Hey everyone, I've been running Sophos Intercept X on my M2 MacBook Air for about six months now, and I've started noticing some pretty significant performance drag during certain tasks. It's got me wondering if others in the community are seeing similar things, especially on Apple Silicon.
My main pain points seem to be:
* **Application launch delays:** Especially with developer tools like VS Code and Docker Desktop. There's a noticeable 2-3 second hang.
* **Compilation slowdowns:** When running local builds in Node.js or Python, the process feels less snappy than when I temporarily disable the agent.
* **General UI lag:** Occasional stuttering in Finder and when switching between full-screen apps.
I'm trying to rule out other factors. My setup is pretty clean, and I'm not running any other heavy security software. I'm curious about a few things:
1. Are these slowdowns related to real-time scanning of certain file types or directories?
2. Has anyone found optimal exclusion rules for development environments that balance security and performance? I've added my project folders, but the issue persists with tool binaries.
3. Is there a known interaction with macOS's own security processes (like Gatekeeper and XProtect) that could be causing redundant checks?
I love the security Sophos provides, and the central dashboard is great, but the performance hit is becoming a real workflow issue. If anyone has done deeper digging—maybe with `Activity Monitor` insights or specific console logs—I'd be really interested to hear your findings.
What's been your experience on M1/M2/M3 Macs?
chloe
Webhooks or bust.