My 2020 Intel Macbook Air is Running Slow

Hey Everyone, my 2020 Intel MacBook Air is running quite slow, especially on startup. The wallpaper takes a couple of minutes to load (just gray at the start), the fans run full blast, and my apps take an eternity to open, frequently beachballing. If I leave it sitting there for a while, it will calm down and stop lagging, but that sometimes can take an hour. If I have multiple apps open, the fans will start right up again. I've done an EtreCheck report for you to better diagnose my problem, and any solutions would be much appreciated.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.6

Posted on Sep 13, 2025 04:51 PM

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Posted on Sep 13, 2025 08:19 PM

The hardware seems to be OK.

The problem is with third-party app overload.



Startup the Mac in Safe Mode which will disables most third-party app's and test.

Have a look at > Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

Then restart normally and re-test to see if that helps.


I know it's not what you want to hear, but if that was my Mac.

I would backup my important files, then wipe and start over.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 13, 2025 08:19 PM in response to Okim13

The hardware seems to be OK.

The problem is with third-party app overload.



Startup the Mac in Safe Mode which will disables most third-party app's and test.

Have a look at > Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

Then restart normally and re-test to see if that helps.


I know it's not what you want to hear, but if that was my Mac.

I would backup my important files, then wipe and start over.

Sep 14, 2025 02:14 AM in response to Okim13

Something looks Off with the Drive Structure


disk0 - APPLE SSD AP1024N 1.00 TB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

disk0s1 - EFI [EFI] 315 MB

disk0s2 [APFS Container] 744.00 GB

disk1 [APFS Virtual drive] 744.00 GB (Shared by 6 volumes)

disk1s1 - Macintosh HD - Data (APFS) [APFS Virtual drive] (642.19 GB used)

disk1s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] (2.47 GB used)

disk1s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] (1.33 GB used)

disk1s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] (25 KB used)

disk1s5 (APFS) [APFS Container] (11.26 GB used)

disk1s5s1 - Macintosh HD (APFS) [APFS Snapshot] (11.26 GB used)

disk1s6 - Update (APFS) (4 MB used)

disk0s3 - B******P 256.24 GB (241.49 GB used)


Mounted Volumes:

disk0s3 - B******P

Mount point: /Volumes/B******P

Used: 241.49 GB

Size: 256.24 GB

Free: 14.76 GB


The combined totals of disk0s2 [APFS Container] 744.00 GB plus disk0s3 - B******P Size: 256.24 GB does arrive a 1 TB which is the Total Capacity of the Physical


Then, there is all the Other Stuff my colleague @den.thed has mentioned


I would also second the idea to Start Over from Scratch


For Apple Intel computers >>   Use Disk Utility to erase an Intel-based Mac followed by How to reinstall macOS


Always make a Time Machine Backup  before  proceeding 



Sep 14, 2025 10:00 AM in response to Okim13

In addition to OWL-53's always perceptive comments about the drive structure (is this internal drive partitioned?), the report indicates


disk1s1 - Macintosh HD - Data [APFS Virtual drive]

Filesystem: APFS

Mount point: /System/Volumes/Data

Encrypted

Used: 642.19 GB

Shared values

Size: 744.00 GB

Free: 86.56 GB


...free space barely above 10% which is problematic with the MANY software apps running on this Mac, and with 16 GB memory there is no doubt a lot of paging to disk or "scratch space" needed by all those apps required, but that can be very slow when disk space is so tight (20% free is recommended).


I agree with den.thed that this laptop appears to be "overloaded."


There appear to be two VPNs, one from Malwarebytes the other Wireguard. Are these conflicting with one another? VPNs are actually a poor "security" strategy (unless provided for a specific corporate network).


Also a virtual machine is installed, maybe running. Depending on how configured, that can take a lot of resources, especially for a MacBook Air.


Also, Intelhaxm is installed and running. This is an accelerator package meant to accelerate virtual machines, among other things. Maybe questionable from the get go, support for Intelhaxm was dropped more than 3 years ago due to security concerns. Who knows if this package conflicts with Sequoia ...


Bluestacks ... installed ... another OS emulator for something else (Android?). Also dragging down resources on this laptop.


Museservice -- installed, this is some sort of tool for large music downloads. Probably a resource drain as well.


There are also some "executables not found" messages in the Etrecheck report which may indicate some software was improperly uninstalled, resulting in leftover pieces (kexts, extensions, background processes) still running in some disorganized way.




Sep 14, 2025 01:25 PM in response to steve626

Hey Steve, thanks for replying. Yes, this disk is partitioned. It's a Windows bootcamp partition that I use to play some Windows games. As far as VPNs go, I didn't even know I had WireGuard installed, and I didn't know Malwarebytes had a vpn. Obviously, I don't use either of them; I just occasionally use Malwarebytes to scan for viruses. Could the virtual machine you are talking about be Boot Camp? That wouldn't be running when I'm on the macOS side, though, right? I also had no idea what Intelhaxm was until now. Is it really necessary? Also, I didn't realize Bluestacks and Museservice were taking up energy. I used BlueStacks a long time ago to run mobile games on my Mac, but I will gladly get rid of it as I don't use it anymore. Museservice is part of MuseScore, I believe, which I use occasionally to open and annotate sheet music. Is there any way to disable MuseService without deleting the entire app?


Tips on how to uninstall some of these would be much appreciated.

My 2020 Intel Macbook Air is Running Slow

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