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Thinking of returning M1 Macbook Air
- Thread starter JHPDF
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I was searching on the Web for that render and couldn't find it until now, haha...At this point, I would return the M1 MacBook Air and wait for the new MacBook Air which will be introduced in April, 2022
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To be honest, though, I think many of the other people posting to this thread gave more relevant advice. I also own an M1 MacBook Air, and definitely have not been seeing any such problems. Just taking it back and waiting for the latest version might actually not solve their problem... especially if the OP has a problem with a utility or software that was running on their old Intel MacBook Air, which is giving them troubles on M1 architecture. Of course, they could also be having a genuine hardware issue, meaning that it's time to run a diagnostic...
sounds to me like you need to perform a FRESH install of the OS. Memory Leaks maybe?
If still not satisfied pick up a used 2019 i9 intel Mac Pro.
I have one and LOVE it. 16" Intel Mac Pro's used have dropped in price alot since the m1 came out. Good for you.
You can even use an external GPU enclosure where the M1 computers you cant.
And you can still install Windows 10 on an intel Mac.
Watch this. unless your a video editor and use FCP there are better laptops out there for the money.
If still not satisfied pick up a used 2019 i9 intel Mac Pro.
I have one and LOVE it. 16" Intel Mac Pro's used have dropped in price alot since the m1 came out. Good for you.
You can even use an external GPU enclosure where the M1 computers you cant.
And you can still install Windows 10 on an intel Mac.
Watch this. unless your a video editor and use FCP there are better laptops out there for the money.
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Not sure what people are doing with their M1 MBAs or what crap they are installing to make them go slow.
I replaced my 15” 2016 i7 MBP with the bottom end MBA and it’s much much much faster. Never had a single beach ball or stability problem on Monterey either.
I’d wipe it and reinstall from scratch. Do not do a time machine restore onto it.
I replaced my 15” 2016 i7 MBP with the bottom end MBA and it’s much much much faster. Never had a single beach ball or stability problem on Monterey either.
I’d wipe it and reinstall from scratch. Do not do a time machine restore onto it.
I have a i5/4/1TB 2012 Air and a M1/8/512 Air. While the 2012 is great and works fine with 11.6.2 for everyday tasks, my M1 decimates the 2012. I would suggest doing a restore of 12.1 and trying again to see if you don't have a software probem.
I don't believe any of your complaints, sorry, that is not my experience at all. Did you stop to think through anything you might have going on that might be causing that, given that it is not a normal condition? You said you had filled up your old SSD, did you copy all that over and are now trying to operate with no free space on the SDD? that would do it. Do you have some sort of a virus? 20-30 chrome tabs is not "normal". chrome is a complete memory hog (so why?) and if it is causing your Mac to be under memory pressure, combined with little free space on the SSD, that would do it.
No, I seriously suggest you do a little trouble shooting your situation, before presuming it is the Mac that is not fast - cause - it is fast.
AnyWhoo, if you want to return, go ahead
No, I seriously suggest you do a little trouble shooting your situation, before presuming it is the Mac that is not fast - cause - it is fast.
AnyWhoo, if you want to return, go ahead
Something's wrong...
I'm using an M1 iMac, often with loads of tabs open (yep 20 - 30) and it always runs as smooth as butter.
Admittedly I have 16gb ram, but from the reviews I've seen for most uses 8gb is still plenty on an M1 machine for a lot of people, unless you also fill the SSD and it struggles to swap.
I'm using an M1 iMac, often with loads of tabs open (yep 20 - 30) and it always runs as smooth as butter.
Admittedly I have 16gb ram, but from the reviews I've seen for most uses 8gb is still plenty on an M1 machine for a lot of people, unless you also fill the SSD and it struggles to swap.
And if they look like that… Easy decision. ?At this point, I would return the M1 MacBook Air and wait for the new MacBook Air which will be introduced in April, 2022
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I've moved from a MacBook Pro 2017 two thunderbolt ports to a base level MacBook Air with 16GB RAM. I am over the moon with mine. I've made sure that all the apps are Apple Silicon native. I've only ever seen the beach ball once and that was during the initial set up. Compared to my old MacBook Pro, I find apps responsive and quick. Opening them takes no time at all.
What I would say, is wipe the machine, don't restore it from back up and see how you get on. If you're still not happy, return it.
pac
What I would say, is wipe the machine, don't restore it from back up and see how you get on. If you're still not happy, return it.
pac
I've had my MacBook Air M1 since spring and it's fast.
My Windows PC (from the last year) is also fast. My MacBook Pro (mid 2010) is slow though, but that's understandable. If I want it to be fast then I'd have to install Snow Leopard or Lion on it. High Sierra is painfully slow and I'm hoping this isn't the future of my MacBook Air M1, but it's understandable that it's slow.
Mine also has slow disk I/O until app is launched for first time after a cold boot which then, I suspect, is cached to RAM for faster subsequent loading. Feels like some bundled OS apps are precached.
If apps bounce several times on first launch then it's slow disk I/O. If it's beach balling then it could be RAM or CPU related.
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Excellent idea with clean new user account...
As I would also lean towards a software issue first. And migrating a decade old laptop setup (no matter how smooth on that machine) over to a new laptop is not the route I'd suggest.
That said OP didn't say how he setup his M1 MBA or did I miss that?
Me, I start fresh setups with every fresh machine.
Just makes it less problematic for me.
Or it may just be underpowered for what is being done? Based on others experiences/reviews/reports with these 2020 M1's that doesn't seem likely.
YMMV
Can you explain how these will notably accelerate web browsing and the like. There should be zero difference between the new macbook pros and the airs when it comes to these problems. Something like a bit of extra processing power should never be the difference between pages freezing and not freezing unless there's a flaky driver issue somewhere.
Try using a web browser on any system with 8GB of ram and a bunch of tabs with spreadsheets or docs open after it has been running a while. It's a lot of pressure. Pages freezing for 20-30s probably means a lower level issue somewhere in some driver or something as well. It's unlikely to see that just due to low memory in most cases.
A lot of times, people with these kinds of questions just want validation of their own ideas as to how to proceed, so they post something and then quickly move on.
Of course, this person (the OP) might have already found an answer somewhere else, or perhaps they're just busy doing other things and haven't gotten back to the forum.
Sounds like they have a lot of investigating to do, anyway...They only made one post and then never responded. Dunno why people do this, lol.A lot of times, people with these kinds of questions just want validation of their own ideas as to how to proceed, so they post something and then quickly move on.
Of course, this person (the OP) might have already found an answer somewhere else, or perhaps they're just busy doing other things and haven't gotten back to the forum.
Yeah. Like I said, they might still be in the process of dealing with their problem and haven't gotten back to the forum. I can imagine what a mess it must be to have to deal with this. They might have just taken their new machine back.
From the sound of it, I'd almost bet that the OP migrated to their shiny new M1 MacBook Air from a Time Machine backup, and it's very likely that they've retained most or all of the apps they were using with the old machine, apps that very likely only run on Intel architecture. I'm not sure what happens during the Time Machine migration in this case. The Intel-only apps would clearly be disabled, and who knows what would happen with utilities that run on boot. Some of them might not even run under Rosetta 2. (The OP did write that "everything's up to date" on their new M1, though, which makes me wonder...)
If it were me (and other people have said this), I would just have started from a fresh install and ported only my files over without doing a TM migration, but the OP may not have thought it through that far. A lot of unknowns still come with the migration process from Intel to ARM architecture, and the OP's previous machine must have been running High Sierra at best (several OS versions back, right). Definitely a dicey proposition.
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I had this issue years ago with a brand new iPhone. Lots of weird behaviors, problems with cellular network connectivity, etc. out of the box after setting the phone up as new (not restoring from a backup). I did a DFU restore of iOS from scratch and this fixed all my issues.
My wife's identical brand new iPhone had no such issues.
So yeah, for whatever reason there can certainly be issues with factory installs of the OS. I suspect this is quite rare however.
Hi everyone, thanks for all your replies and sorry for being AWOL, I've been busy with work and everyone in my house getting Covid.
To be clear, I'm not using any, or very few, intel applications. I migrated my profile but not any apps so everything I'm running is a fresh download as updated as can be. I moved from a 250GB to a 500GB drive, so it's currently just over half full.
The issue seems to be memory pressure, and yes if quit every application and close every tab I'm not actively using the system is petty snappy. But I currently have ONLY safari with this tab and activity monitor open and memory use is 7GB and the graph is all yellow. The 2012 air has 11 apps running (word, safari, chrome, firefox, preview, VLC, quicktime) and 14 tabs open and is on 6.9 and is all green. Please see attachements. The window server is using 800mb for one window, while on the intel machine it's using 500mb for 30+ a very messy desktop. A normal workload on the M1 and I'm getting a lot of red spikes. This page, open on both machines, is using 240MB on the intel and 580MB in the M1. WHY?
I got 8GB because everything I read said that integrated memory wasn't comparable to old-style and wouldn't feel like 8GB. Well it feels a lot worse. Returning and getting spending the $350 extra for the memory might be the best thing to do, but I hope you can understand my frustration.
I will try downgrading to MacOS 11 as suggested by yitwail, which I think I can do from recovery mode, but the reason I upgraded to Monterey was that the machine felt a bit sluggish and I wanted to see if the latest OS would help.
Thanks again,
John
To be clear, I'm not using any, or very few, intel applications. I migrated my profile but not any apps so everything I'm running is a fresh download as updated as can be. I moved from a 250GB to a 500GB drive, so it's currently just over half full.
The issue seems to be memory pressure, and yes if quit every application and close every tab I'm not actively using the system is petty snappy. But I currently have ONLY safari with this tab and activity monitor open and memory use is 7GB and the graph is all yellow. The 2012 air has 11 apps running (word, safari, chrome, firefox, preview, VLC, quicktime) and 14 tabs open and is on 6.9 and is all green. Please see attachements. The window server is using 800mb for one window, while on the intel machine it's using 500mb for 30+ a very messy desktop. A normal workload on the M1 and I'm getting a lot of red spikes. This page, open on both machines, is using 240MB on the intel and 580MB in the M1. WHY?
I got 8GB because everything I read said that integrated memory wasn't comparable to old-style and wouldn't feel like 8GB. Well it feels a lot worse. Returning and getting spending the $350 extra for the memory might be the best thing to do, but I hope you can understand my frustration.
I will try downgrading to MacOS 11 as suggested by yitwail, which I think I can do from recovery mode, but the reason I upgraded to Monterey was that the machine felt a bit sluggish and I wanted to see if the latest OS would help.
Thanks again,
John
