In this guide, we’ll walk you through some of the things you can do to find out why your Mac might be slowing down, and some possible fixes. Hopefully, after reading these solutions, you’ll have a snappy Mac again in no time!
There are a myriad of things that can cause your Mac to get slow over time, and we’ll try to outline as many of those reasons that come to mind as we can below.
Are apps using too much memory?
Nowadays, all new Macs come standard with at least 8GB or more of memory (RAM). There was once a time when 4GB of memory would suffice, but as apps continue to get larger and their abilities continue to expand, their system resource demands continue to escalate as well.
If you’re running a lot of memory-intensive apps at one time, then that means your Mac is trying to juggle too many memory tasks at once. This will slow down your machine.
Sometimes, apps will crash if they’re unable to read data from memory, but more often, memory data is stored temporarily in your storage when the memory gets too full, and because storage has a slower read/write speed than your memory does, it takes your Mac a little longer to access that data, hence the speed drop.
Solution: To solve this problem, you’ll either need to upgrade your RAM or find alternative lightweight software. To check how much RAM you have on your Mac, click the Apple icon > About this Mac, and the window that opens will show you how much your system has.
Old Macs used to have upgradeable RAM, but current Apple notebooks do not. So, your other option, if RAM is soldered into your machine, is to fight lightweight software alternatives.
For example, try using Pixelmator instead of Photoshop or iMovie instead of Premier Pro. Software with less of a demand on system resources will give your Mac more room to breathe and, therefore, give it more speed.
Are all your apps made for your Mac?
In some cases, apps that have not been optimized for your Mac’s hardware or operating system version can be the cause of speed issues. This can include apps made for Intel Macs that do not have an Apple silicon version.
Other times, software may require hardware that your Mac just doesn’t have, whether that’s more RAM, a stronger graphics card, or a faster processor.
Solution: Check the website of an app that you suspect is slowing your computer down. Oftentimes, reputable software makers like Adobe or Microsoft will show system requirements for their apps.
If your Mac doesn’t meet those requirements, the installer typically won’t even let you follow through with installing the app, but sometimes it doesn’t perform that check and installs anyway. If that’s the case, then the app is going to be looking for certain hardware and won’t find it, so it’ll improvise to perform the best it can, which isn’t always a good thing.
If your Mac doesn’t have the hardware requirements, then that could very well be the reason you’re seeing slowed Mac performance. You will have to either upgrade the hardware if possible, get a newer Mac, or consider using alternative software.
Is there enough free space on your startup disk?
Your startup disk may be the culprit of your slow Mac woes. As files build-up, including cache files, personal files, apps, and games, your Mac has less and less storage space to write to. Instead, it’ll have to use time replacing temporary files with new ones over and over again.
As you can imagine, constantly having to over-write your cache files means you have no cache to load from, and this means apps will always have to load in their entirety on their own, which leads to slower performance. Conversely, when you have a cache to load from, app and website data is already stored, and it’s much faster to open and use apps or websites.
Solution: If you suspect your startup disk is getting full, you can verify the amount of free space you have by clicking the Apple icon > About This Mac > More Info > Storage and looking at the available free space on the drive you boot up from.
If you have more than 20GB of free space, then you’re probably good for a while. Anything less than that, and you might want to take steps to free space on your Mac. Empty the trash when you have a lot of stuff in it, remove unwanted cache files, and uninstall unwanted apps to make more space for yourself. Your computer will thank you!
Is your disk experiencing issues?
In some cases, the problem may not be related to the storage on your main drive, but perhaps it has something to do with the health of the drive. Sometimes, things can get scattered throughout the drive, causing longer waiting times for the computer to access and interpret information.
This is more common with hard disk drives than solid-state drives.
Solution: macOS comes with a handy utility called Disk Utility, which has the useful First Aid option that allows you to troubleshoot errors and problems with any disk on your machine.
To use it, launch the Disk Utility app on your Mac, click on the First Aid button at the top, and run the tool to fix problems with the disk.
Give it a while while it does its thing, then restart your Mac and hope for the best!
Other things to try
In addition to the bigger problems above, there are some smaller things you can look into to find out why your Mac is running slower. We’ll quickly outline those for you below:
Quit apps you don’t need
Apps that run in the background that you don’t need running are going to waste system resources. Quit apps you don’t need (don’t just close the window). It will free up some of your Mac’s system resources, and this will give other apps running on your Mac more wiggle room to breathe and make them run faster.
Restart your Mac regularly
Turning off your computer at least every few days can help keep it free of temporary files and improve the overall performance.
Force Mac’s RAM and cache-cleaning processes
In some cases, a reboot may fail to clear the RAM and disk caches, but that’s what Terminal is for.
Execute the purge command by typing the following command into the Terminal window, then hit Enter to run it:
sudo purge
You may be asked to enter the password for your Mac account.
Clearing out the RAM and disk cache contents should take no longer than a few seconds unless your Mac is running really low on memory and storage space. You’ll see no confirmation message when the operation has been completed.
The command line method is especially convenient if you don’t want to interrupt important work by restarting the machine. Just load up the Terminal app and execute the aforementioned commands to give your Mac a boost without restarting.
Check for app updates
Sometimes, developers release updates for their apps that fix memory leaks and other bugs. A lot of times, these bugs are related directly to speed and performance, and keeping apps up to date is a great way to prevent unwanted performance loss on your Mac.
Troubleshoot common software issues
Software isn’t perfect. There’s a reason developers have to release updates every so often. You can follow our extensive guide on troubleshooting software on your Mac to see if it helps you to solve a problem with a specific app being slow or not working right.
Check Activity Monitor
If your Mac is suddenly running really slowly, check Activity Monitor to see what apps are using most of your CPU and memory. Any apps that are using too much need to be killed, or in some cases, you may need to Force Quit apps that aren’t responding.
Clean your Mac of malware
Malware happens, even on Macs. If you download rogue software and give it your administrator password, you could open a door for third-party software to run in the background and hog your system resources. Consider running some kind of malware protection software on your Mac if you’re not already.
Reset stuff
Two parts of your Mac that are directly and indirectly related to both hardware and software are your SMC and NVRAM. You can try resetting them on your Mac to see if they help with performance. Chances are, this option probably won’t do anything, but then again, you never really know why your Mac is performing badly until you troubleshoot.
Restore your Mac
Try formatting your Mac to factory settings and starting over from scratch. Sure, this option may take a little longer, but it’ll feel like you have a brand-new Mac that you just bought from the store again when you’re all finished! Alternatively, you can also do a fresh macOS install without losing data.
Upgrade to an SSD
If your Mac is operating on a slow 5400 RPM hard disk drive, then you’re going to have a slower experience than a lot of modern Macs that are using solid-state flash storage and Fusion drives or 7200 RPM hard disk drives. You might consider making the jump to complete solid-state storage as the prices continue to drop.
A slowed-down Mac is never any fun to use. Hopefully, at least one of the above steps has helped to speed up your Mac just a little bit.
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