I have a four year old iMac that's starting to take longer and longer to complete the power up process. It now takes several minutes from the time I power up until it gets to the point where I have a dock and all the desktop items. The desktop background appears immediately, but the rest of the icons and the dock take several minutes to appear. Any ideas why? I have nearly 500gb on the system drive so it's not running low. Thanks.
Long time completing power up on iMac
- Thread starter snowdogx1
- Start date
- Joined
- May 21, 2012
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- Your Mac's Specs
- M1 Mac Studio, 11" iPad Pro 3rd Gen, iPhone 13 Pro Max, Watch Series 7, AirPods Pro
You need to tell us more about the iMac?
Processor?
Ram?
Drive size, available, used? Is it partitioned?
macOS version?
Do you leave it on when not in use? Overnight?
Do you restart often? As needed?
Just from what you stated, it could be a failing drive.
Have you restarted in Recovery and tried Disk Utility > First Aid?
Processor?
Ram?
Drive size, available, used? Is it partitioned?
macOS version?
Do you leave it on when not in use? Overnight?
Do you restart often? As needed?
Just from what you stated, it could be a failing drive.
Have you restarted in Recovery and tried Disk Utility > First Aid?
- Joined
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- Keller, Texas
- Your Mac's Specs
- 2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
What programs do you have running on startup? Are you using any kind of Mac "cleanup" programs or Anti-Virus software? It appears you have enough system memory and hard drive space. Suggestion by Bob to run Disk Utility from Recovery is a good one as there might be a problem with the hard drive. Let us know.
- Joined
- May 21, 2012
- Messages
- 10,745
- Reaction score
- 1,192
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Rhode Island
- Your Mac's Specs
- M1 Mac Studio, 11" iPad Pro 3rd Gen, iPhone 13 Pro Max, Watch Series 7, AirPods Pro
The Mac OS runs scripts and maintenance during non use times. Leaving it on a few nights should let these scripts get caught up which might help with the issue you are experience in.
Also, using Disk Utility on the Recovery partition will fix certain issues on the drive or with permissions.
Also, using Disk Utility on the Recovery partition will fix certain issues on the drive or with permissions.
- Joined
- May 21, 2012
- Messages
- 10,745
- Reaction score
- 1,192
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Rhode Island
- Your Mac's Specs
- M1 Mac Studio, 11" iPad Pro 3rd Gen, iPhone 13 Pro Max, Watch Series 7, AirPods Pro
Even if Disk Utility did not find any errors, the drive could be dying. Make sure you keep your backups current.
You can look at fixit.com for your model, https://www.ifixit.com/Device/iMac_Intel, and see the steps, and the parts and tools you will need, maybe you feel it is worth it.
You can look at fixit.com for your model, https://www.ifixit.com/Device/iMac_Intel, and see the steps, and the parts and tools you will need, maybe you feel it is worth it.
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