Mac Air awash in beach balls

[So Here I Am]

I've posted this elsewhere on the internet - where some of you may also hang out - to cast the widest net for help. I apologize if you're bumping into it twice!

I'm on a 2014 Mac Air running Mojave 10.14.3. All my apps are up to date.

For the last several months, I've been plagued with beachballs, on both native and non-native apps. Among them:

Firefox
Thunderbird
Office 365
Safari
Photos
Audacity

Photos and Firefox are particularly nasty in their recovery time. It's often easier to quit than to wait.

I've noticed that an app doesn't have to be in use to start hanging. Example: Thunderbird stalled out, so I opened the Force Quit menu. As expected, Tbird said "not reponding". But right in front of my eyes, Airdroid turned to "not responding", too. Hadn't even touched it.

I've run an EtreCheck, which I can't seem to attach - neither .doc nor .docx are supported. I'll try to post it after this.

Please speak slowly and use small words. Computers are not my strength! Many thanks.

 

[So Here I Am]

EtreCheck version: 5.2 (5C006)
Report generated: 2019-05-10 17:10:15
Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com
Runtime: 14:44
Performance: Poor

Problem: Beachballing
Description:
All apps beach balling, some need to be quit. Affecting Thunderbird, F
irefox, Audacity, Word, Safari. If I wait it out some apps will recove
r within a minute. Heavy beachballing kicks the fan on.

Major Issues:
Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.

Time Machine backup out-of-date - The last Time Machine backup is over 10 days old.
Kernel panics - This system has experienced kernel panics. This could be a sign of hardware failure.
Stuck iCloud - This machine has a large number of pending iCloud transfers.
Poor performance - EtreCheck report shows poor performance. This is unusual.
Heavy CPU usage - Some processes are using an unusually high amount of CPU.

Minor Issues:
These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems or opportunities for improvement.

Apps with heavy CPU usage - There have been numerous cases of apps with heavy CPU usage.
Heavy I/O usage - Your system is under heavy I/O use. This will reduce your performance.
32-bit Apps - This machine has 32-bits apps will not work after macOS 10.14 “Mojave”.

Hardware Information:
MacBook Air (13-inch, 2013 - 2014)
MacBook Air Model: MacBookAir6,2
1 1.4 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-4260U) CPU: 2-core
4 GB RAM - Not upgradeable
BANK 0/DIMM0 - 2 GB DDR3 1600 ok
BANK 1/DIMM0 - 2 GB DDR3 1600 ok
Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 71

Video Information:
Intel HD Graphics 5000 - VRAM: 1536 MB
Color LCD 1440 x 900

Drives:
disk0 - APPLE SSD SM0256F 251.00 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)
Internal PCI 5.0 GT/s x2 Serial ATA
disk0s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB
disk0s2 [APFS Container] 250.79 GB
disk1 [APFS Virtual drive] 250.79 GB (Shared by 4 volumes)
disk1s1 - Macintosh HD (APFS) (Shared - 196.71 GB used)
disk1s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] (Shared - 46 MB used)
disk1s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] (Shared - 517 MB used)
disk1s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] (Shared - 3.22 GB used)

Mounted Volumes:
disk1s1 - Macintosh HD 250.79 GB (50.16 GB free)
APFS
Mount point: /

disk1s4 - VM [APFS VM] (Shared - 3.22 GB used)
APFS
Mount point: /private/var/vm

Network:
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM67: SAMSUNG Modem
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM68: SAMSUNG Modem 2
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM69: SAMSUNG Modem 3
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM70: SAMSUNG Modem 4
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM71: SAMSUNG Modem 5
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM72: SAMSUNG Modem 6
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM73: SAMSUNG Modem 7
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM74: SAMSUNG Modem 8
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM75: SAMSUNG Modem 9
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM76: SAMSUNG Modem 10
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM77: SAMSUNG Modem 11
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM78: SAMSUNG Modem 12
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM79: SAMSUNG Modem 13
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM80: SAMSUNG Modem 14
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM81: SAMSUNG Modem 15
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM82: SAMSUNG Modem 16
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM83: SAMSUNG Modem 17
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM84: SAMSUNG Modem 18
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM85: SAMSUNG Modem 19
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM86: SAMSUNG Modem 20
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM87: SAMSUNG Modem 21
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM88: SAMSUNG Modem 22
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM89: SAMSUNG Modem 23
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM90: SAMSUNG Modem 24
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM91: SAMSUNG Modem 25
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM92: SAMSUNG Modem 26
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM93: SAMSUNG Modem 27
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM94: SAMSUNG Modem 28
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM95: SAMSUNG Modem 29
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM96: SAMSUNG Modem 30
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM97: SAMSUNG Modem 31
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM98: SAMSUNG Modem 32
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM99: SAMSUNG Modem 33
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM100: SAMSUNG Modem 34
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM101: SAMSUNG Modem 35
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM102: SAMSUNG Modem 36
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM103: SAMSUNG Modem 37
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM104: SAMSUNG Modem 38
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM105: SAMSUNG Modem 39
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM106: SAMSUNG Modem 40
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM107: SAMSUNG Modem 41
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM108: SAMSUNG Modem 42
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM109: SAMSUNG Modem 43
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM110: SAMSUNG Modem 44
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM111: SAMSUNG Modem 45
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM112: SAMSUNG Modem 46
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM113: SAMSUNG Modem 47
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM114: SAMSUNG Modem 48
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM115: SAMSUNG Modem 49
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM116: SAMSUNG Modem 50
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM117: SAMSUNG Modem 51
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM118: SAMSUNG Modem 52
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM120: SAMSUNG Modem 53
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM121: SAMSUNG Modem 54
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM122: SAMSUNG Modem 55
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM123: SAMSUNG Modem 56
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM124: SAMSUNG Modem 57
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM125: SAMSUNG Modem 58
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM126: SAMSUNG Modem 59
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM127: SAMSUNG Modem 60
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM128: SAMSUNG Modem 61
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM129: SAMSUNG Modem 62
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM130: SAMSUNG Modem 63
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM131: SAMSUNG Modem 64
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM132: SAMSUNG Modem 65
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM133: SAMSUNG Modem 66
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM134: SAMSUNG Modem 67
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM135: SAMSUNG Modem 68
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM136: SAMSUNG Modem 69
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM137: SAMSUNG Modem 70
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM138: SAMSUNG Modem 71
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM139: SAMSUNG Modem 72
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM140: SAMSUNG Modem 73
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM142: SAMSUNG Modem 74
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM143: SAMSUNG Modem 75
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM144: SAMSUNG Modem 76
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM145: SAMSUNG Modem 77
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM148: SAMSUNG Modem 78
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM150: SAMSUNG Modem 79
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM151: SAMSUNG Modem 80
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM152: SAMSUNG Modem 81
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM153: SAMSUNG Modem 82
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM154: SAMSUNG Modem 83
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM155: SAMSUNG Modem 84
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM156: SAMSUNG Modem 85
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM158: SAMSUNG Modem 86
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM160: SAMSUNG Modem 87
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM16: SAMSUNG Modem 88
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM19: SAMSUNG Modem 89
Interface SAMSUNG_MDM23: SAMSUNG Modem 90
Interface en4: Thunderbolt Ethernet
Interface en0: Wi-Fi
802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Interface en3: iPhone
Interface en2: Bluetooth PAN
Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge
iCloud Quota: 141.23 GB available
iCloud Status: 886 pending files

 

[So Here I Am]

More ...

System Software:
macOS Mojave 10.14.3 (18D109)
Time since boot: About 2 hours

Notifications:
~/Desktop/DLs/EtreCheckPro.app
one notification (one scheduled)
/Applications/CleanMyMac 3.app
one notification

5 notifications
/Applications/Firefox.app
2 notifications
/Applications/Thunderbird.app
one notification
/Applications/Gemini 2.localized/Gemini 2.app
one notification (one scheduled)

Security:
Gatekeeper: Enabled
System Integrity Protection: Enabled

Antivirus apps: CleanMyMac

32-bit Applications:
5 32-bit apps

Kernel Extensions:
/Library/Extensions
[Loaded] MB_MBAM_Protection.kext (Malwarebytes Corporation, 3.2 - SDK 10.13)
[Loaded] Seagate Storage Driver.kext (Seagate Technologies LLC, 5.2.7 (26999) - SDK 10.4)

/Library/Extensions/Seagate Storage Driver.kext/Contents/PlugIns
[Not Loaded] SeagateLeafPowSecDriver_10_4.kext (Seagate Technologies LLC, 5.2.7 (26999) - SDK 10.4)
[Loaded] SeagateLeafPowSecDriver_10_5.kext (Seagate Technologies LLC, 5.2.7 (26999) - SDK 10.5)
[Not Loaded] SeagateDriveIcons.kext (Seagate Technologies LLC, 5.2.7 (26999) - SDK 10.4)

/System/Library/Extensions
[Not Loaded] jawbone.kext (1.1.2 - SDK 10.7)
[Not Loaded] ssuddrv.kext (DEVGURU Co., Ltd., 1.4.45 - SDK 10.6)

/System/Library/Extensions/ssuddrv.kext/Contents/PlugIns
[Not Loaded] ssudmdmcontrol.kext (DEVGURU Co., Ltd., 1.4.45 - SDK 10.6)
[Not Loaded] ssudmdmdata.kext (DEVGURU Co., Ltd., 1.4.45 - SDK 10.6)
[Not Loaded] ssudmtp.kext (DEVGURU Co., Ltd., 1.4.45 - SDK 10.5)
[Not Loaded] ssudserial.kext (DEVGURU Co., Ltd., 1.4.45 - SDK 10.6)
[Not Loaded] ssdumdrv.kext (Samsung Electronics, 1.3)

System Launch Agents:
[Not Loaded] 17 Apple tasks
[Loaded] 202 Apple tasks
[Running] 80 Apple tasks

System Launch Daemons:
[Not Loaded] 31 Apple tasks
[Loaded] 218 Apple tasks
[Running] 86 Apple tasks
[Other] One Apple task

Launch Agents:
[Running] com.carbonite.launchd.status.plist (Carbonite - installed 2019-05-04)
[Loaded] com.microsoft.update.agent.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2019-04-16)

Launch Daemons:
[Loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2019-03-25)
[Loaded] com.avid.bsd.shoetoolv120.plist (Avid Technology Inc - installed 2018-01-29)
[Running] com.avid.hub.service.plist (Avid Technology Inc - installed 2017-09-01)
[Running] com.avid.transport.client.plist (Avid Technology Inc - installed 2017-09-01)
[Loaded] com.carbonite.installhelper.plist (Carbonite - installed 2019-05-04)
[Running] com.carbonite.launchd.daemon.plist (Carbonite - installed 2019-05-04)
[Loaded] com.carbonite.launchd.watcher.plist (Carbonite - installed 2019-05-04)
[Loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac3.Agent.plist (MacPaw Inc. - installed 2019-04-05)
[Loaded] com.microsoft.OneDriveUpdaterDaemon.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2018-04-13)
[Loaded] com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2019-04-16)
[Loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2018-04-10)
[Running] com.paceap.eden.licensed.plist (? c6a7bebe - installed 2017-03-16)
[Loaded] com.rogueamoeba.aceagent.plist (Rogue Amoeba Software, LLC - installed 2019-04-04)

User Launch Agents:
[Loaded] com.dropbox.DropboxMacUpdate.agent.plist (Dropbox, Inc. - installed 2019-02-13)
[Not Loaded] com.microsoft.OneDriveMigrationLauncher.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2018-04-13)

User Login Items:
AirDroidHelper (Sand Studio - installed 2018-12-19)
(Modern Login Item - /Applications/AirDroid.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/AirDroidHelper.app)

BlinkkLauncher (App Store - installed 2017-11-04)
(Modern Login Item - /Applications/Blinkk.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/BlinkkLauncher.app)

CleanMyMac 3 Menu.app (MacPaw Inc. - installed 2019-04-05)
(Application - /Applications/CleanMyMac 3.app/Contents/MacOS/CleanMyMac 3 Menu.app)

Dropbox.app (Dropbox, Inc. - installed 2019-05-07)
(Application - /Applications/Dropbox.app)

EvernoteHelper (App Store - installed 2019-04-24)
(Modern Login Item - /Applications/Evernote.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/EvernoteHelper.app)

SpeechSynthesisServer.app (Apple - installed 2019-02-25)
(Application - /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/SpeechSynthesis.framework/Versions/A/SpeechSynthesisServer.app)

Internet Plug-ins:
googletalkbrowserplugin: 5.41.3.0 (? - installed 2015-12-11)
Silverlight: 5.1.50901.0 (? - installed 2017-12-04)
Flash Player: 32.0.0.171 (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2019-04-24)
FlashPlayer-10.6: 32.0.0.171 (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2019-04-24)
o1dbrowserplugin: 5.41.3.0 (? - installed 2015-12-15)

User Internet Plug-ins:
ZoomUsPlugIn: 4.3.59242.0310 (Zoom Video Communications, Inc. - installed 2019-04-09)

Audio Plug-ins:
AirPlay: 2.0 (Apple - installed 2019-02-25)
BridgeAudioSP: 5.2 (Apple - installed 2019-04-24)
iSightAudio: 7.7.3 (Apple - installed 2018-12-19)
ACE: 10.0.1 (Rogue Amoeba Software, LLC - installed 2019-04-14)
AppleAVBAudio: 710.1 (Apple - installed 2018-12-17)
InstantOn: 10.0.1 (? - installed 2019-04-14)
BluetoothAudioPlugIn: 6.0.10 (Apple - installed 2019-02-25)
AppleTimeSyncAudioClock: 1.0 (Apple - installed 2018-12-17)

Safari Extensions:
Evernote Web Clipper.safariextz - Evernote Corp. - http://evernote.com (installed 2018-04-15)
Todoist - App Store (installed 2019-02-28)

3rd Party Preference Panes:
Flash Player (installed 2019-03-25)
Seagate Dashboard for Mac OSX (installed 2016-12-01)

Time Machine:
Skip System Files: No
Auto backup: Yes
Volumes being backed up:
Macintosh HD: Disk size: 250.79 GB - Disk used: 200.63 GB
Destinations:
S***********************e [Local] (Last used)
Total size: 999.86 GB
Total number of backups: 1
Oldest backup: 2019-02-22 23:30:29
Last backup: 2019-02-22 23:30:29
5 local snapshots
Oldest local snapshot: 2019-02-22 12:56:51
Last local snapshot: 2019-05-10 16:35:20

Performance:
System Load: 4.49 (1 min ago) 3.98 (5 min ago) 4.04 (15 min ago)
Nominal I/O speed: 19.57 MB/s
File system: 31.80 seconds
Write speed: 500 MB/s
Read speed: 705 MB/s

CPU Usage Snapshot:
Type Overall
System 14 %
User 6 %
Idle 80 %

Top Processes Snapshot by CPU:
Process (count) CPU (Source - Location)
CarboniteDaemon (2) 147.97 % (Carbonite)
kernel_task 29.00 % (Apple)
EtreCheckPro 28.02 % (Etresoft, Inc.)
firefox 11.48 % (Mozilla Corporation)
Audacity 4.94 % (Paul Licameli)

Top Processes Snapshot by Memory:
Process (count) RAM usage (Source - Location)
CarboniteDaemon (2) 666 MB (Carbonite)
kernel_task 348 MB (Apple)
plugin-container (3) 175 MB (Mozilla Corporation)
firefox 149 MB (Mozilla Corporation)
soagent 38 MB (Apple)

Top Processes Snapshot by Network Use:
Process Input / Output (Source - Location)
mDNSResponder 2 MB / 215 KB (Apple)
firefox 1 MB / 339 KB (Mozilla Corporation)
Dropbox 339 KB / 653 KB (Dropbox, Inc.)
thunderbird 176 KB / 20 KB (Mozilla Corporation)
apsd 9 KB / 44 KB (Apple)

Top Processes Snapshot by Energy Use:
Process (count) Energy (0-100) (Source - Location)
CarboniteDaemon (2) 36 (Carbonite)
backupd-helper 26 (Apple)
ReportCrash (2) 3 (Apple)
WindowServer 3 (Apple)
Dropbox (3) 2 (Dropbox, Inc.)

Virtual Memory Information:
Physical RAM: 4 GB

Free RAM: 15 MB
Used RAM: 3.57 GB
Cached files: 421 MB

Available RAM: 436 MB
Swap Used: 1.05 GB

Software Installs (past 30 days):
Install Date Name (Version)
2019-04-16 Microsoft AutoUpdate (4.10.19041401)
2019-04-16 Microsoft Outlook (16.24.19041401)
2019-04-16 Microsoft OneNote (16.24.19041401)
2019-04-16 Microsoft Excel (16.24.19041401)
2019-04-16 Microsoft PowerPoint (16.24.19041401)
2019-04-16 Microsoft Word (16.24.19041401)
2019-04-17 Letterpress (4.8.3)
2019-04-18 Gatekeeper Configuration Data (165)
2019-04-22 Evernote (7.9.1)
2019-05-01 XProtectPlistConfigData (2103)
2019-05-01 MRTConfigData (1.41)
2019-05-02 PhotoScape X (3.0.1)
2019-05-04 PDF Reader Pro Lite (2.5.2)

Diagnostics Information (past 7 days):
2019-05-10 16:45:02 Firefox.app Hang
Executable: /Applications/Firefox.app

2019-05-10 15:45:02 Carbonite.app CPU (72 times)
Executable: /Applications/Carbonite.app

2019-05-10 14:44:06 spindump Crash
Executable: /usr/sbin/spindump
Details:
dyld3 mode
assertion failed: 18D109: SampleAnalysis + 540573 [5895D018-D97D-3E12-
A9B0-8F2487FC7F80]: 0x0

2019-05-06 19:53:00 Software Update.app Crash
Executable: /System/Library/CoreServices/Software Update.app
Details:
dyld3 mode

2019-05-06 10:02:12 Thunderbird.app CPU
Executable: /Applications/Thunderbird.app

2019-05-04 10:10:29 Hub Crash
Executable: /Library/Application Support/Avid/*/Hub
Details:
abort() called
Hub(113,0x112af15c0) malloc: Incorrect checksum for freed object 0x7fe
932e1fa68: probably modified after being freed.
Corrupt value: 0x10000000ffffffff

2019-04-24 16:46:24 Kernel Panic


End of report

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

The EtreCheck log is very helpful. Here are a few things I noticed:

-The latest version of Mojave is 10.4.4, so you should update at some point.
-You should update your Time Machine backup before attemptiing any troubleshooting steps.
-It looks like you have approximately 50 GB of free space, correct?
-Not sure why there are 90 SAMSUNG Modems in Network? Have you checked the Network preference pane?
-iCloud shows 886 pending files for sync. Until that is complete, you could definitely have slowness/Spinning Beachballs of Death (SBoDs)
-You could try uninstalling the following apps: CleanMyMac, Adobe Flash, Carbonite (another heavy CPU load during sync)
-Do you need the Seagate Dashboard software for an external drive?
-Do you still have and use a Jawbone?
-Did you ever install Samsung Kies or iSyncr?
-You have a lot of cloud syncing services - iCloud, Carbonite, Dropbox, OneDrive. They all can put a lod on your Mac, especially all four in use simultaneously.
-Carbonite is using 147.97% of CPU processes and is the highest in Energy Use. It may be the overall root cause of the slowness.

Read through those and we'll go from there.

C

 

[So Here I Am]

Cory, thank you!

I'll take these one by one:

-The latest version of Mojave is 10.4.4, so you should update at some point.

Thanks for catching that - just did it! I'd been trying to start up in safe mode for troubleshooting, and I'd hoped this would help. But no - with .4 now installed, still can't boot in safe mode. The progress bar makes it all the way to the right, then sits for long minutes with no more action.

-You should update your Time Machine backup before attemptiing any troubleshooting steps.

Actually, what I needed to do here was uncheck Time Machine! Carbonite backs me up automatically; about three times a year I toss everything on to an external hd, in case something goes wrong at Carbonite.

-It looks like you have approximately 50 GB of free space, correct?

64, to be exact!

-Not sure why there are 90 SAMSUNG Modems in Network? Have you checked the Network preference pane?

I wondered about those, too. I'm guessing those are footprints from when my Android connects via Airdroid? I didn't know they'd be in preferences. I just deleted all 90 of them.

-iCloud shows 886 pending files for sync. Until that is complete, you could definitely have slowness/Spinning Beachballs of Death (SBoDs)

I went online and looked up how to unstick all that, and I hope it worked - unclicking everything in iCloud backup preferences, then clicking it all again.

-You could try uninstalling the following apps: CleanMyMac, Adobe Flash, Carbonite (another heavy CPU load during sync)

Would it have the same effect to disable them except when I'm using them? CMM is very useful to me; Carbonite is my primary backup system. ISTR Adobe Flash serves some purpose; what am I giving up if I uninstall it?

-Do you need the Seagate Dashboard software for an external drive?

Yes, that's my few-times-a-year external backup, just for added security to Carbonite.

-Do you still have and use a Jawbone?

That's an old external, Bluetooth speaker - not even sure I still have it! I'll flush that out.

-Did you ever install Samsung Kies or iSyncr?

Kies, I used to use. iSyncr I don't recognize. So - neither currently, I don't think. I'll poke around, see if I find a way to uninstall them.

-You have a lot of cloud syncing services - iCloud, Carbonite, Dropbox, OneDrive. They all can put a load on your Mac, especially all four in use simultaneously.

Oh! There's a lot of redundancy there, isn't there? I hadn't thought about that. But they do all serve different purposes - iCloud to keep my various devices synced; Carbonite for my backups; Dropbox for shared biz files. Only OneDrive seems to be something I can dump with no loss.

-Carbonite is using 147.97% of CPU processes and is the highest in Energy Use. It may be the overall root cause of the slowness.

And now it's dropped down to .1%. What causes that fluctuation, and how can I avoid it? I don't want to dump Carbonite.

Thank you for all this time!