Very slow iMac startup

Hey there!

Here are some things I noticed from your EtreCheck report:

More than one antivirus app - This computer has multiple antivirus apps installed

Be sure to uninstall CleanMyMac. CleanMyMac is third-party software that isn't required and can cause your Mac to run slowly. Here are the uninstallation instructions: How to uninstall CleanMyMac X.

Malwarebytes is fine to have on your Mac.

Check the health of your Fusion Drive

Next, I'd suggest that you use DriveDx to check the health of your Fusion Drive. This user tip should help with that: How to use DriveDx - Apple Community.

-Jack

1TB Fusion Drive performance is known to be inconsistent. When startup files/applications are loaded in flash they open almost instantaneous, but opening from the HDD component has a perceptible delay. Several seconds to open a web browser, several minutes to boot to desktop. With only 28 GB flash in the 1TB model it is rare for everything you use to be in flash.

If you want consistent fast storage you will need to move to a pure SSD. External USB-C SSDs work well.

Also don’t use CMM. It causes more problems than it solves.

We need to see what all is running, a report from this will not display any personal info...

Using EtreCheck - Apple Community

EtreCheck is a FREE simple little diagnostic tool to display 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. It will not display any personal info.

https://www.etrecheck.com/

Thanks for Old Toad’s etrecheck instructions…

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255121100?answerId=259529290022#259529290022

Use the Note tool on the bottom of this editor's toolbar, as shown in the image, to copy and paste the output from EtreCheck. In a Reply before you click post, look for this to add longer texts...

Uninstall CleanMyMac per their directions , then run etrecheck again to see what chaff it left...

On CMM…

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Hmmm, I can't really pic out any reason for slowness, though MacKeeper/CleanMyMac are quite often a problem.

It'd be easy to update the RAM for more memory, but that also doesn't look like he problem.

Try one of these two…

You can use Drive DX to possibly get a better view of Drive health…

https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx

Thanks to Jack-19…

It may be wise to run SMART Utility to check the drives' health.

CMM is still there‽

Get Find Any File...

http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/index.php

Hold Option or alt key when selecting Find to Find All.

Find all for Name>Contains... CleanMyMac

Trash all of them.

Then Find all for Name>Contains... macpaw

Trash all of them.

Restart.

OK, fingers crossed Carol! :) 🤞

Would like to hear how it eventually works.

:)