2023 24-inch iMac running slow

Thank you for the new report, that was suggested by my good colleague @ den.thed 👍

Below some are the findings

Your iMac hardware is fine. The real issues are:

1 - Carbonite is overwhelming your Mac

CarboniteDaemon is using 117% CPU

CarboniteStatus is using ~10% CPU

Both together are using almost ¾ of your available RAM.

2 - Your Mac only has 8 GB RAM, and Carbonite is using most of it.

This alone will cause constant beachballing, freezing, and slow apps.

Your Mac is out of RAM and using almost 7 GB of swap

Swap Used: 6.90 GB

This indicates RAM exhaustion, which forces macOS to use the SSD as temporary memory — causing slowness and spinning beachballs.

When your Mac runs out of available RAM, it moves some inactive data from RAM to the swap file on disk.

This frees up RAM for active apps and helps prevent slowdowns or crashes

3 - Your internal drive is low on space

You’re at 41 GB free, but macOS with 8 GB RAM performs much better with 70–100 GB free.

4 - Many background processes (Adobe, Carbonite, HP, Malwarebytes, Coupons utility, etc.)

Your Mac has hundreds of background agents.

Most are harmless, but combined they strain an 8 GB system.

What to do:

If you prefer to use Time Machine only (which you already have working), uninstalling Carbonite will immediately free resources.

5 - Reduce background apps / login items

These add up and drain RAM.

Recommended to disable from System Settings → Login Items:

Adobe Creative Cloud

Canon Extended Survey

HP Product Research

Coupons launcher

Menu World Time (if unused)

Skype ShareAgent (or remove it completely) Microsoft and discontinued Skype 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/skype/skype-is-retiring-in-may-2025-what-you-need-to-know-2a7d2501-427f-485e-8be0-2068a9f90472

6 - Free more disk space

You currently have:

41 GB free

macOS reports 77 GB “Available” (this includes purgeable space)

Purgeable Space is controlled by the Operating System and not the user 

Get detailed information about a disk in Disk Utility on Mac

To stop beachballing you want at least 70 GB actually free, not purgeable.

den.thed wrote:

That's it, good work.

For starters, I see a couple of issues.

1) Your iMac's 250GB internal storage drive is running low on free space.

For smooth operation, it is best to keep at least 80 to 100GB of free space.

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/f329b859-42e6-4677-ba1a-b086d756a77b

To free up storage space you can move your Photos, Music or Movie Libraries to an external hard drive.

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

Change where your music files are stored on Mac - Apple Support

Move your iMovie for Mac library - Apple Support

2) Malwarebytes is a good program.

The problem is, that it uses a lot of resources to continually run in the background.

You need to disable the active scanning and only occasional manual scan your iMac with malwarebytes.

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/4dc391b1-6459-4845-9e5f-d3629160d8f1

3) Then once you have taken care of those two issues.

Restart the iMac, run a new and post the new EtreCheckPro report.

I concur on all your points 👍

EtreCheckPro is an excellent tool for sorting out slowness and various other problems.

Download and run the free version of EtreCheckPro, from > https://etrecheck.com/en/index.html

Then post back here with your Report, as per > How to use the Add Text Feature When Post… - Apple Community

Agree with my colleague @ den.thed

Post the Full Report

Should any of the below apply to this computer >> Get rid of them via the Developers Instruction 

There are 4 Categories of Third Party Software / Services that are not needed 

In no special order 

1 - Third Party 2 Way Firewalls 

like Lulu and Little Snitch 

2 - Commercial VPNs 

They may not be what one believes they are doing for the computer and what they actually are doing behind the scenes and unbeknownst to the user ( you ) 

They may also reduce your Internet Speeds by upwards of 30% 

https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29

VPN: What you need to know - Apple Community

3 - Third Party Security Software 

There are no known Windows-like Viruses in the wild that self replicate and affect macOS, because of the underling UNIX  Foundation and Permission Limitation. 

The Operating System resides in a Sealed and Read Only Volume that cannot be opened by the User nor by Third Party Applications.

The Only thing this Antivirus software is protecting is the Bank Account of the Developers and for zero return to the User aside from the problems this software creates.

Security. Built right in

Mac app security enhancements

The Built in Security  is all that is required to protect the computer.

Protecting against malware in macOS

4 - Third Party Disk Cleaners / Optimizer 

Any Third Party Applications that will interfere with the normal operation of the OS,  is an invitation for disaster. 

Certain Applications maybe available on the Apple Apps Store - this only means the Developer is prepared to pay Apple a percentage on each sale. 

What the Application may do to the computer is up to the User to check this out before purchase

To put the Third Party Disk Cleaner / Optimizer in context and the damages it may have or has already done.

This type of applications can or will Muck Up your User Account ( Home Folder ) of this machine.

It does not touch the Operating System itself unless you consider your User Account ( Home Folder ) as part of the Operating System.

The Operating System is hosed

I see several concerns.

First, your SD Passport is a slow USB2 drive. I have seem EtreCheck reports where a commercial USB 2 drive slowed things overall when in combination with newer USB3externals. Easy enough to disconnect and test.

Others have pointed out that your internal drive is nearly full. That could cause these abyssmal drive scores:

Write speed: 1190 MB/s

Read speed: 1425 MB/s

Both values should be up to 3200MB/sec for your model Macbook Pro, The File System Score, however, suggests your drive is otherwise healthy.

RAM: your SWAP values should never be nearly equal to your total physical RAM:

Virtual Memory Information:

Physical RAM: 8 GB

Free RAM: 53 MB

Used RAM: 6.85 GB

Cached files: 1.10 GB

Available RAM: 1.15 GB

Swap Used: 6.90 GB ⚠️

after only 8 hours since last boot. I suspect Cabonite, as it is otherwise being the fat hog at the trough.

That's it, good work.

For starters, I see a couple of issues.

1) Your iMac's 250GB internal storage drive is running low on free space.

For smooth operation, it is best to keep at least 80 to 100GB of free space.

To free up storage space you can move your Photos, Music or Movie Libraries to an external hard drive.

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

Change where your music files are stored on Mac - Apple Support

Move your iMovie for Mac library - Apple Support

2) Malwarebytes is a good program.

The problem is, that it uses a lot of resources to continually run in the background.

You need to disable the active scanning and only occasional manual scan your iMac with malwarebytes.

3) Then once you have taken care of those two issues.

Restart the iMac, run a new and post the new EtreCheckPro report.

8.11GB will only help a little in the overall scheme of things.

Try using OmniDiskSweeper to locate other larger files in you user account.

https://www.omnigroup.com/more/

Do not use the DiskSweeper tools to delete files from your internal drive.

Copy the files from your internal drive to the external drive and test.

Test the files, then delete & trash the files from your internal drive.

I agree with Owl-53

You need to free up at minimum another 20GB on your Macintosh HD.

Unfortunately, all Apple Silicon Computers have both the Unified RAM and SSD Drive Soldered to the Logicboard

There is no way to replace or upgrade these components

Another way, if you what to extend the life of this machine

Get a good External Enclosure and a good Large SSD Drive for the enclosure

Often suggested starting point could be www.owc.com and they do ship Internationally

Install macOS 26 Tahoe to the External Drive and make the drive the Startup drive

Obviously there are costs and time involved in this procedure

How to use an external storage device as a Mac startup disk

DONM1146 wrote:

I agree, but based on my level of computer expertise, I'm not sure how to go about that.

Open and read the links that I posted on Dec 6 that explain how to move your Photos, Music or Movies to an external drive.

I would welcome any suggestions and guidance on where to find that 20GB to free up, and how to go about it.

Use the OmniDiskSweeper app that I posted on Dec 9 to find the larger of your Photos, Music or Movies Libraries.

Then use the directions in the link to move the largest library to an external drive.

DONM1146 wrote:

<Beachballing.log>

Here is what I hope will be my last EtreCheck report. I'm sure that there's more that can be done to help my situation, but for now it seems to be pretty much under control. Knowing my level of comfort and expertise, I think that this may be a good place to stop before I inadvertently mess something up.

Many, many thanks to Owl-53 and den.thed for all the help, and for being so patient.

DONM1146

Nothing has changed

Low disk space - This computer is running critically low on free hard drive space.

Owl-53 is spot on.

The lack of Free Storage Space, Malwarebytes, Log-in Items and now the latest Carbonite activity all need to be addressed.

That's a good start.

Keep in mind Items in the Trash still take up drive space and that you must Empty the Trash to regain drive space.

den.thed wrote:

Owl-53 is spot on.

The lack of Free Storage Space, Malwarebytes, Log-in Items and now the latest Carbonite activity all need to be addressed.

Blush

Many hands make light work, my friend