After some time of use, it is normal that your Mac starts to show some slowness. In some cases its use becomes excruciating, taking into account that it takes several minutes to open a few pages. That’s exactly what happened to me: after more than two years of use, my Mac was slower than ever. However, I decided to look for some tips on how to eliminate this slowness and make my device faster. Obviously, he has not returned to his initial speed, but he is very close to that.
If you also want to get your Mac faster, check out some of the strategies I’ve used. I guarantee your Mac will be much faster than it is today!
Table of Contents
1. Use Clean My Mac
To start cleaning up your Mac, there’s nothing better than buying the best program on the market: Clean My Mac. This application is an authentic broom of applications and documents that do not matter. With the application you will clear caches, delete unnecessary extensions that may be in your browser, uninstall applications completely, etc.
Another delightful detail of Clean My Mac is that it tells you how long your computer has not opened a particular document or application. In my case, I went to find files that I did not open a year ago and this gave me greater certainties that I should eliminate them. If you work a lot with iPhoto, Clean My Mac is also a good choice as it has a clean section for iPhoto, in which it clears all files. In my case, I managed to eliminate more than 7GB with Clean My Mac. Its only problem is the price, costing 40 $ if you buy for a Mac only.
2. Download the Monolingual
This app was one of those that surprised me most because I had never heard of it before cleaning my Mac. On the Mac, every time I install an application it will come with all available language options. What happens is that the average user uses only two to three languages in their applications. What Monolingual does is eliminate all the languages you do not use in all your applications. You just need to set the languages you will never use and delete them from your Mac, keeping only the essentials. Believe: you will have a few GB of language files to delete … Click here to download it for free.
3. Go to your Activity Monitor
In the Activity Monitor, you can see which programs are consuming most of your memory. When I tested it on my Mac, for example, I saw that Chrome was one of the most memory-intensive applications on my Mac. Look at how much memory each program is spending and if necessary, delete it. ). To go to Activity Monitor just look for it in your Spotlight (cmd + space).
4. Delete items from the Dashboard
The elements on your Dashboard also consume some of your memory. So, delete those you do not use. To do this just click on the “-” that is in the lower left corner and then delete those you have never used or that you will possibly never use. Mine stayed like this after deleting the unnecessary applications:
5. Delete boot applications
Without the user realizing it, some applications will be started in conjunction with your Mac. To delete the ones you do not need, go to “System Preferences”, then click “Users and Groups” and then select your profile. At the top, you will see two tabs: Password and Login. Click the last one and see how many apps are starting with your Mac. Delete any that are not really essential.
6. Update your software
This tip may sound cliche, but the truth is that failure to update your software may be causing some slowness in your system. Updating it is also one of the ways to resolve some issues that may have arisen with the version you are using.
7. Use Safari!
According to Apple itself (okay, it’s not a very unbiased source but it does exist), the fastest browser on the Mac is Safari. I personally always believed it to be Google Chrome until I went through my Activity Monitor and visualized that Google Chrome really was responsible for occupying a large part of the memory. Due to this, I moved to Safari and the difference has been overnight. Once again I tried to try Chrome again, but I came to the conclusion that the speed of Safari on the Mac is much higher (at least in my case).
8. Turn off and on your computer more often
As with all computers, not shutting it down will slow you down over time. Turn it off at least overnight so it can start the day to the maximum of its capabilities.
9. Repair disk permissions
After installing new applications, some permissions on the Mac are changed, which causes system instability. To solve these problems, Apple has developed a repair tool called Disk Utility, which automatically fixes the disk permissions. To repair these same permissions, you must go to the “Disk Utility” and select your HD. Then go to “First Aid” and click “Check Disk Permissions”. Lastly, click “Repair disk permissions”. If you have never done this, it is normal for the Mac to take a few minutes to complete the operation.
10. Delete applications from the Dock
Another detail I noticed when having the Activity Monitor open is that applications that are in the Dock consume a small part of the memory. If you have multiple apps in the Dock, your Mac will slow down. So I advise you to keep your Dock as minimal as possible.
11. Keep trash empty.
Although your files are in the trash, they do not consume space on your Mac. Get into the habit of disposing of your junk files every day or at least once a week. The speed of your Mac thanks.
12. Keep the Desktop with Fewer Files
Many files on the Desktop also help make your Mac slower. Try to find some strategy to go by organizing your files instead of always leaving them on the desktop of your Mac.
13. Work in cooler locations.
The heat also influences the poor performance of your Mac. Try to work in cooler locations where your Mac can keep up to capacity without having to use other features.
14. Work with fewer tabs open in your browser
When I opened Activity Monitor, I noticed that the more browser tabs were open the more memory the browser consumed. Make it a habit to close the tabs you are not using.
If you need help, have doubts or concerns, do not hesitate to leave a comment in the comment box below and we will try to help you as soon as possible!