Macs don’t require a lot of maintenance because Apple strives to make MacOS as reliable as possible.
Still, tweaking the Mac every now and then can make it run faster and smoother than it used to.
1. Clear some free space
No matter how much internal storage your Mac comes with, you always want to keep at least 10% of it to make sure your Mac runs smoothly.
Open the Apple menu and select “About Machine” > “Storage” to see how much storage you are currently using. This shows a breakdown of the file types that take up storage space, including system, documents, photos, and so on
2. Check the activity monitor
The activity monitor, built into the MacOS, shows you which applications and processes are using your computing power. If your Mac feels like it needs tweaking, you can use Activity Monitor to find out which applications are slowing it down.
Launch the active monitor from the Utilities folder in your application or search for it using Spotlight (CMD + Space).
Then use the CPU TAB to find the applications or processes that use most of the CPU. You can also use the Memory TAB to see which applications and processes are using RAM
- Reduce your login items
Is the Mac slow to start? You may have too many applications open at startup. Go to System Preferences > Users and Groups and select User Accounts. Then click the Login Items TAB to see a list of everything that is launched each time you log in.
- Run a malware scan
Your Mac is less likely to be infected with malware than a Windows PC, but it’s not impossible. In fact, if you don’t follow best practices, it’s still very easy to mistakenly infect your Mac with malware.
Download and install MalwareBytes, the best antivirus software on your Mac, and run the scan on your Mac. You don’t have to keep the app open; Just run the scan from time to time with the free version to quickly tweak your Mac
5. Clear the cache
Over time, your Mac builds up a cache of files from various applications and websites for loading content faster. Unfortunately, these caches can sometimes become so large — 20GB or more in some cases — that they are more of a hindrance than a help.
You can safely clear the cache from the Finder’s Library folder. After you do this, some applications may appear slower when your Mac builds the cache again, but before long your Mac will be running better than before.
To clear the cache:
Start Finder and open the Go option from the menu bar.
Hold down Option and click the Library Option that appears in the menu bar.
Open the Caches folder and move all of its contents to Trash.
If prompted, enter your administrator password and then enter Empty Trash.
- Run first aid on disk
Even if your Mac appears to be working fine, undetected problems with the storage disk can cause it to slow down when trying to access your data. You can easily find and fix most of these problems using the First Aid feature in Disk Tools.
Please note that it may take about an hour to run First Aid, and you won’t be able to use your Mac until you’re done.
To run first aid on your Mac, launch the disk utility from the Utilities folder in your application (or find it using Spotlight). Then select your boot disk in the sidebar; This is often referred to as the Macintosh HD. If you have two Macintosh HD options, select the option to display Data.
- Disable system animation
Various animations in MacOS can cause problems on older machines with less processing power. If your Mac feels slower than before, make adjustments quickly and easily by disabling these unnecessary animations.
Open System Preferences > General and change the following Settings:
Change Show Scroll Bar to Always.
If available, disable the auto-hide and show menu bar.
If available, disable LCD font smoothing.
Now go to “System Preferences” > “Parking Bar and Menu Bar” and change these Settings:
Disable magnification.
Choose to minimize the scale effects of using Windows.
Disable Animate to open the application.
Disable auto-hiding and displaying the Dock.
Finally, go to “System Preferences” > “Desktop and Screen Saver” and change these Settings:
Choose a static desktop wallpaper, which doesn’t change throughout the day.
Disable the change image option.
- Browser Speed
Many Mac users use Internet browsers for most of their computing time. If your Mac feels slow, it’s probably just the browser that needs tweaking
The exact steps you take to adjust your browser depend on which browser you are using. But in general, your goals should be:
Clear history and cookies
Clear the cache
Disable unnecessary extensions
If you’re still using Apple’s default browser, follow our guide to making Safari faster on your Mac. If none of these tips makes your browser faster, it may be time to switch to a faster alternative like Chrome or Firefox.
- Resindexing Spotlights
Spotlight is the name Apple gave to its search feature on the Mac. If it takes a long time to find anything using Spotlight, you might want to re-index it to make sure it knows where all the files are.
This can take a long time, and your Mac may be slow when it’s re-indexing, but it should find the files faster afterwards:
Go to System Preferences > Spotlight, and then click Privacy TAB.
Use the Add (+) button to select Macintosh HD from the sidebar and tell Spotlight to ignore it.
Now select the Macintosh HD from the list and use the minus (-) button to remove it, telling Spotlight to index it and search it again.
- Update your app
Obsolete software usually runs slower than the latest updates. That’s because Apple and third-party developers have been working to optimize software for your Mac. Make sure you keep up with all the updates to tune your Mac with the latest improvements.