Every time my MacBook Pro is run, I typically find myself doing the same things over and over again, all to get the speed to a point that I am satisfied with.
So, I figured it would be a good idea to write a checklist on how to speed up a MacBook Pro, and that’s what I’m going to show you in this article — a quick list that covers dozens of things you can do when it comes to improving your MacBook Pro’s performance.
There’s one thing I want to state before you embark on your journey: there is no single tactic that magically works. For example, upgrading to SSD or adding extra RAM would help if you are using an old 2009 MacBook; if you are using a shiny new MacBook Pro with limited storage, you may find cleaning up the drive most useful.
If you can do everything on this list (very unlikely though :-)), that’s great. If you want to skip some, that’s okay too. After all, the goal is to speed up your MacBook Pro by making the most of your time and investment. But in general, it’s close to impossible that you’ll be able to do all these things.
Oct 03, 2017 These days, it seems like every Windows user has heard about CCleaner. It’s widely recommended, online and offline—but this week, it acted as a piggyback for malware. The real question we should be asking is: do you really need CCleaner in the first place?
The Checklist to Speed up MacBook Pro
Check off items as you go along. Not all of these may apply to your Mac.
Basic (require little time or money)
- Have you restarted your Mac lately? Doing so on a regular basis helps clear system caches and shuts down applications, which often results in better performance.
- Slow startup? Check out these six simple guides. Most likely you’ll need to manage Login Items, remove some apps & services automatically launch on startup.
- Have you cleaned up your hard drive? It’s the best yet easiest way to speed up a Mac with an almost full hard drive. You can save time by using a tool like CleanMyMac.
- Have you really quit unneeded applications or services? Hint: clicking the red “X” button sometimes does not quit an application — it just closes the window. Right click and select “Quit”.
- Is “System Storage” (or “Other Storage”) taking too much disk space? macOS greyed out the section so you won’t be able to analyze further. However, you can use CleanMyMac (via Space Lens feature) to figure out detailed info and consider deleting some of the unnecessary system files.
- Does your MacBook lag all of a sudden? Open “Activity Monitor” to figure out the culprit (resource-hungry application or process) — and kill it. Check out this Apple article for more.
- Have you closed unneeded tabs and windows on Safari, Chrome or Firefox? This helps lighten your web browsers, thus making Internet surfing smooth.
- Have you disabled FileVault? Doing so usually resolves slow boot issues. Note: we do not recommend disable it if you think data encryption is more important than performance.
- Have you turned off visual effects? You may be impressed by the Magnification and Genie Effect, but the entertainment is a tradeoff for performance. Go to “System Preferences” -> “Dock” to change.
- Are you used to saving files and folders directly to Desktop? If so, clear off the desktop clutters as it could result in your MacBook Pro running sluggishly.
![Down Down](/uploads/1/2/5/7/125788531/270065100.png)
- Have you uninstalled third-party applications you don’t really use? You can quickly identify and remove them by CCleaner for Mac (via the Uninstaller feature).
- Have you emptied Trash on your MacBook Pro? It could help you free up much valuable disk space as well as ease your hard drive a little bit.
- Have you cleaned up web browser cookies, caches, histories, and plugins? Over time these files may take up gigabytes (GBs) and slow down your Mac. You can do so manually or by using CleanMyMac for efficiency.
- Have you removed duplicate files on your Mac? These days it’s easy for us to save multiple copies of those precious media items (photos, movies, songs, etc). Getting rid of them may release good amount of precious storage. You can use Gemini 2 to quickly locate and delete these duplicates.
- Have you removed unneeded Widgets from Dashboard? Those widgets can take up quite a bit of system memory (RAM). Learn how to do from this article.
- Have you disabled unneeded notifications? Constant notifications tax your system performance — plus, they are big distractions. This Apple support article shows how to turn them off.
- Have you removed unused system preference panes? They can take up some valuable system resources, and make it harder for you to find those you often use.
- Have you changed “New Finder windows” setting from “All My Files” to a specific folder? The new folder can be “Desktop” or “Documents”. This trick can speed up the generation of a new Finder window. Learn how to do here.
- Have you performed software updates for all Mac applications installed? An update tends to help you stay away from the application freezing issues.
- Have you tested your wireless network? Sometimes your Wi-Fi is the bottleneck rather than your MacBook. Read this MacWorld article and learn how to speed up Wi-Fi on your Mac.
Advanced (require some time, money or technical skills)
- Is your MacBook Pro running the latest macOS version? Not only does a new version tends to be faster, it’s usually more secure and reliable. To date, the latest macOS version is 10.15 Catalina. Here are a few things you need to check before updating.
- Have you waited till Spotlight finish indexing? After a system upgrade, Spotlight indexing can take 24-48 hours. If you use your MacBook Pro during the time, it tends to be slow on everything.
- Do you regularly verify and repair disk permissions with Disk Utility (see how)? This ensures your Mac hard disk error-free and run dynamically. (Note: this option is only available on OS X Yosemite or earlier. There’s NO need to do so if your MacBook has updated to El Capitan or macOS Sierra.)
- Have you fixed corrupted preferences files? A broken preference file can cause an application to run abnormally — e.g. unable to open, application crash/freezing.
- Have you reset SMC and/or NVRAM? This would help speed up your MacBook Pro’s overall performance, especially when there’s hardware (battery, keyboard, etc.) issues keep showing up.
- Have you tried to add extra memory (RAM)? This will help you run larger apps (e.g. video/photo editing) more smoothly, though it greatly depends on your Mac model, learn more from this article Best RAM for MacBook Pro we recently posted.
- Are you using an old MacBook Pro, have you replaced your MacBook’s hard drive with a solid state drive (SSD)? An SSD is much faster and more durable than a traditional HDD. You can learn more from our best SSD upgrade roundup.
Let us know if you find this list helpful, or you have another awesome tip to add. Leave a comment below.
Every device sooner or later begins to run slower and slower. Even the Mac, which is a highly-efficient Apple product, starts to slow down and becomes a real pain to use over time. If you are a heavy Mac user this is especially true and you are more likely to experience performance issues.
There are several other reasons why your Mac might be running slower:
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If you find that your Mac is starting to lag in performance, freeze up, or just acting strangely, it’s probably time to optimize it with an efficient Mac cleaning tool.
1. Mac Disk is getting full
Nothing slows down a Mac more than having too much on your hard drive. If you can increase available disc space on your Mac, you’re sure to see an increase in your Mac’s speed.
How to fix it: Clean up your Mac Disk
![Mac Mac](http://rebootedbody.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/wellness-e1400355356150.jpg)
Unfortunately, doing this manually isn’t as easy as it sounds. Cleaning up old movie files, organizing your Desktop, and searching your Mac for old files you don’t need is the easy part. However, the hard part is cleaning up your system and figuring out all the stuff that can be safely removed for more space. The best option is to use a Mac cleaner, like Dr. Cleaner. It offers all-in-one Mac cleaning features including a disk cleaner for junk files, big files and duplicate files.
Uninstalling apps and deleting useless files from your Mac is easy, but the residual junk or cache files left behind often fill up your disk space and clutter the system. When the free space on your drive gets really low, your Mac stops operating efficiently and becomes very slow. Dr. Cleaner frees up your disk space by removing all the unnecessary and unwanted files in just one click.
2. Outdated Mac OS
Your Mac’s OS X is extremely important to how well it performs. An older OS X typically runs slower — that’s why Apple releases new OS X’s every year or so.
How to fix it: Update your OS X.
Having the latest version of OS X is a good practice (the latest version right now is macOS High Sierra 10.13). Don’t think of it as adding more junk to your already-slow Mac — think of it as new software that makes your Mac run more smoothly. So, head over to the Mac App Store download and install the latest version. You’ll probably see a nice performance boost.
3. Startup is slowing you down
When you start your Mac, a lot of things get loaded in the background. Not only do they slow down your Mac on startup, but they continue to use up resources the whole time you’re using your Mac.
How to fix it: Manage your Startup Items.
Give your Mac a clean start and make OS X run faster. When you don’t manage your Startup Items, it’s like making your Mac run a sprint with a gigantic, book-filled backpack — it’s going to take a bit longer for it to get moving, right? Lighten the load on your Mac.
Speed up your Mac’s startup time by removing unnecessary startup apps. Go to your System Preferences > Users & Groups, then click your username. Now, select Login Items, click the name of an application you don’t need to launch during startup, then click the “-” symbol located below the list to the left. This will remove the application from the list and it will no longer be loaded on startup. This should help a lot to speed up your Mac’s long startup time.
4. Too many things running in the background
Due to increased workload, (for example, when you open multiple heavy applications simultaneously), your RAM tends to get cluttered. Your RAM should have enough space to read and write contents efficiently without any lag. When this memory gets low, your Mac system or apps may become slow or unresponsive.
How to fix it: System Monitor and Memory Free
Activity Monitor shows you which resources various processes are using on your system. Check the list of apps and processes that are running on your Mac in real-time. Quitting unnecessary apps that take up a lot of processing power could make a huge difference in speeding up your slow Mac. Be careful not to remove any critical or necessary processes!
Seems pretty complex, right? Yet there is a much simpler way to do this. With Dr. Cleaner, you can easily monitor your system status. Dr. Cleaner’s smart activity monitor lets you easily view your system’s network usage and CPU usage in real time. This allows you to optimize your Mac on your own whenever you experience performance or speed issues.
5. Overloaded Browser Cache and History
Sometimes, even simple tasks seem to run slowly and you suddenly think ‘Why have I spent my precious dollars on this dumb device’! Well, your anxiety is genuine but you can do something about it. There can be a number of reasons why your Mac is behaving this way and low hard drive space due to an overloaded system and browser cache may be one of them.
How to fix it: Clear Cache on Your Mac.
You can either clear your browser cache manually or you can use Dr. Cleaner’s simple one-click feature to do it for you.
[→ Read more about Clear Cache on Mac ←]
But it all begins with cleaning up your Mac.
Dr. Cleaner: An Easy Way to Speed up your Slow Mac!
Dr. Cleaner is the Best FREE Mac Cleaner app that offers all-in-one Mac cleaning features including; Memory Free, Disk Clean, Uninstall App, and more. It offers great solutions to get rid of all the culprits that slow down your Mac.
Dr. Cleaner also works well on MacOS High Sierra. So, if you have been looking for a safe and reliable app to make your slow Mac run faster, Dr. Cleaner is the answer!
How Dr. Cleaner Works?
Dr. Cleaner is a smart app that comes bundled with three super amazing features to make your Mac work like new again, including – Disk Clean, Memory Free and System Monitoring.
Dr. Cleaner also includes an intelligent app manager, as part of system monitoring, ensuring your Mac runs smoothly and does not slow down or freeze up while you’re using your Mac. Also, with an interactive interface, the app is very easy and simple to use. In just one click, you can clean up the disk or purge the memory of your slow Mac to speed it up and enjoy much improved performance.
Is Dr. Cleaner really worth downloading?
When you own such a high-end, expensive Mac device, why suffer from lagging issues! Your Mac should be capable of always delivering the best performance so you can complete your work on time and without any stress or hassle.
Dr. Cleaner is definitely worth downloading because it refreshes the performance and speeds up your Mac all at NO COST! Dr. Cleaner is also safe. With more than 4,000,000 downloads in 30 months, 110,000 ratings with an average score of 4.8 stars, you can be sure Dr. Cleaner is completely reliable. Its simplicity in terms of interface and usage makes Dr. Cleaner really worth trying. So, the next time you find your Mac running slow, make sure you use Dr. Cleaner.