Post Catalina

[BCSailor7]

Need some direction on library folder. Hi new to the site. Mid 2012 MacBook Pro, Catalina 10.15.6 Was trying to resolve slow boot/performance issues(spinning beachball although I have huge amounts of disc/RAM space) related to Catalina.
I came across 266 library folders 13.16GB.Is this right? Are this many folders required? How do I cull them The path is MacIntoshHDuserMyNamelibrary.
I have downloaded and applied the update to Catalina.

 

[DeltaMac]

266 folders in your own user/Library folder? I have 85 folder in my user/Library. The folders created in that Library folder would depend on what apps you use, I suppose. 266 is probably not crazy. Folder names can often help you decide where those folders come from (what app is involved)

Here's what I might do in your case:
Open that Library folder, and show in List view. Sort by Size, so the largest size is at the top of the list. Usually, that will be one of three: Application Support, Containers, and Caches. Mail, and Safari are also usually in the largest on my Mac.
"culling" is not too likely, unless you are completely confident that you would be removing files and folders that are not used by anything, and that you know you won't be needing in the future, and that you also know that you are not removing folders and files that might be used actively by apps on your Mac.
After sorting, what are your largest 5 folders?

One folder that actually is pretty easy is the Caches folder. If you see that at the top of the list - largest size folder, you
can almost always feel safe in deleting large folders inside that Caches folder. They are ALL temporary files used by your apps, and the system for your user only. You can safely remove files from that folder, or even drag that Caches folder to the trash. Your system, or the apps that you use will create new files and folders in Caches when needed. You may want to be aware that as new cache folders are created, you might experience (temporary) slowdowns while those files rebuild, but that might not be noticeable in most cases. So, you can always clean up that folder, even in use. I usually restart after cleaning out the Caches folder. Be sure to empty the trash then. The files in the trash still take up space.

What else is taking up space in your Library folder? (Again -- don't just grab random large folders to drag to the trash, unless you are absolutely confident that you know what you are deleting. You may discover that you have a folder full of data files that one of your apps uses, and deleting some files may mean that you have to reinstall that app, so always take a moment to "think before you trash!"

 

[casperes1996]

What do you consider a huge amount of RAM space? Is this a spinning HDD?

When you mention all these library folders, do you mean duplicate folders named library, or do you mean folders within ~/Library?

The Library folder on my iMac is currently reported at ≈170GB. - Lots of data pertaining to the apps you've installed and such can go in there - If memory serves it's also where Steam games install to per default and loads of other stuff. - You can manually prune it out if you're certain about what you want in there, or in the case of things like Steam, Adobe apps, etc. clear out the content through the apps

 

[BCSailor7]

Wow, thanks for the very quick and clear reply.

RAM 3.8GB, HD 671.55GB of 749.95, CPU (2.9GHz) CPU load 6%

The path is MacIntoshHD>user>MyName>library. I've edited this from my initial post, didn't notice the > were dropped.

Where it says library there's 266 separate folders

Im thinking leave them alone don't need the space.

That said it still takes two minutes to boot up and have the icons on my desktop to arrive.

Ive ran several programs like CleanMyMac, did the option+command+p+r thing etc.

Glad I found this site

 

[DeltaMac]

749.95 GB hard drive? -- that would mean that you have a spinning hard drive, which pretty much explains the really slow response from your system. You would have a very noticeable speed-up if you would replace that old hard drive with an SSD (solid state drive). It would perform better than brand new, with much faster bootup.
And, that's something for you to consider.

 

[BCSailor7]

Never had the multicoloured pinwheel before downloading Catalina.

You’re right on the HD taking time to spool up, however I’m noticing w/Catalina when booting up the progress bar hesitates about 2/3rds on. Sometimes if I tap the trackpad it will carry on, sometimes got to wait a whole 20/30 more seconds.

I wasn’t aware until today that a SSD replacement was an option, however most of this now is just a nuisance. It’s not worth the expense or bother to upgrade although this computer is important to me.

I again thank you for your response.

Cheers Randy

 

[clueless88]

Not sure what you meant by "HD 671.55GB of 749.95"--is that used or free space? If the computer is important to you, how much money are you willing to put into make it faster? Your MBP is very easy to upgrade without too much of a cash outlay (especially compared to how much these things cost new). Sites lite iFixit and youtube have videos showing how to do things like replace RAM and hard drives--good to look at them to get an idea of what tools you need.

This past summer I resurrected a mid 2012 13" MBP--I think it had either Yosemite or El Capitan on a spinning hard drive--painfully slow. I upgraded the RAM to 8 GB (purchased used on eBay--I think one can actually install up to 16GB but did not know that until afterward). I bought a Samsung 850 EVO 500GB HD for less than $50 (I think this is a previous generation) at a local store that price matched Amazon and Walmart.com price (I see that Amazon must have cleared them out since they are no longer offered at this price). I put the new drive in a cheap (less than $10) usb 3.0 external enclosure that I had (can also use a usb to SATA cable if you have one), and used a downloaded trial version of Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the old drive to the new drive. (hopefully you have less than 500GB used on your MBP). Swapped the internal hard drive with the SSD clone.

Am running Catalina 10.15.7 and it takes less than 30 seconds from cold boot to desktop with all of the icons. However your mileage may vary since this essentially is a relatively fresh installation of the OS--the original hard drive was failing and the previous owner (an offspring) essentially did a scorched earth approach to try to resurrect it so there were no apps/documents/files that carried over to the new hard drive.

If you do put in an SSD you can format your old drive and put it in an external enclosure and use it for storage.

 

[BCSailor7]

Sorry bout that. The 671.55 and the 3.8 are free space. Obviously it’s lightly used, I’m not a gamer etc.
You do make a good point on upgrading, however the economics are different (I’m in Canada).
A few years ago I replaced the HD in my 2007 desktop. Now I can’t upgrade the
OS beyond El Capitan 10.11.6. It goes well with my outdated iPad and iphone 3
I think Steve Jobs would be pissed.

 

[clueless88]

Wow! I have a 1st gen SE phone. You could pick up a second hand ssd and memory.