UP TO SPEED: BEST WAYS TO SPEED UP YOUR MAC
It doesn’t matter if you are dealing with a man or a machine; age slows everything down. Unfortunately, like all machines, computers also slow down after a few years of use, and Apple’s Macs are no exception to this rule.
According to TechCrunch, Apple has been upgrading Macs to run faster with each new release. But, even the best gadgets have limitations.
There can be several reasons, apart from use, why even a brand new MacBook has started lagging. Fortunately, all these problems are very much under your control, and by making a few changes, you can have your Mac running up to speed without ordering a new one.
The best ways to tweak the speed in your slowing down Mac are :
- Restart your Mac – Sometimes, the best solution lies in the simplest methods. Restarting your Mac frees up the RAM by emptying the disk caches, making your computer run more smoothly.
- Troubleshooting with the Activity Monitor– Resource-hungry applications slow down your Mac considerably. To disable these apps, go to Finder, then Utilities under Application, and click on Activity Monitor. Go to the CPU and double-click on an app with high CPU usage. Click Quit to kill the process and confirm the action. But always find out what an app does before you force quit it and keep an eye on the background running processes where there’s a chance of viruses lurking around. Here is an in-depth guide by setapp.com on task manager for Mac.
- Manage your Startup Items – Each time you restart your Mac, a few apps may launch automatically, reducing battery life and consuming processing power from your Mac. To remove them, go to Apple Menu in the menu bar, click on System Preferences, and open Users & Groups. Then go to Login Items, look through the list and remove anything you don’t want to launch when you start your Mac.
- Regularly update the software on your Mac – Always install the latest macOS software to ensure your Mac’s security and speed. Studies show that the most recent macOS is 50% faster. To update macOS, go to the Apple menu and select System Preferences. If an update is available, click Update Now or Restart Now and check the box next to Automatically Keep My Mac Up To Date.
- Keep your Applications up to date – App updates not only make your Mac faster but also remove security flaws that can allow hackers to hack into your Mac. All you need to do is go to the App Store; in the sidebar on the left, click Update and next to pending updates, click Update. This will ensure you are up to date on all applications.
- Free up space in your Hard Drive – You should try to at least keep 20 GB free of hard disk space to store cache and swap files for your apps, to make your Mac run smoothly. To clean your Mac Hard drive, go to the Apple menu and click About This Mac. Select Storage to check how much free space is left on your device, and then click Manage. In the Optimize Storage section, click Optimize, and in the Reduce Clutter section, click Review Files. This will delete the data you no longer need or have already watched or read. Also, don’t forget to select useless files from the list and click Delete.
- Free Up some RAM or add extra – Apart from restarting your Mac, there is another way to free up some RAM on your computer. In the most recent versions of macOS, you can install more RAM but in the older versions, first, check the Memory Pressure in your Activity Monitor. If it is green, then your RAM is good but if it turns red, here’s how you can free up some RAM. Open Applications, then go to Terminal under Utilities. Type in sudo purge—a command that triggers RAM and cache clearing. Press Enter and then enter your administrator’s account password in the pop-up window.
- Reset the SMC and NVRAM – If something goes wrong with the Mac’s System Management Controller (SMC), the power functions will start to malfunction, which slows up your computer. In the recent versions, to reset the SMC, shut down your Mac, then hold the Shift + Control + Option + Power buttons for 20 seconds. Then you turn the Mac back on by pressing the power button again.
The NVRAM or the NonVolatile Random-Access Memory is a small amount of memory that your Mac uses to store the basic configurations of your computer, like language and timezone settings. To reset the NVRAM, reboot your Mac and hold Command + Option + P + R until you see the Apple logo appear twice. Then release the keys. Resetting the NVRAM to its default settings will run your Mac faster.
Remember to use these handy tricks to enjoy a fast and clean performance from your Mac like you bought it just yesterday.
