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Curious slowness-limited to one account
#56125 09/09/20 12:55 PM
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ryck Offline OP
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My wife and I have separate accounts on our computer. However, in my account, I am experiencing a slowness while my wife's account is operating normally.

When I log-in, the first application selected will take a very long time to load. For example, Safari or Apple Mail will take nearly 1.5 minutes before they are functional. Excel will take nearly 3 minutes. In my wife's account, these load and function instantly.

When I log-out, my account will take nearly 45 seconds to get to the log-in window, but my wife's account gets there immediately.

So far, once the first application to be loaded has gone through the excruciating wait, others seem to load normally.

Thoughts? - other than "Use your wife's account" smile

Last edited by ryck; 09/09/20 01:02 PM. Reason: Additional info

ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software
TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
ryck #56128 09/09/20 07:27 PM
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Several possibilities occur:
  • At the top of my list would be what do you have running in the background? Check ~/Library/LaunchAgents, (where ~/ is Unix shorthand for your home folder) and System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items. Don't worry about anything in /Library as those are common to both you and your wife.
  • Another thought is corrupted user cache files. This OS X Daily article will walk you through clearing you user cache files. Don't worry, they will be rebuilt.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
joemikeb #56130 09/10/20 01:47 PM
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Originally Posted by joemikeb
Check ~/Library/LaunchAgents, (where ~/ is Unix shorthand for your home folder)
I assume you mean the folder in the Users folder, which is an icon of a house.

The Library is an invisible file so I used Command/Shift/Period to view and the LaunchAgent folder contains only one file - com.dropbox.DropboxMacUpdate.agent.plist

Originally Posted by joemikeb
Don't worry about anything in /Library as those are common to both you and your wife.
I figured, if I was poking around anyway, I’d take a quick look there too. The LaunchAgent folder has a bunch of plists but I do note that one has a very strange name - com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.cc24aef4a1b90ed56a725c38014c95072f92651fb65e1bf9c8e43c37a23d420d.plist

Originally Posted by joemikeb
……Check System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items.
This list has five items with the cautionary yellow triangle and all are described as Kind Unknown. None has an icon other than the ‘blank sheet’. They are:

AdobeResourceSynchronizer
Canon IJ Network Scanner
TrackballWorksHelper
Microsoft AU Daemon
DiskWarriorStarter

Note: There is a second “DiskWarriorStarter” item with a proper icon and it is described as “Application”

Originally Posted by joemikeb
Another thought is corrupted user cache files.
I own Cocktail so I used it to clear my User Cache files. Cocktail came back with a dialogue box that said “Unable to clear all caches. Some caches have not been properly cleared. See Activity Log for details.” The log said:

2020-08-14 18:51:07.796 Cocktail[1340:37631] Cocktail 12.5.0 (Mojave Edition) launched.
2020-08-14 18:51:08.341 Cocktail[1340:37631] myname authenticated.
2020-08-14 18:51:53.617 Cocktail[1340:37631] Launch Services database has been rebuilt.
2020-09-05 05:23:04.377 Cocktail[7553:211709] Cocktail 12.5.0 (Mojave Edition) launched.
2020-09-05 05:23:04.924 Cocktail[7553:211709] myname authenticated.
2020-09-05 05:23:55.085 Cocktail[7553:211709] Launch Services database has been rebuilt.
2020-09-09 15:51:09.168 Cocktail[1195:37738] Cocktail 12.5.0 (Mojave Edition) launched.
2020-09-09 15:51:09.692 Cocktail[1195:37738] myname authenticated.
2020-09-09 15:51:19.524 Cocktail[1195:37738] Could not get path to main bundle.
2020-09-09 15:56:27.960 Cocktail[1195:37738] Inactive memory has been purged.
2020-09-10 06:32:17.314 Cocktail[3961:161187] Cocktail 12.5.0 (Mojave Edition) launched.
2020-09-10 06:32:17.718 Cocktail[3961:161187] myname authenticated.
2020-09-10 06:33:23.638 Cocktail[3961:161187] User caches have been cleared. (User)
2020-09-10 06:33:23.939 Cocktail[3961:161187] ColorSync caches have been cleared. (User)
2020-09-10 06:33:24.241 Cocktail[3961:161187] Dictation & Speech caches have been cleared. (User)
2020-09-10 06:33:24.543 Cocktail[3961:161187] Dock caches have been cleared. (User)
2020-09-10 06:33:25.460 Cocktail[3961:161187] Help caches have been cleared. (User)
2020-09-10 06:33:26.047 Cocktail[3961:161187] Unable to clear QuickLook caches. (User)
2020-09-10 06:33:26.349 Cocktail[3961:161187] QuickTime caches have been cleared. (User)
2020-09-10 06:33:26.704 Cocktail[3961:161187] Unable to clear Spotlight caches. (User). Operation not permitted while System Integrity Protection is engaged. For more information about System Integrity Protection, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Integrity_Protection.
2020-09-10 06:33:27.151 Cocktail[3961:161187] VoiceOver caches have been cleared. (User)

Additional Information:

Again, since I was poking around anyway, I looked at Corrupted Preferences in Cocktail. It came up with:

/Library/Preferences/com.epson.Copy
/Library/Preferences/com.epson.EPSON
/Library/Preferences/com.epson.EPSON
/Library/Preferences/com.epson.Easy
/Library/Preferences/com.epson.Epson
/Library/Preferences/com.epson.Epson
/Library/Preferences/com.epson.Epson
/Users/myname/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist

Last edited by ryck; 09/10/20 10:58 AM. ET

Last edited by cyn; 09/10/20 10:34 PM. Reason: repair mod accident

ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software
TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
ryck #56132 09/10/20 03:40 PM
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Originally Posted by ryck
I assume you mean the folder in the Users folder, which is an icon of a house.
Yes.

Originally Posted by ryck
The Library is an invisible file so I used Command/Shift/Period to view and the LaunchAgent folder contains only one file - com.dropbox.DropboxMacUpdate.agent.plist
I figured, if I was poking around anyway, I’d take a quick look there too. The LaunchAgent folder has a bunch of plists but I do note that one has a very strange name - com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.cc24aef4a1b90ed56a725c38014c95072f92651fb65e1bf9c8e43c37a23d420d.plist

For more information on ARMDCHelper look here.

Originally Posted by ryck
This list has five items with the cautionary yellow triangle and all are described as Kind Unknown. None has an icon other than the ‘blank sheet’. They are:

AdobeResourceSynchronizer
Canon IJ Network Scanner
TrackballWorksHelper
Microsoft AU Daemon
DiskWarriorStarter

the yeallow triangle means the appllication listed either cannot be found where it was when it was added to the Login Items list or possibly that the app will not launch. See if you can find any of these apps, they are usually located in /Applications or ~/Applications and may be in sub folders therein. If the apps are there and not launching it probably means the apps are not compatible with the version of MacOS you are running and need to be updated. All appear to be apps supporting specific devices or applications but since the have the yellow triangle they are not being launched. You can remove them from your login items list without breaking anything.


Originally Posted by ryck
Note: There is a second “DiskWarriorStarter” item with a proper icon and it is described as “Application”

That one is working. Leave it alone.

Originally Posted by ryck
I own Cocktail so I used it to clear my User Cache files. Cocktail came back with a dialogue box that said “Unable to clear all caches. Some caches have not been properly cleared. See Activity Log for details.” The log said:


2020-09-10 06:33:23.638 Cocktail[3961:161187] User caches have been cleared. (User)
2020-09-10 06:33:23.939 Cocktail[3961:161187] ColorSync caches have been cleared. (User)
2020-09-10 06:33:24.241 Cocktail[3961:161187] Dictation & Speech caches have been cleared. (User)
2020-09-10 06:33:24.543 Cocktail[3961:161187] Dock caches have been cleared. (User)
2020-09-10 06:33:25.460 Cocktail[3961:161187] Help caches have been cleared. (User)
2020-09-10 06:33:26.047 Cocktail[3961:161187] Unable to clear QuickLook caches. (User)
2020-09-10 06:33:26.349 Cocktail[3961:161187] QuickTime caches have been cleared. (User)
2020-09-10 06:33:26.704 Cocktail[3961:161187] Unable to clear Spotlight caches. (User). Operation not permitted while System Integrity Protection is engaged. For more information about System Integrity Protection, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Integrity_Protection.
2020-09-10 06:33:27.151 Cocktail[3961:161187] VoiceOver caches have been cleared. (User)

Did that help?

Originally Posted by ryck
Additional Information:

Again, since I was poking around anyway, I looked at Corrupted Preferences in Cocktail. It came up with:

/Library/Preferences/com.epson.Copy
/Library/Preferences/com.epson.EPSON
/Library/Preferences/com.epson.EPSON
/Library/Preferences/com.epson.Easy
/Library/Preferences/com.epson.Epson
/Library/Preferences/com.epson.Epson
/Library/Preferences/com.epson.Epson
/Users/myname/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist

That check is a based on a command line function that checks the files to be sure they are "consistent and fully comply with Apple's guidelines for MacOS". The fact some don't comply doesn't necessarily mean they are corrupted or invalid, just that they don't comply with Apple's standard. Given the first seven are all from Epson, along with the fact Epson tends to march to their own drummer, leads me to believe that is probably the case. Com.apple.AddressBook.plist definitely should comply with the standard, however. The fix would be to deleteCom.apple.AddressBook.plist and allow Contacts to recreate it. You can then go into Contacts > Preferences and make any changes you wish.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
joemikeb #56133 09/10/20 04:03 PM
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Originally Posted by joemikeb
Originally Posted by ryck
This list has five items with the cautionary yellow triangle and all are described as Kind Unknown. None has an icon other than the ‘blank sheet’. They are:

AdobeResourceSynchronizer
Canon IJ Network Scanner
TrackballWorksHelper
Microsoft AU Daemon
DiskWarriorStarter

the yeallow triangle means the appllication listed either cannot be found where it was when it was added to the Login Items list or possibly that the app will not launch. See if you can find any of these apps, they are usually located in /Applications or ~/Applications and may be in sub folders therein.

If you're stuck for their locations, control-clicking on any of those items will call up a "Show in Finder" option. I'll guess that most, if not all of them will turn out to be located in the "Contents" of the apps they support rather than freestanding items.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
joemikeb #56144 09/11/20 05:43 PM
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ryck Offline OP
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Still no joy in Mudville.

Originally Posted by joemikeb
the yellow triangle means the application listed either cannot be found where it was when it was added to the Login Items list or possibly that the app will not launch. See if you can find any of these apps, they are usually located in /Applications or ~/Applications and may be in sub folders therein. If the apps are there and not launching it probably means the apps are not compatible with the version of MacOS you are running and need to be updated. All appear to be apps supporting specific devices or applications but since the have the yellow triangle they are not being launched. You can remove them from your login items list without breaking anything.

AdobeResourceSynchronizer

Could not find.

Canon IJ Network Scanner

Canon Applications folder had two “Scanner” folders (Utility and Selector) but neither of the applications could locate my printer.

TrackballWorksHelper

Could not locate a TrackBall folder but did have the TrackBallWorks dmg. However, it would not open …got message “”Kensington TrackBallWorks.pkg” can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer. Your security preferences allow installation of only apps from the App Store and identified developers.”

Microsoft AU Daemon

Could not find this in the Microsoft Office 11 folder or in any of the nested folders.

DiskWarriorStarter

As directed have left the good one in place.

Originally Posted by joemikeb
If the apps are there and not launching it probably means the apps are not compatible with the version of MacOS you are running and need to be updated. All appear to be apps supporting specific devices or applications but since the have the yellow triangle they are not being launched. You can remove them from your login items list without breaking anything.
• I only use Adobe to read PDFs and it isn’t failing.
• My printer works fine although I seldom use the scanner function as I have an Epson scanner.
• The Kensington TrackBall works fine.
• I mostly use Word and Excel and both work fine (although MS keeps saying I should update). I note that the MS apps are much slower to load than Apple’s, such as Safari.
• DiskWarrior is an unknown as V5 does not work anyway with my system.

I tend to keep things updated - that is, the apps I regularly use. However, I do have a number of apps (other than those shown above) that are seldom, if ever, used. I wonder if I should go through them with CleanApp and trash the ones not generally used.

Originally Posted by joemikeb
That check is a based on a command line function that checks the files to be sure they are "consistent and fully comply with Apple's guidelines for MacOS". The fact some don't comply doesn't necessarily mean they are corrupted or invalid, just that they don't comply with Apple's standard. Given the first seven are all from Epson, along with the fact Epson tends to march to their own drummer, leads me to believe that is probably the case. Com.apple.AddressBook.plist definitely should comply with the standard, however. The fix would be to deleteCom.apple.AddressBook.plist and allow Contacts to recreate it. You can then go into Contacts > Preferences and make any changes you wish.

In ~/Library/Contacts > Preferences I found many more “Address Book” plists so, knowing that plists rebuild after a reboot, I turfed them all.

com.apple.AddressBook.abd.plist
com.apple.AddressBook.plist
com.apple.AddressBook.plist.Dgasgj0
com.apple.AddressBook.plist.MOPrw2t
com.apple.AddressBook.plist.UB6BQ3E
com.apple.AddressBook.sync.plist

Last edited by ryck; 09/11/20 05:46 PM.

ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software
TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
ryck #56145 09/11/20 05:50 PM
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Originally Posted by ryck
Still no joy in Mudville.

Originally Posted by joemikeb
the yellow triangle means the application listed either cannot be found where it was when it was added to the Login Items list or possibly that the app will not launch. See if you can find any of these apps, they are usually located in /Applications or ~/Applications and may be in sub folders therein. If the apps are there and not launching it probably means the apps are not compatible with the version of MacOS you are running and need to be updated. All appear to be apps supporting specific devices or applications but since the have the yellow triangle they are not being launched. You can remove them from your login items list without breaking anything.

AdobeResourceSynchronizer

Could not find.

Canon IJ Network Scanner

Canon Applications folder had two “Scanner” folders (Utility and Selector) but neither of the applications could locate my printer.

TrackballWorksHelper

Could not locate a TrackBall folder but did have the TrackBallWorks dmg. However, it would not open …got message “”Kensington TrackBallWorks.pkg” can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer. Your security preferences allow installation of only apps from the App Store and identified developers.”

Microsoft AU Daemon

Could not find this in the Microsoft Office 11 folder or in any of the nested folders.

DiskWarriorStarter

As directed have left the good one in place.

Did you look for those items using the "Show in Finder" option, or just on your own?

Most, if not all of them sound like they're in Your app > Contents, which are not readily visible.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
artie505 #56149 09/11/20 07:32 PM
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Originally Posted by artie505
Did you look for those items using the "Show in Finder" option, or just on your own?
I looked for them on my own. I couldn't use Finder as I moved too quickly on removing them from the Log In list. Drat!


ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software
TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
ryck #56150 09/11/20 09:48 PM
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Originally Posted by ryck
Originally Posted by artie505
Did you look for those items using the "Show in Finder" option, or just on your own?
I looked for them on my own. I couldn't use Finder as I moved too quickly on removing them from the Log In list. Drat!

If you're really curious, you can boot into your clone if you haven't updated it already.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
ryck #56151 09/11/20 10:12 PM
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Originally Posted by ryck
AdobeResourceSynchronizer

Could not find.

Canon IJ Network Scanner

Canon Applications folder had two “Scanner” folders (Utility and Selector) but neither of the applications could locate my printer.

TrackballWorksHelper

Could not locate a TrackBall folder but did have the TrackBallWorks dmg. However, it would not open …got message “”Kensington TrackBallWorks.pkg” can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer. Your security preferences allow installation of only apps from the App Store and identified developers.”

Microsoft AU Daemon

Could not find this in the Microsoft Office 11 folder or in any of the nested folders.

Those were yellow flagged and had a blank file type so they were not being loaded and therefore unlikely to have any impact on performance unless there is an application or applications that are searching for them when they launch.

Originally Posted by ryck
DiskWarriorStarter

As directed have left the good one in place.

• DiskWarrior is an unknown as V5 does not work anyway with my system.

Since it does not work on your system then Why not delete it? It is useless.

Originally Posted by ryck
I tend to keep things updated - that is, the apps I regularly use. However, I do have a number of apps (other than those shown above) that are seldom, if ever, used. I wonder if I should go through them with CleanApp and trash the ones not generally used.

Periodically, I go thorough a spate of housecleaning, usually just before of just after a major MacOS upgrade. My rule is if I can't remember what an app does or the last time I used it, it goes. Probably doesn't help performance, but it sure cuts down on the distractions and makes it easier to locate what I really need.

Originally Posted by ryck
In ~/Library/Contacts > Preferences I found many more “Address Book” plists so, knowing that plists rebuild after a reboot, I turfed them all.

com.apple.AddressBook.abd.plist
com.apple.AddressBook.plist
com.apple.AddressBook.plist.Dgasgj0
com.apple.AddressBook.plist.MOPrw2t
com.apple.AddressBook.plist.UB6BQ3E
com.apple.AddressBook.sync.plist

Since those were all under the Contacts umbrella, you are probably okay, but not all plists are preference files and not all plists are automatically recreated. For example, LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons are all property list files with the .plist file extension. So you should not delete files with the .plist extension cavalierly.

Since you are still faced with slow loading another thing to try is launching Activity Monitor and watch it while launching other applications to see if you can get a clue about the slow launching from it. Look for apps that may be spiking in CPU, Memory, or Disk use when an app is loading,

NOTE: Activity Monitor will use a lot of CPU cycles but you can discount that as you are only sunning it for test purposes.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
joemikeb #56152 09/11/20 10:28 PM
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Originally Posted by joemikeb
Periodically, I go thorough a spate of housecleaning, usually just before of just after a major MacOS upgrade. My rule is if I can't remember what an app does or the last time I used it, it goes. Probably doesn't help performance, but it sure cuts down on the distractions and makes it easier to locate what I really need.

If you've never tried it, sort ~/Library/Preferences in list view and by Date Modified, and take a look at the bottom of the list, i.e. what was modified LEAST recently.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
artie505 #56153 09/11/20 10:40 PM
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Originally Posted by artie505
Originally Posted by ryck
Originally Posted by artie505
Did you look for those items using the "Show in Finder" option, or just on your own?
I looked for them on my own. I couldn't use Finder as I moved too quickly on removing them from the Log In list. Drat!

If you're really curious, you can boot into your clone if you haven't updated it already.
Okay....so now we're getting into "weird events". I have a weekly clone that I booted with and then attempted to use the Control-Click to see the items in the Finder. It didn't work at all but, after I booted back into my main drive system, things were back to normal. Logging out and booting apps are now within a few seconds. Since I have no idea what happened, I'll cross my fingers and hope this status remains.

Last edited by ryck; 09/11/20 10:41 PM.

ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software
TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
joemikeb #56154 09/11/20 10:45 PM
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Originally Posted by joemikeb
Originally Posted by ryck
I tend to keep things updated - that is, the apps I regularly use. However, I do have a number of apps (other than those shown above) that are seldom, if ever, used. I wonder if I should go through them with CleanApp and trash the ones not generally used.

Periodically, I go thorough a spate of housecleaning, usually just before of just after a major MacOS upgrade. My rule is if I can't remember what an app does or the last time I used it, it goes. Probably doesn't help performance, but it sure cuts down on the distractions and makes it easier to locate what I really need.
Good advice, and that's what I'm about to do....sort of like getting rid of all that crap in the garage or the basement that you've stored away "just in case". With apps, it's sort of like being a digital hoarder.


ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software
TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
ryck #56156 09/11/20 11:01 PM
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Originally Posted by ryck
Okay....so now we're getting into "weird events". I have a weekly clone that I booted with and then attempted to use the Control-Click to see the items in the Finder. It didn't work at all but, after I booted back into my main drive system, things were back to normal. Logging out and booting apps are now within a few seconds. Since I have no idea what happened, I'll cross my fingers and hope this status remains.
👌🤞


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
joemikeb #56226 09/24/20 02:47 PM
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I may have spoken too soon. This morning I had a repeat of previous slow loading, so....
Originally Posted by joemikeb
Check ~/Library/LaunchAgents, (where ~/ is Unix shorthand for your home folder)
Did that again and the only item is: “com.dropbox.DropboxMacUpdate.agent.plist”
Originally Posted by joemikeb
System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items.
Did this again and two items that were previously removed, have reappeared: DiskWarriorStarter and EyeTV Helper. Both are described as Kind-Unknown. I don’t understand why they would reappear as the applications for both were removed, using CleanApp, when I went through my drive looking for now unused applications.

I have removed both (using the "-" box in the window) so that the only ones remaining (described as applications and having proper icons) are DropBox, Canon IJ Network Scanner and CCC Agent User.
Originally Posted by joemikeb
Another thought is corrupted user cache files.
I used Cocktail to clear my User caches files but it came back with a report saying: “Unable to clear all caches. Some caches have not been properly cleared.”

I checked the Cocktail Activity Log, and it said:

2020-09-24 07:12:21.649 Cocktail[1798:50761] Cocktail 12.5.0 (Mojave Edition) launched.
2020-09-24 07:12:22.204 Cocktail[1798:50761] My Name authenticated.
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Originally Posted by artie505
….sort ~/Library/Preferences in list view and by Date Modified, and take a look at the bottom of the list, i.e. what was modified LEAST recently.
In list view, the bottom three items, as listed, are:

widget-net.liquidx.AlbumArtWidget.plist
Windows Media Favorites (without a .plist designation)
ZoomChat.plist

The Finder View also shows things that may/may not be pertinent…but certainly seem strange.

The top of the list is 9 empty folders, one of which has an !

These are followed by a very large number of items that are greyed-out and have odd names like: “.”, “.ado.NiHPrHrHCe”, "dat.nosync0d04.NPIQ.JG”, “ED79F650-F474-47C9-BA6A-283561305DEB”

There’s an extremely large number of not-greyed-out preferences, many of which are for applications no longer residing on the drive. There are also some strangely named Folders like “ê–+Ò£x” but which are empty.

I could go on but I’m sure you get the gist.

And, to make things even more curious...after leaving the Finder View and going back to the Forums page, all the Thread and Posts data were repeated in Red, in Brackets, for every Forum.

Last edited by ryck; 09/24/20 03:04 PM.

ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

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Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
ryck #56237 09/25/20 02:51 AM
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Originally Posted by ryck
Originally Posted by joemikeb
System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items.
Did this again and two items that were previously removed, have reappeared: DiskWarriorStarter and EyeTV Helper. Both are described as Kind-Unknown. I don’t understand why they would reappear as the applications for both were removed, using CleanApp, when I went through my drive looking for now unused applications.

I have removed both (using the "-" box in the window) so that the only ones remaining (described as applications and having proper icons) are DropBox, Canon IJ Network Scanner and CCC Agent User.

I don't know why they'd reappear after having been removed unless they were restored by plists that CleanApp missed.

See Easy Find Leftovers

Originally Posted by ryck
Originally Posted by artie505
….sort ~/Library/Preferences in list view and by Date Modified, and take a look at the bottom of the list, i.e. what was modified LEAST recently.
In list view, the bottom three items, as listed, are:

widget-net.liquidx.AlbumArtWidget.plist
Windows Media Favorites (without a .plist designation)
ZoomChat.plist

The Finder View also shows things that may/may not be pertinent…but certainly seem strange.

The top of the list is 9 empty folders, one of which has an !

These are followed by a very large number of items that are greyed-out and have odd names like: “.”, “.ado.NiHPrHrHCe”, "dat.nosync0d04.NPIQ.JG”, “ED79F650-F474-47C9-BA6A-283561305DEB”

There’s an extremely large number of not-greyed-out preferences, many of which are for applications no longer residing on the drive. There are also some strangely named Folders like “ê–+Ò£x” but which are empty.
I made that suggestion because plists last modified long ago may relate to apps no longer on your machine, but it doesn't have to be the bottom items.

Through Mojave, Finder had an annoying habit of creating spurious plists with odd names such as you've described and zero content. For what it's worth, I've deleted everything that's ever turned up in ~/Library/Prefs with zero content and never run into any problems.

You can, of course, delete any plist that's associated with any app that's no longer residing on your drive.

Do your grayed out items have any content? I've got nothing like them on my drive.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
artie505 #56238 09/25/20 09:09 AM
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Originally Posted by artie505
Originally Posted by ryck
Originally Posted by joemikeb
System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items.
Did this again and two items that were previously removed, have reappeared: DiskWarriorStarter and EyeTV Helper. Both are described as Kind-Unknown. I don’t understand why they would reappear as the applications for both were removed, using CleanApp, when I went through my drive looking for now unused applications.

I have removed both (using the "-" box in the window) so that the only ones remaining (described as applications and having proper icons) are DropBox, Canon IJ Network Scanner and CCC Agent User.

I don't know why they'd reappear after having been removed unless they were restored by plists that CleanApp missed.

See [color:blue]Easy Find Leftovers
Good point. I had forgotten about that thread.

Originally Posted by artie505
Originally Posted by ryck
Originally Posted by artie505
….sort ~/Library/Preferences in list view and by Date Modified, and take a look at the bottom of the list, i.e. what was modified LEAST recently.
In list view, the bottom three items, as listed, are:

widget-net.liquidx.AlbumArtWidget.plist
Windows Media Favorites (without a .plist designation)
ZoomChat.plist

The Finder View also shows things that may/may not be pertinent…but certainly seem strange.

The top of the list is 9 empty folders, one of which has an !

These are followed by a very large number of items that are greyed-out and have odd names like: “.”, “.ado.NiHPrHrHCe”, "dat.nosync0d04.NPIQ.JG”, “ED79F650-F474-47C9-BA6A-283561305DEB”
Do your grayed out items have any content? I've got nothing like them on my drive.
None of the greyed-out items has the .plist designation, except in the text itself. All are TextEdit documents. I opened two at random and this is what they contained:

.dat.nosync0b6a.Mg1isY

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>absentCircleWithNoReason</key>
<false/>
<key>applicationDate</key>
<date>0000-12-30T00:00:00Z</date>
<key>lastCircleStatus</key>
<integer>-1</integer>
<key>lastWritten</key>
<date>2018-10-25T22:47:18Z</date>
<key>pendingApplicationReminder</key>
<date>4001-01-01T00:00:00Z</date>
<key>pendingApplicationReminderInterval</key>
<integer>86400</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

.dat.nosync0f7b.doaAJo

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>absentCircleWithNoReason</key>
<false/>
<key>applicationDate</key>
<date>0000-12-30T00:00:00Z</date>
<key>lastCircleStatus</key>
<integer>0</integer>
<key>lastWritten</key>
<date>2019-12-15T20:27:58Z</date>
<key>pendingApplicationReminder</key>
<date>4001-01-01T00:00:00Z</date>
<key>pendingApplicationReminderInterval</key>
<integer>86400</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

Last edited by ryck; 09/25/20 09:11 AM.

ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

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Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
ryck #56240 09/25/20 04:15 PM
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Obviously both of these files are in plist format, but as Artie already mentioned, not all plist (property lists) files were named the way we normally expect and many files that use the plist format that are not property lists. For example LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons both use the plist format. Their reappearance after deletion leads me to suspect they are under SIP (System Integrity Protection). If that is the case you will either have to delete them while booted from another volume or disable SIP. OWC has a good article on SIP and how to control it.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
ryck #56250 09/26/20 01:45 AM
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I think it's time for you to do a FindAnyFile search to see what, if anything, is hanging around from DiskWarrior and EyeTV.

Search for DW & Alsoft and EyeTV & both Elgato & Geniatech.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
artie505 #56259 09/26/20 05:21 PM
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Originally Posted by artie505
Search for DW & Alsoft and EyeTV & both Elgato & Geniatech
For Disk Warrior, FindAnyFile found these, described as Size “0”

Alsoft (Disk Warrior).mbox
Alsoft (Disk Warrior).mbox
Alsoft-Disk Warrior
com.alsoft.DiskWarrior
com.alsoft.DiskWarrior-5-Updater
com.alsoft.DiskWarrior-Recovery-Maker
com.alsoft.diskwarrior5installer
Disk Warrior V5

….and FindAnyFile found these.

DiskWarrior.app 319K Icon was grey box with white circle and line
DiskWarrior5.zip 18.8M
DiskWarriorPreview 249K TextEdit icon
DiskWarriorPreview.kext 319K Kernel Extension icon

EDIT: Subsequent action

I did a Move to Trash for all DiskWarrior items but got a message: “The operation failed for some items. Some items are locked or require root permissions.” I did a Retry and then a new search, which came up with:

DiskWarrior.app 319K Icon is grey box with white circle and line
DiskWarriorPreview 249K TextEdit icon
DiskWarriorPreview.kext 319K Kernel Extension icon



For Alsoft, FindAnyFile found these files and Folders, all described as Size “0”

Alsoft (Disk Warrior).mbox
Alsoft (Disk Warrior).mbox

Folders:

Alsoft-Disk Warrior
com.alsoft.DiskWarrior
com.alsoft.DiskWarrior-5-Updater
com.alsoft.DiskWarrior-Recovery-Maker
com.alsoft.diskwarrior5installer
com.alsoft.drmupdater

EDIT: Subsequent actions

I did a Move to Trash for all Alsoft items and after emptying the trash, no Alsoft items are found.



For Eye TV, FindAnyFile found a pile of stuff

com.elgato.eyetv.devices.000d935dacea.plist
com.elgato.eyetv.devices.002332951ec4.plist
com.elgato.eyetv.devices.plist
com.elgato.eyetv.plist
com.elgato.eyetv.world.plist
ELGEyeTVPlayerWindow.nib
ELGEyeTVPlayerWindow.strings (There were 12 of these)
ELGEyeTVPlayerWindowFooterView.nib
ELGEyeTVPlayerWindowFooterView.strings (There were 12 of these)
ELGEyeTVPlayerWindowHeaderPopoverView.nib
ELGEyeTVPlayerWindowHeaderPopoverView.strings (There were 12 of these)
ELGEyeTVPlayerWindowHeaderView.nib
ELGEyeTVPlayerWindowHeaderView.strings (There were 12 of these)
Eye TV.mbox
EyeTV MPEG Support
EyeTV MPEG Support.component
EyeTV MPEG Support.rsrc
eyetv.icns (Which could not be copied/pasted with inserting a large image)
EyeTVBackground.png
EyeTVBackgroundAudio.png
EyeTVBackgroundLogo.png
EyeTVEditor.nib
EyeTVEditor.strings (There were 12 of these)
6 Folders all described as “EyeTVMain.nib”
EyeTVNew.png
EyeTVNopreview.png
EyeTVRadio.png
Setup-EyeTVIcon.tiff

EDIT: Subsequent actions

I did a Move to Trash for all EyeTV items and, after emptying the trash, no EyeTV items are found.



For Elgato, FindAnyFile found another pile of stuff

.com.elgato.EVC_Temp
com.elgato.eyetv.devices.000d935dacea.plist
com.elgato.eyetv.devices.002332951ec4.plist
com.elgato.eyetv.devices.plist
com.elgato.eyetv.plist
com.elgato.eyetv.world.plist
com.elgato.VideoCapture
com.elgato.VideoCapture
com.elgato.VideoCapture.plist
com.elgato.VideoCapture.png
com.elgato.videocapture.sfl
com.elgato.VideoPlayer.plist
Elgato MPEG Support
Elgato MPEG Support.component
Elgato MPEG Support.rsrc
Elgato Video Capture
Elgato Video Capture
Elgato Video Capture.app
Elgato Video Capture.pdf
Elgato.mbox
ElgatoLogo_white.pdf
ElgatoSCMCardBusDVBT
ElgatoSCMCardBusDVBT.kext
elgatovideocapture_111_6267.dmg
ElgatoVideoCapture.strings (There were 12 of these)
ElgatoVideoCaptureAssistantBackground.png (There were 2 of these)
ElgatoVideoCaptureEULABackground.png (There were 2 of these)
logo_elgato.fscaled.png (There were 2 of these)

EDIT: Subsequent action

I did a Move to Trash for all Elgato items and, after emptying the trash, no Elgato items are found.


For Geniatech, FindAnyFile didn’t find anything


EDIT: Bottom Line

I now seem to have only the following that I'm unable to purge:

DiskWarrior.app 319K Icon is grey box with white circle and line
DiskWarriorPreview 249K TextEdit icon
DiskWarriorPreview.kext 319K Kernel Extension icon

I saw that Find Any File offered a pictorial route to the items, so I followed it to the DiskWarrior.app However, I was not offered any delete option so I tried dragging it to the Trash. I got a dialogue Box that said: ""Disk Warrior" can't be modified or deleted because it's required by macOS". A right click offered Move to Trash but those attempts got “The operation failed for some items. Some items are locked or require root permissions.”

Last edited by ryck; 09/26/20 09:55 PM.

ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software
TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
ryck #56283 09/27/20 06:00 AM
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Originally Posted by ryck
I now seem to have only the following that I'm unable to purge:

DiskWarrior.app 319K Icon is grey box with white circle and line
DiskWarriorPreview 249K TextEdit icon
DiskWarriorPreview.kext 319K Kernel Extension icon

I saw that Find Any File offered a pictorial route to the items, so I followed it to the DiskWarrior.app However, I was not offered any delete option so I tried dragging it to the Trash. I got a dialogue Box that said: ""Disk Warrior" can't be modified or deleted because it's required by macOS". A right click offered Move to Trash but those attempts got “The operation failed for some items. Some items are locked or require root permissions.”[/color]
Well, so much for CleanApp! tongue

(I just noticed that crazy is gone from the Smiley palette, but typing it still works.)

Since DW is gone, you can boot into your clone and delete those items from there.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
artie505 #56285 09/27/20 02:33 PM
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ryck Offline OP
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Originally Posted by artie505
Since DW is gone, you can boot into your clone and delete those items from there.
Will do....and I'll grab this opportunity to give Find Any File a big barrel of kudos. I've only spent a bit of time with it but, for the work so far, it's been quite amazing. I intend to spend a bit of time exploring as it seems to have lots of useful functionality. It's certainly well worth the price - another good reason for everyone to support ShareWare.


ryck

"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4
OS Ventura 13.6.3
Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer
Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software
TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
ryck #56287 09/27/20 03:08 PM
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I'm totally neurotic about ~/Library/Prefs, and I frequently check its contents against an updated list I keep on my desktop to see if any new items have been added...particularly after I've added a new app.

I every once in a while actually find new plists that don't include any recognizable identifiers and would remain on my MBP forever after the apps that placed them have been deleted were I not aware of them at the outset. (Amazon Music and TurboTax place such plists.)

FAF can be set to search as root with a Terminal command you can find in its documentation.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
artie505 #56288 09/27/20 04:53 PM
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Originally Posted by artie505
Well, so much for CleanApp! tongue

I used CleanApp for years but deleted it when Synium Software dropped it from their lineup about a year ago. Now I use the Uninstallation Assistant in Marcel Bresink's TinkerTool System 6 as an excellent first approximation followed by FAF if I have any concerns. But not even FAF helps with some apps that use UUID file names. FAF searches can also be problematic when you have two, or more, apps from the same developer and you can't differentiate which app a particular file is associated with.

NOTE: The Uninstallation Assistant in TTS 6 refuses to delete apps purchased from the App Store and suggests deleting them via LaunchPad. While theoretically that should delete all traces of a properly sandboxed application, I recently discovered an app store app that left a significant amount of detritus behind when deleted via LaunchPad. (It was reported and verified by Apple so I presume Apple is having word with the developer.)


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Curious slowness-limited to one account
joemikeb #56290 09/28/20 04:58 AM
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Originally Posted by joemikeb
...I use the Uninstallation Assistant in Marcel Bresink's TinkerTool System 6 as an excellent first approximation followed by FAF if I have any concerns. But not even FAF helps with some apps that use UUID file names. FAF searches can also be problematic when you have two, or more, apps from the same developer and you can't differentiate which app a particular file is associated with.
That's like restart v shutdown/start up, only more-so. If a restart fails, your problem persists and you know you've got to try the next step, but you're merely flying seat-of-the-pants with "if I have any concerns."

If FAF has ever, even once, found something that TTS has missed, you've got sufficient reason to run it every time you delete an app...regardless of the presence or lack of "concerns."

And if Marcel Bresink's search tool is so robust that FAF never finds anything after TTS has run, then shame on him for keeping it under the hood and confined to so small an area.

UUID file names are, as you suggest, forever hidden unless you're running an app that follows fs events in real time to record every file an app creates.

I've got two instances of two apps each from the same developer, and, not to suggest that it's a universal, every component of each app is clearly identified by the name of the app of which it's a part. (Has TTS got a different means of differentiating?)

By the way, I've run the FAF Terminal command to make it perform all searches as root.

Aside: I just noticed that posters' locations listed in FTM's sidebar are now links to maps. cool


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
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