Slow booting time

[marfape]

Hi all,

By now, the Big Sur is working well. I have upgraded from Catalina and no issues at all. The only one thing I noted is an increase in booting time. The white progress bar stops more or less at 25%, delays and then runs to the end. Do you have the same situation? And do you have any suggestion to speed it up?

Thanks in advance,

 

[Apple_Robert]

If you have FileVault turned on, that may be the reason for the slow boot.

 

[marfape]

Checked and it is not turned on. Thanks a lot for reading and suggeste help.

 

[rhsauer]

I have a near current iMac with 40Mb of RAM and it takes waaaay too long to startup with Big Sur. I’ve cleared caches and deleted most “startup on log-in” items and it still takes way too long. I have a MacBook Air that starts up in 1/4 the time. (Granted the iMac has a Fusion Drive and the MBA has an SDD.) I’d love a fix if anyone has any ideas.

 

[honestone33]

I have a near current iMac with 40Mb of RAM and it takes waaaay too long to startup with Big Sur. I’ve cleared caches and deleted most “startup on log-in” items and it still takes way too long. I have a MacBook Air that starts up in 1/4 the time. (Granted the iMac has a Fusion Drive and the MBA has an SDD.) I’d love a fix if anyone has any ideas.

Glad I have SSDs!

 

[IowaLynn]

t isn't the SSD which flies at 2,000MB/sec plus. Takes like I'm back on SE/30 or something. And yet Windows boots right up and no fuss with the LG 4k which would take 2 minutes on 2020 Mini. It's not right. Pre-boot security enclave or something? I guess could try turning off wifi and pulling out ethernet but that is bonkers.

 

[honestone33]

I'd be extremely disappointed if and when I move to Big Sur, that it would be slower than Catalina, given all the time and effort I devote to keeping both of my Macs "lean, mean, and clean".

 

[wunderhund]

I performed a clean install of Big Sur on my 2017 iMac with Fusion Drive and I have the same boot experience as the OP: a pause at 25% and overall slower boot time than Catalina.
Cheers.

 

[steve62388]

Agree. Boot time is slightly slower on Big Sur.

 

[honestone33]

Wonder if there is an issue with Fusion Drives and Big Sur? I myself just have SSDs inside both of my Macs, so I would expect better performance.

I also very recently purchased a new Samsung T7 1 TB external SSD:

Portable SSD T7 USB 3.2 1TB (Gray) | Samsung US

www.samsung.com

Sure is tiny! It came with 2 cables, one of them allowing me to connect to one of my late 2018 Mac Mini's Thunderbolt 3 ports. So, when I finally decide to test Big Sur, I will install it here. Wonder what the boot time will be like?

 

[Furka]

Yes, I have too this slooooow booting time (on a 27 inch 2019 iMac), around the 1:00 - 1:15 minutes. I have returned to Catalina, until this problem will be solved. For comparison, my booting time in Catalina is about 15 seconds ...

 

[neilhu]

I too have this problem. 2013 Mac Pro, at least 2 minutes boot time. On Catalina, it was less than 1 minute.
Have tried to remove most startup items.
[wifi is off]
The main item that starts at boot is ClamXAV - should try disabling this.

 

[honestone33]

I too have this problem. 2013 Mac Pro, at least 2 minutes boot time. On Catalina, it was less than 1 minute.
Have tried to remove most startup items.
[wifi is off]
The main item that starts at boot is ClamXAV - should try disabling this.

Hmm, I have not enabled ClamXAV to start up on either of my Macs (I am still on the latest version of Catalina, OS 10.15.7). Is that something you did with ClamXAV?

 

[jaggunothing]

The same issue with MacBook Air (13-inch, 2017), startup has become so slooooow!! I have just a googlesync as login item and yes firevault is on if that has to be blamed.

But the MBA is taking almost triple the time it used to take from power on to desktop!!

 

[Furka]

I think it is not the login items, because in my case, they are the same on Catalina. Perhaps a Hard Disk controller that do not work properly and do not attain the same speed transfer rates than Catalina/Mojave, or a high activity of the emulator Rosetta2. I do not know what happens, but I am now re-installed in Catalina, and the iMac is a beast again.

 

[neilhu]

A hard disk controller issue is possible. After a slow boot, after about 5-10 minutes, I now get an error that one of the USB 3 attached drives is not readable. This did not occur with Catalina and is new to Big Sur. I'll disconnect the drive and reboot to see if it improves boot time

 

[honestone33]

The same issue with MacBook Air (13-inch, 2017), startup has become so slooooow!! I have just a googlesync as login item and yes firevault is on if that has to be blamed.

But the MBA is taking almost triple the time it used to take from power on to desktop!!

Yuk! I also have an early 2017 13" MacBook Air, and it's not a speed demon right now with the mature OS Catalina. I am keeping my eye on the new M1 MacBook Air, and if issues with Big Sur get resolved, and more and more third party apps become Universal binary, I will sell my 2017 model and purchase a new one.

 

[IowaLynn]

A hard disk controller issue is possible. After a slow boot, after about 5-10 minutes, I now get an error that one of the USB 3 attached drives is not readable. This did not occur with Catalina and is new to Big Sur. I'll disconnect the drive and reboot to see if it improves boot time

Maybe 11.01 is seeing a problem that needs to be addressed. I'd reformat and see.

 

[honestone33]

Maybe 11.01 is seeing a problem that needs to be addressed. I'd reformat and see.

A newer version of Big Sur, V11.1.0, is on the way, possibly as early as next week. Maybe that will help.

 

[rhsauer]

Well, I wiped my disk and did a clean install of Big Sur on my 2019 iMac w/ Fusion Drive — and the boot times are fine now. The good news is that it doesn’t take all that long to do a clean install these days.

 

[honestone33]

Well, I wiped my disk and did a clean install of Big Sur on my 2019 iMac w/ Fusion Drive — and the boot times are fine now. The good news is that it doesn’t take all that long to do a clean install these days.

Exactly! I've been saying that all along. And doing it via a SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner backup/clone from an external device is the way to go.

 

[marfape]

Well, I wiped my disk and did a clean install of Big Sur on my 2019 iMac w/ Fusion Drive — and the boot times are fine now. The good news is that it doesn’t take all that long to do a clean install these days.

Interesting. Could you tell me the way to do it and restore the files, settings and apps? Did you use a TM backup? Thanks in advance,

 

[HDFan]

The white progress bar stops more or less at 25%,

If there are 2 progress bars, which one stops at 25%? I'm on Mohave which has two progress bars that measure different things. I'm assuming Big Sur is setup the same?

 

[honestone33]

Interesting. Could you tell me the way to do it and restore the files, settings and apps? Did you use a TM backup? Thanks in advance,

If you used either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner to make the backup, the first thing is to insure that you have the full installation file for the Mac OS (or version of it) that you want to get to. If it's on the backup already, all well and good. If not, then download it, and copy it to that backup.

With that in mind, here are the steps:

1. Boot the machine via that backup.
2. Use Disk Utility there to erase and format your internal device (or the applicable partition, if that is what you have).
3. Navigate to the OS installer file, launch it, and then do a clean, fresh installation of that OS.
4. At the end of that installation, you'll be offered the opportunity to migrate/copy needed "stuff" (ie, files, folders, apps, settings, etc.) from either another Mac, a Time Machine backup, or another backup. Choose another backup, and proceed.

If you have a Time Machine backup, the piece I don't know about is how to launch that Mac OS installation file. But once that's done, you will eventually be at step 4 above, and you can choose the Time Machine backup you need.

 

[marfape]

If you used either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner to make the backup, the first thing is to insure that you have the full installation file for the Mac OS (or version of it) that you want to get to. If it's on the backup already, all well and good. If not, then download it, and copy it to that backup.

With that in mind, here are the steps:

1. Boot the machine via that backup.
2. Use Disk Utility there to erase and format your internal device (or the applicable partition, if that is what you have).
3. Navigate to the OS installer file, launch it, and then do a clean, fresh installation of that OS.
4. At the end of that installation, you'll be offered the opportunity to migrate/copy needed "stuff" (ie, files, folders, apps, settings, etc.) from either another Mac, a Time Machine backup, or another backup. Choose another backup, and proceed.

If you have a Time Machine backup, the piece I don't know about is how to launch that Mac OS installation file. But once that's done, you will eventually be at step 4 above, and you can choose the Time Machine backup you need.

Great. Thanks for the guide. I have a TM backup. I'll follow it from your step 4.