Top Ways To Speed Up an Old MacBook
1. Disabling apps from auto startup on macOS:
- Click on the Apple menu in the top-left corner of your screen and select “System Preferences.”
- In System Preferences, click on “Users & Groups.”
- Select your user account from the list on the left.
- Click on the “Login Items” tab.
- You’ll see a list of apps that open automatically when you log in. Select the app you want to remove.
- Click the “-” (minus) button below the list to remove the selected app from the login items.
After following these steps, the selected app will no longer start automatically when you log in to your Mac.
2. Quit apps on macOS using the Force Quit option:
To quit apps on macOS using the Force Quit option, follow these steps:
- Click on the Apple menu (Apple Logo) in the top-left corner of the screen.
- Select “Force Quit…”
- A window will appear showing a list of currently running applications.
- Select the application you want to quit from the list.
- Click the “Force Quit” button.
After clicking “Force Quit,” the selected application will be forcibly closed. This is useful when an application becomes unresponsive and you need to close it to continue using your Mac.
3. Here are two ways to delete large files on macOS:
Here are two ways to delete large files on macOS:
- Using “About This Mac”:
- Click on the Apple menu (Apple Logo) in the top-left corner of the screen.
- Select “About This Mac.”
- In the “Overview” tab, click on “Storage.”
- Click on the “Manage…” button.
- In the sidebar, select “Large Files.”
- Review the list of large files and select the ones you want to delete.
- Click the “Delete” button to remove the selected large files.
- Using the “Recents” folder:
- Open a Finder window and navigate to the “Recents” folder or the folder where the large files are located.
- Click on the “View” menu in the menu bar and select “Show View Options.”
- In the View Options window, check the box next to “Calculate all sizes.”
- Click on the “Size” column to sort the files by size.
- Identify the large files you want to delete, right-click on them, and select “Move to Trash” to delete them.
By following these methods, you can easily identify and delete large files on your Mac to free up space.
4. Clean your Mac using the “Go > Go to Folder” method:
To clean your Mac using the “Go > Go to Folder” method and navigating to the “~/Library/Caches/” directory, follow these steps:
- Click on the desktop or open a Finder window.
- Click on the “Go” menu in the menu bar at the top of the screen.
- Select “Go to Folder…” from the dropdown menu.
- In the dialog box that appears, type
“~/Library/Caches/” (without quotes) and click “Go.” - This will open the “Caches” folder in your user Library directory.
- You can select the files and folders inside the “Caches” folder that you want to delete and move them to the Trash.
Be cautious when deleting items from the “Caches” folder, as some files are necessary for the proper functioning of applications. It’s generally safe to delete temporary files, but be sure you know what you’re deleting.
The “CleanMyMac” app, it’s a third-party application designed to help you clean up your Mac by removing junk files, optimizing your system, and more. If you prefer using a dedicated app for cleaning your Mac, CleanMyMac can certainly help you with that task.
5. Use Macs Fan Control to speed up your Mac:
You can download Mac fan control from this website:
https://crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control/download
By using Mac Fan Control, you can optimize your Mac’s fan speeds to help maintain optimal operating temperatures, which can contribute to better performance and system stability.
6. Check Activity Monitor for processes that are using CPU resources:
To check Activity Monitor for processes that are using CPU resources on macOS using the provided path, follow these steps:
- Press “Command + Space Bar” to open Spotlight search.
- Type “Activity Monitor” (or a few letters like “act”) in the search bar and press “Enter” to open Activity Monitor.
- In the Activity Monitor window, click on the “View” menu in the menu bar at the top of the screen.
- Select “All Processes” to show all processes running on your Mac, including those owned by other users and system processes.
- Click on the “% CPU” column header to sort the processes by CPU usage, with the highest CPU usage at the top.
- You can now identify the apps or processes that are using the most CPU resources by looking at the list. If you notice any apps using a high percentage of CPU, especially if they’re not essential, you can consider quitting or troubleshooting them to free up CPU resources and potentially speed up your Mac.
By using Activity Monitor, you can gain insights into how your Mac’s resources are being utilized and identify any processes that might be causing performance issues due to high CPU usage.