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My Mac Studio lacks up for seconds at a time. wod do i understand the MAC diagnostics

I ran the MAC Diagnostics to try to understand the problem, but There does not seem to be any clear answers any where amongst the hundreds of files telling me if it found a problem anywhere. Why can't Apple just say Pass or fail because of this or that. Why do I have to have an apple software degree to tell be if I have a problem.


Mac Studio, macOS 13.3

Posted on May 5, 2023 6:51 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 6, 2023 8:29 AM

By far the easiest way to cause instability and crashing is to install ANY third-party speeder-uppers, Cleaners, Optimizers, or Virus scanners. or a VPN that you installed yourself.


The idea that a third party, with no special knowledge of the inner workings of MacOS, can somehow find a simple way to protect your computer — that is not already being done by MacOS itself — suggests that the MacOS developers are somehow "holding out on you". That is absurd.


You should remove any and all (other than Apple built-in) virus scanners, speeder uppers, optimizers, cleaners, App deleters or VPN packages you installed yourself, or anything of that ilk.


Your report shows Bit Defender and Nord VPN. Remove them and NEVER re-install.


Third-party file Sync-ers such as DropBox, BackBlaze, OneDrive, or GoogleDrive can ruin performance, but are not inherently dangerous.


The current versions of MacOS have protections so good, there are currently no known Viruses that can SPONTANEOUSLY infect your Mac. Random ‘stuff’ is NEVER allowed to be Executed, so all your files do not need to be scanned, again and again. Only software from know developers is allowed to be considered for becoming Executable, and then only after you enter your Admin password to allow installation. Potentially-executable files are then scanned at first run by MacOS Gatekeeper, locked, and moved to the /Applications folder.


Effective defenses against malware and ot… - Apple Community

Effective defenses against malware and ot… - Apple Community



11 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 6, 2023 8:29 AM in response to BBWEST11

By far the easiest way to cause instability and crashing is to install ANY third-party speeder-uppers, Cleaners, Optimizers, or Virus scanners. or a VPN that you installed yourself.


The idea that a third party, with no special knowledge of the inner workings of MacOS, can somehow find a simple way to protect your computer — that is not already being done by MacOS itself — suggests that the MacOS developers are somehow "holding out on you". That is absurd.


You should remove any and all (other than Apple built-in) virus scanners, speeder uppers, optimizers, cleaners, App deleters or VPN packages you installed yourself, or anything of that ilk.


Your report shows Bit Defender and Nord VPN. Remove them and NEVER re-install.


Third-party file Sync-ers such as DropBox, BackBlaze, OneDrive, or GoogleDrive can ruin performance, but are not inherently dangerous.


The current versions of MacOS have protections so good, there are currently no known Viruses that can SPONTANEOUSLY infect your Mac. Random ‘stuff’ is NEVER allowed to be Executed, so all your files do not need to be scanned, again and again. Only software from know developers is allowed to be considered for becoming Executable, and then only after you enter your Admin password to allow installation. Potentially-executable files are then scanned at first run by MacOS Gatekeeper, locked, and moved to the /Applications folder.


Effective defenses against malware and ot… - Apple Community

Effective defenses against malware and ot… - Apple Community



May 6, 2023 7:23 AM in response to BBWEST11

Your query was about the User diagnostics, which find GROSS issues, but as you observed, do not run long enough or detailed enough tests to find everything that could possibly be an issue.


Regarding your symptom of lockups for seconds at a time:

Diagnostics is not the right tool for that job. This little "discovery" utility, Etrecheck is the tool for that job. It creates a very readable report that shows what is running and the resources it is using. It's report is pre-lundered of all personally-idetnifau=iable information, so is suitable to posting back to the forums fro readers to help you analyze.


Using EtreCheck to Troubleshoot Potential… - Apple Community




May 6, 2023 6:47 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Good Morning

Well I ran the diagnostics as suggested. It took longer to do the initializing then to do the diagnostics themselves. It did come back with ADP000. However I am still puzzled. It seems these diagnostics are just a snapshot as I can not see that it test everything. Not a long enough test. I have 128 GB memory and you would think it would take some time longer than 1 Min to test just that. So that diagnostic test must be rudimentary. That does not negate the problem of my machine completely locking up. Oh and the diagnostics I was referring to are part of the options that are part of the Activity Monitor Program. See screen shot. That is where I got the results before mentioned. Thank you for your help. Much appreciated. Be well..

May 5, 2023 8:19 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hi Thank you for your help I ran the diagnostics from the activity monitor. Both of them produces hundreds of files with so many codes that I don't know where to look. I scanned the files for ADP000 or APD and found none. So many text files Most talking about hex lacations and stuff like compressed numbers but no results of the entire test. I would have expected something like tested Memory ---Pass. Wifi ---Pass etc. But no, Nothing that makes cense. I worked in computers for years in maintenance and ran thousands of diagnostics and always was told Pass/Fail not hex numbers. and no explanation . If I wanted details about a fail I want to know where to look. Darn why so complicated....

May 6, 2023 8:33 AM in response to BBWEST11

Probably not the full cause, but these need to go...


Delete these files & restart...


/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist


/Library/LaunchAgents/com.adobe.AdobeCreativeCloud.plist


/Library/LaunchAgents/com.adobe.ccxprocess.plist


If you're not required by work or school, delete AntivirusforMac... Bitdefender

May 6, 2023 9:22 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thank you for your effective and prompt advice. I will seriously consider all of It. I will take some time to analyze it all. Since coming to the very new to me world of MAC from Microsoft old habits are very hard to give up. Etc, antivirus / VPN. So I am so very reluctant to do that, in a world where we all so seem to be vulnerable. Once again thank you.


My Mac Studio lacks up for seconds at a time. wod do i understand the MAC diagnostics

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