Is your once-powerful Mac running slower and slower every day? Sounds like you have a need for (Mac) speed.
Rest assured that you are not alone. All Mac owners experience this sooner or later. As the months and years go by, their best buddy that used to do everything at the speed of light begins to slow down and take ages to load.
Slow Mac issues and speed up solutions
I want to know how to clean up my mac and make it run faster. Seems very bogged down lately and doesnt do stuff very fast anymore. More Less iMac, iOS 6.1.2. Make sure you regularly perform a software update for macOS and all the apps installed on your Mac. How you update the software depends a bit on the version of macOS you are running.
Before heading for the solutions, one needs to understand the underlying problems causing a Mac to slow down. Often, running heavy-consuming applications at the same time makes your Mac laggy and slow. New Macs, such as 16-inch MacBook Pro (2019) with up to 64GB of RAM, promise flawless performance even if you’re editing a video or developing a game. But, even what it seems like a perfect Mac at a time can slow down with age.
However, don’t worry, your Mac can get back to its initial speed so don’t give up on it just yet. Continue reading and you will discover what are the issues causing the slowdown and some of the best tips and tricks on how to speed up your Mac and improve performance in no time.
So, are you ready to learn how to clean out your Mac to make it run faster? Here are the most effective tips on speeding up your Mac:
Your system slows your Mac down
There are two components that make up your Mac: hardware and software. Let’s take a look at your software first. An updated macOS is essential to your Mac working fast. Every next system brought performance improvements and bug fixes, so it’s a good idea to keep up.
However, old Macs can’t always update to the latest OS. To check your version, click on the Apple icon in the top left corner and go to “About This Mac.” If you can’t update to the latest version (macOS Mojave) then at least update to the latest version possible.
Update your software
A slow application can make your whole Mac feel slow. Regular updates often contain bug fixes and improvements for programs, and if you updated your apps a long time ago, you are probably missing new features as well.
You can usually update any app by opening it and clicking its name next to the Apple menu. Here look for the option “Check for Updates.”
Update your OS
To update your OS, open App Store, and click on the Updates tab. If you’re not running the latest possible OS, you should see the next one you can update to on the list.
Keep in mind that updating OS takes time. In order to avoid frustrations, choose a proper time to update, preferably when you can leave your Mac to do its job unhindered: maybe right before bedtime or when you’re going out for the day.
Run Maintenance Scripts
Maintenance Scripts are helpful under-the-hood optimizations that your macOS runs to clean itself. How to backup iphone to macbook pro. This procedure rotates certain libraries and system logs, replaces old file paths — hundreds of small operations to shake up and refresh the system.
When your Mac gets slow and weary you can force initiate the Maintenance Scripts.
To do it with one button:
This is so easy and it works every single time to make a Mac speedier.
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Turn off visual effects to speed up a slow Mac
The Dynamic Desktop feature changes your desktop picture automatically and may slow down your Mac a bit.
To disable the new Dynamic Desktop, click System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver. Here, set a desktop picture instead of Dynamic Desktop. Make sure the option “Change pictures” is turned off.
One more tip for older Macs is to turn off some of the visual animations. Sure, they look pretty, but who cares when your system is grinding to a halt? Definitely not the person using the Mac at that moment.
So try turning off some of the worst offenders to make Mac run faster. Open up Terminal (Applications > Utilities) and try these commands:
Turn off dock animations - defaults write com.apple.dock launchanim -bool false
Turn off window animations - defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticWindowAnimationsEnabled -bool false
Turn off quick look animations - defaults write -g QLPanelAnimationDuration -float 0
Turn off windows adjustment animations - defaults write -g NSWindowResizeTime -float 0.001
After you enter each command, copy and paste this line into Terminal: killall Finder Dock QuickLookUIService. This will close all active windows of your apps to apply changes. Your hard drive is nearly full
According to a test performed by MacWorld magazine, nearly full hard drives perform 17% slower than less occupied ones. In addition to this, the more large files are there on your drive, the slower your disk runs. Looks like large old files are like massive stones that weigh down your Mac’s memory.
A full hard drive creates multiple troubles: slow startup, slow Finder, and slow apps. Everything is lagging and dragging like it’s siesta in the very heart of Spanish riviera.
To check how your hard drive storage is doing, open the Apple menu, and click “About this Mac.” Choose the Storage tab and wait for it to calculate the space division. At the very least systems need 10% of free space on a startup disk.
Restart your Mac
Macs are so stable and energy-efficient that it seems like restarting them isn’t necessary. But as practice shows, rebooting your computer regularly does help boost its speed. It shuts down apps that work in the background and clears lots of caches accumulated by all your apps. Uninstall an app on my mac.
Use Mac cleanup tools to remove junk and get a faster Mac
Mac creates heaps of junk files like cache and logs, and while they start small, over time they take up gigabytes of your precious space. As a result, you do not have enough storage space for apps to function, so your Mac starts slowing down.
CleanMyMac X is a professional Mac cleaning utility that can fix your slow Mac. It scans every inch of your system to find all the hidden system junk for easy, one-click removal. Moreover, it frees up your disk space and saves the time you’d spent looking for cache and user log files manually.
Download it for free and run a Smart Scan. You can then click Review Details to see what CleanMyMac X has found and press the Run button to clear your Mac. That’s all it takes! You got too many items in your Preference panes
Preference panes are where your system widgets and macOS utilities are kept. Many third-party apps add their own widgets to your System Preferences. This creates an extra load for your macOS. The most common example is Flash Player that integrates with your macOS and, in some cases, causes software conflicts.
Remove startup items: the fast way
Startup items are applications that launch automatically when you boot up your Mac. These programs load your Mac’s memory unless you directly disable them. When you minimize your startup items your Mac should boot faster and become more responsive.
An easy way to get rid of extra startup items is to use CleanMyMac X. It also allows you to permanently remove the app from the startup items list if you feel that you don’t need it there.
Follow these steps:
Remove startup items manuallyApps To Make Your Mac Run Faster Naturally
To manually remove apps as startup items (don’t worry, the apps will still be installed) you need to visit your System Preferences.
Follow these steps:
You have too many apps running
Remember the startup items problem? Too many apps are a bad thing whether we’re talking startup or regular work. When you’re having a browser with a hundred tabs open, a photo editor, and a video player running together with a dozen other everyday apps, your Mac is going to raise a white flag. It’s heating up and trying to tell you that you should choose some apps you really need and close the rest.
Close memory-hogging apps to speed up macOS
When your Mac is running slow because of app overload, you need to find the ones that cause the problem.
Follow these steps:
Now you can simply highlight an app and then click the X in the top left corner to close it. You want to make sure you’re not closing an app you either a) need open or b) don’t know what it is.
Disable notifications from apps and websites
Nowadays, almost every app is trying to trick us into seeing their notifications. We are annoyed by pushes and news updates from websites and hardly anybody knows how to switch this madness off. What does it have to do with a slow Mac? These notifications bite away a portion of your virtual memory and slow down your browsers.
How to disable notifications on a Mac: Best point of sale app for mac.
Look through the list and uncheck “Show notifications” in the right menu.
Your hardware is old
We’ve finally arrived at the hardware part. We’re here because drive cleaning and software updates can only do so much. If your Mac is very old then it’s going to get slower, no matter what you do. Before you bite the bullet and buy a new Mac, there are a couple of hardware upgrades that you should consider. They won’t cost a lot but they could give your tiring Mac a new lease on life.
Upgrade memory to speed up a Mac
Memory is a massive factor in how smoothly your Mac runs. It’s also one of the easiest upgrades as adding a new RAM module is simple. Nothing else needs to be done to your system. Even better, it’s also not going to hurt your wallet too much.
To make your Mac faster check out our guide to Mac RAM installation here.
Add SSD to give your Mac a big speed boost
Compared to RAM installation, adding a SSD (Solid State Drive) is a bit more expensive (but still much cheaper than a new Mac). It is also more disruptive (you’ll need to make it your system drive), and challenging to install. But if your Mac runs slowly, this will provide a big performance boost.
And that’s how you speed up Mac
If your Mac was running slower over time, these solutions should immediately make your Mac faster. It could even feel like you bought a new Mac, without a hefty bill. Remember to run occasional system cleanups with CleanMyMac X so that your Mac remains clean and fast.
A slow Mac is never fun. Whatever the reason your computer is running slow, dealing with a Mac that doesn't react quickly to your inputs is frustrating.
All Macs slow down with age — no matter how much you spend on them, or which model you choose — they start to slow down, and may overheat. A slow Mac can cause anxiety-bringing productivity issues, especially if you've got a deadline to meet.
Thankfully, there are a few things you can do. You don't need to rush out and buy a new Mac straight away. Macs slow down for multiple reasons, from heavy startup menus to applications running in the background, to disk drives filled with files, apps, images, and documents you don't really need anymore. Aging hardware can also slow Macs down.
Why is your Mac running slow?
There are a variety of reasons your Mac may be slow. The most obvious reason can be hardware; if your Mac is older, its CPU, RAM, and other hardware components may simply be too old to run modern applications and websites.
Another common issue is your Mac needs some tidying up. Apps can leave behind files long after you've deleted them, and even built-in tools like Spotlight search do better with a bit of reindexing now and then.
Here, we'll tell you how to speed up Mac performance on any Mac, covering the main issues users see.
Find and close resource-hungry applications
Some apps take up more processing power than others. We expect more and more from our apps, but when Macs get older they have to work much harder. So you end up with a Mac taking on more tasks with less memory and processing power.
To avoid working on a Mac that feels as though it's running uphill with a heavy backpack, you need to find and close or remove resource-hungry applications, especially if they're running in the background and aren't needed. One way to do so is with Activity Monitor, available in Applications.
Look out for CPU usage: pay attention to apps that are using a lot of processing power (normally shown as a percentage), then consider closing or uninstalling the ones you don't need.
A quicker and better way to solve this problem is with iStat Menus, a handy monitoring app that will quickly identify what is absorbing so much CPU power. Besides regular CPU percentage, iStat Menus will also show you GPU, memory, network data, and disk usage.
Malware and viruses
Your Mac does a good job of blocking most malware and viruses that are known, but new threats pop up daily. A Mac running slow may have a few viruses that are causing issues.
One of the best tools for scanning your Mac for malware or viruses is CleanMyMac X. It has a ton of other tools in its arsenal, but CleanMyMac X's malware scanning tool is really special. Here's how to use it:
Update your Mac's software
Apple releases a new operating system every year. The most recent release is macOS 10.15 Catalina. Providing you've backed up your files and are aware of any immediate issues (some Mac users prefer to wait until updates and patches have been published), it might be time to update.
Before upgrading, check compatibility. Apple says that the newest OS is available for Macs introduced in mid-2012 or later. Note that Apple gave up support for 2010 and 2012 Mac Pro models with recommended Metal-capable graphics cards with Catalina .
Hardware requirements have changed a bit, compared to the older versions:
Another awesome method for ensuring your Mac performs at its best is updating the apps on your computer. You can do this one of three ways:
Simplify your startup menu
Startup menus can take up more processing power than we imagine, since they stay running in the background, quietly slowing down programs you are actually using.
CleanMyMac X easily identifies and lets you manage all the items that start at login. Try to keep the list to a minimum, removing the ones you don't need and considering that every app requires additional resources.
You can also do this directly on your Mac. Here's how:
Close unnecessary apps
Your Mac may be suffering from apps running in the background which simply don't need to. Any open and running app takes up resources, and if you've got a lot of them running – well, there's simply less resources for you to do what you want!
One easy way to manage apps running on your computer is to force quit the ones you're not using. From the menu bar, select the Apple logo on the top left, and choose 'Force Quit.' Select an app you want to close down, and select 'Force Quit' on the bottom right of the window.
Merge multiple open windows
Finder and Preview on your Mac can get overrun with multiple open windows. Each open window is its own process; it's like having the same app open multiple times. Modern macOS builds operate in a tabbed view for these apps, but you can still end up with multiple windows open.
To merge all of your open windows, select the 'window' menu from the menu bar, and choose 'merge all windows.' This will bring all open windows into one window, and the other instances of the app will become tabbed views! This is how to make Mac faster in a way you probably hadn't considered before.
Switch off visual effects
Visual effects look pretty, but they won't help you get your work done if your Mac is running slowly. Under Systems Preferences, there is a short list of boxes you can untick: animate opening applications, automatically hide and show the Dock. Also, switch minimize effect from Genie to Scale. It may not make a huge difference, but every speed enhancement helps.
Manage device syncing![]()
Everyone knows photos take up a lot of storage. When iCloud syncing is automatically setup (by default it is), deleting photos on one device would delete them on another, which can be inconvenient if you only want to remove photos from your Mac. To fix this, switch off iCloud syncing.
Declutter a messy desktop
Desktop can seem like such a convenient place to store files you are working on. Great for things you need to remember and access quickly. With numerous other apps in the Dock, it soon becomes a go-to place for everything you need.
Unfortunately, when you've got too much going on, it can slow your Mac down. Even a few weeks of allowing documents, files, downloads and app shortcuts to pile up can leave anyone wondering where they last saw something they needed. It can seriously get in the way of productivity when you have to search all over your desktop or deeper in your Mac only to find a single file. Even a few weeks of allowing documents, files, downloads and app shortcuts to pile up can leave anyone wondering where they last saw something they needed. It can seriously get in the way of productivity when you have to search all over your desktop or deeper in your Mac only to find a single file. A solution is either sorting through every desktop file and document manually or using Declutter.
Clean up Mac's hard drive
Your hard drive may be full of old files you no longer need. Like multiple instances of Finder or Preview, a full hard drive is using up valuable resources your Mac needs. Learn more about
Instead, comb through your files and delete any you don't need. Those you're not using often should be stored on external drives; you can still access them any time, they just don't occupy the memory your Mac needs to run apps.
Here're quick tips to free up more disk space.
Clear cache files
CleanMyMac X also allows you to clear cache files quickly and easily. Essentially everything you touch within your computer leaves cache files: system, browsers, apps, user preferences, etc. Over time, the accumulation of those files slows your Mac down. They are very difficult to identify manually and delete, so using CleanMyMac here is by far the easiest choice.
Optimize storage
Another way to ensure your Mac operates at peak efficiency is by deleting files you don't need and putting as much as you can into iCloud. Optimized storage - clearing out old, unused and idle items - comes part of the package with Sierra, but at the same time, storing files offline on a spare hard drive is equally useful since it avoids automatic syncs with iCloud, thereby potentially slowing your Mac down again. But. you'll see a purgeable storage.
Purgeable storage space contains data that the system hasn't accessed in a long time. If you're running low on disk space, macOS can safely remove them, and then downloaded from iCloud or generated again when data are required again by you or your Mac.
You can't manually delete the files that are designated purgeable with CleanMyMac app, or macOS removes them as space is needed.
Delete large unused files
There are two ways to delete large, old, unused files. Here's how to do it from the macOS system menu:
Here's a better way: use CleanMyMac X to remove useless data:
Reset your SMC & PRAMApps To Make Your Mac Run Faster Run
Two applications to update before or after you've downloaded and installed High Sierra is your System Management Controller (SMC) and your Parameter RAM (PRAM) device. Both are small cogs in a larger wheel and can be done by resetting your device for 5 - 10 seconds, but it can make a big difference when it comes to speed.
There are times when a Mac will perform poorly for no apparent reason. Systems crash, a battery doesn't charge or takes longer than normal, Mac goes to sleep or even shuts down unexpectedly. If you've tried other fixes and these issues persist, you might need to reset your SMC (system management controller) and PRAM (parameter RAM).
Although most Mac batteries are no longer removable, you need to check first before proceeding down this road.
When a battery is removable, switch the Mac off, remove the battery, press the power button for 5 seconds, then put the battery back in and turn the Mac on.
For newer MacBooks, including Air and Pro, resetting the SMC and PRAM involves shutting the Mac down, then pressing Shift+Control+Option on your keyboard along with the power button for 10 seconds. Then, release all keys and press the power button to switch it on.
Other Macs, particularly the iMac, Mac Mini, Mac Pro, involve a slightly different process to reset the PRAM. Shut the Mac down, press the power button, then the Command+Option+P+R keys until it restarts, and release the keys. Although all of these processes aren't straightforward, they can work wonders when trying to speed up a slow Mac.
Upgrade Mac hardware
As you can see, there are a lot of things you can do to speed up your Mac. But what happens when you run out of space? There is only so much that can be done, even when you store files in the cloud and tidy up desktops and disk drives.
Once you've cleaned up and deleted everything you don't need, it's time to take a look at upgrading your standard HDD with an SSD (solid-state drive). We would recommend backing up all your files and consulting a professional before doing this, or having a certified Apple expert do the work to ensure everything transitions smoothly. Besides SSD, increasing the amount of RAM is also an effective way to speed up a slow Mac.
Shutdown or restart your Mac more often
We hardly take care of our Macs — closing them for the night, then opening the next day to push them even further and handle ever-increasing workloads. We forget that computers also need a break. Instead of simply closing and letting them sleep, we should shut down or restart more often, thereby reducing the strain on processors, software, apps, and hard drives.
Speedtest and tweak your Mac often
Following advice above will help you get your slow Mac to speed up again. All the apps mentioned in this article, such as iStat Menus, CleanMyMac, Declutter, and nearly 200 more are available with a single subscription to Setapp. Now you can go on and make your Mac life a bit more easier and a lot more productive.
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