where else to look for Google Chrome pieces?), and then reinstalling it.

This issue with Chrome browser happens only on my MacBook Pro, not on my iMac Pro,
not on my iMac Retina.

I had this same issue on my MBP 15 inch (2018). I seem to recall having this issue also on a slightly older iMac too (2013 iMac, pre-Retina).
 
That's not a bad idea I have often thought that maybe there is something that happened when I migrated from the prior MBP to the 2018 MBP (that is now migrated, carried over) to the 2019 MBP that is causing this. However, I'd have to use the Chrome browser for some hours before the issue arises, because it typically takes close to a whole day of use before it starts slowing down.

On the 2018 MBP I did a complete system reinstall (OSX) did not help.
 
This is interesting: (from system.log from console from last night, while the system was Asleep) I don't know what it means, but it refers to the preferences in the browser:


Dec 18 00:22:07 ____-MBP-2019 GoogleSoftwareUpdateDaemon[14453]: objc[14453]: Class KSPaths is implemented in both /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Frameworks/DeviceManagement.framework/Versions/A/DeviceManagement (0x104bc3b48) and /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/MacOS/GoogleSoftwareUpdateDaemon (0x1049abe50). One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
[automerge]1576692936[/automerge]

(interesting in that these are the preferences that run Chrome, I believe.)
 
I found ALL of the Google chrome bits and pieces in both the Library that is accessible from the Finder / Go /Library / Google and from the Library that pops up when opening the Macintosh HD icon, plus the Application Support / Google that is in both Libraries, deleted them all, and deleted and reinstalled Chrome let's see how long it lasts running well.

(I did however additionally after reinstall login and sync all my bookmarks and settings, I mean otherwise the browser would be useless to me.)
 
This didn't really help Chrome browser eventually (after about a day of use) slowed again. I then noticed that I had hardware acceleration set ON, so I turned it off, restarted entire computer, will keep testing.
 
It appears that the culprit is AVAST. Disable its Web shield, and Chrome browser resumes lightning speed.

As noted, I have had this issue both on a top of the line 2018 MacBook Pro, and now on a new top of the line 2019 Macbook Pro 16 inch.

What is strange is that I have not seen this issue with Chrome browser and AVAST on my iMac Pro or iMac Retina, only on the MacBook Pro (MBP) running Chrome and AVAST.

For now, I am keeping AVAST Web shield disabled on the MacBook Pro. For the MBP I may need to try AVG.
 
cryellow said:
For the MBP I may need to try AVG.
Click to expand...
You're just wasting time with antivirus software. It tends to make things worse. The Mac takes care of itself just fine. I've never understood why people trust third-parties more than the expert developers who write the OS itself.
 
Unfortunately, it turns out that AVAST wasn't the culprit, at least now it does not seem so. Even with AVAST Web shield disabled the Chrome browser slowed down again, as usual, after a period of time. And again this is happening only on my MBP, not with Chrome on my iMac Pro or iMac Retina.
 
Sometime it boosts the kernal task for me. Chrome is so task heavy for no reason. Probably all of that ad spying.
 
I think I figured out what it was. I had a few Chrome browser extensions such as related to Google docs and so on. I deleted them, and so far so good.

Avast does not seem to be the culprit.
 
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Reactions: jerryk
Unfortunately may have spoken too soon. I had no Chrome browser problems for a few weeks I think it was, then inexplicably came back. The browser seems to slow at the moment of doing a Google search, and then remains sluggish even unable to open the More Tools / Extensions tab, until a restart of the MacBook Pro gets everything working fine again. The restarts that I do once Chrome gets sluggish take longer than usual, with the spinning hollow circle staying on the screen an usually long period of time, which tells me that the issue is injecting something or other into the operating system that is causing a hang.

I am leaving Avast Web Shield disabled and uninstalled on the browser, and all extensions except ZenMate disabled as well, which I don't even run ZenMate all the time anyway. The times that the Chrome slows down the ZenMate is not enabled.
 
When you get the slowdown, run Activity Monitor and pay particular attention to the CPU, Memory and Disk tabs. Clicking on a column header will sort the output in ascending / descending order.
If there's a memory leak / runaway process / disk IO bottleneck this will show up under one of these metrics.
 
I don't store anything like that on Google's servers, not sure where that comment came from?

During the period when the Chrome browser is sluggish / basically stuck, the Activity monitor looked like this:
sIERwRRl.jpg


Post restart, and the Chrome browser is racing along like it should, Activity monitor looks like this:
VQBqAVAl.jpg


I don't see much of a difference. If anything looks like Chrome is using up more % CPU when it is running fast versus when it is bottlenecked.

Now, if I let the Chrome browser sit idle do nothing with it for long enough, Activity monitor looks something like this:
1qMBflj.jpg
 
Last edited:
Chrome browser continues to bottleneck my MacBook Pro 16" occasionally!

Does not behave as such on my iMac Pro or iMac Retina.
 
mick2 said:
When you get the slowdown, run Activity Monitor and pay particular attention to the CPU, Memory and Disk tabs. <snip>
If there's a memory leak / runaway process / disk IO bottleneck this will show up under one of these metrics.
Click to expand...

See my original reply. You've posted details of the CPU activity (looks fine) - what about the Memory and Disk?
Basically you're looking for a metric that looks wildly different when running normally vs slowed down...
 
Let's just say Chrome is literally the worst browser possible on a Mac. It has a lot of issues currently on Mac that people at Google won't fix any time soon:

Font load causing multiple seconds delay:

1036843 - chromium - An open-source project to help move the web forward. - Monorail

bugs.chromium.org bugs.chromium.org
Slowly creeping disk usage with prolonged use: (this may be what you are experiencing)

1035025 - chromium - An open-source project to help move the web forward. - Monorail

bugs.chromium.org bugs.chromium.org
WebGL not performing on par with all other platforms (including Android...?)

1045643 - chromium - An open-source project to help move the web forward. - Monorail

bugs.chromium.org bugs.chromium.org

If you are on a Mac, I would suggest that Safari be used until more people on the Chrome team are equipped with MacBooks. It's pretty clear Linux, Android and Windows devices dominate the team.
 
interesting. i'm using chrome as my default too and for me it's always worked well.

is it possible you are running an old version?

the current version at the time of writing this is: 80.0.3987.87
can you check what version you have?
 
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