Sudden iMac 2017 Sluggishness

[DogCatMSMac]

I've got a 2017 iMac with plenty of horsepower. Seemingly after the latest Big Sur update(approximately), when starting up, it takes 1 to 1.5 minutes after typing in password for desktop icons and toolbar to appear on the screen. Just to get to the password entry it takes 1+ minute to boot. Many other things are sluggish. If this is extra security I could accept that but I'm not sure what is happening. Any suggestions? Thanks

 

[DimaVR]

Some program is loading, you need the check your logs and see if you have error during start up

 

[wardie]

I’ve had this on occasion too with a same machine since moving to Big Sur. Reboot always fixed it. I suspect that it is I’ve got loads of tools that load on login into the top menu bar thing, and one or two may not be genuinely Big Sur compatible even though they say so. Wasn’t a big/permanent enough problem for me to spend time going looking, next time it happens though I’ll poke in the logs. First base though normally is launch and watch Activity Monitor, show processes sorted by CPU% or CPU time to see any rogues.

 

[neuralengine]

Do you have Chrome installed? If so, it could be related to Chrome. Take a look at this site.

 

[Fishrrman]

Two things to try:

Try a "Safe Boot":
Press the power on button and hold down the shift key while it boots.
Log into your account and see if things go normally.

Try creating a new account with administrative privileges.
You do this with the users & groups preference pane.
Give it a distinct name and password (different from your "regular" ones).
Then log into the new account and try things out.
Do things go normally, or do they also "go slow" here?
(If things suddenly run better in the new account, then it's something "local to" your existing account that is messing up performance).

 

[DogCatMSMac]

I found the problem. I had used up so much hard drive space working with video files that there was hardly any room left. Offloading storage.

 

[wardie]

Do you have Chrome installed? If so, it could be related to Chrome. Take a look at this site.

Interesting, thanks. I have chrome, can’t uninstall as some things need that on safari. I’ll keep an eye out.