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Tune up your Macintosh and clean out the cruft. Macs are solid machines, but just like their owners they have a tendency to get lethargic as they age. Launching and switching programs takes longer, simple tasks become arduous, and the dreaded beach ball of doom appears more often than it did when your machine was new. The operating system just starts to feel crufty, and can get worse over time. I see these issues in my IT consulting business regularly. You may be asking, why does this happen? There are many reasons, but some are more common than others.
Sometimes your hard disk (or solid-state drive) gets too full and interferes with normal computer operations. Crashes or misbehaving programs can corrupt the disk directory or application cache files.
Remnants from old software may still be running behind the scenes, or you don’t have enough RAM to deal with your OS and workflow. Is there some sort of tune-up you can do to sort it out? Your tech always tells you to just reboot the computer, but there’s got to be more than that.
The good news: Yes, there are some things you can do. And, perhaps, adopt some more-efficient computing practices for yourself along the way. This post is sponsored by MacPaw, maker of CleanMyMac. 4 things to check if your Mac runs slow Here are four common things I perform or check for clients when they complain that their Mac is sluggish:. Let’s look at each of these.
Free up Mac disk space Far and away, the most common issue I find when computers are running slowly is that the hard drive is nearly full. When your hard drive gets too full, performance suffers. There is always a constant stream of information going between RAM and disk storage. The operating system uses disk storage for temporary data: virtual memory swap files, application cache files, etc. Programs and data you’re actively using get loaded into RAM and old data or background tasks are temporarily saved or cached to the hard drive. When free space on the hard drive gets too low, the OS can’t operate efficiently and spends more time doing smaller read/write operations. You start to see that more often.
When space completely runs out, the machine becomes unresponsive and virtual wheels grind to a halt. You can find out how much space is left by going to the Apple Menu – About this Mac – More Info. The Storage tab will show the amount of available free space your Mac still has. If the remaining space is less than 2GB, your computer is struggling. A good rule of thumb is to keep at least three times the amount of installed RAM free. For example, if you have 2GB of RAM installed, keep at least 6GB free on the disk.
To free up space, delete unneeded files, old downloads and installer files ending in.dmg or.pkg. Movies, TV shows, music and pictures can also take up lots of room. You can copy some of these files to an external hard drive, then delete the originals to make more room. Remember to empty the trash after deleting to actually free up the space.
When you can’t clear out enough data to make room, it’s time for a bigger hard drive. Rebuild Mac disk directory and clear caches The disk directory is the list of files stored on your hard disk along with their locations. Sometimes this can get out of sync with the actual files on disk. If a program crashes or doesn’t complete saving a file correctly, the information in the directory may not match what’s actually on your disk.
Various small read/write errors also slowly build up over time and can cause problems opening and saving files, again generating the dreaded beach ball of death. Cache files are temporary holding places for constantly changing information, such as installed fonts, graphics from web pages, Spotlight indexing, etc. As above, program errors and crashes can corrupt cache files, making them fully or partially unreadable. This, in turn, causes individual programs or the OS itself to misbehave. There are a number of utilities on the market to help with these problems, but a very simple solution is built right into your Mac: the.
Among other things, a Safe Boot runs a full scan on the hard drive sector by sector and fixes problems found in the disk directory. It also clears cache files of old data, so you get a clean start on your next reboot.
To perform a Safe Boot, restart the computer and hold down the Shift key until you reach the desktop. This may take a few minutes, and depending on your OS X version you may see a progress bar onscreen for part of the process.
Once you’ve reached the desktop, release the Shift key and restart normally. For more advanced disk directory repairs, I highly recommend. If your Mac won’t boot at all (even in Safe Mode) you can often get things working again with this useful utility. One common step people take to try and solve disk problems is to.
Back in the early days of Mac OS X this was helpful, but it has become much less necessary in current versions. It won’t hurt to repair disk permissions, but the errors listed and fixed typically don’t affect much. Remove unnecessary startup items and internet plug-ins from Mac When your Mac starts up, programs you use frequently can be set to automatically launch at startup: Safari, Mail, Dropbox, etc.
Several background processes may also get loaded to support programs you’ve installed, like backup software. And some programs may have configured themselves to launch at startup whether you want them or not – Skype, anyone? You may have extraneous items or out-of-date tasks vying for attention. To prune these down, check in a few places: First visit System Preferences – Users & Accounts, and click the Login tab. Here you’ll see a list of items set to open automatically when you log in.
Some of these items may no longer be needed or current. For example, if you used to run Symantec AntiVirus on your iMac in 2002 and have just migrated things along ever since, there may be one or two Symantec programs still set to launch at startup.
You can also remove any programs that may have configured themselves to run automatically which you don’t use (like Skype). To remove an item, select it and click the “-” sign. You can also safely remove any items that show an error code or as kind “Unknown.” A long delay at startup could be a sign of a missing shared network drive. If you’ve previously connected your Mac to a server or another networked Mac (say at work), that drive may have been added to the list of items to open at login. If you’re then on another network or the share is unavailable for some reason, the Mac will pause as it waits for a response from the missing disk.
Check to see if there are shared drives or “Volumes” in the Login Items list, and if so remove them. The next few steps are a bit more advanced. You need to be familiar with locating and deleting configuration files on your hard drive. If you are not comfortable with these steps, skip down to the section on RAM.
On the hard drive, there are a few more folders you can check: Macintosh HD – Library – LaunchAgents Macintosh HD – Library – LaunchDaemons Macintosh HD – Library – StartupItems Macintosh HD – Users – Your Home Folder – Library – LaunchAgents Macintosh HD – Users – Your Home Folder – Library – StartupItems These folders contain.plist files that launch background processes (backups, VPNs, etc.). You can delete items you recognize as outdated or programs no longer needed; for example, as above you may see some items with Symantec in their filenames, or an old backup program you’re no longer using. An Administrator password will be required. Not all of these folders may exist on your system. Note that in OS X 10.7 and above the User Library folder is invisible by default; to make it visible, hold down the Option key then in the Finder click on Go – Library VERY IMPORTANT: If you’re not sure what something does, leave it alone!! Internet plug-ins can also cause problems, especially older plug-ins with newer web browsers. Plug-ins tend to get installed automatically as you visit websites over the years, but rarely get uninstalled.
Do you really need the RealPlayer plug-in from 2005 any longer? Check the following two folders and as above, prune out anything you recognize as unneeded or more than three years out of date: Macintosh HD – Library – Internet Plug-Ins Macintosh HD – Users – Your Home Folder – Library – Internet Plug-Ins After removing any Login items, LaunchAgents, LaunchDaemons or old plug-ins, reboot the Mac. Install more RAM and manage Mac memory better Your Mac uses RAM to store data that the computer is actively using. The more RAM you have, the more programs you can run simultaneously with less need to cache and store data on the much-slower disk storage.
Doubling or quadrupling the amount of installed RAM (if possible) will make a noticeable difference in how smoothly the computer functions. You can see how much memory is installed in your system under the Apple menu by choosing About This Mac. For systems running OS X Lion 10.7 or higher, 4GB is really the practical minimum. If you’re still chugging along on 2GB, adding more will make a big difference.
Quitting unused applications can also improve performance. I’ve come across clients complaining about bizarre behavior on their Macs, only to find 30 apps running simultaneously! Quitting (or force quitting) most of them can substantially improve performance. If you need to force quit, restart the computer afterward. Speaking of restarting — why do techs always tell you to do this?
Well for one thing, it tends to solve problems more than half the time, so it’s our default response for a quick fix! But more seriously, after your computer has been running for a while and swapping lots of things in and out of RAM, or after a program has crashed, small errors can snowball into bigger glitches. The RAM storage itself can get fragmented, or stalled background processes can begin to interfere with running tasks. Rebooting the computer clears out everything from RAM, stops all running processes, reloads the OS and brings things back to square one.
Modern operating systems such as OS X, Windows 7 and Linux are much more resilient than in days of old, but the need to reboot has not gone away entirely. If your Mac hasn’t been restarted in several months, it’s time.
Now here’s a user workflow issue: If you tend to have many windows open at one time in a single program — say 20 Microsoft Word files, 34 PDFs in Adobe Reader, six dozen web pages in different browser tabs — this will definitely slow things down. Each open window requires memory to store and CPU power to deal with. In general, try to keep under (say) 10 documents open for any single program at one time. I know, I know, you’re going to complain: “But this is how I work, I need all these things open at once!” Yes, yes. But remember you’ve just complained that your computer is running slowly, and this is one way to fix things.
Pick your poison! Is a fresh OS X install worthwhile?
Sometimes problems seem so vast that a fresh installation of the operating system is a tempting fix. In my experience this isn’t routinely needed (OS X is not Windows). It’s definitely worth trying the steps above before replacing the OS. However, if you’ve tried all of the above and are still having problems, an OS reinstall might help. Remember to back up all your data first — I like either or of the hard drive for this task. I’ve also found it best to have a local copy of the OS X installation software with you — either Apple’s downloadable Lion, Mountain Lion or Mavericks installers, or the install DVD for older OS versions. These work faster and more reliably than online installers, and allow you to start over again if something goes wrong.
You did back things up first, right?
By. 8:00 am, March 3, 2016. Don't get caught like this. Photo: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac In addition to various viruses that can harm your Mac, there’s a different kind of annoyance you might have stumbled upon: adware. This might manifest itself as a web page that tells you you’ve been infected, with an accompanying phone number to call or malicious website to visit, or it might even show up as an ostensibly helpful Mac app you don’t remember installing.
If you’re experiencing the pain of malicious adware, we’re here to help. Here’s how to eliminate the adware that’s plaguing your Mac. Close all pop-up ads First off, you’ll want to take some time and close any pop-up windows that appear.
Don’t click on any of the buttons in the web page itself, but rather use the red X button in the upper left of the window to shut things down. Close all pop-ups with the dreaded red x. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac If you see a message on your Mac that says, “Don’t show more alerts from this webpage,” go ahead and check the box before closing the pop-up.
If there’s a Block Alerts button after you dismiss a pop-up window on your iPhone or iPad, tap it to keep alerts from coming back. If the pop-up won’t close, force quit your browser. On your Mac, you can hit the Command-Option-Escape keys at the same time to get the Force Quit window. Click on your browser in the list and then hit the Force Quit button.
When you restart Safari, you can hold the Shift key down when you start to keep it from reopening any windows, including the pop-up. Block all pop-ups Many malicious adware uses pop-up windows to get your attention or to scare you into installing even more adware. Make sure your computer is pop-up free. Check this box to block pop-ups in Safari. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac Both Safari and have pop-up blockers. Go to Safari preferences and click on the Security icon in the upper row, then click Block pop-up windows there.
In Chrome, you simply click the Chrome menu (three horizontal lines) in the upper-right corner, click Settings, click Show advanced settings. Then, under Privacy, click Content Settings.
Choose Do not allow any site to show pop-ups under the Pop-ups section. Click Done when finished.
Here’s where you block pop-ups in Chrome. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac Both web browsers allow you to add exceptions if you need specific sites to open pop-ups.
Check homepage and search-engine settings Sometimes, adware will change what homepage your browser starts up with or the search engine it uses to find stuff you want on the web. Check these settings to make sure they haven’t been changed. Make sure you’ve got the right search engine selected in Safari. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac In Safari, go to Preferences and click the General tab at the top. Look at the Homepage field and make sure it contains the site you want to start up with, or is empty. Click on the Search tab and make sure the default search engine there is one you want.
Set your home page in Chrome here. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac In Chrome, open the Settings page (with the three horizontal lines or by hitting Command-comma) and check the “On Startup” section.
Choose an option there, or click through to “Open a specific page or set of pages” to make sure your browser opens to what you want it to, not some adware site. Check Extensions Safari and Chrome allow little programs called extensions to enrich your browsing experience, like Amazon Wishlist or Evernote. Check your extensions to make sure they’re all things you’ve installed.
If you don’t know what an extension is or what it does, disable it. Disable or delete Chrome extensions here. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac In Chrome, go to the Settings menu again and click on Extensions. Uncheck the “Enabled” checkbox near any extension you don’t recognize, or delete it completely by clicking on the trash can icon to the far right.
Uninstall Safari extensions here. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac In Safari, head into the Preferences, click on the Extensions icon in the top row and then the extension you want to uninstall on the left. Click the Uninstall button to the right to get rid of the suspicious extension. Here’s a list of extensions that Apple suggests looking for:. Amazon Shopping Assistant by Spigot Inc. Cinema-Plus Pro or variations such as Cinema + HD, Cinema + Plus, and Cinema Ploos. Ebay Shopping Assistant by Spigot Inc.
FlashMall. GoPhoto.It.
Omnibar. Searchme by Spigot, Inc. Slick Savings by Spigot Inc. Shopy Mate Find and remove adware from your Mac Finally, you’ll need to dig into your Mac’s file system to root out any specific adware that may have been installed alongside legitimate Mac software. You can do this manually or with a third-party app, as below.
Manually You’ll need to quit Safari or Chrome, then start checking your system for specific files known to be adware. Search for these files and root out any malware. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac In the Finder, you’ll need to go to the Go menu and select Go to Folder, or hit Shift-Command-G. Type or copy/paste one of the lines below into the resulting Go to Folder field to see if you have the offending file. If you get no result, you’re free of that specific adware file.
If you do see something with this type of search, simply drag the file (and only that file) to the trash. Once you’ve removed all the files you need to, restart your Mac, then empty the trash. Start your web browser up again with Shift held down to prevent it from opening any previous windows. /System/Library/Frameworks/v.framework. /System/Library/Frameworks/VSearch.framework.
/Applications/SearchProtect.app. /Applications/WebTools.app. /Applications/cinemapro1-2.app. /Applications/cinemapro1-2.app Quit any malicious process with this X button in Activity Monitor. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac You’ll also want to check your Activity Monitor app (in your Utilities folder) for a process called Genieo or InstallMac; you can use the Search field to find them.
If you find either one, click on them, one at a time, and hit the Force Quit button (it looks like an X in the upper left). Restart your Mac.