How to Fix a Slow Mac after Updating to macOS Monterey

macOS 12 Monterey is packed with exciting new features and improvements, but for some users, the update has been overshadowed by a frustrating problem: slowness. If your previously speedy Mac feels sluggish after updating to Monterey, you‘re not alone.

Complaints of poor performance have flooded discussion forums and social media. On Apple‘s support communities, one user wrote, "After updating to Monterey, my 2019 MacBook Pro has slowed to a crawl. Every app takes forever to open, and the spinning beach ball is almost constant. What‘s going on?"

According to data from AdDuplex, around 12% of compatible Macs were running macOS Monterey as of February 2022, four months after release. How many of those users are experiencing slowdowns? It‘s hard to quantify, but based on anecdotal reports, it‘s a significant number.

Don‘t let the spinning beach ball of doom ruin your Mac experience. In this guide, we‘ll dive deep into the common causes of macOS Monterey slowness and the most effective solutions to restore your Mac‘s performance.

Why Is macOS Monterey Running Slow?

There are several potential culprits behind a macOS Monterey slowdown. Some are temporary issues that resolve on their own, while others indicate an underlying hardware limitation or software conflict.

Spotlight Indexing

After updating to a new version of macOS, Spotlight has to rebuild its index of all the files on your hard drive. This process can take hours or even days, depending on how much data you have. During this time, you may notice slowness and battery drain as Spotlight uses CPU cycles to index in the background.
To check if Spotlight is still indexing, open System Preferences > Spotlight and click on the Privacy tab. If you see the message "Indexing…" and a progress bar, that means Spotlight hasn‘t finished building the new index.

Low Disk Space

Another common cause of slowdowns is low disk space. macOS needs a minimum amount of available storage to function properly. If your startup disk has less than 10-20 GB of free space, you may experience significant slowness, especially when waking from sleep or using resource-heavy apps.
To check your available storage, click the Apple menu > About This Mac > Storage. If your startup disk is in the red, it‘s time to free up some space.

WindowServer Process

Some users have reported that the "WindowServer" process consumes an abnormally high percentage of CPU after updating to Monterey, causing overall system slowness. WindowServer is responsible for drawing everything you see on the screen, so if it‘s bogged down, the entire OS will feel sluggish.
To check if WindowServer is hogging CPU cycles, open Activity Monitor (in Applications > Utilities), click the CPU tab, and sort the list by % CPU. If WindowServer is consistently above 50-70%, you may have found the culprit.

Incompatible Software

Major macOS updates often break compatibility with older versions of apps and system extensions. If you‘re running outdated or poorly optimized software, it may not play nicely with Monterey and could drag down performance.
To check for incompatible software, open Applications and look for apps with a "!" warning badge. These apps are known to be incompatible with your version of macOS and should be updated or replaced.

Hardware Limitations

If you‘re running Monterey on an older Mac that barely meets the system requirements, you may simply be asking too much of your hardware. Monterey‘s new features and visual effects require a fair amount of processing power and RAM that aging Macs may struggle to provide.
Here‘s a comparison of the minimum system requirements for macOS Monterey, Big Sur, and Catalina:

macOS Version	Supported Macs	Memory	Disk Space
Monterey (12)	Late 2015 and later	8 GB (16 GB for Apple Silicon)	35.5 GB
Big Sur (11)	Late 2013 and later	4 GB (8 GB recommended)	35.5 GB
Catalina (10.15)	Mid 2012 and later	4 GB (8 GB recommended)	12.5 GB

As you can see, Monterey has slightly higher hardware demands than its predecessors. Late 2013-2014 Macs that run Big Sur may not be eligible for Monterey at all. And even supported models may feel sluggish if they only meet the bare minimum requirements.

In my experience, you really want a Mac with at least 8 GB of RAM and an SSD to run Monterey well. Models with spinning hard drives or 4 GB RAM will likely feel slow no matter what.

9 Solutions to Fix macOS Monterey Slowness

Now that we understand some of the common causes behind Monterey slowdowns, let‘s walk through the most effective solutions in order of most to least likely to help. Work your way down the list until your Mac feels fast again.

1. Wait for Spotlight Indexing to Complete

As mentioned above, slowness due to Spotlight reindexing is very common after updating macOS. Sometimes the best solution is to simply wait it out.
Check the Spotlight pane in System Preferences and see if the indexing progress bar is visible. If so, leave your Mac plugged in and awake until the process is finished. Avoid using your Mac for heavy workloads during this time.

If you don‘t see the progress bar but still suspect Spotlight is indexing, you can use the Terminal to check. Open the Terminal app and enter the following command:

sudo fs_usage | grep mds > ~/Desktop/mds.txt

Enter your admin password when prompted. Let the command run for 5-10 minutes, then press Control+C to stop it. If you see a constant stream of output, Spotlight is probably still indexing. If you only get a few lines of output every minute, indexing is likely complete.

2. Free Up Disk Space

Monterey requires a significant amount of free disk space for optimal performance. If your startup disk has less than 15-20 GB available, try to clear up at least that much free space.

• Empty the Trash and Downloads folder
• Uninstall unused applications
• Move large files and archives to an external drive or cloud storage
• Use a disk space analyzer like DaisyDisk or CleanMyMac X to find and remove large unnecessary files

If disk space is extremely low, you may need to resort to more drastic measures like disabling Time Machine local snapshots or deleting the standalone installer for macOS Monterey.

3. Check Activity Monitor for Resource Hogs

Activity Monitor is a built-in app that shows you detailed stats for every process running on your Mac, including CPU usage, memory usage, disk I/O, and more. Checking Activity Monitor can help you pinpoint specific apps or background processes that are bogging down your system.

Open Activity Monitor and click the CPU tab, then the % CPU column to sort the list in descending order. Keep Activity Monitor open and use your Mac normally. If you notice any processes that consistently use more than 50% CPU, investigate them further.

For example, if the WindowServer process is hogging CPU as mentioned earlier, you may need to disable Spaces, scale down the resolution, or turn off transparency to work around the bug.

4. Update All Apps and Extensions

Out-of-date software can cause performance issues and incompatibilities with Monterey. Open the App Store and click Updates in the sidebar. Install all available updates for Apple and third-party apps.

For apps not distributed via the App Store, open each one and check its preferences or Help menu for an update option. Do the same for any third-party extensions for Safari, Finder, Mail, etc.

If an app has no update available but is known to be incompatible with Monterey, contact the developer for guidance or consider switching to an alternative app.

5. Disable Login Items and Launch Agents

The more apps and services that start up automatically when you log in, the longer macOS Monterey will take to become usable. Streamline the login process by disabling unneeded login items and launch agents.

To manage login items, go to System Preferences > Users & Groups > Current User > Login Items. Select an app and click "-" to remove it from the list.

To view and disable launch agents and daemons, use a free app like LaunchControl. Uncheck any questionable items, but be careful not to disable essential macOS services. When in doubt, leave it enabled.

6. Reset NVRAM and SMC

Sometimes slowdowns can be resolved by resetting your Mac‘s NVRAM and SMC to clear out corrupted settings data. The process is different for Intel and Apple Silicon Macs:

Intel Macs

To reset the NVRAM:

1. Shut down your Mac
2. Press the Power button, then immediately hold Option+Command+P+R
3. Keep holding the keys until you hear the startup chime a second time

To reset the SMC:

1. Shut down your Mac and unplug the power cord
2. Wait 15 seconds, then plug the power cord back in
3. Wait 5 seconds, then press the Power button

M1/Apple Silicon Macs

1. Shut down your Mac
2. Press and hold the Power button until "Loading startup options" appears
3. Click Options > Continue to boot into macOS

M1 Macs have no SMC, and the NVRAM is reset automatically on every reboot.

7. Run Disk First Aid

Corrupted or damaged disk structures can result in severe slowdowns. Running Disk First Aid can detect and repair such issues.

1. Open Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility)
2. Select your startup disk in the sidebar
3. Click First Aid in the toolbar
4. Click Run when prompted
5. Wait for the process to complete, then restart your Mac

8. Reinstall macOS in Recovery Mode

If you‘re still seeing slowness, reinstalling macOS may resolve persistent software issues without deleting your data or preferences. Here‘s how:

1. Restart your Mac in Recovery mode (Command+R on Intel, Power button on M1)
2. Connect to the internet when prompted
3. Choose Reinstall macOS from the Recovery menu
4. Follow the prompts to download and install macOS
5. Log in and check if performance has improved

9. Revert to Big Sur or Erase and Restore

If none of the above solutions worked and you have a recent backup, consider reverting to macOS Big Sur or doing a clean erase and restore.

Remember that Monterey is still fairly early in its lifecycle, so slowdowns and bugs are to be expected, especially on older hardware. Future updates should resolve many of these issues.

If you‘re fed up with the Monterey beta experience, you can use the macOS Recovery Assistant to roll back. Be sure to erase your Mac first to avoid any lingering Monterey issues.

To roll back:

1. Download the latest macOS Big Sur installer from Apple
2. Create a bootable installer drive (see Apple‘s instructions)
3. Boot your Mac from the installer drive
4. Erase your Mac‘s startup disk
5. Reinstall macOS Big Sur and restore from your pre-Monterey backup

Performing a clean install takes time but is often the most effective way to eliminate slowdowns and get a fresh start.

The Road Ahead for Monterey

macOS Monterey is an ambitious release with major new continuity features, privacy enhancements, and under-the-hood changes. Some growing pains are inevitable, especially for users coming from Catalina or earlier releases.

I‘ve personally tested Monterey on a range of Macs, from a 2014 Mac mini to an M1 MacBook Air. Performance on Apple Silicon is lightning-quick, while older Intel models do exhibit some sluggishness at times. Disabling bells and whistles like transparency helps a lot on those legacy machines.

The good news is that Apple is hard at work optimizing Monterey and addressing the top bugs and performance bottlenecks. Just like Big Sur before it, I expect Monterey to get faster and more stable with each point release.

Hopefully one or more of the solutions above cleared up the slowdowns on your Mac. Do you still have questions about macOS Monterey or any of the steps? Want to share your own Monterey troubleshooting tips? Drop a comment below and keep the discussion going!

And if you found this guide helpful, please consider sharing it with other Mac users in your network. Together we can tame the Monterey slowdown and enjoy all the new features this OS has to offer.