MacBooks represent the perfect blend of intuitiveness and power. They’re hard to beat whether you’re navigating college or the many layers in a vector graphics application. Want to prevent and successfully tackle your MacBook’s performance hiccups? Then follow these eight tips to keep it in peak condition.
- Update Your Software
Let’s start nice and easy by highlighting a simple yet crucial step – software updates. Keeping MacOS, your browser, and the apps you use updated gives you access to their newest features while ensuring they’re patched from all known vulnerabilities.
Turn on automatic system updates from the General tab in the System Settings menu. You can also check for updates for individual apps, but automating them means you’ll never miss one.
- Regularly Clean Clutter
Over time, even simple actions like browsing the web, uninstalling apps, and letting your MacBook run OS updates leave behind a lot of clutter. These junk files can quickly balloon out of control and drastically slow down your system if you have a small drive.
Apple doesn’t let you do much natively other than set up trash to empty automatically and delete files manually. Luckily, third-party cleaning apps streamline the process and can make a genuine difference.
- Transfer the Big Stuff
Hidden junk files aren’t the only ones that can clutter your MacBook up. Extensive photo galleries and large video files can be just as stifling. You can pursue several options to alleviate the situation.
The first is to delete old media you no longer need. Be sure to empty the trash since sending files to it alone doesn’t delete them. Alternatively, you can use iCloud to store excess files and free up space. Lastly, you can copy some files onto an external drive. Depending on its make, you might even be able to upgrade your MacBook’s storage. Newer ones lack this feature, though.
- Properly Close Apps
System memory, CPU, and GPU usage play a vital part in a smooth user experience. Some apps are real resource hogs, so keeping them active when you don’t need them anymore is an unnecessary drain.
MacOS has a close button, but unlike Windows, pressing it doesn’t always shut the app down. You can tell when an app is minimized by the dot underneath its icon on the dock. Get in the habit of quitting unneeded apps with Cmd + Q or right-click on their dock icons and quit from there.
- Tackle Unnecessary App Startups
It’s easy to close apps you run yourself, but others are sneakier. Some apps will boot up with the system and run in the background, reducing performance potential you could use elsewhere.
You can check for and remove such apps by going to the Users & Groups tab in System Preferences. There, you can see a list of Login Items that run upon startup. Disable any you don’t need.
- Speed Up & Secure Logins
You’re likely using your MacBook to access various online services, communities, and resources. Most of them use password-protected accounts. The passwords provide effective protection if they’re strong and complex, which we’re less inclined to ensure the more accounts we have.
Mac password managers eliminate the risks while also being convenient. You can use them to generate unique credentials for all your accounts without having to remember them. The manager stores your passwords in an encrypted vault and fills them in automatically for every login. Extra account security, stress-free password handling, and faster logins with a few clicks are just the things that make a smooth-running MacBook even more efficient.
- Regularly Restart Your MacBook
Some users keep their MacBooks running 24/7 without realizing that this can impact performance. The amount of temporary cache files grows while virtual memory reserves shrink, eventually leading to slowdowns.
When should you restart your MacBook? It depends on several factors, like how much RAM you have, whether you’re experiencing any slowdowns, etc. Basic and older models will benefit from a restart every few days. More powerful MacBooks can continue working for months without issue. That being said, don’t hesitate to hit the restart button if you’ve fine-tuned everything else, but the MacBook is still performing sluggishly.
- Minimize External Risks
Our other tips focus on maintaining the best version of your MacBook through optimization. However, keeping it in tip-top shape also means protecting your MacBook from outside threats. For example, malware is much rarer on Macs than on PCs, but you can still get infected if you’re unaware of the risks.
If you have ever asked yourself, “How do I check to see if someone is using my social security number?” — you should know that every account you sign up for or off-hand comment you make on social media contributes to a growing body of information on you online, known as a digital footprint. A large digital footprint can reveal much about you, including information like your location, interests, and, depending on the information you give, even your social security number.
Moreover, phishing emails are among the most common methods of stealing account credentials and infecting systems with malware. The more info a cybercriminal has on you, the easier it is for them to create a phishing email convincing enough for you to fall into its trap.
Managing your digital footprint is a smart preemptive strategy that can protect you from unsolicited messages, scams, and other harmful intrusions. Consider hiring a dependable data removal service to do a comprehensive job. They monitor and petition data brokers and online databases to delete old data on you and prevent new information from accumulating, giving cyber crooks less leverage over you.
