Apple

Sounds like there is something defective about your mac. Have you done a clean restore and tested it?

Sounds like you're the problem lol

If it's base model 8GB 256GB then there's your problem. Maxtech on Youtube proved beyond doubt the SSD on this model is a problem. That isn't to say it's a bad machine, but you've clearly noticed the limits. A pro with 16GB 512GB+ will serve you well. Even the M1 versions can be found for good prices now.

If it's base model 8GB 256GB then there's your problem. Maxtech on Youtube proved beyond doubt the SSD on this model is a problem. That isn't to say it's a bad machine, but you've clearly noticed the limits. A pro with 16GB 512GB+ will serve you well. Even the M1 versions can be found for good prices now.

Odd we have had zero Issues with our m2 mba 16/256. It’s a beast

Odd we have had zero Issues with our m2 mba 16/256. It’s a beast

I would suggest taking a look at the activity monitor and see if it gives any clues of what’s causing the issues. Is the processor having some abnormal usage? High usage when idle? How much RAM do you have free? Test with the computer on idle and using the programs that are running slow.

Try closing everything and running a single program, like illustrator. Does it work fine? Is your machine maybe overheating? I believe the Air is fanless, so this can be causing it to throttle using heavy applications.

I believe that you need to do a bit more of diagnosing to try pinpointing the exact source of your issues

I have the M1 2020 pro 13’ you broke, it’s fast, powerful and reliable, though whether it’s better to fix it or get a new one depends mostly on the price difference

I would suggest taking a look at the activity monitor and see if it gives any clues of what’s causing the issues. Is the processor having some abnormal usage? High usage when idle? How much RAM do you have free? Test with the computer on idle and using the programs that are running slow.

Try closing everything and running a single program, like illustrator. Does it work fine? Is your machine maybe overheating? I believe the Air is fanless, so this can be causing it to throttle using heavy applications.

I believe that you need to do a bit more of diagnosing to try pinpointing the exact source of your issues

Try to check everything with cleanMyMac (they have trial and some discount for Black Friday) , and remember that MacBooks with 256gb ssd are a bit slower, so you need to keep enough free space to prevent problems.

What do you mean by "nothing loads from webpages to programs"? And what's unreliable about running the Adobe suite?

Even x86 apps run fine on Apple Silicon, there really shouldn't be any problems.

Look you may have an lambo but somehow it runs at only 10 miles an hour. It’s not a systemic issue that affects all lambos, everyone else’s runs well. You just got unlucky, go back to apple tell them your problem and fix it.

Sounds like you're the problem lol

It's really hard to say without being able to ssh into your machine and run some commands on the terminal while you are using adobe suite. One super easy to use tool (that's worth paying for) is iStat, which is a menu bar that gives you information on CPU/RAM/Disk usage in the menu bar. That will give you a good idea what the bottle neck even is.

It's definitely possible that there is a hardware fault here, like one, or multiple of the CPU cores aren't being able to be used, the L1/L2 cache is messed up, there's a fault on your bus connecting the RAM. All of that would explain your reported issues, which is a systematic slowness, independent of load, which happens on all the software you try to run. Alternatively, there could be some program you are running (or virus) which is just eating system resources, so do a restart and check activity monitor (or use iStat) and see what's going on.

The easiest path to a fix here: go to the Apple Store and have them take a look. Otherwise, you'll have to figure out how to run these diagnostics yourself. Good luck.

I manage a fleet of Macs, 400 at last count, and I have many faculty and staff using M1 and M2, mostly base model Air… No issues, other than slower performance on heavy stuff. I’m wondering if you should try doing a wipe of your hard drive and reinstall the current macOS.

It's really hard to say without being able to ssh into your machine and run some commands on the terminal while you are using adobe suite. One super easy to use tool (that's worth paying for) is iStat, which is a menu bar that gives you information on CPU/RAM/Disk usage in the menu bar. That will give you a good idea what the bottle neck even is.

It's definitely possible that there is a hardware fault here, like one, or multiple of the CPU cores aren't being able to be used, the L1/L2 cache is messed up, there's a fault on your bus connecting the RAM. All of that would explain your reported issues, which is a systematic slowness, independent of load, which happens on all the software you try to run. Alternatively, there could be some program you are running (or virus) which is just eating system resources, so do a restart and check activity monitor (or use iStat) and see what's going on.

The easiest path to a fix here: go to the Apple Store and have them take a look. Otherwise, you'll have to figure out how to run these diagnostics yourself. Good luck.

Try to check everything with cleanMyMac (they have trial and some discount for Black Friday) , and remember that MacBooks with 256gb ssd are a bit slower, so you need to keep enough free space to prevent problems.

I have the M1 2020 pro 13’ you broke, it’s fast, powerful and reliable, though whether it’s better to fix it or get a new one depends mostly on the price difference

What do you mean by "nothing loads from webpages to programs"? And what's unreliable about running the Adobe suite?

Even x86 apps run fine on Apple Silicon, there really shouldn't be any problems.

I manage a fleet of Macs, 400 at last count, and I have many faculty and staff using M1 and M2, mostly base model Air… No issues, other than slower performance on heavy stuff. I’m wondering if you should try doing a wipe of your hard drive and reinstall the current macOS.

Something is seriously wrong with your MacBook Air M2. I’ve got one and can easily run Unity (a game development tool), Brave Browser with a bunch of tabs, Spotify, Discord, Visual Studio and a few other odds and ends. And this is only the 8GB model.

I’d check Activity Monitor as others suggested and also check the Console app to see if it’s logging any errors from any software. Hopefully it’s as simple as finding what’s borking your system and addressing that issue. Maybe backup your data and doing a reinstall.

If it’s still under warranty also take it to the Apple Store and have them check it out.

Question, how much disk space do you have left after installing everything? It may be the case that you left very little disk space for the OS and virtual memory to do its thing, and it’s just having a hard time having to compress and swap between disk and ram and CPU.

Run cinebench r23 and post result

I've only got 2 observations here a) my 13incher came back from the water-dead after 4 months in storage, with only the backlight dead and some screen discoloration b) my M2 is everything I wanted it to be, but I did invest in 24GB RAM

For everyone saying the computer has a fault, this just happened to me as well I couldn’t have safari, slack, and miro open doing a call on slack with screen share it froze up and got warm. Looks like a consistent flaw I’ve heard some say it just can’t handle multitasking even with 24gb ram. Also hearing what you’re saying that it’s a flawed device to go and get it checked. At this point honestly don’t know what the answer is. Anyone have an MBA that IS able to run heavier software and isn’t dealing with freezing?

Personally I agree the newer Macbooks are a huge step down in quality. Fast/light isn't worth much when it won't connect to wifi 40% of the time without restarting. Yes I've updated everything.

probably internal nvme issue, cant think of anything else

I used to run adobe photoshop and after effects along with study notes app and forgot to close Minecraft on the background and it runes flawlessly , and thats M1 Air 8gb ram

Who installed your Adobe suite in your computer? To me it sounds that it’s an old version that it’s running in the compatibility layer rather than the apple silicon version .

Something must be wrong with your machine. It shouldn’t have a single issue with the tasks you described. I strongly recommend taking it to an Apple Store to see if they can help.

I recently upgraded from the M1 Pro max to the M3 pro Max, and I had some really weird issues as well—on particular with the Adobe Suite. I still don’t know what caused it, but I deleted all my apps and reinstalled them, and it fixed everything.

The problem is with you or your particular MacBook. Not MacBook m2 in general

If you have 8gb ram and your ssd is full it will get really slow. No room for swap. You must leave free space in your internal drive. Which is why I recommend anyone doing creative work to just get a 14” pro. Even M1 Pro with 16gb ram.

this post feels wrong, but provided your nice enough with the folks over at your local apple store, they should be able to get you a completely new computer if your lucky, and if your not lucky, hope the diagnostics they do behind the board make you lucky.

I have the 15 MacBook Air base model. Great computer. I like it more than my 2020 MacBook Pro 13 16gb/512.

You shouldn't be having noticable issues with a machine with these specs if everything is running correctly. It should be damn smooth and fast in fact. You might have a hung app or process running and chewing up resources. Have you opened activity monitor to check for anything eating up a lot of CPU or RAM? Have you tried the PRAM reset process? Do them both. Also shut down machine. Press and HOLD The power button until it says it's booting into diagnostics mode , (can't remember the exact verbiage) then when in that mode open disk utility from the menu bar... Run disk first aid in the actual SSD AND the volume. (Make sure in disk first aid that the pull down says show all volumes,). Hope this makes sense... If it doesn't show it had issues and the PRAM reset process doesn't help then take it to Apple because this machine should definitely not be feeling noticeably slow, even in light to medium Photoshop type stuff it should do pretty well. It sounds like something is stuck in memory or there's a factory issue that needs resolved because wow this is not a workhorse machine, with that M2 processor you should still be able to do some pretty productive high to medium high type workload without it feeling super sluggish like you said it is. That definitely does not sound right at all. And you have AppleCare so it shouldn't cost much if anything for Apple to diagnose it and fix it. At worst case maybe a small copay of 50 bucks or whatever but you should be able to run Photoshop and illustrator and whatnot on that M2 air just fine. Even some high-end work should be doable without feeling too much of a slowing down. Have you installed malwarebytes for Mac and ran it? Max can and do get malware quite often now so you could have some malware even so it wouldn't hurt to try that either

Perhaps pirated software with a virus.

I have M1 Macbook Air and I had it for two years now. It works really well and lasts me through the day with light work along with heavy use from day to day. Something doesn't seem to be right with the M2 MBA. Better check it out before regretting it further.

Maybe you have a virus, I have no issues with mine.

As someone who drives a M2 air for uni, I haven’t had any problems you’ve gotten, you should check it out

Look you may have an lambo but somehow it runs at only 10 miles an hour. It’s not a systemic issue that affects all lambos, everyone else’s runs well. You just got unlucky, go back to apple tell them your problem and fix it.