Remember the feeling of a brand-new Mac? A Mac without rainbow wheels that never caused headaches or frustration. There is a way to restore that state of your computer without erasing all content and settings. 14 ways, in fact. Follow the tips below closely and enjoy a faster Mac. Let’s dive in!
Key takeaways: The fastest ways to make your Mac more responsive
These simple steps below won’t take much time but will greatly help to improve your Mac’s performance. If you do these activities regularly, you won’t have to worry about the need to speed up your Mac again:
- Find resource-hungry processes. Open Activity Monitor to identify apps consuming excessive resources, then quit them to boost Mac’s speed.
- Free up RAM. Quit memory-intensive apps, or get CleanMyMac to free up RAM quickly.
- Restart your Mac. Restarting clears temporary files and quits unresponsive processes, giving your Mac room to breathe.
- Update macOS. Check for system updates regularly to ensure you’re running the latest, most optimized version of macOS.
- Close unnecessary browser tabs. Bookmark important pages and close tabs you’ve left open for days to enhance performance.
How to test if your Mac is really slow
Sounds like your Mac?
- Mac booting up slower
- Overheating computer
- Browser crashes
- Frequent “beach-balls”
- Unexpected shutdowns or apps crashing
If you thought “yes” to any of these signals, than your Mac may need a tuneup.
Why is your Mac running slow
Here are some obvious reasons:
- Lack of free storage (less than 10% of the overall Mac capacity) — go to System Settings > General > Storage to check
- Running a lot of resource-intensive apps at the same time — memory and CPU hoggers
- The age of your Mac and hardware limitations — Macs tend to get slower over time as they can no longer cope with the strain new macOS versions and apps put on it
