Posted on 04/21/2015 9:40:43 AM PDT by Swordmaker
After upgrading to OS X 10.10.3, you may find that navigating the Finder can be arduously slow at times, where the contents of folders you open may take a while to display, and otherwise scrolling and navigating may be overall sluggish. If this occurs, then you can likely fix it by clearing some Finder-related cache information from your Mac.
Caches are small databases of frequently accessed resources that a program can access far quicker than having to locate and parse this information directly from locations on disk, or which store specific URLs and other Web resources that a program may use for accessing an online account or other data. While they usually enhance performance, if damaged then caches may do the exact opposite.
Next, try manually clearing some of the caches that may be relevant to the Finder. These include those for the Finder as well as related services like iCloud Drive. The caches for these services are located in your user library, so get to them by holding the Option key and choosing Library from the Go menu in the Finder. In the folder that opens, go to the Caches directory. In here, consider removing the following cache files and folders:
When done, log out of your user account and log back in, or optionally just restart your Mac, and see if the Finder slowdowns persist.
A second factor that might be at play here is Apple’s Spotlight indexing routines for Finder searches, where after upgrading or updating a system, Spotlight may attempt to index new items and get hung up when doing so. To clear these problems, you can force your Mac to rebuild the Spotlight index by adding your boot drive to Spotlight’s privacy list, followed by removing it. This may then take a few hours to rebuild, but after which the Finder and services that use Spotlight indexing may show faster performance.
I have a problem with Safari freezing up for long periods of time, with the color wheel spinning while the curser is over the Safari window. When I quit Safari and re-launch the App, everything is fine for hours, and then it repeats.
This started under 10.2, I think, and persists with 10.3.
Thanks!
bmk for wifeofzeugma + MIL
Really glad Marvericks works just fine for me. Love OSX but have learned to stay a year or more behind their newest version.
How much RAM do you have installed on your Mac? The proper answer is probably not enough. . . but seriously, how much?
Sorry about sounding like a broken record (for younger people that's a vinyl platter with grooves), but backup, backup, backup (info for younger people). I said it three times, because you should have at least three backups in different places for treasured old pictures. On a Mac, use Time Machine, preferably pointing to an external hard drive - that will back up everything. Also manually copy your iphoto library to an archival folder on a different hard drive. I haven't yet tried copying the new photo library. Apple allows storing all your photos on iCloud - that's something I won't do, as I have tens of thousands of photos, and prefer keeping them in my hands. And I burned my photo collection to DVDs as a backup (note that not all DVD platters will last decades - some are poorly made and degrade). Periodically backup your photo collection as it grows. Hard drives do fail, including solid-state drives, so multiple backups are key to preserving a photo collection. I once lost some prints and negatives due to water intrusion from a wet wall, something that digital copies are more durable as compared to old style photos. Backup, backup, backup, in different locations!
I have the maximum possible for my late 2013 iMac, 16 GB.
I’ve used Activity Monitor and iStat Pro to check, and when Safari freezes there has been 6 - 8 GB of memory free.
Apple computers have no problems.... : )
#10 I just got the Fujitsu Scansnap ix500 this weekend.
http://www.amazon.com/Fujitsu-ScanSnap-iX500-Scanner-PA03656-B005/dp/B00ATZ9QMO
For those others reading this: It was kinda expensive at $414 total but it came with Adobe Acrobat 11 standard which is about a $300 program by itself. The scanner can scan 25 pages per minute! The scanner folds up to the size of a shoe box.
I use it to scan photos in and save as jpegs. It is very easy and does a great job with the old photos. The color pretty much matches the original. Does not bend the photos. Scan at 150 to 600dpi. Automatic is 300dpi. I just adjust the paper width and start feeding it the photos.
I have thousands of photos in storage and decided I needed a scanner and this one is highly recommended.
I would never have gone beyond 10.6.8 except for the fact that some critical software, like Turbotax and iTunes, now require later versions of the OS.
I made a 10.10.3 boot drive which I only use when I have to use software that won’t run on 10.6.8. the ratio is something like 95% 10.6.8 and 5% 10.10.3.
As far as I am concerned, 10.6.8 represented some sort of peak.
You certainly have enough RAM. Given that, three possibilities come to mind.
First is a cache file that has grown too large over the years you've been using Safari. So clear all history and caches. You may need to go into your ~library folder and clear some preferences for Safari by hand as well. Look for anything with Safari in it. If you run into a cache of a preference that refuses to be deleted, rename it by appending .old to the name. It's likely the offender. The system will rebuild any files you've deleted or renamed. Don't touch your bookmarks preferences unless you copy it to a safe location first. Clear ALL cookies. See if this solves the issue.
You will need to log back on to websites that normally would remember you on your next visit, but it's a small price to pay if this fixes the problem.
Second is one of your RAM sticks may be not seated or has an issue. Open your access port and swap the RAM sticks around. You'd be surprised how often that solves a problem like this.
Third, when was the last time you did a full clean install of OS X rather than an update? You might want to try that.
You have done a permission repair, right?
I hope this helps. I've seen similar problems with all of these as the cause.
I never updated iTunes so mine still works. Apple is becoming more Windows-like in the increasing complexity of “making thing that just work”. My wife and daughter are having a hard time setting up email accounts on their iPhones and my daughters MacBook Pro had to be reset and lost iTunes and iPhoto. Eh. I told them not to upgrade. They never listen that once your machine works just leave it alone.
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