Disable spindump to speed up Big Sur beta version

[x0ssrk]

spindump is a debug utility which is enabled by default. It collects debug information which is useless to normal users, often slows down entire system and makes fans noisy. Disable it will speed up beta system and reduce fan noise. Before doing this, Unity is very slow and even not responding every minute. After disabling spindump it runs as fast as in Catalina.

macOS Big Sur includes a new system protection technology called Signed System Volume and this makes system volume modifications even harder. Its detail can be found here (https://eclecticlight.co/2020/06/25/big-surs-signed-system-volume-added-security-protection/)

Just follow these steps:

1. Reboot and hold Command+R to enter Recovery mode.
2. Login with your account.
3. Since the system volume is mounted readonly by default, we need to remount it as read-write first. Select Disk Utility. Select your system volume from left panel(e.g BigSur) and click Unmount. Remember device name shown in this window(e.g. disk1s5).

4. Close Disk Utility and open Terminal.
5. Type csrutil authenticated-root disable and press Enter. This will disable SSV.
6. Type mkdir /Volumes/osvolume and press Enter. (If you have the same mountpoint name, change osvolume to any other one).
7. Type mount /dev/<REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_DEVICE_NAME> /Volumes/osvolume (If your device name is disk1s5 your command will be mount /dev/disk1s5 /Volumes/osvolume ) and press Enter. This step will mount your system
8. Type mv /Volumes/osvolume/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.spindump.plist /Volumes/osvolume/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.spindump.plist.disabled and press Enter. This will disable spindump service.
9. Type mv /Volumes/osvolume/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.tailspind.plist /Volumes/osvolume/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.tailspind.plist.disabled and press Enter. This will disable another spin service which also slows down your system.
10. Type bless --folder /Volumes/osvolume/System/Library/CoreServices --bootefi --create-snapshot and press Enter. This will create a new system volume snapshot which is bootable.
11. Done. Type reboot and press Enter. Your Mac will reboot.

 

[Евгений Шевченко]

Where can I find "mountpoint name"?

 

[x0ssrk]

Where can I find "mountpoint name"?

The mkdir command in step 6 creates a new folder called osvolume in /Volumes and this folder name may conflict with your external disk. If you don't have any disk volume named osvolume, you can ignore it and just execute the command in step 6.

 

[Stefdar]

The moment you need to enable Filevault or re-enable the signed System volume, all your changes will be lost...

 

[Natya Sadella]

The moment you need to enable Filevault or re-enable the signed System volume, all your changes will be lost...

So it's useless to start the whole process of disabling spindump?

 

[Stefdar]

So it's useless to start the whole process of disabling spindump?

If you plan to use Big Sur without Filevault and SSV protection forever then no, otherwise yes it is!

 

[MikhailT]

> It collects debug information which is useless to normal users, often slows down entire system and makes fans noisy.

Umm, you realize these debug info goes to Apple to fix bugs and crashes for the next beta, which should reduce the number of time spindump will need to be run in the next beta, and then so on. It helps to stabilize the software ecosystem in the long run quickly.

You're only hurting yourself in the long run. Spindump doesn't run all the time by itself, only when something is crashing in the background. I haven't seen it run 80% of the times on my machine with BS but when it did, I wait until it is done.

 

[dmccloud]

Beta software usually is not as fast or responsive as release versions because of the need for background reporting. Disabling spindump to "speed up" a beta version of the OS is really nothing more than a placebo effect, because it does not constantly run in the background, only when specific conditions are met.

 

[lindros2]

My MacBook Pro i9 running Big Sur 11.2 beta is crippled by spindump.
I've never had this issue prior to 11.2. Ever.
(I've only had this machine 18 months, but I mean I've never had spindump go rogue on any Mac)

 

[c-3po]

The first post desciption does not work at all. I suggest you double check these things before posting!

 

[c-3po]

> It collects debug information which is useless to normal users, often slows down entire system and makes fans noisy.

Umm, you realize these debug info goes to Apple to fix bugs and crashes for the next beta, which should reduce the number of time spindump will need to be run in the next beta, and then so on. It helps to stabilize the software ecosystem in the long run quickly.

You're only hurting yourself in the long run. Spindump doesn't run all the time by itself, only when something is crashing in the background. I haven't seen it run 80% of the times on my machine with BS but when it did, I wait until it is done.

Spindump is causing serious issues with Avid Pro Tools, it makes total sense to delete it for good.