8 tips to speed up your Mac’s performance; yes, really

 If you've had a Mac computer for a few years, you might be looking for a way to speed up its performance without investing a large amount of cash to buy a new Mac.

Luckily, today, we'll teach you how to give your Mac the tune-up it needs so you don't have to invest in a new machine just yet.

Remember, Mac computers are some of the best on the market, and even as they get older, a little maintenance will go a long way to keep everything running smoothly. Here are eight tips to improve your Mac's performance.

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Tip 1 – Restart your Mac

Before we do anything else, I recommend that you restart your Mac first, especially if you prefer to leave your Mac in sleep mode rather than turning off the device completely. You'll want to shut down your Mac or MacBook regularly because of how MacOS stores RAM. The longer you leave the Mac on, the more RAM the computer will use as virtual memory, slowing down the machine. However, restarting your Mac will reset your RAM and result in a fresh Mac that will run faster. You can do this by clicking the Apple icon in the upper left toolbar and then selecting Restart or Shut Down.

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Tip 2 – Find and close power consuming applications

One of the easy ways to speed up your Mac's performance is to find and close power-consuming applications that you don't currently need running in the background. To do this, you'll open a program that comes preinstalled on all Macs called Activity Monitor.

You can find Activity Monitor by pressing Command + Spacebar and searching for Activity Monitor.

At the top of Activity Monitor, you'll see separate tabs for CPU, Memory, Energy, Disk, and Network. Select the CPU tab, and you'll be able to see what's using the most CPU resources and end any applications you don't currently need. You don't need to pay too much attention to the other tabs, but if you want to, we suggest sorting by memory usage.

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To close any application from Activity Monitor, simply select and double-click on the application you want to close and press where it says.

Tip 3 – Update your operating system and applications

You'll want to make sure you're doing regular software updates for MacOS, as well as regular updates for all the apps installed on your Mac:

Go to the Apple logo (top left corner of the screen) > System Settings > General tab (left column). From there, you can check for any updates required for MacOS.

If you have any MacOS updates available, consider installing them now. If the operating system has been down for more than three to four months, hopefully Apple developers have resolved any bugs that may be causing the problems. After any major new operating system update, I usually like to wait a bit and search online to see if others have had any problems. Sometimes you won't be presented with the latest operating system because your Mac computer is too old. If so, it's time to start considering a new laptop or desktop computer.

You can easily update applications from the App Store by navigating to the App Store. In your left column, you should have a section titled Updates, which will show you if you have any apps from the Store that need updating.

Tip 4 – Free up storage space

When you run out of storage your performance will be negatively affected. If you're using iCloud and have it synced across devices, photos and text messages from your iPhone will be stored on your Mac, taking up space. It may help to turn off iCloud on your Mac until you get more space.

A wide range of applications like Google Drive and Dropbox can be used to back up files and photos to the cloud without storing them on your Mac. Music downloads can also take up a large amount of system storage on your Mac.

You can save a large amount of storage by not storing music directly on your Mac's hard drive. Services like Apple Music allow you to move all your music to the cloud and delete music from your hard drive, but before you delete anything it has to be synced across all your Apple devices.

MORE: Ask Kurt: Have you maxed out your iCloud?

Tip 5 – Use a quality display optimization program

You will also want to have a quality performance optimization program. These programs are designed to thoroughly clean all unnecessary junk from your device so that it can function as expected and meet your needs. Here are my top picks for the best performance optimization programs in the industry.

Tip 6 – Empty the Trash

One of the easiest and quickest ways to give your Mac a little boost is to keep the Trashcan empty. It's a solid idea to check your documents and files from time to time and delete those you no longer use.

One place where unused files can accumulate is in your Downloads folder. To check your Downloads folder:

Open Finder (the icon that looks like a face in your dock) > Click Downloads

Here, you will have access to any files or documents you downloaded. You can delete them by highlighting them, left clicking and using the 'Move to Trash' option.

It's important to remember that your unused files are not out of your hard drive yet.

Locate the trashcan icon in the Dock bar on your desktop.

Delete all the files in your Trash by clicking the Empty button in the upper right corner.

Tip 7 – Turn off visual effects

While Apple computers can handle MacOS with ease, if your Mac is more than five years old, it may have difficulty keeping up with the latest updates. If you feel like your Mac is under too much stress, you can relieve some of the pressure by turning off Reduce Motion. By disabling motion effects, you can make your Mac more responsive. Animations, while visually appealing, can consume system resources and slow down older Macs. Here's how to enable Reduce Motion.

Click the Apple icon at the top left of your Mac

Select System Settings

Select Accessibility

Next, select Display

To disable most animations in macOS, locate Reduce Motion and turn it on so it turns blue.

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Tip 8 – Perform a Clean Install of macOS

If you've followed these steps but still aren't experiencing improved performance, you can wipe your hard drive and perform a clean install of MacOS.

This should only be done as a last resort. If you decide to format your Mac and reinstall MacOS, back up everything beforehand. If a clean install doesn't give you better performance, you may need to consider investing in a new Mac.

Here's how to know when it's time to replace your Mac.

Finally, as a reminder, you can always book a free online session at the Apple Store for any further guidance.

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I hope these tips help you get the most out of an old Mac desktop or MacBook laptop. I used to always leave my MacBook in sleep mode, but once I started restarting it daily, I noticed an immediate increase in my Mac's performance.

Even if you've purchased a new Mac or MacBook, this is a good habit to adopt, as this doesn't just apply to older Macs. Remember, while a clean installation of MacOS may be the most surefire way to increase the performance of an older Mac, you'll need to back up everything beforehand. I recommend backing up anything important to an external drive every few months, that's all.

What are some things that have slowed down your computer, and what has helped you improve performance? Let us know by writing here

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