“When I first bought my iMac it was just awesome with a smooth and flawless performance. But now I feel it is slowing down a bit and the response time is not what used to be.” – David Morrison.
“Surfing the internet is no longer the same experience on my Mac. Even the system boots slower with a delay in launching any app I want.” – Camilla Smith.
Have you felt that your Mac gets slow over time?
Are you not satisfied with your Mac’s Performance?
Do you feel that your Mac was better when you first bought it?
Who is the culprit responsible for your Slow Mac?
If you have the same experience then this guide for optimizing your mac is just for you!
Your Mac is an amazing device which is more than a simple computer. However, it is a machine and all machines require maintenance. Although many consider Apple devices to be maintenance-free but that is not true and this can only be experienced personally after using a Mac for some time. In other words there would be a considerable difference of experience in using a brand new Mac and the same machine after six months. To keep your Mac brand new you must Clean up and Tune Up your Mac. This Mac optimization guide will help you achieve the best results by following the steps listed below.
What Are The Issues That Occur In My Mac?
Before we jump to the troubleshooting steps, let us look a short summary of the issues that occur in any Mac across the globe. These issues are the simple result of using any computer connected to the internet.
| Issue | Description | Manual Solution |
| Disk Is Full | Low storage space due to regular use. | Free Up Space, Delete Cache, Delete Backups |
| System Running Slow | System requires updates from time to time and turning off extra features will consume less resources. | System and Apps Update,
Use First Aid, Turn Off System Animations, Spotlight Reindexing. |
| Takes time to start or boot | This happens because many third-party apps launch automatically at startup. | Remove Login Apps from User Account. |
| System does not respond or acts strange | Malware!!! With unwanted files and potential threats, you Mac may not respond the way you want it to. | None. |
| Slow Internet | The browsing speed is slower than what it used to be. | Browser Maintenance |
Now, if you feel that it would take considerable time and effort to carry out all these steps then there is always a shortcut and that is by using a Mac Optimization Software like Disk Clean Pro.
Here are a few features of Disk Clean Pro and what it can do on your Mac:
- Deletes Junk and Unused files.
- Maintains Browser Privacy.
- Find duplicate files.
- Remove Login Items.
- Monitor Disk Usage and Failed Downloads.
9 Different Ways On How To Optimize Your Mac For Better Performance?
There are many steps to optimize your Mac but here is a list of the 9 most important steps recommended by experts after researching on various technical forums.
1. Free Up Space
Before we get on the steps to free up space on Mac, let me tell you about an important fact related to clean your Mac. It is always recommended to keep at least 10% of your hard disk capacity free in order for the Mac to work efficiently. A quick step would be to open the Apple Menu and then click About This Mac followed by Storage. This will display your files sorted into various categories like System, Documents, Photos etc. You can always start with clearing System Storage.
If you lack space and want to clean your Mac Hard drive then you can use Disk Clean Pro that will help create space by deleting junk, redundant, duplicates, caches and temporary files. This way you do not have to delete your precious photos, audio, video and documents and yet gain space on your hard drive by clean your Mac
Also Read: What Is “Other” On Mac Storage And How To Remove It?
2. Activity Monitor
The second tool that can be used to speed up your Mac is the inbuilt Activity Monitor tool that highlights the apps and process running in your Mac. It also displays the percentage of CPU resource that is being used and this informs the user about the app that is slowing down your Mac. This tool is available in the Utilities folder.
There are different tabs like CPU and memory which will highlight processes that are using your processor or RAM. Users can click the Stop sign and close down certain processes that consume more resources. But make sure you know the app process before you close it to avoid any serious damage.
3. Remove Login Apps
Optimizing your Mac also involves managing your startup items that include programs that run when your Mac is turned on. If you have too many applications that launch when you start your Mac then the booting time will be delayed. This can be analyzed by visiting the System Preferences > Users & Groups > User Account. Here you can click on the Login Items Tab and see the list of apps that open up each time your computer boots up.
This Mac optimization guide will tell you how to remove these apps from Startup, click on any app you wish to remove and highlight it. Then click on the minus symbol to remove it from this folder. Remember, this will not delete the app from your system but prevent it from launching automatically and clean your Mac.
4. Delete Cache
Cache and Cookies are a part of temporary files that get accumulated after using applications and surfing the internet. These files aid in a swift functioning as they help to use the local content stored rather than download it from the internet every time. However, due to reasons unknown, these files do not get deleted when no longer needed and accumulate in the system, thus consuming valuable storage space.
Here are the steps to clean your Mac cache:
Step 1: Open Finder and then look for the Go option from menu bar.
Step 2: Press and hold the Option key and click Library in menu bar.
Step 3: Now, open Caches folder, and move all the contents to Trash.
Step 4: Type your admin password, then click on Empty Trash.
Also Read: How To Maintain Your Security And Privacy On macOS?
5. Use First Aid
Apple has inculcated a disk utility to repair storage disk issues like the First Aid feature. Although using this feature takes considerable time and makes your Mac unusable until the process completes, still it is worth all the time and effort. This Mac optimization guide will guide you about the steps to run First Aid and tune up your Mac:
Step 1: Launch Disk Utilities located in the Utilities Folder.
Step 2: Select your Startup Disk in the sidebar that is known as Macintosh HD and says Data.
Step 3: Click the First Aid button on the top of Disk Utility.
6. Turn Off System Animations
Apple has introduced certain animations that gives macOS an edge over other operating systems especially when it comes to display and looks. However, these animations are also responsible for slowing the system and unnecessarily consume resources. You can opt to disable these effects by following the below-mentioned steps and tune up your Mac:
Step 1: Open System Preferences and then click on General.
Step 2: Now, locate Change Show scroll bars and modify that option to Always.
Step 3: Next, disable automatically hide and show the menu bar.
Step 4: Continue with disabling LCD font smoothing.
Step 5: Now navigate to Dock & Menu Bar and disable Magnification.
Step 6: Moving further, select Minimize windows using Scale effect.
Step 7: Turn off Animate opening applications.
Step 8: Disable Automatically hide and show the Dock.
Step 9: Move to Desktop & Screen Saver and select a static Desktop wallpaper
Step 10: Turn Off the Change picture option.
These setting changes will simplify the appearance of your macOS but it will also consume the least resources possible making your system faster than before.
7. Browser Maintenance
Moving forward in our Mac Optimization guide we come to the part where we have to maintain the browser. This is important because it can not only solve but speed up your PC and tune up your Mac issues but at the same time improve internet browsing speed. The exact steps to optimize different browsers are different but the process in this Mac optimization guide includes a few basic similarities like:
- Delete History
- Clear cache and Cookies
- Turn off redundant extensions
For more information on how to optimize your default Safari Browser, click on this link. You can also use an alternative browser like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.
8. Spotlight Reindexing
Spotlight is Apple’s Magnifying Glass Icon used by all search providers and search functions across the globe. Apple calls it Spotlight and this helps to find your files and folders. This is a fast process but if you find that it is consuming more time than usual then you can reindex the Spotlight tool. This will help it to identify all the files and folders and index the location which would make it easy to pull out the file when required. This improves the overall functioning of your system and speed up your Mac.
During the reindexing process, your system will consume a lot of resources making it slow but once the process is over it will be faster than before. Here are the steps to initiate reindexing:
Step 1: Open System Preferences and click on Spotlight.
Step 2: Click on the Privacy tab and then use the Add button and choose Macintosh HD.
Step 3: Choose Macintosh HD from the list you just added to and hit the Minus (-) button to eliminate it.
Step 4: Spotlight will not automatically search for it and begin the Indexing process.
9. Apps Update
The final step in this Mac optimization guide is to update all the apps on your system that include both system and third-party apps. Did you know that the app developers do not stop after developing and selling an app but constantly work to provide the latest updates making it compatible to use? Once your apps are updated you would find that your system functions smoothly and flawlessly. Here are steps to check updates and speed up your Mac.
Step 1: Navigate to System Preferences and then click on Software Update.
Step 2: Enable the check box labelled as Automatically keep my Mac up to date.
Step 3: Next, open the App Store and click on the Updates tab to install updated for third party applications.
The Final Word On How To Optimize Your Mac For Better Performance?
That concludes our journey on how to optimize your Mac for better performance. These steps mentioned have been carefully deduced and studied to ensure that following them provide benefits to the user and no harm is brought upon the system. Although, optimizing your Mac will take a lot of time and effort but this can be considerably reduced by using Disk Clean Pro on your system and declutter your Mac.
For any queries or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section below. We would love to get back to you with a solution. We regularly post on tips and tricks, along with answers to common issues related to technology.