macOS Sonoma Slow Performance? Here’s How to Fix It (Without Losing Your Mind)

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1. Feeling Like macOS Sonoma Slowed Down Your Mac? You’re Not Alone 😩

Let me guess. You updated your Mac, expecting buttery-smooth animations and lightning speed — and instead, you got beachballs, laggy apps, and fans spinning like a jet engine. If you’re facing macOS Sonoma slow performance issues, welcome to the club.

As someone qui bosse avec des Macs tous les jours — que ce soit pour des designers, développeurs ou utilisateurs lambda — je peux te dire que tu n’es pas fou. Oui, Sonoma peut ralentir ton Mac. Mais heureusement, il existe des solutions simples (et d’autres plus techniques) pour redonner un coup de boost à ta machine.

macOS Sonoma slow performance fix

2. First: Don’t Panic, Give Sonoma Time to Settle 🕐

After installing macOS Sonoma, your Mac will often feel slow for 24–48 hours. Why? Because it’s busy indexing files (Spotlight), optimizing your photo library, syncing iCloud, and updating background services. If you just updated, wait a full day or two before troubleshooting deeper.

In the meantime, leave your Mac plugged in and open overnight — especially if you have a large Photos library or use iCloud Drive. Let it do its thing without interruption.

3. Check Activity Monitor: Who’s Hogging Resources?

Time to go under the hood. Open Activity Monitor (Applications → Utilities) and check these tabs:

  • CPU: Any app constantly over 80%? Kill it.
  • Memory: If Memory Pressure is yellow or red, you need to close some apps or upgrade RAM.
  • Energy: Look for power-hungry apps that drain performance — even in the background.

Chrome, Dropbox, Creative Cloud, and some VPN clients are common Sonoma troublemakers.

macOS Sonoma activity monitor

4. Disable Visual Effects and Transparency 🎨

Sonoma adds lots of subtle visual changes — like transparent menus and animations — which look nice, but hurt performance on older Macs. To turn them off:

  • Go to System Settings → Accessibility → Display
  • Enable “Reduce Motion” and “Reduce Transparency”

Bonus tip: turn off the new fancy wallpapers (like the dynamic video scenes) under System Settings → Wallpaper. Static backgrounds = faster wake and login times.

5. Manage Startup and Background Apps 🚦

macOS Sonoma lets more apps run in the background by default. Go to System Settings → General → Login Items and disable anything non-essential. Then scroll down to “Allow in the Background” and toggle off permissions you don’t need.

Yes, even menu bar apps you forgot about can slow you down — looking at you, little Dropbox icon 😉

6. Free Up Disk Space (It Matters Way More Than You Think) 💾

If your Mac’s startup disk is nearly full, macOS slows down. Period. It needs free space to create virtual memory and manage cache. Aim to keep at least 15–20% of your SSD free. Clean out:

  • Old downloads
  • Large video/audio projects
  • Unused apps (drag them to the trash and empty it!)

Also visit  → About This Mac → Storage → Manage for system recommendations.

macOS Sonoma storage cleanup

7. Update Everything (Yes, Again)

After a major macOS upgrade, apps need updates too — otherwise, you get crashes, slowness, and incompatibilities. Open the App Store → Updates, then check each third-party app’s menu (they often have “Check for Updates” options).

Make sure you’re running the latest Sonoma patch as well — go to System Settings → General → Software Update.

8. Optional But Powerful: Reset SMC + NVRAM

These little resets can fix weird slowdowns, overheating, or battery drain after a macOS upgrade:

  • NVRAM reset: Hold Option + Command + P + R for 20 seconds at boot
  • SMC reset: Varies by Mac model — follow Apple’s guide here: Reset SMC

Extra Tip 💡

If you recently installed Sonoma on an older Mac (Intel 2017 or earlier), consider doing a clean install instead of an upgrade. Sonoma runs best on Apple Silicon or recent models. Time Machine backup → USB installer → fresh install. It takes time, but you’ll thank yourself later.

🚀 Regain Speed with AppHalt (Especially on Sonoma)

AppHalt is the lightweight performance booster your Mac needs — especially after a macOS upgrade.
✅ Pause background apps eating CPU & memory
✅ Kill rogue auto-launching tools
✅ Reduce overheating, crashes, and lag in real-time

📥 Want your Mac to feel fast again under Sonoma? Download AppHalt now and get instant performance relief.

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