Is your Apple MacBook running slow? Are you trying to figure out what’s causing this slowdown, and you are looking for a way to fix it? Well, if so, then you should know that this slowness doesn’t happen all of a sudden. The problem builds up for some time – might be days, weeks, or even months of overall unresponsiveness. Also, there are a number of factors that go into play, making your Mac slow down. We are going to look into some of the major factors and later find out how you can fix your MacBook.
What makes your Mac slow and what are the solutions?
For your MacBook to start running slow, it may be because of one (but not limited to) of the following issues:
- Your hard drive is getting full
Maybe what’s bugging you Mac is having too much stuff on your hard drive. Having the drive full will of course slow down the loading speed and the overall performance of the MacBook.
Solution – you probably are thinking, ‘it’s just deleting a couple of unwanted videos and files from my MacBook.’ Well, sorry to disappoint you, but there are a couple of processes involved to ensure that the device is no longer running slow. Besides cleaning up the hardware bit of it – which is the easy part – you will still need to clean up the entire operating system, such as caches, logs, language packs etc, for more space. You can seek help from our Apple Mac support team if you are not sure whether you would be able to handle it on your own.
- Outdated MacOS
The OS in your Mac is extremely important as to how it performs. So, if yours is an older version of OS, it may be the cause of the slowness. There is a reason why Apple releases a new version of OS every year or so.
Solution – having the latest MacOS version is not only important but necessary as well, especially if you are looking to improve the speed of your Mac. To update your MacOS and speed up your Mac, just go to the Apple menu and click on the ‘about this Mac.’ If there is a software update available, you will be able to tell. Click on the ‘software update’ button. And if you are unable to do it, you can call for our Mac support.
- A slow startup process
Whenever you start your Mac, there are a lot of things that load in the background. With all this loading, the start-up process starts slowing down, which will continue the entire time you will be on your Mac. It can get very frustrating!
Solution – get a fast Mac startup by removing all unnecessary apps off your MacBook. Now, start by turning off login items on your ‘system preferences’ then ‘users & groups’ and then click on your username. Once you are in, click on the login items, and then remove all the applications you don’t need to launch when your Mac is starting up. The fewer the applications on the list, the better for you, as you will end up with a speedy Mac.
- A lot is running in the background
Just like in any other device, when you have too many processes running in the background, your Mac is bound to slow down, where it can’t even perform the simplest of tasks.
Solution – quitting an application that’s consuming much of your Mac’s processing power could as well make a huge difference in speeding it up. To do this, you need to open the application folder, and then go to your ‘utilities’ folder, where you will find the activity monitor. Here, you will see all the apps and processes happening on your device in real-time. After that, click on the Memory tab and then the Memory filter at the top in order to sort apps by the amount of space they are consuming on your RAM. The higher it is, the higher the amount of power needed. So, you will need to stop the program from operating for you to free up space on your RAM, thereby increasing the speed of your Mac as a result.
- Cluttered desktop
Do you use your desktop as a file dump? If so, it’s time for you to clean it up. You may not know this, but each and every desktop icon is a little active window that your OS has to render and process. So, if you have a plethora of icons on your desktop, no wonder your Mac is slowing down.
Solution – organise all the files on your desktop into separate folders. To do that, just right-click on your desktop and then select ‘use stacks’ and move them. For those files that you don’t need, don’t hesitate to trash them. To be honest, cleaning your desktop isn’t fun, but in terms of adding speed to your Mac, well, it does pay off – that’s for sure.
- You are out of RAM
RAM is like fuel for all your apps. This means that if it runs out, every app on your Mac will start to slow down, and then you will start getting a “Your system is out of application memory” message.
Solution – go to Applications, then Utilities, and then go to Terminal. After that, copy-paste this command “sudo purge” into the Terminal window. Then enter your password to confirm. If you don’t know how to do this, seek help from our Apple Mac support team.
Final thought
As you can see, it is obvious that all these problems boil down to one very simple idea: give your Mac some breathing space! As you continue to use your device, it will eventually fill up with all kinds of stuff that’s consuming your memory, resources, and disk space. You can either try do it yourself, or rely on a professional Mac support team that would ensure that your Mac retains its maximum speed at all times.