Did you think that Mac will never go slow? Well, that is not true. After all Mac is a machine too and can lose its performance after sometime. Of course, there is always some reason behind a machine performing slowly and in this article we will discover all those reasons. We will be talking about why Mac lose its performance speed and how you can speed it up.
Before you try to troubleshoot any of issues your machine is facing, it is recommended to create backup of your important data.
Minimize Icons on Desktop
Do you remember the number of icons on your desktop when you first bought your Mac? One, probably two icons only and do you remember how fast your Mac used to load every time you log in. If your Mac is not performing well and you have a desktop full of icons, now is the time to delete them. Make proper folders and put all those files in folders. You can make several folders within one folder to minimize the amount of total icons on desktop. Try to keep only very important icons on your desktop which will help increasing the log in speed of your Mac.
Disable Icons Preview
To reduce some Mac processing for creating cache for icons preview you need to disable it and save some resources. Right-click on your desktop and then choose “Show View Options” an uncheck the option “Show icon preview”.
Close Background Applications
Even when you think that an application is closed, it is still running in the background which will eventually slow down your Mac. Have a look at your dock and you will notice many applications with one dot; this means that the application is still running in background. To close this application completely, right click on the icon and select Quit.
Minimize Startup item
Reduce extra stuff that loads when you logged in to your account, you can manage these items or application by going into Mac Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items tab. Here, select the item and use minus “-” button at the bottom to remove from startup. If you uncheck the item this will just hide but loads in the background.
Browser Settings
In some cases, it is the browser which is causing your Mac to slow down. If you are working on your Google Chrome, try to keep the number of extensions as less as possible. Also keep opening too many tabs on your browser will also slow down its speed. According to Mac users, Safari is considered as better browser as compared to Google Chrome so you might want to try that as well.
Disable FileVault Disk Encryption
On Mac OS X, FileVault Disk Encryption is set by default. This option will help you recover your files in case you lose them somehow. Though this option is quite useful in case you lose your file yet in some cases, this software will be slowing your Mac secretly. You can disable FileVault Disk Encryption by going to ‘System Preference’ window and clicking on ‘security and privacy’ icon. After that click on ‘file vault’ and you will see the option of turning the FileVault encryption off.
Clean Hard Drive
Make sure your hard drive free storage space never gets below 10%. If this is the case then you need to delete extra files and data which you have been adding since a long time. You may have to spend few hours going through your folders and subfolders but you will realize that you have a long list of files and software which you no longer use. If you get rid of those files, you will empty a good portion of your hard drive which will eventually speed up your Mac.
You can start by emptying your Trash, removing old software which you no longer use and also remove those languages which you do not use. There is one built-in utility known as Disk Utility which will show you the percentage of software usage by you and will suggest you deleting them in order to free some space.
Repair Disk Permissions
Directory structure corruption and other minor system performance related issues may be solved by verifying disk and then repair disk permissions. Open Disk Utility app on you Mac and select your hard drive from left-panel and then click “Verify Disk Permissions” then will take some time and if any problem found hit “Repair disk permission” button.
Reset PRAM or NVRAM
We already posted guide to fix problems related to PRAM or NVRAM
Check Resource Usage in Activity Monitor
You can also check your activity monitor to get idea which application is taking more memory space and eating up your processor everyday thus making your Mac slow. By making all these necessary changes you can keep your Mac fast.
Use SSD ( Solid State Drive)
First action which you can take to increase the speed of your Mac is to replace hard drive with an SSD also known as Solid State Drive. As soon as you replace your old hard drive with an SSD, you will notice the huge difference in the speed of your machine. This is definitely the quickest way to increase speed of your Mac as replacing hard drives should not take more than half an hour.
Add Extra Memory
If you have decided to add extra hard disk in your Mac, it would be wise to add extra memory at the same time because you would not want to disassemble you Mac every time. Before you open Mac to add extra memory, you need to know which brand and model is compatible with your Mac. You also need to have some information about the internal memory of your Mac for example how many slots for memory does it have. So if you have two slots and one memory is already fitted in it, you can add one more memory. In case you already have both slots filled with memory of 2 GB, you can replace them with 4 GB each.
Reinstall Your Operating System
If any of the above mentioned solutions are not working for your machine, the last solution in many cases is to reinstall your OS X on Mac. This is a great idea for any device which is slow down and no other thing is working on it.
Before you start reinstalling your operating system, it is always advised to create a backup of all of your important data because you do not want to lose your documents in this process. Once the fresh operating system is installed, do not use it roughly and make sure you get a fresh copy of antivirus with that as well.