The crazy thing I did to fix Yosemite performance

[Jeff Singleton]

Hi,

So after much frustration, much stress, and of course, I broke my Mac in 
the process. Backed up my user folder from single-user mode (since my 
mac would not boot all the way). Then I wiped and reinstalled Mavericks, 
upgraded to Yosemite, and then restored my user folder.

Back story: In an attempt to figure out why the services mds and 
mdworker were running away with my CPU. Nothing I did resolved this, 
including putting every single folder except /Applications in the 
exception list for Spotlight. This is where I started editing 
LaunchDaemons and LaunchAgents and where breakage occurred.

So...

This literally resolved all of the performance issues I saw reported 
from many others besides myself about the performance of Yosemite via 
the standard upgrade path.

On to MacPorts...

- Broken link checks
- Binary database updates

Both go within seconds, except for the binary database initial creation, 
which took a couple of minutes. After which, everything is running like new.

I know it is and was a pain in the rear to have to do all of this, but 
if there is one thing Apple has done correct it is that restoring a 
backed up user folder to a fresh install, puts all configurations, 
accounts, and other customizations right back to where they were with no 
hassle.

I hope this gives some insight on a sure fire way of resolving Yosemite 
performance issues.

Good Luck,
Jeff