Why is macOS Sonoma is very slow

JRS16

Hello,

I have a new M2 Mac Studio running Sonoma v14.1.1. I've installed (and uninstalled) F-Secure Total 3 different times now. In all cases, the Mac UI became virtually unusable because of the resources Total was consuming. I accepted all default settings for Total. No configuration changes were made.

Like I said, the Mac is brand new and only has some basic dev tools installed. My previous MacBook Pro running High Sierra had Total installed on it and it had zero issues. Total worked flawlessly like it does on my Windows machines.

Is there some configuration/setting I need to make in Total or Sonoma so that it's not such a huge resource hog and they both play nice? Is Total scanning my iCloud files? Is Total fighting with the hyper security in Sonoma? Or is this normal once first installed on a new Mac? I ask because I've never experienced this issue with any other installs of Total.

I can replicate the issue quite easily by either disabling background scanning or uninstalling Total. Both cases reverts the Sonoma UI back to its snappy self. I really want to get F-Secure back on my machine minus the performance hit.

Any thoughts on what could be causing this dramatic slowdown in Sonoma?

Thanks.

Jason

Firmy

Hello @JRS16 @macdaddy @RoBInS

We regret for any inconvenience caused by this issue. Our team is actively working on resolving it.

Our investigation reveals that the Intel-based machines are experiencing slower performance compared to Apple Silicon-based devices. This discrepancy in processing times is contributing to the issue, causing the product to crash.

To rectify this situation, we've promptly released an update to address the issue.

Thank you for your patience, understanding, and cooperation in this matter.

JRS16

Horrible English on my part.

The question should be "Why does Total make Sonoma so slow?".

Firmy

Hello @JRS16

Welcome to the F-Secure Community. Thank you for your post.

We understand the importance of a seamless experience and would like to assist you in resolving this issue.

To better address the situation, we kindly request additional information:

Could you provide details on the version of F-Secure Total installed on your Mac, and have you updated to the latest version (19.4)?

Sharing the system specifications of your M2 Mac Studio would be immensely helpful.

It's worth checking the settings within F-Secure Total to optimize its performance. Look for options such as adjusting the frequency of scans, exclusions for specific folders, or any other settings that might impact system resources. This can help find a balance between security and performance. You may refer to this link to help you: Protecting the computer against harmful content | Total | Latest | F-Secure User Guides

F-Secure Total does have the capability to scan files on your device, including those stored in iCloud on your Mac. However, scanning iCloud files should not excessively impact system performance. You might want to check if there are large files or specific folders triggering extensive scans.

While F-Secure Total is designed to work seamlessly with macOS, there can sometimes be compatibility issues. Ensure both F-Secure Total and Sonoma are updated to their latest versions.

F-Secure Total software runs background processes to ensure real-time protection. These processes, while essential for security, can use CPU and memory resources. You may want to check the background processes running on your Mac: https://support.apple.com/en-my/guide/activity-monitor/actmntr1001/mac

We are here to assist you further, and for more personalized support, please feel free to reach out.

Looking forward to helping you resolve this matter and provide you with a smoother experience.

JRS16

Hi Firmy,

I'm running F-Secure Total v19.2 on my new M2 Max Mac Studio. It is now upgraded to Sonoma v14.2.

F-Secure is configured in the default settings from install. I've re-installed F-Secure and I will have a look at the settings to see if there is anything I can adjust.

Thanks.

Jason

JRS16

Sadly, I have to report I could find no solution nor reason why Sonoma is so painfully slow with F-Secure Total (v19.4) installed. I spent way too many hours trying to figure out an explanation or a configuration that would improve the speed. But that fix has eluded me.

I have F-Secure installed on all my Windows machines with zero issues. I was assuming the same experience on my new M2 Mac Studio. But there is clearly something at odds with each other between Sonoma and F-Secure that makes the system dramatically slower to use.

For now, F-Secure has been uninstalled from my Mac and it's now returned to its very snappy and performant machine. I'm hoping one day I can re-install F-Secure on my Mac.

macdaddy

I'm getting the same issue - opening files is incredibly slow but if I disable automatic scanning then goes back to normal performance. I'm on Intel MacBook Pro with Sonoma 14.2.1 and F_Secure Total v19.4

macdaddy

Just to add this issue happened when first upgrading to Sonoma - the upgrade to Mac OS 14.1 resolved it then it came back with 14.2......

RoBInS

Same issue! Crazy slow on Sonoma 14.2.1 and FSecure 19.4 (60838), disabling realtime scanning and DeepGuard is the only option right now, to go back to a fast normal OS Userexperience. -- hoping FSecure will bring us an update fast. Very bad, and FSecure was the reason in 1st place I blindly updated to the new OS, because the old Version wasn't longer supported. Please fix this!

shadermonkey

I will +1 this...Intel Mac Pro with 2.7 GHz 24-Core Intel Xeon W, 96 GB 2933 MHz DDR4. I notice slowing when trying to launch an app from within Intelij, when I try and use a CURL command in the terminal, trying to do anything with F-Secure is even slow. I added IntelliJ and my JAR files and JAVAC, JAVA, etc to the exclusion list, along with terminal (!!!) and performance is still the same. I had to disable F_Secure for work and this is obviously not ok for coding where I am building web applications and the browser has some permissions disabled to avoid issues with tokens and third party or unsigned pages so I can test and deploy source code to staging.

Another thing I notice is that the process is climbing for the F_Secure processes if I browser hierarchically. It doesnt look like a memory leak because eventually it comes down where I would expect it to be going up and up until it finally crashes the process or worse. I have tried disabling the firewall on macOS thinking there may be a conflict and that didnt seem to help so I dont think that is the root cause.

One thing worth adding, I use Parallels a lot for running some processes in Windows which require me to test on Windows or requires something from VS that I can't do with macOS or .NET for Linux. I have not seen a performance difference but TBH I need to do some more testing to see if something in the Parallels environment is getting scanned or if there is some correlation to a VM running in a sandbox that is tied to F_Secure performance. Not sure how to test this other than empirically and just ramp up some windows processes to see what happens and enable and disable Windows security or Windows firewall for the sockets it is creating vis a vis Parallels to share the Network adapter.

I'll do some more digging but I uninstalled and did a clean reinstall and this did not help.

repherd

Hi all,

I have not experienced slow UI problem (Mac Studio M2, 96Gb, Sonoma 14.2.1) but with Safari (17.2.1 (19617.1.17.11.12)) and F-Secure ( 19.4 (60838)) browsing protection my Safari crashes randomly. Problem can't be replicated as it's totally random. After disabling browser protection Safari works well.

Safari crash is EXC_CRASH (SIGKILL) which is kind of "basic crash". More in detail code is 3490524077. And by checking that it:"The operating system terminated the app due to excessive use of key system resources. You might be able to avoid the issue by reducing parallelization and insuring that your app completes operations for preceding tasks before starting new tasks.".

This sounds like the Safari problem I'm experiencing would be closely linked with Sonoma UI -problem you are explaining. So could it be the case that F-secure realtime scanning is causing resources drainage in general?

F-Secure, please advise?