buggy MBP

[jojoba]

I'm using a MacBook Pro, 13", 2016, 8GB ram, 2,9 GHz Intel Core i5, Mojave 10.14.4.
I did a clean install when I bought it, only copied a number of folders/files from sync services/external hard drive.

I'm increasingly experiencing issues as follows:
- apps freezing and shutting down at regular intervals (happens several times a week and sometimes several times a day). This includes Microsoft Word, Mail, Scrivener and Nvalt.
- Word is particularly bad, and I ALWAYS get a lag/the beach ball when I use copy and paste

Use pattern: I use my machine 7-14 hours a day depending on work, a bit less on the weekend. Usually running about 10-16 apps at the time (Word, PowerPoint, Mail, Calendar, Bookends, Timing, Nvalt, Scrivener, OmniOutliner, Teams, PDF Expert, Amphetamine, Keyboard Maestro, Alfred, Hazel, BetterSnapTool, Skype, 1Password, 2Do). Dropbox, OneDrive, SpiderOak running in the background.

When I ran EtreCheck (see attached file) I found a large amount of failed system launch daemons, but I don't know how to fix that as I didn't manage to delete them (I get a message saying they can't be deleted because they are required by the operating system).

Any advice much appreciated...

 

[Fishrrman]

"Usually running about 10-16 apps at the time"

I think this is at the heart of the problem.

Close most of the apps you don't need at a given moment.
I'll reckon you can close 12 of them, or more.
Particularly get rid of stuff that is interacting with "the cloud" such as Skype and OneDrive.

Do this, and I'll bet the speeds pick right up...

 

[jojoba]

I do use quite a lot of these apps simultaneously, in my work environment we co-work on documents stored on OneDrive and Dropbox, and I use Skype frequently to communicate at work. So while I could be more attentive to closing down apps, I've had this work flow with several apps going for many years now, and I've never experienced the issues I'm having right now.

I have a ridiculously long list of failed system launch daemons etc. I ran a new etre check today and it looks like this. I can't delete them, so how do I address this issue?

System Launch Agents: ⓘ

[failed] com.apple.AssetCacheLocatorService.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.CallHistoryPluginHelper.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.CoreLocationAgent.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-04-09)

[failed] com.apple.CryptoTokenKit.ahp.agent.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.LocalAuthentication.UIAgent.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.Maps.pushdaemon.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.ReportCrash.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.Safari.SafeBrowsing.Service.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.SafariBookmarksSyncAgent.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.SafariCloudHistoryPushAgent.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.SafeEjectGPUAgent.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.UsageTrackingAgent.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.akd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.ap.adprivacyd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.apfsuseragent.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.appstoreagent.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.atsd.useragent.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.audio.AudioComponentRegistrar.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.cache_delete.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.cloudphotosd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-04-09)

[failed] com.apple.cmfsyncagent.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.colorsync.useragent.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.coreparsec.silhouette.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.ctkd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.dmd.agent.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.followupd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.icloud.findmydeviced.findmydevice-user-agent.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.icloud.fmfd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.keyboardservicesd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.nsurlstoraged.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.parsecd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.photoanalysisd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.photolibraryd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.printtool.agent.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.printuitool.agent.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.progressd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.quicklook.ThumbnailsAgent.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.quicklook.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-04-09)

[failed] com.apple.reversetemplated.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.scopedbookmarkagent.xpc.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.secinitd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.siriknowledged.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.softwareupdate_notify_agent.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.spindump_agent.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.talagent.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.telephonyutilities.callservicesd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.videosubscriptionsd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.xpc.loginitemregisterd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[not loaded] 8 Apple tasks

[loaded] 160 Apple tasks

[running] 85 Apple tasks



System Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[failed] com.apple.AssetCache.builtin.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.AssetCacheLocatorService.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.CryptoTokenKit.ahp.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.DataDetectorsSourceAccess.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.GSSCred.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.InstallerDiagnostics.installerdiagd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.MobileFileIntegrity.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.ReportCrash.Root.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.akd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.applessdstatistics.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.aslmanager.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.audio.AudioComponentRegistrar.daemon.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.audio.systemsoundserverd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.bootinstalld.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.captiveagent.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.colorsync.displayservices.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.colorsyncd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.ctkd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.dmd.daemon.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.dprivacyd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.findmymac.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.icloud.findmydeviced.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.ifdreader.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.installd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.mobileactivationd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.mobileassetd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.nfcd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.nsurlstoraged.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.periodic-daily.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.periodic-weekly.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.rtcreportingd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.secinitd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.seld.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.softwareupdate_download_service.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.sysdiagnose.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.system_installd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.usbd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[failed] com.apple.xpc.smd.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2019-03-21)

[not loaded] 35 Apple tasks

[loaded] 169 Apple tasks

[running] 91 Apple tasks

 

[jojoba]

I don't know what happened, but all the failed launched agents/ daemons have disappeared now. I deleted a couple of apps, don't know if that made a difference.

 

[DeltaMac]

You could update to current 10.14.6 update.
But, even better, with your other mysterious happenings, download the full installer for Mojave.
The installer will auto-launch when download is complete, so quit that installer.
Make a bootable installer from that app. The steps to do that are easy to find. An 8GB flash drive will be perfect for that, but 16GB will be good.
Boot to that USB installer, and reinstall the system. This is basically a rebuild process, and won't make any changes to your own files and documents (unless you choose to do that). Once you are booted to the installer, should take about 30 minutes or so to complete the reinstall. (and will result in your system being completely up-to-date on macOS 10.14.6!)
How's that for a deal?