Painfully slow, with the spinning disc occurring during Photos, iMovie, etc.

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My High Sierra, 10.13.6 Mac Desktop slows up during so many different applications. Photos is slow, making movies takes many minutes to open, Word is slow...
What should I do to speed up my computer? I have an external drive to store large files, not sure if I can successfully remove documents or projects to truly clean out my constipated computer.
 

Cory Cooper

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Hello,

-Which exact model Mac?
-What capacity is the drive and how much free space is left?
-Which version of Microsoft Office/Word?
-Do you have any third-party applications like MacKeeper, CleanMyMac, antivirus running?

C
 
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Hello,

-Which exact model Mac?
-What capacity is the drive and how much free space is left?
-Which version of Microsoft Office/Word?
-Do you have any third-party applications like MacKeeper, CleanMyMac, antivirus running?

C
MacOS High Sierra, 10.13.6 memory 4 GB 1333MHz DDR3 processor 2.5 GHz Intel Corei5,63.07 GB available 21.5 inch display AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512 graphics, can’t remember if I ever got an antivirus app. How can I check? I only pay for additional Cloud storage.
2 memory slots in use, 2 available, an old version of word. Is this enough info to help Your diagnosis doctor?
 

Cory Cooper

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OK, thanks.

From the specs, that sounds like an iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011), which only supports up to macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra.

You can check on applications that launch at login here:  > System Preferences... > Users & Groups > your user > Login Items. Also, ani antivirus applications would be in the Applications folder, and most would have a menu bar icon if they are running all the time.

You have plenty of free space, so that isn't the issue.

-Photos: Can be somewhat slow when opening if you have thousands of Photos, and if you use iCloud Photo Library/My Photo Stream/iCloud Photo Sharing.
-Word: Depending on the actual version, older versions of Microsoft Word can be painfully slow since they came out way before and aren't fully compatible with High Sierra.

There isn't any easy way to drastically speed up your iMac. Another 2 x 2 GB of RAM would help a little when you are running several applications simultaneously, but not a very noticeable difference.

Here is a good basic troubleshooting guide: The X Lab: The Spinning Beach Ball of Death

Other causes could be a failing hard drive, older/incompatible software versions, antivirus with on-access or real-time scanning enabled, etc.

See if any of the steps in the article help.

C
 

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