How to Speed Up Your Slow Mac Device

There are various different reasons why your Mac might be running slowly, and solving the issue could take some time depending on the root cause. The good news is that most of the time, speeding up your Mac isn’t as difficult as you might believe. Sadly, all Macs will begin to slow down as they age, no matter the model or specs. If you use your Mac a lot for different things and it is performing several different heavy tasks at the same time, it might start to slow down, and this is normal. However, if you are getting frustrating with slow load times and unresponsive windows every day, you’ll definitely need to figure out what’s going wrong and give your Mac a boost.

Why is My Mac Running Slowly?

There are tons of potential reasons why your Mac is slowing down. It might simply be down to age if you’ve had your device for a long time, while the fact that browsers are demanding the use of much more memory these days tends to mean that older devices are struggling to keep up. Our increasing usage of apps on Mac also means that there’s a chunk of your Mac’s memory being used that might otherwise have been dedicated elsewhere. And as we create more photos, videos, and other files, our hard drives are filling up, which once again uses more memory and can slow your Mac down. Data overload is usually the main reason behind any Mac slowing down, but the good news is that there are several things you can do to improve performance.

Cleaning Up Your Hard Drive

Nothing will slow down your Mac more than a cluttered hard drive that’s filled with files you no longer need. However, if you are able to clear out your hard drive and lighten the load that your Mac is facing every time you use it, you’re sure to see a speed boost. Unfortunately, cleaning up your hard drive is not always easy, especially if you’re not in the habit of deleting files that you no longer need on a regular basis. Figuring out everything that you can safely remove for space can be time-consuming, but the good news is that there are various tools that you can use that will filter through it all for you and figure out what can be removed to clean your hard drive and improve performance. It’s also worth figuring out how to clear other storage on Mac – you can find a step-by-step guide at Setapp. Setapp goes through what other storage is on your Mac, how to find it, and how to figure out what to delete to boost performance and speed.

Updating MacOS

If your Mac is running slowly, check which version of MacOS you are currently running it on. Your Mac’s operating system is very important to how it performs, especially if you are downloading apps that are designed to work best with the latest version of MacOS. An older OS will typically run slower, and might even be less secure, which is why Apple will release a new MacOS every year or so along with smaller updates in between. Having the latest version of MacOS is good practice and will ensure that everything runs smoothly on your Mac. The best option to consider is to turn on automatic updates so that you don’t need to worry about figuring out when one is available since your Mac will do all the hard work for you.

Decluttering Your Start-up

If your Mac is taking a long time to start up and it’s getting you frustrated, it’s worth reducing the number of things that are loading up in the background when you start your Mac. Not only can these loads slow down your start-up, but they can also slow your Mac down for the whole time that you are using it afterward. Unfortunately, many apps that you download to your Mac will automatically be checked to start up when you start your Mac, so it’s important to make sure that this box is unchecked if you don’t need an app to load immediately when you turn your Mac on. You can change which items load on start-up by heading to System Preferences > Users and Groups > your username. Then, select Login Items and click on the name of the applications that you don’t need to launch when starting your Mac. Select the minus symbol located below the list to the left to remove the application.

Upgrading Your Hardware

Sadly, some older Macs might not respond well to the various things that you can do to speed it up. If you are using a tool to maximize memory, have cleared your hard drive and don’t have anything launching automatically when you start your Mac and it’s still running slowly, it might be time to consider upgrading your hardware. Unfortunately, this can get expensive and some older Macs might be difficult or impossible to upgrade, so it’s also worth considering upgrading to a shiny new one as a sure way to fix the issues that you are having. One of the easiest things that you can do to speed up your Mac is to buy more RAM. If your current Mac is only running on 4GB RAM, for example, it’s going to be slow in 2021.

You can get larger RAM cards fairly inexpensively and do not have to purchase ones that are designed for Mac to double your memory or add even more. Another option to consider is replacing your current hard drive with an SSD disk that offers at least 240gb of storage space. You can upgrade your RAM and hard drive yourself by opening the bottom case of your Macbook and replacing the software or taking it to a professional who can help.

Sadly, all Macs will start to slow down over time as they get older and you store more stuff on them. Thankfully, if your Mac is frustratingly slow, getting it to speed up might not be as impossible as it seems.

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