Slowly I turn...Slow Computer

[unblocktheplanet]

Everytime I create a document, PDF or image, it's very slow to appear on my Desktop. Restart, Safe Boot, OnyX don't help. Pretty slow to wake from sleep, too, & applications seem slower to open.

It would be time-consuming/a lot of fiddling to 'upgrade' to Mojave from High Sierra, although I could keep my 32-bit third parties that way. Is there any advantage?

A lot of users have gone to Monterey; gotta say I hate it. It's not very customizable, e.g. Desktop Picture, folder icons aso. Too much security. I don’t need it. (Wonder who does, really.)

I often have minimal SSD space, currently 157GB of 1TB. Is that not enough free space?

Disk Utility reports disk is fine. However, SSDReporter shows 70% (Wear_Levelling_Count: 170 (threshold: 100)). Does that mean my SSD is ready to fail?

Thanks.

2015 MBP MacOS 10.13.6

 

[IWT]

It would be time-consuming/a lot of fiddling to 'upgrade' to Mojave from High Sierra, although I could keep my 32-bit third parties that way. Is there any advantage?

Mojave is still available, I believe; but moving upward when there is already a "fault" hardly ever resolves that fault.

A lot of users have gone to Monterey; gotta say I hate it. It's not very customizable, e.g. Desktop Picture, folder icons aso. Too much security. I don’t need it. (Wonder who does, really.)

Security is a personal issue which I acknowledge; but in answer to your question, who needs it, I'd say everyone. But clearly, each to their own.

I also have Monterey. My impression is that almost everything is customisable if you know how

I often have minimal SSD space, currently 157GB of 1TB. Is that not enough free space?

No. I'd say you need 15-20 per cent minimal for safe working. Many of us would say 25%.

Disk Utility reports disk is fine. However, SSDReporter shows 70% (Wear_Levelling_Count: 170 (threshold: 100)). Does that mean my SSD is ready to fail?

The SSD may be failing either because of "wear & tear", ie long usage, and/or because there is too little free space.

My advice is:

Make sure you have good backups (Time Machine, Cloned backup etc)
Then free up as much space as you can by moving data off the SSD onto an External Hard Drive (EHD).
Then see if there is a better response ie does the Mac go back to behaving normally?

If NO, then SSD likely failing. Even if yes, I'd be very wary about keeping that SSD for any length of time.

BTW, regarding your comments re Monterey, I presume you tried it on that same Mac? If so, then going up and down again would impose additional strain on the SSD. But maybe you installed Monterey on another Mac??

Hope some of these remarks are helpful to you.

Ian

 

[unblocktheplanet]

Thanks, Ian, though, ooh, ouch. No Monterey on this 2015 MBP. I'm hoping to resist it until I need a new Mac.

I guess I got used to filling up HDDs. 25% is a big loss.

2TB SSD installed here is around $300. That's an expensive but best way to clean house. Then I'll have too much free space...for awhile!

 

[pigoo3]

A 2015 MacBook Pro running High Sierra should certainly remain speedy...thus I would say there's no hardware issue outside of the internal storage.

Do a fresh reboot of the computer...then Open Activity Monitor (don't open anything else)...click the "CPU" tab...and see if there are any process's that are eating up a lot of CPU resources.

Also look to see if there's anything installed that you don't remember installing...such as "cleaner" or "anti-virus" apps.

As far as the "wear leveling count". The wear level count on a new drive starts at 100%...and according to this article (below)...seems like when it hits 50% you should monitor things more closely:

How Does Wear Leveling Extend the Life of an SSD Drive?

This article discusses how SSD drives wear over time. We talk about how to measure the wear and identify problem wear levels.

www.cleverfiles.com

In addition to what's mentioned above...I would say try to off-load as much stuff off the SSD as you can. I'm sure there's plenty on there that isn't accessed regularly...and this is the stuff that's cluttering up the drive. Off-loading to an external drive is the way to go.

HTH,

Nick

 

[Groovetube]

In any mac I have always felt the slow down if I don’t allow a good amount of free space. It also depends on your usage, size of files you open etc., but I usually try to leave a bare minimum of 25% or more free, and if your ssdReporter is saying 70%, I’d leave far more. I have a 2013 15 with a 1tb drive and if I don’t leave almost 300gigs at least free it starts to get sluggish.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I often have minimal SSD space, currently 157GB of 1TB. Is that not enough free space?

I have little doubt that that is the source of your slowdown problem. Have a look at:

"In practice, an SSD’s performance begins to decline after it reaches about 50% full."

SSD Over-Provisioning And Its Benefits | Seagate US

"The rule of thumb to keep SSDs at top speeds is to never completely fill them up. To avoid performance issues, you should never use more than 70% of its total capacity.
...
"When you’re getting close to the 70% threshold, you should consider upgrading your computer’s SSD with a larger drive."

Why solid-state drive (SSD) performance slows down as it becomes full - Pureinfotech

Ever wondered why your solid-state drive degrades performance over time? Here we look into the problem and what to do to keep drive speedy.

pureinfotech.com

"SSDs may suffer performance issues, especially in writing speed, when the drive reaches full capacity. It is easier for the drive to write to an empty cell when there is free space available. When the drive is full, the SSD needs to find out which blocks are partially filled, move that information into a cache and then write it back to the drive. It is best to have 10-15% of your drive set aside for free space, to keep a good balance between performance and space utilization."

Top 7 Tips to Get the Most from your SSDs

SSDs are are not without their problems. Here are my top 7 tips for getting the most from your SSDs.

www.slrlounge.com

 

[Rod]

Given that this is a 2015 MBP and assuming it has the original SSD on board it's done pretty well to be running at 7 years old. I just replaced my 500 GB SSD Mid 2015 13" MBP with a new 14" 500 GB 2021 M1 Pro but the performance of the old MBP was fine running Monterey but in my experience upgrading the macOS seldom fixes performance issues.

I concur about the storage availability, I have 187 GB free out of 500 GB and I attempt to never have less than 100 GB free which equates to 25%.

I also swear by an occasional "clean" instal of an upgraded macOS (although it could be the same macOS reinstalled). If you have never done this I can pretty much guarantee you will recover a lot of storage space and get rid of a lot of accumulated rubbish. Of course most users achieve the same result by buying a new device.

It basically requires you to erase your SSD, instal a mint version of the OS then restore all of your Documents, Apps, Utilities and Settings. I know that sounds daunting but believe me it doesn't take long.

I simply make a *clone using Carbon Copy Cloner then after setting up the device as a new I reinstate my email accounts, browser settings/bookmarks should be saved in iCloud (as are contacts, reminders, etc) and MS Office can be reinstalled from MS My Account (if you use it), I drag and drop the contents of my Documents Folder into the new Documents folder and I'm good to go.


Except for small self contained apps I prefer to download fresh versions of the others from the developer's sites especially if those apps require installers. This last part can be done over a week as can system preferences but believe me this process will definitely speed up your device so long as your SSD and the other hardware is functioning as intended.

*The beauty of a clone is the file structure is the same as your computer. You will see all of your files and folders in the same places as your MBP making it easy to drag and drop any items. Some things can be done in bulk like your Photo Library. Last but not least if you choose to create a bootable clone (advise-able) then should things go sideways or your SSD actually fails you can boot from the clone and restore the entire contents to a new SSD by the same cloning process.

Last but not least, both of the most popular cloning applications Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper can be downloaded and used entirely free on a 30 day obligation free trial.

 

[unblocktheplanet]

Thanks, everybody.

Wow, this is a lot to take onboard. I feel like I'm working for Apple Computer...for free!

It makes perfect sense that it takes longer to write to a getting-full disk. Takes four minutes for a saved doc to appear on the Desktop.

I have both CCC & SD. Will have to check if clone is bootable. Yeah, I'm not so religious at backup, about every 30 days.

The grouse: SSDs are pricey. To lock up 30-50% seems a waste, eh!

I spent a lot of today deleting big, unused applications, several GB worth at least.

BUT it's stuck firmly at 156.x free, same as before.

 

[Groovetube]

Make sure you’re emptying the trash as you aren’t freeing any space until you do.

If it takes 4 min to save a doc to desktop it’s time to replace that drive, stat.

 

[unblocktheplanet]

Yep, emptying the Trash. Deleted a bunch of unused applications. Moved a lot of files I'll miss onto external HDD.

Free space number remains stubbornly the same. Wonder if that's also a symptom.

Okay, just did a recovery panel, reinstalled High Sierra. Got up to 272GB free space but no change in behavior

Gulp! $300 for a 2 TB replacement drive, installed. Think this 2015 MBP is worth it?

 

[IWT]

Got up to 272GB free space but no change in behavior

I'm really sorry to hear that. You have worked very hard and followed advice. Good on you.

But, as I said in post #2, it does very much look like your SSD is failing for whatever reason(s). It's only a 7 year old Mac, but sad to say, that's way out of warranty and likely beyond payed-for repair/servicing by Apple.

As Rod said in post #7, you've had a fair deal out of that SSD and having it near-to-fool at times won't have helped either.

Replacing the SSD is the cheaper way to go and the Mac itself will run Monterey, so there's life in this Mac yet - quite a lot actually.

The alternative is a new Mac, but we are all very conscious of the financial consequences which are often quite beyond a person's circumstances.

Good luck with your future plans.

Ian

 

[unblocktheplanet]

I also have Monterey. My impression is that almost everything is customisable if you know how

Thanks, Ian. I have ordered a new 2TB SSD with a 5 year warranty.

Question #1: Should I forget about my 32-bit apps (Mojave) & just get used to Monterey?

Question #2: One of the things I like best about Macs is that the user can personalise the desktop, folder icons, etc. Since I have not used Monterey, is there a page somewhere which can show me how to do this?

It's quite a leap. I remember my angst over going from OS9 to OSX.

No matter how you cut it, all this is a pile of work, and I appreciate your attentiveness to my situation. You're right: I can't really afford a new Mac.

Personally, I don't need the security. But I don't need convergence, etc.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

How to Restore SSD to Peak Performance

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2088341/how-to-restore-your-ssd-to-peak-performance.html#tk.nl_pwr

 

[unblocktheplanet]

Thanks, Randy. Are you saying that I can secure-erase my SSD once I switch to a new one? And that SSD will once again be safe to use? The article is PC-specific. Erase SSD using Disk Utility on Mac?

 

[Groovetube]

I resisted Monterey for a while, mostly because pro audio is notorious for it very slow adoption of new OSs, and apple seems to release a new one every year so most of us have generally been at least 2 OSs behind. Avid surprised us this time however with supporting Monterey far faster than they have before, mainly I think because of the new apple silicon machines, and studios buying those up recently. I think they didn’t want to become the next quark…

I’m good with Monterey, and I’m one not to update very often.

 

[unblocktheplanet]

Thanks, Groovy. Just not looking forward to all the heavy lifting.

You or others may know the answer. Most of my applications are not...bought.

Will it still be possible to use these in Monterey or will they be locked out?

 

[Groovetube]

I can’t really know without knowing really the deal. But I do know this, your drive sounds pooched, and is only likely going to get worse, and if the OS and apps are really important to you, I would get an external drive same size that you can clone to stat, and replace the drive in the mbp and dump back the clone, keep the OS for now, and think about moving up at a later date.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Thanks, Randy. Are you saying that I can secure-erase my SSD once I switch to a new one? And that SSD will once again be safe to use? The article is PC-specific. Erase SSD using Disk Utility on Mac?

That's what the article says. However, you can't secure erase an SSD with Apple's Disk Utility.

You can securely erase an SSD using the command line:

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/how-to-wipe-a-mac-hard-drive/

(scroll down to "Securely Erasing Free Space on Your SSD")

I'm also told (but can't personally verify) that you can secure erase your SSD using this third party utility:

shredit ($25)

https://mireth.com/shredit/shredit-x/

 

[Rod]

If/when you do instal the new SSD dont forget to download the macOS installer and save it to an external HD first.
You could use a Bootable clone of your existing SSD and just reverse the process but that would mean transferring all the detritus from your old SSD to the new one and because this is such a good opportunity to perform a "clean" install I recommend you don't miss it.
I would download the Monterey installer and create a bootable installer from it on a USB thumb drive (if your device is up to it). You can use a free 3rd party app to do this such as Install Disk Creator from macdaddy.io. to create a bootable installer.
You can then boot your MBP from the Thumb Drive, install Monterey, then as suggested in my previous post, drag an drop the stuff you want from a current CCC clone.
I'm happy to provide more info on this process if you like.

 

[unblocktheplanet]

Thanks, guys. Current plan is to buy a 2 TB SSD & ‘upgrade’ to Monterey (though it’s giving me palpitations, unknown territory & irrevocable decision).

I’ll put the nearly-dead 1 TB SSD into an external box so I can drag across my files. Yes, bootable clone is a good idea, thanks.

Here’s my biggest worry. I realise I’ll lose some of my well-loved 32-bits like birthdayBook & Meridian. (Users who are not dinosaurs use more modern stuff for these purposes.)

I’ve saved installers for all my applications along with serial numbers & so on. I have purchased much of the shareware but the apps from the big boys came from ‘alternate sources’. Never adopted the subscription model.

Will they still work? Or will I now be locked into the AppStore & have to repurchase everything? This is more than I’m willing to undertake…