One of our most popular videos is how to speed up your Mac. Well it’s now over 5 years old, which means it’s time for a new update with new speed-boosting tips. How to Work Faster & More. Today I share with you how you can speed up and gain performance from your Mac Mini Computer. I have the 2014 Base Model with a 500GB SATA Hard Drive which I am going to be sharing on how to.
With the promise of increased functionalities and better performance, it is little wonder how droves of Mac users opted for the High Sierra, some of the users’ expectations were however cut short as their Mac seemed to run on slow-mo immediately after this update. Should you be among these affected users and wondering why your mac is running slow after High Sierra update, feel free to read this article for proven fixes to resolve this issue.
First, Make Sure If Your Mac is Compatible with High Sierra
If your Mac is not compatible with the new macOS High Sierra, that will cause some issues when using the Mac including poor performance and running slow. Below is a list of the compatible Mac models that will work well with High Sierra.
If your Mac is among these models, and don't worry. There are several ways available to fix a slow Mac after macOS High Sierra update. Next we will guide you 5 effective solutions to solve the problem. Keep on reading!
How to Speed Up MacBook Pro/Air/iMac after High Sierra Update?
With the uncontrolled hype of the macOS High Sierra update that around its better data management, video streaming, and gameplay graphics, it is little wonder some Macs are slowing down to accommodate such functionalities. Various issues have been linked to slow performances in Macs, such as full hard drive, system aging or the presence of too many applications running simultaneously. Although this Mac becoming sluggish after High Sierra upgrade problem’s specific cause might be unknown, its fixes have been identified and some of our trusted fixes are listed below:
1 Use A Mac Optimization Software [100% Workable]
A powerful Mac optimization software can help a lot for a slow Mac. It can efficiently optimize your Mac with some easier ways. And we found the best Mac optimizer, which is called Umate Mac Cleaner. It is the leading cleanup tool to make your Mac run faster and improve its performance.
3 Ways to Get A Faster Mac with Umate Mac Cleaner
One of the main features of Umate Mac Cleaner is 'Speed Up Mac',which comes with 3 options to get a faster Mac: disable the startup items, deacivate the heavy consumers and remove the launch agents.
How to Make Your Mac Faster with Umate Mac Cleaner
Step 1.Download and install Umate Mac Cleaner
Step 2. Select 'Speed Up Your Mac' tab on the app and click the big 'Start Now' button for locating the items that need to disable.
Step 3. Choose those items you want to disable and hit the 'Disable' button and that is done.
![]() 2 Clean Hard Drive on Your MacBook
Unlike the human brain that constantly automatically deletes old and unnecessary data or files, the Mac never deletes a file because it is unnecessary and/or old. File deletion can only be initiated by the user. The flaw of this design is that over time, the limited space hard drive becomes congested and even filled up if nothing is ever deleted. This can be a dangerous scenario for a computer as it hampers performance and could lead to damage, hence frequent decongestion is advised.
Decongestion can be achieved via two methods, either manually or automatically. Manually, a user can go through the rigorous process of searching for and identifying all redundant files and documents on his device and deleting them manually. This is very time and energy consuming but can help in addressing the Mac slowing down after High Sierra update issue.
Automatically, users can opt for tools such as the Umate Mac Cleaner that automatically identifies redundant files, hidden or not and deletes them, thereby freeing up space on your hard drive for improved Mac functionality and performance.
3 Activate the Optimize Storage Option on Your Mac
This Optimize Storage feature is one of the subtle yet amazing features Macs sport that other PC’s have in no wise deployed effectively if at all. Optimized storage is an option that permits mac to arrange and organize files optimally and automatically. To access this setting follow Apple Menu > About this Mac > Storage > Optimized Storage.
Once this option is toggled On, it enforces Mac to automatically organize files and documents while also cleaning unused, hidden or unread items on your device. It moves them to the iCloud, freeing up valuable space on your drive. Before executing this move to the cloud, it requests permission to clear memory, cache, log etc. which should be granted for it to be effective.
3 Decongest Your Mac Memory and CPU Space
A major reason your Mac might be running slow after its High Sierra update might be that numerous applications are running simultaneously thus consuming vital CPU space thereby slowing down the system. While some applications run actively, others run in the background and also consume considerable space. To recover memory space and resolve this issue, deploy the Activity Monitor.
Access Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor
Under the CPU tab, you would see the distribution of CPU usage among the currently running processes. Should you identify an application that is not necessary but is consuming considerable memory space, be swift to eliminate it by tapping it and hitting the close button at the top-left corner of the screen. The Memory tab at the top region of the Activity Monitor should be opened to reveal the Memory distribution among the opened apps. Unwanted apps can also be toggled off to save Memory.
5 Reconfigure SMC & PRAM/NVRAM
The System Management Controller (SMC) and parameter RAM (PRAM) are important tools in ensuring the smooth functioning of the Mac. Reconfiguring the SMC resolves all hardware management issues like fans or battery faults, etc. while reconfiguring the NVRAM handles issues pertaining to booting, screen resolutions and battery charge etc.
SMC on Mac Mini, iMac, Mac Pro & Xserve reconfiguration
SMC on MacBook Pro, MacBook Air & MacBook reconfiguration
PRAM/NVRAM reconfiguration on all Macs
Final Note
The mac running slow after High Sierra update is a widespread problem facing many users using different Mac models. However, the above basic solutios would help your Mac run smoothly in no time. The most effective one is Umate Mac Cleaner. This app works great to speed up your Mac and you will feel very surprised after using it.
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When your computer first turns on it needs to load the system software (OS-X) and some settings from the hard drive. This is called ‘booting’. Boot time can slow down over time as you accumulate more software and hardware connected to your computer. Here are some tips to make your Mac boot faster.
1. Get an SSD Drive.
The latest generation of Hard Disks (appearing in Macbook airs) are called SSD drives. They use memory on a chip (like a thumb drive). They have no moving parts. They are much faster. An SSD drive doesn’t speed up everything that you do on your mac, but it certainly does speed up boot time. If you don’t have one it’s by far the best way to reduce your boot time and speed up the load time of applications. See this article for how to install one!
2. Quit apps when you Shut Down.
Lion and newer versions of OS-X automatically open all the applications and windows from when you last shut down your mac. If you had 10 applications open, this will make your boot time terribly slow as it will open all 10 applications again!
To improve this you can either (1) quit apps before you shut down, or (2) disable the automatic opening of apps by deselecting the ‘Reopen windows when logging back in‘ option in the shutdown menu:
Another way to achieve a similar result is to go to general preferences and select this option: ‘‘close windows when quitting application“.
OS-X will now launch the apps but it won’t open every window you had open.
Personally I like it to open all my apps and windows, so I keep both these features enabled but I make sure I close any unnecessary apps before I shut down.
3. Create some extra space on your Hard Drive.
Generally the more free space on your hard disk the faster your computer will run. This is because OS X is very clever and has all kinds of built in tricks to make your computer run faster. Some of these ‘tricks’ require a lot of free disk space. The more free space you have, the easier it is for OS X to tweak your disk performance.
I try as a general rule to have approx 25% of my disk free but it must be at least 10% or things will really slow down.
This article explains a bit more about disk usage and it explains how to free up some hard disk space if you are running low.
4. Clean up your Desktop.
I know they say a messy desktop is the sign of a creative mind, but your computer has to load the icon for every one of those files on your desktop as it boots up. Yes – it has to fetch all those icons, and if, like me, you tend to accumulate literally hundreds of icons on your desktop, this can slow down your boot time significantly. Get rid of them – move them somewhere else.
Your computer has to load each of these icons individually.
5. Get rid of any unnecessary startup items.
When your computer first turns on some applications are automatically loaded – drivers and little add-ons. Some of these may be unnecessary. Here’s how to get rid of them.
Login Items
– Open System Preferences. (from the Apple menu up the top left of your screen)
Click ‘Users and Groups (4th line down)
Click on ‘Login Items’
This is a list of all the applications that are set to open when you first boot OS-X. There may be some that you do not need anymore. Delete the ones you don’t need. (Don’t delete any if you are unsure of what they do. Do a google search to find out what they do first).
I had 12 and I paired it down to these 6 which I wanted to keep. Notice that these are all little e’helper’ apps that increase productivity or add features to OS X. But they actually slow things down as well, so it’s good to only have them enabled if you use them.
Launch Agents and Startup Items
These little helper apps and drivers can also be in another area…
Select the ‘Go to Folder…’ from the ‘Go’ dropdown menu and type in ‘/Library/LaunchAgents‘
Delete any from there that are obviously not needed.
But wait, there’s more… you can do the same for ‘/Macintosh HD/Library/StartupItems/
I was able to delete an old Driver from a wacom tablet I haven’t used for years, some google files I never authorised, some old Testra modem software and more!
6. Get more memory
If you don’t have enough memory in your computer it will certainly slow things down. This article will help you work out if you have enough memory.
7. Get rid of ‘Mac Keeper’ and Virus Checkers.
Any extra app will use system resources. I found that ‘Mac Keeper’ which claimed it would speed up my Mac was actually slowing things down at start-up so I removed it.
I don’t run any anti-virus software on my Mac at all.
Well that’s it for my list. There are some other tricks out there but these are the main ones. Doing some or all of these things should result in a noticeable speed up in boot time if things were running a bit slowly.
Related posts:How to speed up your mac with a Solid State SSD DriveHow to make a bootable OS X El Capitan Installer on a USB driveWhat’s the best SSD drive for a Mac and how do I install it?Ken Mosessays:January 25, 2016 at 6:38 am
I’m interested but very new to Mac. Not sure which startup items are not necessary. And “no antivirus”? That sounds risky as I am coming from Windows machines exclusively since the time of Windows 3.1 (long time!)
ReplyWaynesays:
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There’s never been a mac virus yet. There may be one eventually but we will know about it – it will be famous! Which startup items do you have?
ReplyKen Mosessays:February 7, 2016 at 2:09 pm
I do not know. This is a new iMac direct from Apple store with OS X 10:11:13. I have set up my email account and added an external WD HDD for Time Machine backups. It starts up pretty fast anyway with 3.3 GHz i7, 16 GB Ram and 512GB Flash drive.
koessays:August 21, 2016 at 11:20 am
Ken, you really don’t need an antivirus on Mac. My OS X installation running well since 2008 until now, even a lot of USB flash drive connected to exchange files and open a lot of files there. Never heard a real virus here. The only things you have to watchout is a trojan, which you ramdonly downloaded from internet and you installed it with admin access.
ReplyWally Buschsays:April 12, 2017 at 11:10 am
How do you know what you need in /Library/LaunchAgents ?
Replyantoniussays:May 8, 2019 at 8:45 pm
point 5. ReplyWaynesays:May 22, 2019 at 11:33 pm
i did delete all files in these two folders: 1. /Macintosh HD/Library/StartupItems/ 2. /Library/LauchAgents and now my monitor display nothing except black screen. how can i restore those deleted files? thanks!
I sent you an email. Did you get it working in the end?
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