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In attempting to solve another problem, I've tried to reinstall macOS High Sierra onto my Mac mini (2011). Everything seemed to go fine with the install, however after booting up it is now extremely slow. Every action I take requires a beachball, every button I press in any application, including clicking the red X button to close a window will cause the machine to lock up for a few seconds. Any application I try to launch bounces on the dock for 15-30 seconds. They system is basically unusable, and won't respond to any of my attempts to connect to its file shares, which means I cannot access any of my documents, which has me very stressed out. (This Mac's primary job is to host files from its internal drive, which I connect to with my MacBook).

Some additional notes:

  • There are no processes consuming the CPU
  • There are no processes using up all the memory
  • The OS is on an internal SSD which is performing fine.
  • This behavior is not limited to GUI apps, entering terminal commands, even ssh'd in from a different machine frequently locks the machine up
  • I am using Remote Desktop to control this machine and every minute or so it completely locks up and enters the "Reconnecting..." phase for some time. Seems like this is only getting worse.
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  • This is classic symptoms of a failing spinning hard drive. Check your backup and maybe boot it in target mode to another Mac to back up anything you need before you try to troubleshoot further.
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Jul 24 at 12:44

2 Answers 2

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If the installation is relatively "clean" -- without third-party background processes, Launch Agents, Launch Daemons and the like -- then that points the finger towards a hardware problem.

It could be that overheating, due to dust and fluff accumulating inside, is causing CPU throttling.

If the installation is not clean, then do the usual troubleshooting steps of first testing in Safe Boot mode, and then testing in a brand new user account. SafeBoot mode will rule in or out third-party software at the system level; a new user account will rule in or out any user settings or user-launched software.

"In attempting to solve another problem..."

It's possible that the other problem is also relevant, of course.

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This is a known issue with that version of macOS. It's internally doing a bunch of stuff, the solution is to simply wait. So for example if you have errands to run or something make sure sleep is set to off and leave the Mac running. It'll come back to normal soon. On my old iMac it probably took half a day but that didn't have an SSD so yours should be faster.

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  • I wish this were true, but, as I said in my original post, there's nothing using the CPU, not even Spotlight. I've also never seen spotlight or any other macOS process for that matter use so many resources as to leave the system in an unusable state.
    – At0micMutex
    Commented Mar 2, 2023 at 3:31
  • Yes you will not see anything obviously using the CPU. It's exactly what happened on my machine and it resolves itself eventually every time after I clean install, just like in my answer.
    – Louie
    Commented Mar 2, 2023 at 6:59
  • I expect spotlight and reindex process to take maybe 1/3 to half the CPU (maybe 2 cores total) but not that Remote Desktop would drop continually. Are you saying there’s a known issue where a Screen Sharing drops every minute continually after an install?
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Jul 24 at 12:43

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