Imagine you’ve been using and loving your Mac computer, but now it’s not working so well. Before you splurge on a new model, consider if you can increase the computer performance on your current laptop.
You can do a few small things or go through and declutter your entire device. Either way, give a few strategies a try to see what helps your Mac run well.
Keep reading to learn how you can speed up your computer.
- Restart Your Mac
One of the simplest things to improve your Mac’s computer performance is to restart the device. Restarting sounds simple, but a lot of people hardly ever turn their computers off.
They may close their laptop or lock their desktop screen, but that only puts your computer into sleep mode. Sometimes, you may need to restart the computer overall.
If it’s been a while since you turned your Mac off, give it a try. You never know if that will be the cure you need for a slow Mac laptop or desktop.
- Delete Old Files
You should also go through the files on your computer to help clean your hard drive. Consider if you need a document, photo, or video, and keep it or delete it.
If you’ve had your computer for years, you probably have at least a few files you never reference anymore. You can also go through your computer to look for duplicate files and delete the extra one.
Once you go through everything, clear out your trash to officially remove the files from your device. Then, you may find your computer runs more smoothly with more available hard drive space.
- Use an External Hard Drive
Maybe you don’t want to get rid of certain files, but you want to try clearing your hard drive to help with computer performance. You can get an external hard drive to store your photos and videos.
Then, you can still access those files, and you can access them on other computers. Think about how much room the files you want to remove take up.
Select an external hard drive with enough storage and some extra room. You can go through your files every month or so and move old files to your external hard drive.
Another option is to use cloud storage for documents that you don’t need to store locally on your Mac. You can upgrade to more cloud storage from iCloud or another service, so you can easily access your files with an internet connection.
- Remove Browser Extensions
Browser extensions are another thing that may affect your computer performance. If you spend most of your time using a browser, consider what extensions you have.
From there, think about the extensions you actually use and which ones you installed because you thought they’d be useful. Then, you can uninstall all of the extensions you haven’t used in a while.
If you use multiple browsers for different things, go through each program. Delete all of the extensions you haven’t used in a few months to help speed up your Mac.
- Check Your Internet
If you have trouble loading pages in your browser, you should check your internet connection. Make sure you can connect to your WiFi network or if you’re having issues.
In that case, you can check the internet on other devices in the area. If they’re having the same problem, you can restart the router to get rid of the rainbow wheel when you try to load the internet.
Another way to check for this issue is to take your laptop to a library or coffee shop. If your computer works fine on another network, your home or work network is the problem.
Otherwise, you’ll want to check some of the other solutions to help your computer performance.
- Update the System
If you’ve tried a ton of things but can’t seem to improve your computer performance, check for updates. You can do this under System Preferences, then Software Update.
When there’s a new version available, you’ll see that, and you can start to update your computer. After everything updates, you may find the computer runs a bit faster, especially if you haven’t updated it in a while.
Going forward, consider checking the box for automatic updates in your System Preferences. That way, you won’t have to remember to check for new software updates every so often.
As long as you plug your computer in overnight, your computer will update for you.
- Analyze Your Apps
If updating to the latest macOS version doesn’t help, the problem may be with your apps. Go through all of the apps and programs you’ve downloaded and consider what you do or don’t use.
When finding programs you don’t use, determine if you expect to use them in the future. If you don’t think you’ll use the software, delete it from your computer.
Similar to files, having a lot of apps can cause a slow Mac. Your computer has to work to store and process all of those programs, and getting rid of them can free up space and improve performance.
Be sure to review the apps you will keep, and consider if those have updates to help your computer run fast.
- Adjust Your Settings
You can also go into your settings to help improve computer performance a bit. One thing to do here is to turn off visual effects on your Mac.
The effects can look cool, but they may make it harder for your computer to run well. You may also want to manage your startup items under the Users & Groups section of the settings to help your computer boot up faster.
Reindexing Spotlight may also help your Mac perform better. Go to Spotlight, then Privacy, and drag your hard drive there. Remove the hard drive to start the reindexing process.
Don’t Ignore Mac’s Computer Performance
Computer performance is crucial, regardless of the operating system you use. Just because you aren’t using a Windows computer with a ton of features doesn’t mean you should use a slow computer.
If your slow Mac is stressing you out, you can do a few things to speed it up. Consider updating the software and getting rid of unnecessary apps and files, and try some other strategies if that doesn’t work.
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