Mac is gradually slowing down.

I have had my Mac for 5 months now and I love it.
I am concerned that it is gradually clogging up with unwanted files and gradually getting slower and slower.
I have seen lots of software advertised which claims to clean up the system and remove unwanted files but the software is quite expensive.
Is there a cheap and easy effective way of cleaning up the system?

See the following:
Kappy's Personal Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utilities are: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible. TechTool Pro provides additional repair options including file repair and recovery, system diagnostics, and disk defragmentation. TechTool Pro 4.5.1 or higher are Intel Mac compatible; Drive Genius is similar to TechTool Pro in terms of the various repair services provided. Versions 1.5.1 or later are Intel Mac compatible.
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts had been significantly reduced in Tiger and Leopard.
OS X automatically defrags files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems.
I would also recommend downloading the shareware utility TinkerTool System that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old logfiles and archives, clearing caches, etc.
For emergency repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the commandline. Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard.
When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. Carbon Copy Cloner (Donationware)
6. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
7. Intego Personal Backup (Commercial)
8. Data Backup (Commercial)
9. SilverKeeper 2.0 (Freeware)
10. MimMac (Commercial)
11. CloneTool Hatchery (Shareware)
12. Clone X (Commercial)
The following utilities can also be used for backup, but cannot create bootable clones:
1. Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
2. Toast
3. Impression
4. arRSync
Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of also backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility as are the other two.
Impression and Toast are disk image based backups, only. Particularly useful if you need to backup to CD/DVD across multiple media.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
Additional suggestions will be found in Mac Maintenance Quick Assist.
Referenced software can be found at www.versiontracker.com and www.macupdate.com.

Similar Messages

System gradually slowing down?

I hope I'm not picking up a topic which has been discussed a gazillion times, but I couldn't find my specific questions after doing some searches. There's a few things I won't to clear about Mac OS.
I have a MBP 2009 with 4GB mem and 500GB HD. It still runs smoothly however it defenitly runs slower than in the beginning. I guess that's a bit normal (more programs, files, mails, junk,...).
I've been a PC user most of my life and switched about a year ago. i'm happy. I always found it necessary to do a reinstall of the OS on a pc every 1-2 years (even though I try to keep my stuff very clean). I'm curious how this effects on Mac OS?
If I would do a reinstall, let's say from a Time Machine Backup (so with all my files, programs, mails, settings etc.), would the system run exactly the same or are there some core OS operations that will run 'smoother' after a re-install (with a TM backup). (I guess for a PC that would be a clean registry and not having 'unknown' processes/programs loading at the back).
Also, is having installed a lot of applications (even when they are not running) slowing down the system. I guess it shouldn't as long as there's enough disk space.
And then finally, do disks slow down after a while. Is having a 10% full HD (much) faster then 60% full (mine is around 60%). also disk defrag is no longer 'necessary' in the latest versions of Mac OS but I just can't imagine that after +1y heavy usage some files are "spread out".. (I'm no expert on file systems so I could expect an answer as: "no, EXT FS doesn't have fragmentation"
Anyways, these are a few doubts I still have around a Mac OS system slowing down:
-reinstall OS (this one particularly since i'm thinking of upgrading to new laptop, and wonder if I should start from scratch and copy manually or use my Time Machine backup to reinstall)
-having many apps (not running)
-disk fragmentations, or just hardware slowing down
cheers!
Philippe

If you have not already done so, run Disk Utility's "Verify Disk" & "Repair Permissions" steps on your HD. All utilities that do permissions repairs use exactly the same built-in function of the OS to do so, so it doesn't matter if you do this through Onyx, Disk Utility, or Disk Warrior.
The verify/repair disk step is a bit different: all utilities use the same method of detecting file system errors but (for example) Disk Warrior rebuilds file system directories from scratch (including perfectly useable ones), which often can repair damage Disk Utility can't, & has a side benefit of simplifying directory structures. Once, back when HD's were much slower & less sophisticated than they are now, this could make a large difference in file system performance. Now, it is debatable that an otherwise OK directory structure would show a noticeable improvement.
IOW, if your HD's file system is healthy or only has minor problems, Disk Warrior won't do much of anything of real value that Disk Utility can't, but it can be a lifesaver if Disk Utility can't repair certain kinds of problems it can detect.
The same is true for file fragmentation -- unless the drive is full of very fragmented files, defragmenting it probably won't show much real world improvement.
The number of inactive applications on your Mac makes almost no difference in performance. What can easily do so is the number of active processes running at any given time. As a former PC users, you may not fully appreciate the difference between quitting an app & closing all its windows. Closing all an app's windows is somewhat like old TSR (terminate & stay resident) DOS programs -- it is still using some system resources, although not as many as when it is active. So, if you aren't already doing so, remember to quit applications you do not plan on reusing for a while.
Just as importantly, don't load down the OS with a lot of unnecessary add-ons, especially ones that modify the user interface in some way. Each of these things uses some system resources; a few can destabilize the OS, causing recoverable code exceptions you may not be aware of without searching through system logs but still creating extra work for the CPU.
If or when you remove add-ons or applications, be sure to check the documentation for the proper way to do that. If you don't, you may leave behind files that impact performance.

Windows 8.1 "explorer.exe" gradually slows down - Observation

Hi, I posted a question a year ago about Windows 8.1 gradually slows down issue, and it seems still not being solved. I recently found some new clues about this, hope it can be useful. (Please read the original post first
since it contains basic descriptions of the issue:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/f9ab40a8-6681-4c66-bdbd-9de7b2fb021f/windows-81-gradually-slows-down-after-hours-speed-returns-normal-if-restart-explorerexe?forum=w8itproperf)
This issue is found to be somehow related to total Page Faults of explorer.exe since it starts. The majority of page fault is created by desktop background slide show. On my laptop, the slide show is set to randomly switch between 53 jpegs
(mostly 1920*1080) every 10 seconds. The Page Fault Delta of explorer.exe is usually 2 per second when not doing anything, and tenth to hundreds when there are some actions. But at the instance when the background is switching, it will peak to a value
between 13,000 and 30,000.
I don't know if this value is normal or not, but when the total Page Faults reaches about 20,000,000, a slight slow-down can be observed by moving your mouse up and down on the favorite bar items in IE (the right bar shown when pressing Alt+C
in IE), a slight lag can be observed. The slow down (slightly) of normal windows can be observed when Page Faults reaches about 40,000,000. At that time, the mouse lag on favorite bar items becomes much more obvious. After another few hours, the slow-down
will become more serious.
I tried to disable the slide show by only using one background image, the total Page Fault stays low and the slow-down issue does not occur after one day (the Page Fault after one day is also far less than 20,000,000). That's why restarting explorer.exe
can temporarily fix it. I tried it on 2 other Windows 8.1 computers and get the same results. Maybe there is some memory allocation or fragmentation problem building up? One thing I don't know is that if this is caused by the background slide show itself,
or if explorer.exe in general will slow down after experimenting enough page faults.

Polyhedron,
This main reason of this issue is not the Windows system. A page fault occurs under these situation:
1. A program requests an address on a page that is not in the current set of memory resident pages.
2. The virtual memory system has become unstable because of a shortage of physical memory (RAM).
3. The virtual memory system has become unstable because of a shortage of free disk space.
4. The virtual memory area is corrupted by a program.
5. A program is attempting to access data that is being modified by another program that is running.
Please refer this blog to determine it's hard faults or soft faults.
The Basics of Page Faults
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/archive/2008/06/10/the-basics-of-page-faults.aspx
In addition, from your description, since the background slide itself is without problem, I suspect the root is your ram. Try to increase the amount of memory or reduce the cache size for test.
Karen Hu
TechNet Community Support

Windows 8.1 gradually slows down after hours. Speed returns normal if restart "explorer.exe".

I have Windows 8.1 Pro (x64) installed on Alienware M17x. The slowdown mostly appears as slow response in the situation such as open a folder/window, open/close/switch tabs in IE, drag window, and there's also cursor lag. It gradually
slows down after system boot, noticeable after 3-4 hours, really slow after 8-9 hours.
I have thought about many possible processes which can cause this issue, and then I found out that it's caused by "explorer.exe". If I kill "explorer.exe", the speed suddenly becomes normal. Then, I restart explorer.exe
again, it stays normal, and then it still gradually slows down again after hours.
I have checked driver or software compatibility. Also, CPU usage and Disk usage is normal.
Please give some advises, reasoning, or solutions.

SaccoSVD
The process that is causing the problem is called sidebar.exe and I am curious why it is running on a win 8 machine as I dont believe it is built in. (It seems to have over 22,000 instances launched so I suspect either malware or a broken app)
It is usually associated with a Vista machine, or updated win 7 machine. Did you do do a clean install? Have you run a malwarebytes scan?
Please download the free version of Malwarebytes.
Update it immediately.
Do a full system scan
Let us know the results at the end.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/products
Wanikiya and Dyami--Team Zigzag

My MacBook pro has gradually slowed down to a halt since installing lion. The spooning rainbow is still going after an hour and it won't force quit. Anybody know what to do? Ps new to this! Thanks in advance.

My MacBook pro has gradually slowed down to a halt since installing lion. The spooning rainbow is still going after an hour and it won't force quit. Anybody know what to do? Ps new to this! Thanks in advance.

http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

Mac Mini 2011 slow down after updating to Yosemite

Hi all!
After updating my Mac Mini (half 2011) from Mavericks to Yosemite, it became extremely slow and unresponsive. I have to wait a lot of time for apps to open and commands, like clicking a button, to be executed executed. File Vault, that I read is a common cause of slow down, is NOT enabled.
What should I do? In these cases, for my Windows PC, I insert the OS DVD and format: what's the equivalent operation for a Mac?
Thank you in advance for your help!

K1kk0z90 wrote:
What should I do?
Buy more RAM - a lot more.

Hi all, my mac's suddenly slowed down significantly - can anyone help?

Hi there, a couple of weeks ago my mac suddenly slowed down significantly. Since then I've installed the new operating system and that's helped a little but it's still not running as it should.
Here's my EtreCheck report. Any ideas you clever people?
EtreCheck version: 2.0.11 (98)
Report generated 8 November 2014 16:37:52 GMT
Hardware Information: ℹ️
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) (Verified)
MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,2
1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core
4 GB RAM Upgradeable
BANK 0/DIMM0
2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
BANK 1/DIMM0
2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported
Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Video Information: ℹ️
Intel HD Graphics 4000 -
Color LCD 1280 x 800
System Software: ℹ️
OS X 10.10 (14A389) - Uptime: 4:31:31
Disk Information: ℹ️
APPLE HDD TOSHIBA MK5065GSXF disk0 : (500.11 GB)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
Macintosh HD (disk1) / [Startup]: 498.88 GB (375.82 GB free)
Core Storage: disk0s2 499.25 GB Online
MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-8A8
USB Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Gatekeeper: ℹ️
Mac App Store and identified developers
Kernel Extensions: ℹ️
/Library/Extensions
[loaded] com.sophos.kext.sav (9.2.50 - SDK 10.8) Support
[loaded] com.sophos.nke.swi (9.2.50 - SDK 10.8) Support
Launch Agents: ℹ️
[running] com.advent.BonjourAgent.plist Support
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist Support
[running] com.sophos.uiserver.plist Support
Launch Daemons: ℹ️
[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support
[loaded] com.adobe.versioncueCS3.plist Support
[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist Support
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist Support
[running] com.sophos.common.servicemanager.plist Support
User Launch Agents: ℹ️
[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support
[loaded] com.advent.ADVENT AiO Annual Opt.plist Support
[loaded] com.advent.ADVENT AiO Firmware Updater.plist Support
[loaded] com.advent.ADVENT AiO Software Updater.plist Support
[loaded] com.divx.agent.postinstall.plist Support
[failed] com.facebook.videochat.[redacted].plist Support
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support
User Login Items: ℹ️
iTunesHelper Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)
AdobeResourceSynchronizer Application (/Applications/Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional/Adobe Acrobat Professional.app/Contents/Support/AdobeResourceSynchronizer.app)
Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 51 Check version
OVSHelper: Version: 1.1 Support
Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10
Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 3.2.0.16   - SDK 10.8 Support
AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 10.1.12 Support
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.189 - SDK 10.6 Support
DivXBrowserPlugin: Version: 2.2 Support
Silverlight: Version: 5.1.20513.0 - SDK 10.6 Support
Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.189 - SDK 10.6 Support
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.4.2 - SDK 10.6 Support
AdobePDFViewer: Version: 10.1.12 Support
DirectorShockwave: Version: 12.0.0r112 - SDK 10.6 Support
Safari Extensions: ℹ️
AdBlock
Ebay Shopping Assistant
Searchme
Amazon Shopping Assistant
DivX Plus Web Player HTML5 <video>
3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
Adobe Version Cue CS3 Support
DivX Support
Flash Player Support
Flip4Mac WMV Support
Java Support
Time Machine: ℹ️
Mobile backups: ON
Auto backup: YES
Volumes being backed up:
Macintosh HD: Disk size: 498.88 GB Disk used: 123.06 GB
Destinations:
Expansion Drive [Local]
Total size: 319.73 GB
Total number of backups: 12
Oldest backup: 2012-10-05 16:41:40 +0000
Last backup: 2014-11-02 10:47:48 +0000
Size of backup disk: Too small
Backup size 319.73 GB < (Disk used 123.06 GB X 3)
Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
      1% java
      0% Installer
      0% InterCheck
      0% AppleSpell
      0% SophosUIServer
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
289 MB loginwindow
236 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent
155 MB Safari
73 MB InterCheck
69 MB Finder
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
40 MB Free RAM
1.48 GB Active RAM
1.47 GB Inactive RAM
631 MB Wired RAM
4.68 GB Page-ins
64 MB Page-outs

And while your at it, also uninstall the Spigot adware that shows in your report (as "SearchMe"):
http://www.thesafemac.com/arg-spigot/

MacBook Gradually Slowing Down?

I've had my MacBook since November '06, but just recently, it seems to be slowing down.
In case if you need the details, I have a 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM.
Anyway, when I turned on my computer, the boot up time seemed maybe 30 seconds longer than usual, the Dock's magnification feature doesn't work anymore, the top menu bar doesn't allow me to browse through the various options with the directional pad, and panning over links don't highlight or show information at the bottom activity bar in Safari. TechTool Deluxe tells me that my system is fine. Should I worry about anything, take it in for a checkup, or any other advice?
Note: I also have an AppleCare Plan that came with the computer.

Sounds to me like your system is rife with problems. I would start with:
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger and Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger, and 4.1 for Leopard) and/or TechTool Pro (4.6.1 for Leopard) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
I would then do some maintenance:
Kappy's Personal Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utilities are: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible. TechTool Pro provides additional repair options including file repair and recovery, system diagnostics, and disk defragmentation. TechTool Pro 4.5.1 or higher are Intel Mac compatible; Drive Genius is similar to TechTool Pro in terms of the various repair services provided. Versions 1.5.1 or later are Intel Mac compatible.
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts had been significantly reduced in Tiger and Leopard.
OS X automatically defrags files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems.
I would also recommend downloading the shareware utility TinkerTool System that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old logfiles and archives, clearing caches, etc.
For emergency repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the commandline. Note that presently AppleJack is not compatible with Leopard.
When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. Carbon Copy Cloner (Donationware)
6. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
7. Intego Personal Backup (Commercial)
8. Data Backup (Commercial)
The following utilities can also be used for backup, but cannot create bootable clones:
1. Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
2. Toast
3. Impression
4. arRSync
Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of also backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility as are the other two.
Impression and Toast are disk image based backups, only. Particularly useful if you need to backup to CD/DVD across multiple media.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
Additional suggestions will be found in Mac Maintenance Quick Assist.
Referenced software can be found at www.versiontracker.com and www.macupdate.com.
If you still see no improvement and the described problems still persist then you should probably go the extreme and do a reinstall:
How to Perform an Archive and Install
An Archive and Install will NOT erase your hard drive, but you must have sufficient free space for a second OS X installation which could be from 3-9 GBs depending upon the version of OS X and selected installation options. The free space requirement is over and above normal free space requirements which should be at least 6-10 GBs. Read all the linked references carefully before proceeding.
1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger) and/or TechTool Pro (4.5.2 for Tiger) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.

Ipod not recognized either by mac or pc, slows down and gets ****** up

Hi
My Ipod (clic wheel version, 40 gig) is going crazy !! I've been plugging it on a mac and pc alternatevily every day, so maybe that's why? it first got frozen, showing the file with the exclamation mark, then sad ipod. It suddenly recovered so i can play music again, but my pc won't recognize it (usb or firewire doesn't make any difference), and start slowing down as soon as i plug the ipod in, and sometimes even egts frozen ! it does this sound meaning that a new harddrive has been connected, but it doesn't show on itunes or on the disk. i try to plug it into mac, same story, i tried to reinstall itunes, i tried to download ipod update from the internet, but nothing works. i still can play music on the ipod, but it's working REALLY slowly, does this weird sound, reset itself and shows file with exclamation mark... what can i do ? I'm desperate to lose my music, but i'd rather format it and get my ipod back to normal, thanks

Does the iPod still charge when you have it connected to either the PC or the Mac?
What if you try connecting the iPod to the PC or Mac in Disk Mode? Any luck there with it at least showing up as an externally mounted drive?
Putting iPod into Disk Mode
Have you looked at the dock connector on the iPod for signs of damage or debris that could preventing a proper connection?
With the iPod connected to the PC, run a device connectivity test and post the results.
iTunes for Windows: Device Connectivity Tests
B-rock

Mac book pro slowed down

i purchased new mac book pro exactly one year back, upgraded to mountain lion few months back, since last few days it ahs slowed down so much that it is difficult to work on the same. last programme i used for cleaning was iBoostup. pl. help me in speeding the mac.

"Cleaning" apps are useless - there's no need to clean anything from your Mac (save for files that you no longer use). OS X does a very good job of maintenance.
See ds store's Why is my computer slow? Some excellent tips there.
Clinton

Mac book pro slowing down by cinema display

when using cinema display it is slowing down terribly my mac book pro! how can I restore the speed it had when I bought it 2 years ago?

when using cinema display it is slowing down terribly my mac book pro! how can I restore the speed it had when I bought it 2 years ago?

Mac Book Pro slowing down

Please Help, Heres the details
Hardware Information:
          MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010)
          MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro6,2
          1 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 2 cores
          4 GB RAM
Video Information:
          Intel HD Graphics - VRAM: 288 MB
          NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M - VRAM: 512 MB
System Software:
          OS X 10.9.1 (13B42) - Uptime: 0 days 2:26:18
Disk Information:
          TOSHIBA MK5055GSXF disk0 : (500.11 GB)
                    EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
                    c (disk0s2) /: 499.25 GB (350.45 GB free)
                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
          MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-898
USB Information:
          Apple Inc. iPhone
          Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub
                    Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
          Apple Internal Memory Card Reader
          Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
          Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
          Apple Inc. Built-in iSight
FireWire Information:
Thunderbolt Information:
Kernel Extensions:
Problem System Launch Daemons:
Problem System Launch Agents:
Launch Daemons:
          [loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist 3rd-Party support link
          [loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist 3rd-Party support link
Launch Agents:
          [not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist 3rd-Party support link
          [loaded] com.adobe.CS5ServiceManager.plist 3rd-Party support link
User Launch Agents:
          [loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist 3rd-Party support link
          [loaded] com.divx.agent.postinstall.plist 3rd-Party support link
          [loaded] com.google.GoogleContactSyncAgent.plist 3rd-Party support link
          [loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist 3rd-Party support link
User Login Items:
          iTunesHelper
Internet Plug-ins:
          FolxNetscapePlugIn: Version: Unknown
          AdobeAAMDetect: Version: AdobeAAMDetect 1.0.0.0 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
          Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
          AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 11.0.0 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
          AdobePDFViewer: Version: 11.0.0 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
          DivXBrowserPlugin: Version: 2.2 3rd-Party support link
          OVSHelper: Version: 1.1 3rd-Party support link
          QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
          Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 7.1 3rd-Party support link
          SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.0.0 3rd-Party support link
          JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.9.0 - SDK 10.7 Outdated! Update
Audio Plug-ins:
          BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9
          AirPlay: Version: 1.9 - SDK 10.9
          AppleAVBAudio: Version: 2.0.0 - SDK 10.9
          iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9
User Internet Plug-ins:
          Folx3Plugin: Version: 3.0.1 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
          FolxNetscapePlugIn: Version: Unknown
3rd Party Preference Panes:
          DivX 3rd-Party support link
          Growl 3rd-Party support link
          Tuxera NTFS 3rd-Party support link
Bad Fonts:
          None
Old Applications:
          None
Time Machine:
          Auto backup: YES
          Volumes being backed up:
                    c: Disk size: 464.96 GB Disk used: 138.58 GB
          Destinations:
                    Time Machine Backups [Local] (Last used)
                    Total size: 2
                    Total number of backups: 17
                    Oldest backup: 2012-11-28 08:11:07 +0000
                    Last backup: 2013-11-26 17:25:41 +0000
                    Size of backup disk: Excellent
                              Backup size 2 > (Disk size 464.96 GB X 3)
          Time Machine details may not be accurate.
          All volumes being backed up may not be listed.
Top Processes by CPU:
               1%          EtreCheck
               1%          sysmond
               1%          Google Chrome
               1%          WindowServer
               1%          Microsoft Excel
Top Processes by Memory:
          193 MB          Viber
          115 MB          Google Chrome
          86 MB          Microsoft Excel
          86 MB          mds_stores
          74 MB          WindowServer
Virtual Memory Information:
          1.00 GB          Free RAM
          1.73 GB          Active RAM
          303 MB          Inactive RAM
          862 MB          Wired RAM
          872 MB          Page-ins
          0 B          Page-outs

Things You Can Do To Resolve Slow Downs
If your computer seems to be running slower here are some things you can do:
Start with visits to:     OS X Maintenance - MacAttorney;
                                  The X Lab: The X-FAQs;
                                  The Safe Mac » Mac Performance Guide;
                                  The Safe Mac » The myth of the dirty Mac;
                                  Mac maintenance Quick Assist.
Boot into Safe Mode then repair your hard drive and permissions:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions Pre-Lion
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
Repair the Hard Drive - Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the Utilites Menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD disk icon and click on the arrow button below.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
Restart your computer normally and see if this has helped any. Next do some maintenance:
For situations Disk Utility cannot handle the best third-party utility is Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible.
Note: Alsoft ships DW on a bootable DVD that will startup Macs running Snow Leopard or earlier. It cannot start Macs that came with Lion or later pre-installed, however, DW will work on those models.
Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced since Tiger. These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard or later and should not be installed.
OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive.
Helpful Links Regarding Malware Protection
An excellent link to read is Tom Reed's Mac Malware Guide.
Also, visit The XLab FAQs and read Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware.
See these Apple articles:
          Mac OS X Snow Leopard and malware detection
          OS X Lion- Protect your Mac from malware
          OS X Mountain Lion- Protect your Mac from malware
          About file quarantine in OS X
If you require anti-virus protection I recommend using VirusBarrier Express 1.1.6 or Dr.Web Light both from the App Store. They're both free, and since they're from the App Store, they won't destabilize the system. (Thank you to Thomas Reed for these recommendations.)
Troubleshooting Applications
I recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX, Mavericks Cache Cleaner, or Cocktail that you can use for removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc. Corrupted cache, log, or temporary files can cause application or OS X crashes as well as kernel panics.
If you have Snow Leopard or Leopard, then for similar repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the command line. Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard. Applejack does not work with Lion and later.
Basic Backup
For some people Time Machine will be more than adequate. Time Machine is part of OS X. There are two components:
1. A Time Machine preferences panel as part of System Preferences;
2. A Time Machine application located in the Applications folder. It is
    used to manage backups and to restore backups. Time Machine
    requires a backup drive that is at least twice the capacity of the
    drive being backed up.
Alternatively, get an external drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Carbon Copy Cloner
2. Get Backup
3. Deja Vu
4. SuperDuper!
5. Synk Pro
6. Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files. For help with using Time Machine visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.
Referenced software can be found at MacUpdate.
Additional Hints
Be sure you have an adequate amount of RAM installed for the number of applications you run concurrently. Be sure you leave a minimum of 10% of the hard drive's capacity as free space.
Add more RAM. If your computer has less than 2 GBs of RAM and you are using OS X Leopard or later, then you can do with more RAM. Snow Leopard and Lion work much better with 4 GBs of RAM than their system minimums. The more concurrent applications you tend to use the more RAM you should have.
Always maintain at least 15 GBs or 10% of your hard drive's capacity as free space, whichever is greater. OS X is frequently accessing your hard drive, so providing adequate free space will keep things from slowing down.
Check for applications that may be hogging the CPU:
Pre-Mavericks
Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the Processes dropdown menu. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order. If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar. Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process. See if that helps. Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.
Mavericks and later
Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the View menu. Click on the CPU tab in the toolbar. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order. If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar. Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process. See if that helps. Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.
Often this problem occurs because of a corrupted cache or preferences file or an attempt to write to a corrupted log file.
Or you can simply do this:
Reinstall Mavericks without erasing drive
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported then click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
Reinstall Mavericks
OS X Mavericks- Reinstall OS X
     Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
                if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

Gradually slow down a clip?

I want to slow down a clip from 100% to 0% speed, like using pitch blender in sound.
Actually to match a slowed sound. Is there a way please? So far I only know how to
razor the clip and slow it down in tiny segments, but that seems kinda rough.
Thanks anyone
Steve z

Click on the clip and then go up to the Effect Controls panel and keyframe the Time Remapping effect from 100% to 0%.
Although as you approach 0% the clip can get pretty long so you will want to drop to zero in a big jump part way along.

ITunes gradually slows down whilst transferring music

I have restored and done all the usual things to the ipod. However with a newly restored ipod, i start transferring music over, then about 40% of the way through the transfer (no matter how many tracks, in this instance 222 and this starts at 95) it slows down immediatly. And i mean slow down to about 4 - 5 mins per track. It looks like it is transferring the music but so slow that it would be quicker to go out and re-buy all the music on CD, re-import it and then burn it all onto an MP3 cd.
Any ideas what could do this? It only happens on 1 ipod, my other and my iphone is fine.

SLOW~~NO~~HELP~~!!
I only found your question because all of the sudden...
I am having the same situation...
At least you know that you are NOT alone~
Hello Apple, Any Help~
Or was Nakodari correct...
http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/5-ways-to-speed-up-your-slow-itunes/

My mac pro is slowing down? what can i do?

My Mac Pro is slowingh down. any suggestions what can be done?

Back up all data immediately as your boot drive may be failing.
If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
syslog -k Sender kernel -k Message CReq 'Chann|GPU D|I/O' | tail | open -ef
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.
A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. Normally the window will be empty. If you get output like this:
kernel[0] <Debug>: disk0s2: I/O error
the boot drive is failing, or there's some other hardware fault in the storage subsystem.
If you get output like any of this:
kernel[0] <Debug>: ** GPU Debug Info Start **
kernel[0] <Debug>: ** GPU Debug Info End **
kernel[0] <Debug>: NVDA(Private): Channel timeout!
kernel[0] <Debug>: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel timeout!
there's a fault in the graphics processor or logic board. The two kinds of output are not mutually exclusive, but if you get both, a logic-board fault is likely.

Mac is gradually slowing down.

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