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dialekt

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 3, 2014
100
11
I'm sure many of you may have experienced this at some point. Paying almost 5,000.00 USD to get the latest MacBook Pro after years of procrastinating spending the money for the upgrade only to watch it slow to a crawl. The intention of buying a computer at this price was to solve any issues I had with speed/performance and editing with Final Cut Pro. I'm trying to pin point when I started to experience such a dog slow performance & it seems it might have been with Mojave. Right now it's pretty unbearably slow. Causing productivity issues. Especially when it comes to Final Cut Pro X. I have a very large music library about 98,000 songs. Which is part of my work so a reinstall is definitely last on the list because reprocessing these files for work will take close to 2 weeks of 24 hour processing. Am I considering a fresh install? YES. Because I don't know what to do but the idea of it sounds extremely dreadful and I've watched so many videos of all the little home remedies etc.
 
This happened to my iMac just recently. Found out it was Microsoft OneDrive. They apparently updated it recently and have been having a bunch of problems with it on Macs. I uninstalled it completely and we are back to normal fast speeds without all the beach balls spinning.
 
Yeah I don’t have that app installed. I’m writing a list of apps I’m going to need to reinstall currently so I don’t forget & placing install files into a folder to reference. I’m dreading this clean install. I want to try a reinstall first but I keep hearing about the overwriting of whatever spiders I have lurking in my machine


This happened to my iMac just recently. Found out it was Microsoft OneDrive. They apparently updated it recently and have been having a bunch of problems with it on Macs. I uninstalled it completely and we are back to normal fast speeds without all the beach balls spinning.
 
OP:

Try this, simple, quick, and when you're done you can just delete it.

Go to the Users & Groups pref pane and create a NEW user account. Give it administrative privileges.

Then, LOG OUT of your "regular" account, and log into the new (temporary) account.

DO NOT "add anything" to it. Just "look around" and.... assess.

Do things start running better?
 
also... try resetting the nvram, the smc. backup your mac and reinstall the OS itself (not all your apps & content). make sure FCPX is up-to-date.

something is up with your setup, and hopefully, this forum can help you sort it out. if not.... call apple....
 
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Do you use time machine?


I do not use time machine. It’s getting close to buy some new hard drives. Having a 2TB internal makes backups a lot more lengthy
[doublepost=1552495747][/doublepost]Going to try this after my first initial backup of my music.



OP:

Try this, simple, quick, and when you're done you can just delete it.

Go to the Users & Groups pref pane and create a NEW user account. Give it administrative privileges.

Then, LOG OUT of your "regular" account, and log into the new (temporary) account.

DO NOT "add anything" to it. Just "look around" and.... assess.

Do things start running better?
 
I do not use time machine. It’s getting close to buy some new hard drives. Having a 2TB internal makes backups a lot more lengthy
[doublepost=1552495747][/doublepost]Going to try this after my first initial backup of my music.

what do you use for backup? (i've never used TM, i prefer carbon copy cloner). anyway, asl long as you have a backup strategy (and run it often)...
 
To be completely honest I’ve gotten to a point where I prioritized Film projects and music over actual backups. I’m manually backing up my music. I used to do time machine backups. Currently after this backup I’m going to allocate space across 3 hard drives to try & free up 3TB or so. My other hard drives are in storage & im still a month or so away from being able to buy another. I honestly do not wish to buy another regulars hard drive. I would prefer to have SSD only because it’s such a HUGE difference in speed. This manual backup is so painful at the moment


what do you use for backup? (i've never used TM, i prefer carbon copy cloner). anyway, asl long as you have a backup strategy (and run it often)...
 
you HAVE to back your work, email, photos, etc up. have to. one bad moment (ie a drive failure, or something) and you're done. i know more stories about people who get this after losing their work, dissertations, family photos....

EDIT: logic & final cut are my main apps; i keep current projects on my MBP, move them to an external once they're 'done'... and back up both my mac, and that external drive.

all data should be in (at least) 2 places (i also use crashplan, great for recovery when travelling... )
 
Yes I have only individual back ups of the things that matter most. Music and photo library (memories I can’t get back) - I do need to make it more frequent but life is crazy how it works. These 2 4TB hard drives were bought with the intention of backups but then somehow magically filmmaking took off & I created a demand. Which led to natural procrastination. Anyway here we are. Still testing. First music backup is done. About to the user group thing.
[doublepost=1552500908][/doublepost]Not sure what I'm looking for ultimately with having an empty user account etc. Hard to really compare this to a computer with apps installed because it's inevitably going to be faster. So yes it's faster. Not sure what I should be testing.


OP:

Try this, simple, quick, and when you're done you can just delete it.

Go to the Users & Groups pref pane and create a NEW user account. Give it administrative privileges.

Then, LOG OUT of your "regular" account, and log into the new (temporary) account.

DO NOT "add anything" to it. Just "look around" and.... assess.

Do things start running better?
 
Yes I have only individual back ups of the things that matter most. Music and photo library (memories I can’t get back) - I do need to make it more frequent but life is crazy how it works. These 2 4TB hard drives were bought with the intention of backups but then somehow magically filmmaking took off & I created a demand. Which led to natural procrastination. Anyway here we are. Still testing. First music backup is done. About to the user group thing.
[doublepost=1552500908][/doublepost]Not sure what I'm looking for ultimately with having an empty user account etc. Hard to really compare this to a computer with apps installed because it's inevitably going to be faster. So yes it's faster. Not sure what I should be testing.

a 'test' account can tell you if the problem is in your account, or is global. the installed apps are all still available, as is (of course, the OS and it's files). look at your login items, for example: what opens when you power up? and check activity monitor (in Applications>Utilities)... see what's running when you're in your actual account...
 
a 'test' account can tell you if the problem is in your account, or is global. the installed apps are all still available, as is (of course, the OS and it's files). look at your login items, for example: what opens when you power up? and check activity monitor (in Applications>Utilities)... see what's running when you're in your actual account...

Hi Dialekt, Stooovie from Twitter here.

There are some good points here.

- definitely open Activity monitor and see what eats CPU, RAM and causes too much disk activity. If found, Google that process. Make sure you don't do this right after booting as here are tons of hungry processes at boot (that's why people should use sleep instead of shutdown)
- try running from a different user account for a while and see if, say, FCPX works as it should.
- download and run 10.14.3 combo update. It will keep all your stuff, don't worry
- go to Recovery (hold cmd-r at boot until Apple logo appears) and run Disk Utility - First aid on your boot drive
- if unsuccessful, hold cmd-s at boot to enter Single user mode. When you see text prompt, run "/sbin/fsck -fy" (no quotes) and see if its OK. If not, run it again. If still bad, your boot volume is hosed

-run this at Terminal to reset Home folder perms:

diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u`

- Download Onyx at https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html and run Maintenance

Some of that should fix it.
 
Tried combo update and was unsuccessful. Ran diagonostic and no one errors were returned. The computer started in recovery mode. But it was strange looking. Trying to reboot now and it’s taking super long. I don’t know if I’ve caused more problems. Going to try the first aid on drive method if I can get to it. Will update shortly ...



Hi Dialekt, Stooovie from Twitter here.

There are some good points here.

- definitely open Activity monitor and see what eats CPU, RAM and causes too much disk activity. If found, Google that process. Make sure you don't do this right after booting as here are tons of hungry processes at boot (that's why people should use sleep instead of shutdown)
- try running from a different user account for a while and see if, say, FCPX works as it should.
- download and run 10.14.3 combo update. It will keep all your stuff, don't worry
- go to Recovery (hold cmd-r at boot until Apple logo appears) and run Disk Utility - First aid on your boot drive
- if unsuccessful, hold cmd-s at boot to enter Single user mode. When you see text prompt, run "/sbin/fsck -fy" (no quotes) and see if its OK. If not, run it again. If still bad, your boot volume is hosed

-run this at Terminal to reset Home folder perms:

diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u`

- Download Onyx at https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html and run Maintenance

Some of that should fix it.
 
the combo update didn't install? if you tried it, and it didn't take... try it again. but, if i were you, i'd be calling apple by this point...
 
Boot took long but eventually got to recovery mode. Diagnostic had no errors and did a first aid which had no errors on system drive. Now I hit restart and boot screen says “44 minutes” this has never happened before unless I was installing an OS. The error that I got on the combo update was in the attached picture .... I’ve prepared everything to do a clean install so before I started doing all of this I was ready in the case of this. Only problem is I didn’t get to make a bootable usb. But I heard you can install OTA?

the combo update didn't install? if you tried it, and it didn't take... try it again. but, if i were you, i'd be calling apple by this point...
 

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Boot took long but eventually got to recovery mode. Diagnostic had no errors and did a first aid which had no errors on system drive. Now I hit restart and boot screen says “44 minutes” this has never happened before unless I was installing an OS. The error that I got on the combo update was in the attached picture .... I’ve prepared everything to do a clean install so before I started doing all of this I was ready in the case of this. Only problem is I didn’t get to make a bootable usb. But I heard you can install OTA?
You can. Restart your Mac. Now, when booting, hold Option-Command-R and your Mac will boot into internet recovery mode. From there you can reformat your drive (GUID, APFS) and resintall your macOS. Let me know if you have any questions.
 
Okay. I’m going to try this method. I hope this solves most of my issues & that I don’t have to stand next to a router for it or select and special settings on wireless. I have a decent amount of patience for tonight. iPhone XS Max & Netflix will be my savior . Will it download Mojave prior to asking me to wipe the hard drive ? (Via disk utility)




You can. Restart your Mac. Now, when booting, hold Option-Command-R and your Mac will boot into internet recovery mode. From there you can reformat your drive (GUID, APFS) and resintall your macOS. Let me know if you have any questions.
 
Okay. I’m going to try this method. I hope this solves most of my issues & that I don’t have to stand next to a router for it or select and special settings on wireless. I have a decent amount of patience for tonight. iPhone XS Max & Netflix will be my savior . Will it download Mojave prior to asking me to wipe the hard drive ? (Via disk utility)
No, you will have to erase your disk before you can reinstall Mojave (assuming you want to do a clean install). Once that’s complete you can then install Mojave. Here’s a link with more info just in case you need it. Good luck!
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904
 
No, you will have to erase your disk before you can reinstall Mojave (assuming you want to do a clean install). Once that’s complete you can then install Mojave. Here’s a link with more info just in case you need it. Good luck!
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

Currently I’m trying to remember the name of my original home folder / username . Certain programs I backed up will get wonky if it’s not the same name - totally forgot to check that before wiping - can anyone think of a file to look for as a log reference? Txt file with any path names etc ?
 
Sorry for the late updated but wanted to thank everyone that helped me with this. Quite a scary fresh install but at the end of the day it all worked out. Speed increase yes. Not life changing but a noticeable change. The latest update of FCPX seemed to really help speed things up as well as latest Mojave combined. With this fresh start I'm going to be mindful of loading too much junk on the internal drive etc.
 
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