Local Slow on Mac

[chrishajer]

Came looking for information about the issue and found this thread. Can confirm mine is also painfully slow when opening the program, opening a site, or trying to navigate anything in the interface. I have just three sites and this is a recent change.

• Local Version 9.2.4+6788
• MacBook Air M2 2022
• macOS Sequoia 15.4.1
• local-lightning-verbose.log.zip (30.0 KB)

[Nick-B]

Hi @chrishajer

Have you checked if you’re running the Intel version instead of Apple Silicon?

[chrishajer]

Hi @Nick-B - I am running the Apple Silicon version. To be sure, I reinstalled local-9.2.4-mac-arm64.dmg and - It’s faster now

But, none of the sites had a PHP version. And there was a message something like “Don’t worry. We’ll reinstall it next time you start your site.” And that seemed to work for PHP.

But that also happened for Mailpit:

But when I tried starting Mailpit, it wouldn’t open, even after closing and restarting Local. General weirdness, and I’m not sure what that is right now. But it’s definitely faster than it was last week!

[Nick-B]

Hi @chrishajer

For Mailpit specifically you might try the steps outlined here:

MailPit not starting On OSX

Thanks for sharing your sites.json, @sebastian. It looks correct to me. One thing you can try is to force Local to recopy the mailpit binary on startup (steps below assume macOS, Windows users reading this should follow these instructions instead). Stop any running sites. Quit Local. Open the Finder and choose Go → Go To Folder… Enter ~/Library/Application Support/Local/lightning-services and press Enter. Delete the folder named ‘mailpit-1.12.1+0’, but leave the Finder window open. Make sure …

[yongwei.wei9]

Since upgrading to the latest version, the local usage speed of mac computers has obviously become very slow.

[Nick-B]

Hi @yongwei.wei9

If you’re still experiencing slowness on MacOS please check if you’re using the Intel or Apple Silicon version of Local. If you’re on an M series Mac you’ll want to get the Apple Silicon version installed to help resolve the slowness.

Local Slow on Mac

So, anyone who has encountered this problem on a Mac with M (apple silicon). The solution is to manually update the program to the Apple Silicon version (Releases - Local). The problem was that when the program automatically updated, the Intel version was loaded. [Screenshot 2025-05-06 at 09.20.49] [Screenshot 2025-05-06 at 09.19.55]

[chrishajer]

Thanks @Nick-B - that definitely fixed the issue!

[redbranchmedia]

Thank you! That was exactly it. I checked my versions and, sure enough, after the last update when everything started going so slowly, it was showing I was using the Intel version rather than the Silicon version.

[johnlang86]

Hi @dadradesign,
Looks like Nick-B has linked to a solution to force MailPit to redownload.
Worked for me, has it worked for you as well?

[uniondesign]

WOAH!?! What the… I actually DID have the Intel version installed!!! I must have installed that like… a decade ago and just kept moving it from one Mac to the next. That fixed it! Everything is instant now.

FYI when I’m logged in and click download in the site nav it defaults to downloading the Intel version. I have to be logged out and click download in the site nav to be able to choose the ARM version.

Also I wonder if when checking updates from within the app if it would be possible to say “Hey you’re using the Intel version, what to switch to the ARM64 version”.

[Nick-B]

Thank you for following up and letting us know @uniondesign! We are definitely taking a closer look at this to see how we can ensure users are getting the right version

[dadradesign]

@johnlang86 Yup! I just followed those steps for MailPit and it worked.

[k-jax]

Sorry for my late response. I am indeed using the Apple Silicon application on an Apple Silicon machine and still having the performance issue.

[Nick-B]

Hi @k-jax! Did you only start having slowness after the latest release or was this your first time trying Local?

Have you had a chance to look through our guide here yet? Troubleshoot: Performance Issues - Local

[k-jax]

Hey Nick, it was after the latest release and I’m a long-time user. Sorry if this was already discussed here but I now partly see what the problem was.
I suspect that at one time my app was the Intel chip version when I first posted here (I’ve since manually installed an earlier Apple Silicon release). I have just now switched back to the latest (9.2.4) Apple Silicon version and it works perfectly.

[Nick-B]

That’s great! Thank you for letting us know

[LRangerpt]

Hi all. I was having the exact same problem. Local always worked like a charm on my M1 Mac, but since some days ago, it was impossible to use because it took like 1min everytime i clicked anything on the local app.
I believe that the autoupdate installed the wrong mac version. Tried uninstalling the local app, logged to flywheel account and chose to download once again and noticed that downloading like this doesn’t ask which mac version I wanted to download, and just downloaded the intel version. Of course the problem persisted.
So I uninstalled once again, and went to the flywheel website and filled the form to download the mac silicon version (here it allows to choose the silicon version). Installed the silicon version, started it up, and it’s again working like a charm.

There must be some weird issue with the update process for silicon users.

Hope this can help other people having this problem.

[iamkashifnadeem]

Hi
I am using Local on my mac. I just updated to Version 9.2.4+6788. After update it is lagging… and very slow now.
Please suggest me solution.
Thank you

[iamkashifnadeem]

I am having same issue!
macOS Sequoia
M1 Air
Local Version 9.2.4+6788

[nickc]

@iamkashifnadeem Try downloading the Apple Silicon version to confirm you’re not running the Intel one:

Releases

Local Slow on Mac

@k-jax Are you using Local Intel or Local Apple Silicon? If using Intel, you’ll need to switch to the Apple Silicon version: Releases - Local You can use Get Info on the Local app to find out: [Local Info]