Progress Bar when I log in

[Ambrosia7177]

Just installed El Capitan.

Why is it when I boot up and log in I get this gray progress bar that takes like 20 seconds before I actually get to my desktop.

Horribly slow!

 

[DeltaMac]

Is your boot drive selected in the Startup Disk pref pane? Double-check there, and you will need to unlock that pane to select the boot drive.

In your previous posts - you had a 2012 MBPro, and running Mountain Lion.
The boot up process is considerably different between Mountain Lion, and El Capitan. Most Macs changed the boot screen from grey Apple on a light screen (Mountain Lion to Mavericks, to the newer white Apple on a black screen (Yosemite and newer). The progress bar simply shows you that the boot is proceeding.

If you still have a spinning hard drive, then you will find out that El Capitan runs MUCH better on an SSD.
If, instead of going through the Apple icon boot process, you see a light grey screen (showing a blurry background for a few seconds), and a multi-step progress bar that is white, then that is simply waking up from hibernation - a deeper level than the normal sleep mode.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Is your boot drive selected in the Startup Disk pref pane? Double-check there, and you will need to unlock that pane to select the boot drive.

In your previous posts - you had a 2012 MBPro, and running Mountain Lion.
The boot up process is considerably different between Mountain Lion, and El Capitan. Most Macs changed the boot screen from grey Apple on a light screen (Mountain Lion to Mavericks, to the newer white Apple on a black screen (Yosemite and newer). The progress bar simply shows you that the boot is proceeding.

If you still have a spinning hard drive, then you will find out that El Capitan runs MUCH better on an SSD.
If, instead of going through the Apple icon boot process, you see a light grey screen (showing a blurry background for a few seconds), and a multi-step progress bar that is white, then that is simply waking up from hibernation - a deeper level than the normal sleep mode.

For now I opted to just upgrade to El Capitan on my existing 2012 MBP versus forking over a couple of grand for a new MBP and spending months learning how to do all of that stuff.

Maybe later this year I can get another MBP and install a SSD.

So, back to my OP, how do find my boot drive? I looked under Preferences and didn't see anything.

And, no, I don't get that grey textured screen like when I boot up from an external HDD. I just see a progress bar under my avatar when I log in and it is taking like 20 seconds which is way too slow!

 

[JohnDS]

Go to System Preferences. The Startup Disk pane should be in the fourth row down, toward the right side.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Go to System Preferences. The Startup Disk pane should be in the fourth row down, toward the right side.

It says, "You have selected OS X, 10.11.5 on the disk..."

That is how it was when I went in there.

So why the annoying Progress Bar?

 

[JohnDS]

Do you have any external drives connected? If so, try booting with them disconnected.

If not, check your console logs of repetitive errors during boot up.

 

[CoastalOR]

It says, "You have selected OS X, 10.11.5 on the disk..."
That is how it was when I went in there.
So why the annoying Progress Bar?

What does the line directly below "You have selected OS X, 10.11.5 on the disk..." say?
On my system it says, "on the disk "Macintosh HD."" If the name of your startup disk is not on the next line then you need to select your desired startup disk by clicking the padlock in the lower left corner, entering your admin password, clicking on the the desired start disk. If the start disk is not selected then that can cause a delay during startup while the system searches for startup volumes.

 

[DeltaMac]

One difference between Mountain Lion and El Capitan is that boot progress on ML simply showed a spinning wheel, where El Capitan shows the progress bar.
Other than appearance, your boot-up time is not really different, is it?

You could simply try sleeping your MBPro, rather than always shutting it off. The wakeup will be noticeably faster than from power off.

Do you see a continuous progress bar with an Apple icon, or is that a multi-segment progress bar, with a blurred background? The two are entirely different, with the first showing when booting after you have shut your Mac power off, and the second is when you power up after hibernation.

 

[satcomer]

It says, "You have selected OS X, 10.11.5 on the disk..."

That is how it was when I went in there.

So why the annoying Progress Bar?

Run a free EtreCheck to see if you have some old plugin that's not compatible since you "upgraded". You posted enough over the yeary that this might be the problem.

 

[chabig]

Why is it when I boot up and log in I get this gray progress bar that takes like 20 seconds before I actually get to my desktop.

It takes time to boot a computer, because self tests have to run, the OS has to be loaded from disk, and everything has to be initialized from scratch. Booting has generally gotten quicker over the years and 20 seconds to a desktop is pretty darn fast. The real question is why are you booting so often that 20 seconds makes you mad. You should very rarely shut down the machine. It's designed with a low power mode called sleep, and it instantly wakes up when you need if. It it's a MacBook, it will be awake by the time you get the lid open.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Do you have any external drives connected? If so, try booting with them disconnected.

If not, check your console logs of repetitive errors during boot up.

Nope
[doublepost=1466958149][/doublepost]

What does the line directly below "You have selected OS X, 10.11.5 on the disk..." say?
On my system it says, "on the disk "Macintosh HD."

"on the disk MBP01"

" If the name of your startup disk is not on the next line then you need to select your desired startup disk by clicking the padlock in the lower left corner, entering your admin password, clicking on the the desired start disk. If the start disk is not selected then that can cause a delay during startup while the system searches for startup volumes.

Nope, it is selected.
[doublepost=1466958294][/doublepost]

One difference between Mountain Lion and El Capitan is that boot progress on ML simply showed a spinning wheel, where El Capitan shows the progress bar.

Other than appearance, your boot-up time is not really different, is it?

About 15-20 seconds slower.

You could simply try sleeping your MBPro, rather than always shutting it off. The wakeup will be noticeably faster than from power off.

I usually leave my MBP running for a week before rebooting.

Do you see a continuous progress bar with an Apple icon, or is that a multi-segment progress bar, with a blurred background? The two are entirely different, with the first showing when booting after you have shut your Mac power off, and the second is when you power up after hibernation.

After I type in my password for my username, then I get a progress bar that is black below where I type my password.
[doublepost=1466958839][/doublepost]

It takes time to boot a computer, because self tests have to run, the OS has to be loaded from disk, and everything has to be initialized from scratch. Booting has generally gotten quicker over the years and 20 seconds to a desktop is pretty darn fast. The real question is why are you booting so often that 20 seconds makes you mad. You should very rarely shut down the machine. It's designed with a low power mode called sleep, and it instantly wakes up when you need if. It it's a MacBook, it will be awake by the time you get the lid open.

As I said, I leave it running for a week on average before a shut down.

I am here because it takes longer after I type in my password to get to my desktop than it did in Mountain Lion.

Is this like with Windows where each version has more and more bloat in it, and I need more memory and a faster computer to support El Capitan?

 

[grahamperrin]

… progress bar that takes like 20 seconds …

How to start up your Mac in single-user or verbose mode - Apple Support

With verbose mode: in lieu of the progress bar, you'll see what occurs during those twenty seconds.

 

[DeltaMac]

...
I usually leave my MBP running for a week before rebooting.
...
After I type in my password for my username, then I get a progress bar that is black below where I type my password.
...
As I said, I leave it running for a week on average before a shut down.

I am here because it takes longer after I type in my password to get to my desktop than it did in Mountain Lion.
...

Ah, OK, you are coming out of hibernation, which is a power-saving mode beyond sleep. This can be normal for Mac laptops, and operates somewhat differently than on earlier OS X systems.
It can take 20 seconds or more to return to desktop out of full hibernation - which uses almost no power while in that mode, compared to normal sleep. Wakeup from normal sleep would simply turn the screen back on, without any progress bar. It is likely a slower way to return to desktop, than going from full power off, particularly if you have an SSD.
If you have a spinning hard drive, then returning from true hibernation mode is usually about 1/2 time of booting from full power off.
Hibernation is approximately the same mode that you get if your battery runs out while in sleep. It restores your system from a disk file - which is why you get the progress bar.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Ah, OK, you are coming out of hibernation, which is a power-saving mode beyond sleep. This can be normal for Mac laptops, and operates somewhat differently than on earlier OS X systems.
It can take 20 seconds or more to return to desktop out of full hibernation - which uses almost no power while in that mode, compared to normal sleep. Wakeup from normal sleep would simply turn the screen back on, without any progress bar. It is likely a slower way to return to desktop, than going from full power off, particularly if you have an SSD.
If you have a spinning hard drive, then returning from true hibernation mode is usually about 1/2 time of booting from full power off.
Hibernation is approximately the same mode that you get if your battery runs out while in sleep. It restores your system from a disk file - which is why you get the progress bar.

What I have been talking about is when I do a fresh boot of my machine.

If my screensaver goes on and I get locked out, after entering my password I basically go instantly to my desktop.

It is when I start/restart my machine that it takes longer than Mountain Lion.

 

[mfram]

Did you turn on FileVault full-disk encryption? First you enter your password to decrypt the disk. Then it boots. That's normal. From the screensaver your computer is already booted.