Every time my MacBook Pro starts up, I usually do the same thing over and over again, all in order to get the speed up to a level that suits me.
So, I thought it would be a good idea to write a checklist on how to speed up your MacBook Pro, and that's what I'm going to show you in this article - a short list covering dozens of things you can do when it comes down to improving performance. your MacBook Pro.
Before you start your journey, I want to say one thing: there is no single tactic that magically works. For example, upgrading to an SSD or adding more RAM can help if you're using an older MacBook from 2009; If you're using a shiny new MacBook Pro with limited storage, you might be better served by disk cleanup.
If you can do everything on this list (although that's unlikely :-)), that's great. If you want to skip something, that's fine too. After all, the goal is to speed up your MacBook Pro while making the most of your time and investment.
But in general, it is almost impossible for you to succeed in all this.
Checklist to speed up your MacBook Pro
Not all of these may apply to your Mac.
Basic (requires little time or money)
- Have you rebooted your Mac lately? Performing this action regularly helps clear system caches and shut down applications, often leading to better performance.
- Slow start? Most likely, you will need to manage login elements, remove some applications and services that automatically start at startup.
- When was the last time you cleaned your hard drive? This is the best yet easiest way to speed up your Mac.
- Have you really closed unnecessary applications or services? Hint: Pressing the red "X" button sometimes doesn't close the app - it just closes the window. Right-click and select Logout.
- Is "System Storage" (or "Other Storage") taking up too much disk space? macOS has greyed out this section, so you won't be able to continue the analysis.
- Is your MacBook suddenly slow? Open the Activity Monitor to find out the culprit (resource-intensive application or process) - and kill it.
- Have you closed unnecessary tabs and windows in Safari, Chrome or Firefox? This helps make your web browsers easier to use and make your browsing experience easier.
- Have you disabled FileVault? This usually solves problems with slow downloads.Note: We don't recommend turning it off if you think data encryption is more important than performance.
- Have you disabled visual effects? Perhaps you will be impressedeffectincrease andgenie effect , but entertainment is a compromise for performance. Go to System Preferences -> Dock to change.
- Are you used to saving files and folders directly to your desktop? If this is the case, clean up your desktop clutter as it can cause your MacBook Pro to slow down.
- Have you already uninstalled third-party apps that you don't actually use? You can quickly identify and remove them with CCleaner for Mac (using theremoval ).
- Have you emptied the Trash on your MacBook Pro? This can help you free up a lot of valuable disk space and also make your hard drive a bit easier.
- Have you removed your cookies, caches, histories and web browser plugins? Over time, these files can take up gigabytes (GB) and slow down your Mac. You can do it manually or with CleanMyMac for more efficiency.
- Have you deleted duplicate files on your Mac? These days, it's easy for us to keep multiple copies of these precious media files (photos, movies, songs, etc.) Getting rid of them can free up a lot of precious storage. You can use Gemini 2 to quickly find and remove these duplicates.
- Have you removed unnecessary widgets from Dashboard? These widgets can take up quite a lot of system memory (RAM). Find out how to do it in this article.
- Have you turned off unwanted notifications? Constant notifications slow down the performance of your system and they are also very distracting. This Apple Support article shows you 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 the ones you use frequently.
- Have you changed the 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 creation of a new Finder window. Find out how to do it here.
- Have you performed software updates for all installed Mac applications? The update helps to avoid problems with freezing applications.
- Have you checked your wireless network? Sometimes your Wi-Fi is the bottleneck, not your MacBook.
Advanced (requires time, money or technical skills)
- Is your MacBook Pro running the latest version of macOS? The new version is not only faster, but also more secure and reliable. As of today, the latest version of macOS is 10.15 Catalina.
- Have you been waiting for Spotlight to finish indexing? After a system update, Spotlight indexing may take 24-48 hours. If you've been using your MacBook Pro for a while, it tends to slow things down.
- Do you regularly check and repair disk permissions with Disk Utility? This ensures that your Mac hard drive is error-free and dynamic. (Note: This option is only available on OS X Yosemite or earlier. This is not necessary if your MacBook is upgraded to El Capitan or macOS Sierra.)
- Have you fixed the corrupted settings files? A faulty settings file can cause the application to start abnormally - for example, the application cannot be opened, the application crashes/freezes.
- Did you reset SMC and/or NVRAM? This will help improve the overall performance of your MacBook Pro, especially when there are hardware issues (battery, keyboard, etc.).
- Have you tried adding more memory (RAM)? This will help you run larger applications (e.g. video/photo editing) more smoothly, although this depends a lot on your Mac model.
- Are you using an old MacBook Pro, have you replaced your MacBook hard drive with a Solid State Drive (SSD)? An SSD is much faster and more durable than a traditional HDD.
