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So you have a slow Mac?
Does your beloved Mac feel like it's gotten slower? Are you bored of restarting and it's still running slow. The IT crowd only gets you so far with have you turned it off and on again
Have you restarted?
The simplest option is to restart your computer. This should be part of your maintenance routine as a good user. While it might not fix the problem it's still a good practise for time to time. A good start is to shut the computer down at the end of the work week fresh for the start of the next.
01
My Mac is still slow - Storage
Your computer is a dumping ground for video's, caches, downloads from the Internet and documents you generate for everyday work. All this adds up to storage use. Your computer needs some of the storage for house keeping;
- 10% free space is needed by operating system
- A restart needed from time to time to clear up stale files and caches.
If the computer has less that 10% free space it will slow down and "swap" files. This is an old term for Ram storage management. To fix this delete stuff.
- Remove that cat video or upload it to the Internet
- Delete files from Downloads
- Remove applications your not using
- Upload your work documents to Dropbox/One Drive/Google Drive (Why haven't you, you shouldn't store work files on your computer, naughty!
02
My Mac is still slow - Applications
Now we are getting into the weeds. You may notice that your computer starts fast and slows down over time. Something like Photoshop will do this as it uses a system called unlimited undo's. This uses the "scratch disk", that's Adobe's term for the storage locatio for the unlimited undo files/cache location.
For the above problem a restart will cure it. Or an external hard disk and the scratch disk option is set to use that instead.
But what if it's not that simple? This will all be application specificm, but updating the software or re-installing it as always an option.
Another option is to create a new user on the system login as that and test the application there. Sometimes the user profile has a file(s) that damaged that causes it, this is a simple way to check.
03
Getting into the weeds
It's time to cut your losses
Time to call it!
So you've done all the above and it's still a problem. Now your into the weeds and spending more time fixing the problem that actually getting any work done.
In many IT Help Desks there's a point that staff get to very quickly where it's simpler and cheaper to swap the device out for another and work on the problematic unit in the background. Not everyone has that luxury, but many big firms want to keep the workforce productive and keep spares.
If you have such a thing it might be an old unit it may well be worth swapping over to that to keep things moving on and start from scratch.
Backup the data you need, erase and re-install the operating system, install just the apps you need (ONLY the required things). Check to see if it's working again then start using it in anger.
04
How to avoid this again
Regular maintenance is the key!
- Restart the computer from time to time
- Don't store files on the computer, save them into the cloud
- Update the operating system
- Update the Applications
- Only use applications on the machine you need
- Check you have plenty of free space
- Wipe and erase the computer once in a while, I recommend once a year.
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