improving user login speed

[jbstew32]

It always takes a good bit of time for my normal user account to reach the fully usable state from the time I press enter at the login screen. I have a secondary user account that isn't used very often, and it only takes about 3 seconds to load the GUI and be ready to use.


haha sorry, I hope that all makes sense. Anyway, I'm trying to figure out what is causing the delay when loading my main user's account. Does anyone have any ideas?

I've checked the Login Items under the Accounts section of the System Preferences, but the only thing loading is iTunesHelper.


Thanks

 

[Amdahl]

Just a guess... I would try booting in safe mode (hold shift at the apple/chimes) and then login as your slow user. Safe mode is supposed to wipe-out the various caches OS X uses. Perhaps they are in a particularly messy state, and a rebuild will speed things up.

 

[jbstew32]

yeah that didn't help.

I am using filevault on this one user though. Could that explain the big slowdown and turning pinwheel when I login?

 

[Amdahl]

yeah that didn't help.

I am using filevault on this one user though. Could that explain the big slowdown and turning pinwheel when I login?

I haven't used filevault, so I'm not sure how it works. My guess is that it is not the cause, because decryption/encryption is a CPU-intensive activity, and ideally has no impact on the rate of hard disk access, which is comparatively slow with encryption or without.

 

[Shadow]

System Preferences -> Accounts -> (select user) -> Login Items. Remove as much as you can.

 

[belunos]

I haven't used filevault, so I'm not sure how it works. My guess is that it is not the cause, because decryption/encryption is a CPU-intensive activity, and ideally has no impact on the rate of hard disk access, which is comparatively slow with encryption or without.

Filevault encrypts the home directory, which is on the hard disk, and therefore will impact access speeds on the disk.

I've not used it, but it sounds like a contender for the initial slow login. Does it run fine after you've logged in?

 

[jbstew32]

Filevault encrypts the home directory, which is on the hard disk, and therefore will impact access speeds on the disk.

I've not used it, but it sounds like a contender for the initial slow login. Does it run fine after you've logged in?

oh yeah, after I login and everything loads, it's all fine and good. For that reason I've just been living with it since I don't logout too often. I just kind of got tired of it and am trying to figure it out.