2021 MacBook Air slows until reboot

My MacBook Air is about 9 months old and has had a weird quirk for awhile. All processes gradually slow down until I reboot, and that resets everything to normal snappy performance. This has nothing to do with internet/network speed -- it affects all system processes, such as opening apps, saving files, opening files, or copy-pasting items. It usually takes about 3-4 days until saving a JPEG out of Photoshop takes a full minute of spinning beachball to achieve, at which point I reboot, and everything will work fine again.

I don't have any virus or scanning software installed.

Posted on Mar 7, 2022 06:03 AM

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John Galt

Level 10

153,490 points

Posted on Mar 7, 2022 07:19 AM

The behavior you describe appears to suggest an app or process is imposing gradually increasing demands on limited system resources (memory for example). Obviously that shouldn't happen, as those resources should be released when needed.

Try using Activity Monitor: Activity Monitor User Guide for Mac - Apple Support in an effort to determine if Photoshop or any other app for that matter is responsible.

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2021 MacBook Air slows until reboot

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