10 Tweaks to Enhance Performance of Slowing Down Mac

The modern lineup of Macs is the most powerful and efficient digital machine developed by Apple. As time passes, the devices start slowing down and programs can’t respond quickly. Here are some solutions for your ease to enhance the performance of your Mac.

Before we start to discuss the solutions, here are some reasons why Macs slow down;

• The consumption of huge storage of your Mac due to background running process
• The huge collection of visual effects
• Outdated operating system
• Attack of some malware

Restarting your device is one of the simple and best ways to kick out any type of glitch or other issue. As soon as the machine turns off, it clears all active processes, stops the power supply, and reboots it for better speed. From the top left corner of the screen, click on the Apple menu, and select the ‘Restart’ option.

It is the basic issue with the Mac lineup that has limited storage, so the device starts, multiple background processes start to run, and when you open your required apps and tabs, the device is overloaded, and gets slowed down. You need to manage these running processes when your Mac starts up;

• Navigate to System Settings, and click on General
• Select Login Items & Extensions
• Check the list, and close the unnecessary startup items

If you receive a notification “Mac runs out of memory”, naturally, your device will slow down, and fail to respond to you quickly. You can clean your memory storage automatically such as;

• Use the free trial version of the CleanMyMac tool.
• Open it, and select the iMac option from the menu bar.
• Click on ‘Free up’ option under the Memory
• Or, click on the Memory tab, and quit top consuming apps.

If you aren’t interested in a third-party app, simply use Terminal to free up the space;

• Use your launchpad to open the Terminal
• Enter the following command: sudo purge
• Click on the ‘Return’ option

If you are using any other browser, it is better to switch to Safari, as Apple designed it specifically for its devices. If you are already using Safari, go to the Group feature, and manage related tabs. After managing tabs, turn off the entire group, and free up the system resources. You can do it manually by clicking Safari > Settings > Tabs >, and selecting ‘after one day’ from the ‘automatically close tabs’ menu. In this way, Safari will remove unnecessary tabs.

The new macOS releases can also cause slowing down an old Mac. So it is better to use the latest releases offered by Apple with features that can keep your operating system up to date. you need to enable the ‘Auto Update’ process, but also update it manually such as;

• Navigate to System Preferences using the Apple menu.
• Open the Software Update option, and let the system search if any update is available.
• If any update is available, click ‘Update Now’.

 The visual effects greatly impact hugely on the performance of a Mac, especially an old Mac, or iMac, because the older versions have weaker chipsets and fewer RAM. So, the older versions can’t carry visual effects and background processes simultaneously. So you need to enhance the performance by enabling “Reduce Motion”, and “Reduce Transparency”, and disabling “Auto-play animation images.”  It will help you to enhance the performance of your Mac, no matter, if it is a newer, or older version.

On Mac, we use Spotlight for indexing the files and data for quick access. After some time, the Spotlight indexing gets corrupted and the searching process can slow down, because of adding a lot of files, deleting, and modifying them. So, here it is required to reindex Spotlight to fix the issue.

• Navigate to System Settings, and scroll down to Spotlight
• From the bottom of the screen, select Search Privacy
• Drag the hard drive or folder to the Privacy section
• Click on the “-“sign to remove it, and reindex it.

On a Mac, we store our files and data. Install and run apps, download updates, and a lot of other daily tasks. All the content takes up a lot of space, and the device runs out of storage which can slow down the performance. So, the Mac must have free space of a minimum of 10% to restore optimal performance. Here you can use different techniques i.e.

use an external SSD card to transfer extra data, or if you have an iCloud+ subscription, upload all of your photos, files, and messages to iCloud, and access them through iCloud Drive whenever you need. Don’t forget to clean your trash bin, simply enable the ‘Empty Trash Automatically’ option. Or you can enable the “Optimize Mac Storage” option from the Photos app settings, as it will help to free the storage by uploading the full-size photos to iCloud.

If the battery shuts down suddenly and unexpectedly, or you have to plug it in while working, it’s time to contact Apple customer service and replace it. You can manually check the battery’s condition;

• Navigate to Settings, and click on the Battery
• Open Battery Health, and click on the “i” button.
• From the top of the menu, click on “Battery Condition”.
• In case of defected battery, the field should read “Service recommended”
• You need to contact Apple Customer Service and replace it.

In case of slowing down your internet connection, the performance of your Mac is also sluggish. The internet connection goes slow, especially when you are playing online huge games, watching videos, or running apps that require a network connection. You need to run a quick speed test and take steps according to the outcomes of the speed test i.e. restart your router, place your Mac close to your router, or contact your Provider.

We hope, that by following the aforementioned tips and tricks, you can fix the slow performance issue of your Mac.