Is your mac computer running slow? It’s not yet time to dump it and upgrade. Click here to learn how to speed up your mac.

If you are a Mac user, you know that its efficiency is one of its core strengths. We greatly advocate for using Mac computers – and we think they are much better than PCs!

But, there is always the possibility that your Mac may not always work as well as it should.

If you find that your Mac is not working efficiently, it might be because you need to speed it up.

And if you need to know how to speed up your Mac, we’ve prepared this detailed guide to help you out.

Here’s what you need to know.

1. Look at Your Hard Drive

The first step is to look at your hard drive. If your hard drive is almost full, you will notice how slowly your Mac is behaving. Even if you have a Macbook Air that holds 400 gigabytes, if there are only 50 gigabytes left then you will notice how slowly your Mac is operating.

What you need to do is go to the Apple Icon  at the top of your menu bar. Click on the ‘About This Mac’ option. Next, when the dialog box opens, click on the ‘Storage’ tab. You will see how much storage space on your hard drive you have left. You will see where the majority of space is full (you may have music taking up 10 gigabytes, documents taking up 50 gigabytes, etc.)

Your files should be backed up on external hard drives and cloud storage. Or, you can also delete them altogether. You should consider Mac cleanup to free up storage space.

2. Clean Your Desktop

No matter how convenient it might be, you shouldn’t keep the files on your desktop. If you do have to keep them, they should be as few as possible. They should also be organized into folders. One of the major issues that slows down your Mac is having a multitude of files on the desktop, which is very common among Mac users.

3. Stop iCloud Syncing

iCloud syncing can also slow down your Mac. You may only want to do this manually and on occasion. Having automatic iCloud syncing is convenient but can decrease productivity, especially if you are working on multiple tasks on your Mac.

There are other precautions to take. For example, if you use iCloud Desktop then it will immediately sync all files that are on your desktop – and as we mentioned previously, this should be avoided.

You can also disable automatic syncing on your different apps such as Photos or iTunes etc.

4. Startup Items

It will slow your Mac if many applications are expected to load upon launch. These are known as startup items. While it might be more convenient to have them load automatically, they make it slower to launch your Mac.

You should always manually open your applications. To avoid the automatic launching of startup items, you have to go to System Preferences. Then, go to the Users and Groups tab.

Once you’ve chosen your username, you then select the items that you do not want to launch. The more that you disable, the faster your Mac will be. All you have to do is press the – button to remove the startup item from the list.

5. Spotlight Reindexing

Spotlight Reindexing is another way to speed up your Mac. At times, you’ll notice that Spotlight takes longer than normal to show up your search results. This not only slows down searching through Spotlight but slows down your Mac as a whole.

To Reindex Spotlight, you need to first make sure that your Mac is charged or connected to the charger. This may take a few hours, so you should not be working while reindexing Spotlight.

Next, open up System Preferences. Click on the Spotlight icon and then navigate to the Privacy tab. Next, open your Finder. From the Finder drag and drop your hard drive icon into the list.

Once this has been added, click on the – sign at the bottom of the dialog box. As soon as you do this the Spotlight reindexing will start. It will take several hours. If you ever upgrade your operating system, you will likely have to repeat this process. If you are planning on upgrading your operating system, you should do so first before reindexing the Spotlight.

6. RAM

Your Mac’s RAM is tied with your Mac’s speed. If you have owned your Mac for a few years you may want to consider upgrading your RAM. But this isn’t something you should do without taking precautions. It’s important to seek the advice of a technician on how to upgrade your RAM and if its the best decision to take at all.

You should take your Mac to your local Genius Bar at the Apple store. You should not immediately suggest upgrading the RAM. You should indicate that your Mac is working slowly. The Genius will be able to determine whether the RAM needs to be upgraded and they will do it for you.

7. Stream Audio

One of the biggest culprits of taking up space and slowing down your Mac are your audio files. You may have accumulated a huge collection of albums through iTunes. You may also have several audiobooks you listen to on the Books App and many Podcasts saved on the Podcasts App.

But these can be streamed and should be! We suggest backing up all of your audio on an external hard drive and on the cloud. Then, delete your audio from your computer. You can use apps like Spotify to stream audio.

Streaming audio only works when you have a stable internet connection. So if there are certain audio files that you need to always access quickly, then keep those on your Mac. Otherwise, they should be removed to free up space.

Follow These Steps on How to Speed up Your Mac

Now that you know how to speed up your Mac, you’ll see greater efficiency in its functions. Make sure you always follow these steps so that you never have to worry about inefficiency anymore.

Be sure to read more of our great content on technology and making the most out of your Mac!