My mac takes SEVERAL MINUTES to login (that white loading bar)

[thefriendshipmachine]

I am not talking about the boot time being slow. I'm talking about the loading screen which occurs after you click your user, type your password and hit enter. THIS screen takes several minutes to load and sign me in. I'm on the latest version of MacOS on a MBP 2018.

Also I have no login items

 

[Mac4Brains]

the lignin items are user added but can have system level stuff that you don't see. I would make a backup of that users data, make a new user then grab your data. HOWEVER this can also be another issue that I have seen that may lead to a total systems failure so back up the hard drive incase you get bit by this.

 

[ZStech]

The issue might be with startup items, try to load your Mac in Safe Mode and check if the issue persists there.
Here is the article how to load the safe mode: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262