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5 Reasons Your Mac Might Be Running Slow
Apr 30, 2024
Article on Cult of Mac: https://www.cultofmac.com/853583/speed-up-slow-mac/
More Apple news: http://www.cultofmac.com
If your #Mac is running slow, there are a few things you can do to speed it up and better understand what’s slowing it down.
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Music composed by Will Davenport, arranged by D. Griffin Jones
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0:00
If your Mac has been running slow, here are the five reasons why, and what you can do to help speed it back up again
0:07
Number one, you're using Google Chrome instead of Safari. Chrome is a notorious power drain and memory hog
0:15
The more tabs you have open in Chrome, the less memory you have available for all the other apps running on your computer
0:21
Safari, on their other hand, has been designed by the same company that makes the operating system and the processor
0:27
so they're all working together to minimize system resources. Speed tests show Safari loads pages up to 50% faster than Chrome
0:37
And the thing is, it's not just Google Chrome itself. Other apps like Slack, Spotify, Discord, Microsoft Teams
0:45
are all made on top of the Chrome browser engine. So for each one of those you have running is another multiple of Google Chrome
0:52
But there's a solution. Instead of running the official apps, you can sign in to Safari
0:57
then click File, Add to Doc. This will add a separate icon to your dock
1:02
that you can launch in its own window independently of your browsing, but all of these apps will share the same resources
1:11
rather than multiply them. Number two, you might have a bunch of apps running in the background
1:15
that you've forgotten about. Over the years and years of having a Mac, you install a bunch of apps
1:21
Some of them install themselves as background processes so even though you don watch them and you haven used them in years they might still be turning away in the background without you realizing You can find these in system settings general login items
1:34
On the top, you'll see a list of apps that open automatically every time you log in
1:39
If you want to remove them, you just select it in the list and hit the minus button down below
1:44
You can scroll down and see the list of apps that are allowed to run in the background
1:49
If you want to remove one of these, you just uncheck the toggle switch
1:52
There are some other background activities that are built into MacOS itself
1:56
While there's not really much you can do about it without running some scary terminal commands
2:01
you should be aware that they're going on. If you sync your photo library to your Mac
2:05
it'll automatically download new pictures and videos in the background, and it'll occasionally scan through them to identify people and pets that you know
2:15
And Spotlight, which is the universal search box that lets you look through messages
2:19
email, safari browsing history, files on your computer, that occasionally needs to scan through your Mac to see if there's anything new
2:27
Number three, it could just be that your Mac is getting too old. Macs last a really, really long time
2:34
It's both a blessing and a curse. My 2015 MacBook Pro, for example, chugged along loyally for eight years
2:43
It worked even as the battery was starting to swell. It's probably a fire hazard by now
2:49
So Apple releases a major new version of MacOS every year If you keep your Mac a version or two behind while still installing those important minor security updates your Mac might run a little faster or at least stay the same speed
3:03
Major new releases of Mac OS with the big new features might run slower on an older Mac
3:09
It doesn't help that towards the end of the era, where Apple put Intel chips inside their
3:13
computers from 2016 to 2020 or so, there were some pretty bad Macs for sale
3:21
The 2014-2018 Mac Mini, for example, is honestly one of the worst Macs ever made
3:28
The good news is that the new Macs, with Apple's own chips inside, last much longer
3:33
Walmart is selling the M1 MacBook Air for just $699, or if you want to save a little bit of money on a desktop computer
3:40
you can pick up the M1 Mac Mini for just $500. Number four, your Mac might be running slow because it's overheating
3:47
If it starts to get warm, it'll throttle itself, or slow itself down
3:51
to keep the processor from getting too hot. Normally, this only happens if you're doing something really intense
3:57
like exporting a video, but it can be frustrating if you feel like your Mac is slowing down
4:02
in the middle of your ordinary work. If you have an older MacBook, it could just be that the vents have been blocked up by dust over time
4:09
Carefully, unscrew, and remove the bottom case, and with either a vacuum cleaner or a can of compressed air
4:15
get all of that dust out, especially around the fans. In ordinary usage it rare for a newer MacBook Air with Apple Silicon to be truly pushed to the limits but it can still happen Because this computer doesn have a built fan you can easily
4:30
boost performance with a cooling pad. This one on Amazon is only $25, so when you're at your desk
4:37
you can sit your MacBook Air on top of it, it'll even elevate it at a more comfortable angle
4:42
and the fans will keep cool air blowing underneath it where it gets the hottest. It also gives you
4:48
two USB ports in return when you plug it in because it's a USB hub
4:52
Finally, number five, your Mac might be running slow because you don't have enough memory
4:55
for what you use it for day to day. Most Macs made in the last 10 years only come with 8 gigabytes of memory as standard
5:03
That was perfectly fine in 2014, but nowadays, I think that upgrading to 16 gigabytes of
5:09
memory is one of the most important upgrades you can make when buying a Mac
5:13
If you have too many apps open at once, apps in the background will be pushed out of
5:17
memory into your storage, which is slower for it to be pulled back out of
5:23
So if you're trying to multitask, it can really slow things down to a crawl. And this problem is only compounded if you're running low on storage, too
5:31
So short of making sure your next Mac has more memory, there's not really much you can
5:36
do aside from running fewer big apps at once. But those are the five most common reasons your Mac might be slowing down
5:43
Remember to like and subscribe if you found this helpful. I'm DeGryphon Jones with Cultile. Mac
#Consumer Electronics