Whether you are an enterprise, creative or home Mac user, a slow computer is the most unpleasant thing one can experience.
Today, because the majority of our work is done on a computer or a laptop, a slow Mac can significantly affect the productivity of the users. Regardless of the device you own and the resources, you spend to keep your Mac device as good as new, your device will eventually slow down with time. However, you can delay the aging of your Mac by taking care of it and improving its health and security. To help you increase the performance of your device and boost your productivity, here is a list of top 8 tips to speed up a slow Mac.
- 1. Check for malware and viruses
The presence of malware and viruses is a common cause behind the reduction in the speed of a Mac device. All Mac devices come with integrated security tools that perform an exceptional job in keeping your device safe, secure and healthy. These tools immediately block any malware and viruses that might cause harm to your device right at its starting point. However, despite having stringent security measures, Mac users have reported their devices being infected with severe malware. To enhance the security of your device, you can use an additional third-party antivirus app. Several identified developers offer best free antivirus for Mac that acts as a shield to protect your device.
- 2. Free up storage space
One of the easiest ways to speed up a slow Mac is by cleaning up its clutter. Feeding too much data in the form of apps, music, movies, pictures, documents, etc. can result in the slower functioning of your Mac. Users must conduct timely data clean-up by checking out the amount of free space remaining in their Mac. To check the amount of free space, click the Apple logo in the top left of the screen, choose About This Mac and then click the Storage tab. When you see your Mac’s storage getting filled up to its maximum capacity, click the Manage button to free up some storage space.
- 3. Update your Mac
Every year Apple releases a new operating system that enhances the performance of the Mac device and is free from previously reported bugs and flaws. As many users are comfortable with the older version of the operating system, they do not feel the need to upgrade it with the latest version. However, with every operating system update, Mac introduces the latest improvements to give users a seamless experience. To improve the speed of your slow Mac and to access all the latest features introduced by Mac, you must constantly check for new updates introduced by Apple. Before downloading the update, ensure that your device meets the system and hardware requirements necessary for the update.
- 4. Troubleshoot resource-heavy applications running in the background
Resource-heavy applications that run in the background are known to drain the system even when not in use. These applications significantly affect the bandwidth, battery life and system resources of your device. If you do not know which resource-heavy application is slowing down your system, then use Activity Monitor. It is a built-in tool that helps users to recognise where their system’s resources are being allocated in real-time. In addition to individual tasks, this tool helps users to view their CPU, network, memory, usage and disk activity. Once you identify the resource interrupting the performance of your device, you can easily troubleshoot your Mac using the Activity Monitor.
- 5. Close unnecessary apps
Keeping unnecessary apps running in the background can not only reduce the speed of your Mac, but also affect your productivity. When you leave apps open and running in the background, they take their part of the resources. However, when you close unnecessary apps, only the required and a small number of resources are utilised. To close the unnecessary apps running on your computer, you can force quit the apps that you are not using. To force quit an app, go to the menu bar, select the Apple logo on the top left and then select “Force Quit”. From here you can choose the app you wish to close by selecting “Force Quit” on the bottom right of your window.
- 6. Restart your Mac regularly
A number of computer users prefer the sleep function as compared to completely shutting down their device. The sleep function temporarily turns off your device and allows users to seamlessly continue from where they left off. Although this function can be advantageous for your productivity and efficiency, it might be a cause to slow down your Mac. Completely shutting down a Mac and restarting it clears all the caches and closes down the applications running in the background. When you don’t shut down your Mac regularly, your caches and apps will build up and will decrease the speed of your system.
- 7. Manage your startup items
To increase the launching speed of your Mac, you must efficiently manage your startup items. At the time of booting up, you Mac runs a number of unnecessary apps that launch immediately after the device finishes booting. When a Mac device launches faster, it takes less time to perform other functions. To manage your startup items, go to System Preferences, select Users & Groups, and then click on your username. Further, click on Login Items and choose a program you don’t need immediately after your Mac starts up and remove it from the list.
- 8. Delete browser add-ons
Whether you need to check your grammar or instantly launch a website, browser add-ons come in handy while using multiple browser windows. However, many times browsers get overloaded with different extensions and add-ons that we install on top of the browsers. Overloading browsers with extensions and add-ons reduces the browser’s speed and affects the performance of your device. Thus, it is essential to reduce the number of browser add-ons and only keep the ones that are extremely important.
