Is your once-speedy Mac feeling slow and sluggish? Do not resign yourself to the spinning beachball. Although basic maintenance goes a long way, there are hidden gems with macOS that can unlock hidden performance reserves. This guide explores the advanced techniques that can transform your Mac from a sluggish nail to a sleek cheetah.
Check Under The Hood!
What’s going on under the hood of your Mac? Simply dealing with things you can see may not be as effective as you’d like.
Open Activity Monitor to keep track of the resources being consumed. Go beyond basic process termination. Use the Memory and CPU tabs to identify resource-intensive applications and force quit the unnecessary ones. However, exercise caution not to quit the core system processes. Go to the Energy tab to identify apps that are draining life on your system.
Open the Terminal App to identify the launch daemons and agents that are running in the background but not required for critical system functions. You can disable the ones that are slowing you down.
Clean Up The Clutter
A slow Mac might be a sign your system is filled with digital clutter. You’d be surprised to find how much clutter you’ve accumulated over the years and how utterly useless they are. Open About This Mac and click Storage to identify space-consuming files. When you check storage, you will see a breakdown of all the different files stored on your Mac, and they will be grouped into different categories, such as Apps, iOS Files, Documents, Mail, Photos, etc. You can uninstall or delete the files you don’t need.
While you are going through the categories, you will come across a large category taking up gigabytes. This is the Other storage category. If this is your first time checking storage on a Mac, you may wonder what is Other in Mac storage. Under this category, all those items that don’t fit in the categories mentioned above are found to be temporary files, system data, caches, DMG installers, app plugins and extensions, etc. Delete the files that are redundant.
If deleting and installing is not helping you reclaim as much space as you’d hoped, the next step is to transfer some items to iCloud or external storage devices. Freeing up local space is your objective.
Tame The Visual Beast
All the little animations when you click or open a folder seem visually appealing, but they consume a lot of critical resources and slow down your system.
Choose speed over aesthetics and Reduce Transparency by going to System Settings > Accessibility > Display > clicking on Reduce Transparency to enable it. The transparency effects will be reduced, giving a significant boost to your Mac.
Motion smoothing helps to create a fluid visual experience but this too is resource-intensive. So, reduce motion by going to System Settings > Accessibility and see if performance is improved.
Leverage The Power of Terminal To Your Advantage
The Terminal application is your window to a world of advanced options, but venturing here requires a strong comprehension of macOS commands. While in the Terminal app, you must explore with extreme caution. One wrong command, and you’ll be inviting a world of serious issues.
Adopt Fine-Tuning Habits
Apart from deleting files, monitoring the Activity Monitor, and reducing animation, you can consider adopting fine-tuning habits that will ensure your Mac performs smoothly.
- Use lightweight browsers like Vilvaldi or Brave for a faster browsing experience. Consider using extensions like script blockers to streamline performance. Don’t keep too many unnecessary browser tabs running in the background.
- Regularly review the installed apps and uninstall them. Don’t let unnecessary applications clutter your system.
- Regularly review the startup items list. Remove the apps that are no longer useful to you. Since these apps launch automatically at startup, they can slow down the boot time.
- Periodically update macOS and the applications installed. You can turn on automatic updates or manually update.
- Optimize disk usage regularly using Disk Utility. Choose your hard drive, click First Aid, and then run Repair Disk Permissions.
- Dust buildup can impact performance. Invest in compressed air to clean your Mac’s vents periodically. Consider using a cooling pad for laptops that tend to run hot.
In Conclusion
Follow these techniques mentioned here to maintain a consistent optimization routine. Through the implementation of these tricks, you can keep your Mac running efficiently and smoothly for years to come. The key is to find the right balance between functionality and performance for your specific needs. Do not be afraid to experiment with different techniques to speed up your MacOS and find out what works best for you.
Are you a Mac user? What techniques do you use to speed up your system? Share your thoughts with other fellow Mac users and help them overcome the struggle of a sluggish Mac.
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Article by Pankaj Shah: DCP Web Designers
