Most Apps take longer to startup - (the first time)

Software
1

New MacBook Air M4 (Sequoia)

Most Apps takes longer to startup, the first time I open it (after boot).

For example Chrome bounces in the dock 6 or 7 times (5 to 10 secs) before starting the first time. Then if I quit and restart app - just 1 bounce. Other apps have similar behavior.

This reminds me of old Macs with spinning hard drives.

BTW: Plain Mac with no virus malware checkers etc.

Seems like a caching issue or something?

Is this still common behavior in 2025?

Do you have similar issues?

Thanks Dave

2

Basecamp takes forever to open on my m1 Mac Studio and on my m1 MacBook Pro. If I open it through chrome it loads like 10 times faster. I’m not sure if it’s an electron app or what.

3

Basecamp is a PWA now that they want you to download/add to dock in Chromium or Safari–they’re not recommending the Electron app anymore.

I have the same 6-7 second initial startup time, then ~1 second for future startup times, with Chrome on an M3.

2 Likes
4

If this is your first Apple silicon Mac, take some time and see if there are Arm versions of your apps that may still be Intel builds.

8 Likes
5

@dealtek and @ismh86: This could be the case. I use EagleFiler and takes about 10 sec to start. I contacted the developer and he said that it takes longer because of “Rosetta” (If you need to install Rosetta on Mac - Apple Support).
I assume you have to update the apps to get the universal/Apple-Chip (Mx) version of an app.

6

good idea - I will check

7

Chiming in on a not so fresh thread: I’ve always had this issue with Microsoft Office apps, even the most up to date versions. At this point I’d rule out the Rosetta thing, because I’d swear such big corps would have sorted it out by now. Am I right? Anyone else has this specifically for MS apps? I run a search like every 3 months, but it yields no real solution.

Every other app (including Electron-based ones) has a fairly acceptable starting time on my MBP M1 2020.

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8

Yes, it’s the same for me. Of all the apps I use, Microsoft Office and the Affinity apps take the longest to load on startup. That’s using M2 Pro.

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