- Etrecheck Pro 5 1 – For Troubleshooting Your Macbook Air
- Etrecheck Pro 5 1 – For Troubleshooting Your Macbook Pro
I hope this post helps many who have been frustrated by their Yosemite OS X upgrade. If your Mac has slowed down, you regret your decision to upgrade, and you’re thinking of reverting to Mavericks please read on and consider some of these tips:
I have experienced and heard of many issues when ‘upgrading’ to Yosemite, especially on MacBook Pro models, and I assume this extends to other Macs as well.
- On a MacBook Pro without Removable Battery 1. Unplug your MacBook Pro from the power supply 2. Press and hold down the SHIFT + Ctrl + Option (Alt) + Power (Eject) keys together for 10 seconds 3. Release the keys 4. Press the Power (Eject) key to boot your MacBook Pro On MacBook Pro with Removable Battery 1. Unplug your MacBook Pro from the.
- EtreCheck is an app that displays the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac. EtreCheck automatically removes any personally identifiable info.
You can use the Apple Hardware Test (AHT) to diagnose issues you're having with your Mac's hardware. This can include problems with your Mac's display, graphics, processor, memory, and storage. You can use Apple's Hardware Test to rule out most hardware failures as the culprit when you're trying to troubleshoot problems you're experiencing with.
I seem to have overcome these issues with minimal effort, regaining the speed and responsiveness I had prior to installing Apple’s latest OSX, Yosemite. Below are the first things I recommend before trying to revert your machine back to a prior OS (like Mavericks) or upgrading hardware entirely. I urge Apple to educate their Genius Bar team in some of these techniques, rather than telling customers “There’s nothing you can do, and you can’t revert to a previous OS.”
(Thanks to the many helpful posts which helped me, especially the HighTechDad blog (http://www.hightechdad.com/2014/10/23/13-tips-optimize-mac-yosemite-installation/). I’ll credit and reference all below.)
I think the main issue for most MacBook users may be remedied by a simple SMC reset. Try this, as well as a PRAM reset first, as it takes very little time. (This seems to have solved my major issues, on a maxed out Late 2009 MacBook Pro w/ 8GB RAM & 1TB HD, as well as issues for others I’ve spoken to.)
It seems Yosemite should certainly include SMC and PRAM resets upon initial restart, as this might eliminate most problems customers are having.
1) Reset the System Management Controller (SMC)
Many believe that this was their main issue. If your fan runs continuously, try this! Here are steps for MacBook Pros (for more information and for other Macs, check here – http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964):
- Shut Down your Mac.
- With power adaptor plugged in, hold the Left Shift + Option + Control + Power Button, simultaneously, for about 10 seconds, then release.
- Your Mac won’t power on but you will have reset your System Management Controller (SMC).
Similar to the SMC, you can reset your computer’s PRAM (Apple Support Article for Yosemite – http://support.apple.com/kb/PH18761):
- Shut Down your Mac.
- Press the power button
- Press and hold Command + Option + P + R all together, before the initial startup screen appears.
- Continue to hold until you hear the startup chime sound. (You can continue to hold through 2-3 chime cycles to assure PRAM has been reset.)
- Release keys and allow computer to restart fully. Your PRAM should be reset.
Additional steps to increase performance:
Etrecheck Pro 5 1 – For Troubleshooting Your Macbook Air
3) Reduce Transparency: Go to System Preferences > Accessibility and click the “reduce transparency” option.
4) Turn off Genie effect: Go to System Preference > Dock > Minimizewindows using: Select ‘Scale effect’ instead of ‘Genie effect’.
5) Turn off Dashboard (if you don’t use it: Go to System Preferences > Mission Control. Set Dashboard dropdown menu to “Off”.
6) Disable FileVault: (Definitely check FileVault settings to see if enabled or if encryption is in process.)
It looks like FileVault causes huge performance issues (during the encryption process). FileVault is an option offered when upgrading to Yosemite. FileVault encrypts the entire hard drive, and this can be extremely time consuming for those with a physical (spinning) disk. If your Mac is currently encrypting your hard drive, you should let it finish and performance should improve when complete. (There are reports where the encryption process hangs for days. You should research that issue separately if you’re experiencing this.)
If you’ve enabled FileVault, you can reverse this process and performance should improve (Note: Unchecking FileVault will take time to un-encrypt your hard drive and this could cause additional temporary performance issues).
Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > FileVault to check settings and make changes.
7) Reduce Spotlight items: Go to System Preferences > Spotlightto configure.
In Yosemite, Spotlight is more powerful and performs functions you may, or may not, be interested in. To reduce Spotlight overhead reduce its index file, you can select only the items you want to appear in Spotlight searches (order how items here appear, as well).
7) Run EtreCheck, a free 3rd party utility that analyzes your Mac and displays important system configuration details. It makes it easy to copy this information to the Clipboard (while removing personal info) so you can share info with online Apple Support Communities so others can help you.
Here are two additional items I have not done yet, but that I plan to look into (as posted by HighTechDad):
Etrecheck Pro 5 1 – For Troubleshooting Your Macbook Pro
1) Repair Permissions:
This should be one of the things that you do before installing an upgrade to the OS as well as after. It can fix a variety of things. You can do it without restarting but you may want to run from the Recovery Partition that is automatically created with new installations of the operating system.
2) Check Disk for Errors:
This is another thing you you should do from the Recovery Partition. You can Verify your disk/hard drive but you cannot fix any issues.
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There are also general things you can do to increase performance, like Add RAM, install a larger or faster Hard Drive, do a clean install, etc. But try some of the items above and see if that helps solve any issues related to your Yosemite upgrade prior to spending more money or time.
Please comment if this has helped your situation and any other tips you have for the Mac community. Please refrain from pimping ‘for-profit’ solutions and offers. Offending posts will be removed.
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Network utility x 6 2. I’d like to credit and thank the following bloggers and sites for their help:
- HighTechDad – 13 Tips to Optimize Your Mac After Yosemite Installation [UPDATED]: http://www.hightechdad.com/2014/10/23/13-tips-optimize-mac-yosemite-installation/
- Etresoft’s EtreCheck: http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck
- LifeHacker – How To Fix OS X Yosemite’s Biggest Annoyances: http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2014/10/how-to-fix-os-x-yosemites-biggest-annoyances/
- LifeHacker – Clean Up And Revive Your Bloated, Sluggish Mac: http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/05/clean-up-and-revive-your-bloated-sluggish-mac/
- Apple Support Communities – Yosemite made my MacBook Pro so slow. Need help (this thread): https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6610506?start=30&tstart=0
- MachMachines- Mac Slow After Yosemite Update? Fix It: http://machmachines.com/mac-slow-yosemite-update-fix/
- Gizmodo – The Worst Bugs in OS X Yosemite and How to Fix Them: http://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/the-worst-bugs-in-os-x-yosemite-and-how-to-fix-them-1652690924
- OS X Daily – 6 Easy Tips to Speed Up OS X Yosemite on Your Mac: http://osxdaily.com/2014/10/24/speed-up-os-x-yosemite-mac/