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Maverickinn's avatar
Maverickinn
Copper Contributor
Sep 14, 2026

How to fix a slow boot mac and make it run faster in startup?

My MacBook Pro (i7, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD) has started taking a really long time (10 minutes) to boot up and reach the desktop, and I'd like to speed up the startup process. I'm not very technical, ...
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Giovanninim's avatar
Giovanninim
Brass Contributor
Sep 14, 2026

Spotlight is macOS's search technology. It constantly scans your files to build an index of their contents and metadata so that searches are instant. When this index becomes corrupted—which can happen after a major macOS update or a crash—the corespotlightd and mdworker processes can get stuck in loops, endlessly trying to process files they can't read properly. This sustained background activity can make your Mac very slow to start up, and rebuilding the index forces macOS to discard the bad data and start fresh.

Steps:

  1. Open System Settings.
  2. Navigate to Siri & Spotlight (or just Spotlight).
  3. Scroll down and click the Spotlight Privacy (or Search Privacy) button.
  4. Click the "+" button and add your Macintosh HD (your main startup disk) to the list of locations that
  5. Spotlight is prevented from searching.
  6. Wait a few seconds.
  7. Select the Macintosh HD you just added, then click the "–" button to remove it from the list.
  8. Click Done and quit System Settings.

 

Spotlight will now begin reindexing your entire drive. You may see a progress indicator when you open Spotlight (Command + Space).

The rebuild is resource-intensive. Your Mac may feel sluggish or hot during the process, which can take anywhere from several minutes to over an hour, depending on how many files you have.

After you rebuild Spotlight, if your Mac very slow to start up, the safest next diagnostic step is to boot into Safe Mode. Restart your Mac and immediately hold the Shift key until you see the login screen. Safe Mode performs a basic disk check and prevents non-essential software from loading. If your Mac boots quickly in Safe Mode, a login item or third-party software is the culprit. If it's still slow, the issue is likely deeper—possibly hardware or system-level corruption.