High Sierra 10.13.3 Extremely slow start-up / boot (1 min 30)

[FlashGordon]

MacBook Air 13" Early 2014 - factory internals except for a new Nu battery.
Upgraded to High Sierra a month or so ago, am now experiencing an average 1.39 minute log in, sometimes the loading bar even moves backwards.
Here is a list of what I have tried so far:
- Reset SMC and NVRAM
- Have checked TRIM is enable
- Have run first aid on disk permissions
- Have made sure my hard drive is not full and has more than 1/3rd free space
- There are no log in items to be launched on start up
- Have reselected Macintosh HD on start-up disk in system preferences and restarted
I'm not very tech savvy but I've been looking online for days to try and fix this problem.

 

[honestone]

I feel your "pain", although not as much. I also have the latest version of High Sierra, OS 10.13.3, installed on both of my Macs: a late 2012 Mac Mini with a 256 gig Samsung 840 Pro SSD and 8 gig of Ram, and a mid 2017 13" MacBook Air with a 252 gig SSD and 8 gig of Ram. Both of my machines are "lean, mean, and clean", and I make a concerted effort to perform some disk cleanup every day (primarily having deleted EMails permanently removed), and weekly disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs, and weekly backups via SuperDuper!. For both of the SSDs, I have more than 60% of free space.

For a while (and even when I had my prior Mac Book Air, a mid 2013 13" model with a 252 gig SSD and 4 gig of Ram), High Sierra was faster on starting up and shutting down on my laptop than on the Mac Mini. But recently I disconnected the external SSD I had attached to my Mac Mini, and the start up and shut down process improved "somewhat" dramatically. Now I only connect the external SSD when 1) I am doing a backup, or 2) I want to watch a movie or a TV series.

However, when I want to switch start up volumes (either on my external SSD (SuperDuper! backups are bootable), or via Tech Tool Pro's eDrive), that switching back and forth does take more time than when I was using Sierra.

I have not found anything to help out with this. It sounds like you are doing all the right things. I did see that OS 10.13.4 is in the second stage of beta testing, and no additional "features" were listed for that upcoming update. Not sure if it addresses this speed issue at all.

PS: Just booted up my Mac Book Air, and it took 24 seconds. Did the same for my Mac Mini, and it took only 20 seconds.

 

[Greenman]

I also found 1013.3 in its beta form significantly slower at starting up, as you say, it was like a double start up with the bar disappearing and coming back, I'm wondering if the new filing system APFS for SSD's had anything to do with it for some reason or other, 10.13.4 Beta seen to have improved on start up time, what ever that glitch is they seem to be working on improving the time of start up.

 

[honestone]

I also found 1013.3 in its beta form significantly slower at starting up, as you say, it was like a double start up with the bar disappearing and coming back, I'm wondering if the new filing system APFS for SSD's had anything to do with it for some reason or other, 10.13.4 Beta seen to have improved on start up time, what ever that glitch is they seem to be working on improving the time of start up.

That's good to hear about the beta version of OS 10.13.4. I definitely have the need for speed, and any improvement would help.

I also wonder about this APFS business. Have to wait and see what OS 10.13.4 brings.