MacBook Air M2 slow file access in apps

Hello,


My Macbook Air M2 8GB has recently gone incredibly slow when having to access my files in things like Chrome, Preview etc.


A few examples of this where it takes a few seconds to navigate to file, open a file, change the name to save the file as etc:


  • If I click 'Save Image As' in Chrome
  • Pressing 'Upload Image/File' in Chrome
  • Saving an image in Preview
  • When I press 'Upload' on YouTube


However, if I open finder normally I can navigate between folders as normal and everything shows up instantly. It only seems to occur when I try to open my folders/files via an app (Chrome, Preview, etc).


I've uploaded this video showing the issue, hopefully it shows that it takes a while for each action to load where as usually it happens instantly.


Hopefully somehow can help as it's driving me mad


https://youtu.be/6zU8ZRT6nZE



MacBook Air, macOS 26.1

Posted on Nov 27, 2025 3:08 PM

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MacBook Air M2 slow file access in apps

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