Apple Annoyances: Simple Ways to Speed Up Your Macbook

There’s nothing quite as frustrating as a device that’s not working as quickly as it should. It might be a real ‘first world problem’ and only seem like a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things, but in this age of instant gratification we’re so used to getting what we want- right now.

Top this off with the fact that many of us work from our devices and our livelihoods depend on them, when things slow down it can start using an issue with productivity. You might be thinking that your Macbook has slowed down because it’s a little older- however these really are powerful machines that are built to last. Even if your device is as old as a decade, it can run very efficiently if everything is working properly. Here are a few really simple checks you can do yourself to speed things up.

Simple Ways to Speed Up Your Macbook

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Get rid of unnecessary files

Starting with really simple and obvious things, if you clear browsing history periodically it can help with the performance of your device. Your browser will automatically manage your cache, however, it can become difficult to manage and develop bugs and glitches over time. To clear your history on Safari, go to the history tab, in the top menu, select ‘clear history and website data’ then ‘all history’. Once you’re finished click done. Another way to get rid of unneeded files is to empty your recycle bin. If it’s been some time since you’ve done this, you might be surprised at just how many files are in here- it could be thousands! Once click of a button could get rid of all of these things which are no longer useful. If you have lots of photos, videos and other files stored on your Mac, consider moving them to cloud based storage or a hard drive. This will free up memory on your device.

Check for viruses

It’s a myth that Apple devices can’t get infected with viruses. While they tend to be much harder to infect than Windows computers, it can and does happen. Not only will malware and viruses slow down your machine, but they also put your data at risk. Softwares like Clamxav are free; if you’ve noticed reduced performance then give it a scan and see if it comes back with any results.

Look in Activity Monitor

A common cause of reduced speed is due to memory- hungry apps. Sometimes you won’t even be aware you’re using these, they’ll be running in the background unnecessarily and affecting the performance of the programs that you are trying to use. Take a look in activity monitor- click on the CPU button and the “%CPU” column to list all programs. This will show you the amount of computer space they’re using, and you can close anything that you don’t need and even delete the app if it’s no longer useful to you. Just be careful clicking on things in here, some Mac programs can’t (or shouldn’t’) be closed. However, if you can clearly see it’s an app such as a game or program you’ve installed, you can x it off which will hopefully speed up performance.

Flush the Fashion

Editor of Flush the Fashion and Flush Magazine. I love music, art, film, travel, food, tech and cars. Basically, everything this site is about.