Technology & You!
Have you noticed your MacBook slowing down?
Over time computers can start to slow down. Thankfully, you can stop this, but if you’re new to this and aren’t tech-savvy, it can be daunting to know where to start. Or how to avoid causing yourself more problems.
Don’t worry we’re here to help! Read on for these seven easy ways to speed up Mac laptops.
If your Mac is dragging its heels when you’re on your multitasking game, it may be resource issues. There’s an easy way to find out which of your running apps is taxing your system the most.
Open the “Activity Monitor” by searching in with Spotlight. The keyboard shortcut is: hold down “Command” and press the Spacebar.
You’ll see numbers that are fluctuating up and down. These will show you the amount of memory and CPU resources an app uses. Look at both these tabs to see which app is using the most.
Say you see Chrome is eating up most of your system resources. It might be time to switch over to Safari or another browser and it could speed up your Mac again.
Next, you want to clean up your Apps. When you install an app on your Mac you give it permissions to tell MacOS what users can do what things with each file.
Over time, these permissions change. The result is your Mac freezing, crashing, or lagging. Repairing the disk permissions reshuffles these permissions. In basic terms, it puts them back in their rightful places.
To fix this, macOS has a built-in tool you can use called “Disk Utility”. This lets you fix these permissons. It’ll also repair issues with start-up processes and disk partitions.
To use it, you’ll need to boot your Mac in recovery mode and follow the on-screen instructions.
Most of us end up with Mac that are almost at the limits of our storage space. if this is the case, your speed issues may be fixed with a but of data tidy up. The more crowded your hard drive is, the slower your MacBook will run.
To check how much space you have left, click the logo on the top left and click “About This Mac”. Then, select the tab that says “Storage”.
If it looks like you’re almost at full capacity, click on the “Manage” button to free some space. You’ll see some options for freeing up drive space.
One of these will use the iCloud to upload files, text messages, and photos for storage. All files stored on your desktop and in documents can move over to the iCloud.
Full-resolution photos can upload onto iCloud too. Then, if you want to keep any, you can keep “optimized” versions on your Mac. These versions will take up less space.
If your Mac is slow on booting up, the issue might be you have too many apps opening at startup. You might not have even set them to launch, it’s their default setting.
Navigate to “System Preferences” and select “Users & Groups”. Under “Login Items” you will find all the apps that open up when you boot up your Mac.
To prevent apps from opening at startup, first, highlight the apps you want to disable this for. Then click the “minus sign” below the apps list. This will prevent them from opening at startup.
Gone are the days where new macOS updates would slow down older Mac models. With the latest updates, Apple is focusing on optimizing resource usage. They’re also trimming down their features.
Having these latest updates will often speed up your MacBook. macOS Sierra and Yosemite paved the way in that department. And Catalina is taking optimization even further.
To keep your operating system updated, enable automatic updates. Here’s how you can check for operating system updates that could speed up your MacBook:
HDDs have data read and written on a rotating disk using a mechanical needle. Reading and writing data at the beginning of a hard drive is quickest.
As you move inwards, it’ll slow down as the needle needs extra time to reach the data. This is why data is often written on the outside edge first. Then it’s written working inwards.
Your MacBook will store some of the big files on free space at the edge of the disk. Once it’s filled up, the rest will go elsewhere on the hard drive. This is a process called fragmentation.
Defragmentation is where you organize your files on your hard drive. It involves storing parts of large files in a group together. This way, it becomes easier and faster to read that file. Click to find out how to defrag a Mac.
Macs are generally known to be safer from viruses than Windows computers, but that doesn’t mean they are immune. As Macs have gained popularity, more and more malware targeting Macs is being created. Your Mac will do a great job of keeping itself safe, but new threats are constantly being created.
Make sure you install and regularly run an antivirus program to check your Mac for these threats. If your antivirus finds anything, it will quarantine and remove it, speeding up your system.
As you can see, an aging Mac doesn’t have to mean a slow one. Although Macs will slow down over time, simple maintenance can bring them back to top speed, without much work on your part. These simple tips should leave your old Mac feeling brand new again.
If you found this article useful, be sure to check out our other blog posts.
