Even if you have an old Mac, a new Mac, or a MacBook Air, there will come a time when a few apps will stop responding, starting up will take forever, and videos will pause. “Why is your Mac so slow?” you might be pondering. No one wants a Mac that is inefficient, slow, unreliable, or difficult; as a result, if we fail to address the fundamentals, we will encounter problems like these. Knowing how to optimize your Mac will save you a lot of time and, probably, money in the long run. Continue reading to learn how to optimize your Mac storage for effective performance and notification.
What Does Optimize Your Mac Mean?
When it comes to Mac optimization, clearing up old files from storage is crucial. However, tidying up is only the beginning of optimization. You need to monitor CPU utilization to avoid a Mac slowdown, scan your Mac for malware, optimize your mac and your program to keep your it running at optimal performance.
How to Optimize Your Mac Performance
Macs are built for durability and performance. However, various barriers may slow it. It may have malware, full disk space, or other software issues. Optimizing your MacBook maximizes performance. Improves computer reliability, productivity, efficiency, and utilization. erase superfluous programs, update your OS, and erase outdated files to speed up your Mac.
How to Optimize Your Mac Performance: Steps
The first step in optimizing your Mac’s performance is identifying where it falls short. Usually, it’s the amount of space that problematic programs take up. So, let’s begin with software as our first suggestion to optimize your Mac for performance.
#1. Ensure That Your Software is Updated.
Despite its simplicity, this must be listed first. When you update your Mac’s software, you gain access to the latest features, performance upgrades, bug fixes, and security patches. How to know if an update is needed for your software:
- Go to Menu > Apple > Options.
- Select “Software Update” from the “System Settings” menu.
- If an update is required, it can be installed by following the on-screen prompts.
While you’re there, enable Automatic updates. Keep reading if you don’t want any news updates.
#2. Use Apple’s Internal Optimization Features
You can enhance your Mac’s performance by following the simple advice provided by Apple’s built-in optimization tool. To use Apple’s optimization tool, follow these steps:
- Select About This Mac from the Apple menu.
- Select Settings > Additional Information.
- Go to the colored bar’s Recommendations section.
The Recommendations section provides you with three potential strategies for dealing with disk space.
#3. Clean Up Your Computer
Keeping your Mac in perfect working order is the best way to ensure its peak performance at all times. The performance of your MacBook can be greatly improved with consistent upkeep.
You might either spend hours, if not days, manually searching your Mac for damaged or outdated files, obsolete applications, forgotten folders, cache, system logs, and everything else we tend to accumulate, or you can use a dedicated and specialized tool to do the heavy lifting for you.
#4. Get Rid of Any Unused Applications
Apps that you don’t use are still taking up space on your PC. Mac files and apps accumulate over time. Some programs use a lot of RAM in the background. Slowing down will make using your Mac harder. To free up space on your computer, uninstall unused software.
#5. Manage Login Items and Launch Agents
Reducing the amount of work your Mac has to do when it starts up is another wonderful way to optimize it. There’s no reason to have dozens of programs launch automatically every time you turn on your Mac. Organize your startup resources as follows:
- Choose System Preferences > Apple Menu.
- Then, click Login Items under General.
- Find the app you want to uninstall in the list, and then click the “-” button to the right of its name.
You should also go through the list of “Allow in the Background” apps and disable the ones you don’t require.
#6. Delete Mac Caches
Computers produce and store multiple cache files when running the Mac operating system, apps, or web browsers to speed up reading. An excessive amount of caches might impact Mac’s storage and performance. Caches can be manually removed in the following ways,
- Click on Finder >> Select the Go menu, then the Folder selection.
- To go to the cache directories, copy and paste the following command: /Library/Caches.
- Choose which caches you want to remove.
- Get rid of them for good by taking out the trash.
#7. Clean the Outside of Your Mac
The keyboard and air vents won’t get dusty if you clean your Mac’s exterior. Cleaning your workstation boosts your confidence. To do this, unplug your computer. Use a moist cloth to remove dust, but be careful with chemicals, especially on your screen. To avoid wetting holes, spray clean with a towel. Compressed air through the vents and computer keyboard.
How to Optimize Your Mac Storage
One of the common problems with modern computing is the continuing growth of data that accumulates on a Mac. As users listen to more music, take more photographs, or generally create more files, their storage requirements grow over time.
The problem is that storage on a Mac is finite, and for those who don’t pay the hefty fees for extra internal storage, it’s very claustrophobic. Once you run out of free space, you’ve got to do something before you can add more files to the drive.
Wondering why your Mac seems to be less effective than it used to be? Insufficient storage space could be the reason for your Mac’s slow performance. Whether or not the “Your disk is almost full” message has shown up, you should check the free space on your hard drive.
How to Optimize Your Mac Storage: Step-by-Step Guide
Utilizing the Mac’s Optimized Storage capabilities is a fantastic way to free up storage on your hard drive. The section below discusses methods to optimize and make the most of the storage space on your Apple MacBook and how to check how much space is left.
#1. Follow the Steps Below,
- Click on the Apple button in the menu bar at the top left of your screen and choose “About” Mac.
- Now select the Storage tab
- Click the Manage button
- You’ll now see a list of recommendations
This will open a recommendation window with options for optimizing your storage space. Next,
#2. Store in iCloud
As the name suggests, Store in iCloud will help free up storage by saving data in the user’s iCloud account. This includes files, messages, and photos saved in the Photos app, the last of which is a big storage problem.
In short, if you choose this option, the files in the selected folders will be uploaded to iCloud and the files you don’t use often will be deleted from your Mac’s storage. When a user opens a file that isn’t already in their local repository, macOS will go to iCloud and download it so the file can be viewed.
#3. Optimize Your Storage
The second option tells your Mac to get rid of movies and TV shows you’ve already watched. This choice relies on Apple TV+ instead of iCloud Drive. You can download them again, and you can change this setting later in the TV options.
#4. Empty Trash on Its Own
If you turn this setting on, things that have been in the Trash for more than 30 days will be deleted automatically by your Mac. So, you won’t have to empty the trash can manually ever again. This setting can be changed or turned off at any time in Finder Preferences.
#5. Reduce the Clutter
Reduce Clutter is the only Optimized Storage solution that involves manual file removal from your Mac. This feature opens the Finder window with the Documents section on the left when you click the Review Files button. Your files are organized as Large Files, Downloads, Unsupported Apps, Containers, and File Browser. You can delete unwanted items by clicking “Delete.”
Optimize Your Mac Notification
The mac notification notice might show up in the corner of the screen and say, “Optimizing Your Mac: Performance and battery life may be affected until completed.” Even though the notification has no more information, you can get rid of it by hitting the “Close” button. This optimization notice usually shows up after adding new system software, switching to a new user account, or restarting a Mac after it hasn’t been restarted in a long time.
So, what’s going on, and what should you do if you get this message? Don’t do anything; just give the Mac time to finish its optimization process. Usually, optimizing can take anywhere from minutes to hours, based on factors like system and drive speed, the complexity of the operations being run, and more.
Optimize Your Mac Notification: Detailed Guide
Mac apps make app notifications essential. We receive reminders for meetings, events, emails, Facebook messages, birthdays, and unintentionally signed-up websites.
Notifications are helpful and boost workflow, despite their potential annoyance. But sometimes we need quiet time to focus, avoid distractions, speak, or sleep. I’ll go over the steps you need to perform to optimize app notification on Mac, either all at once or one at a time.
#1. Pause Notifications from Notification Center
Do the following to optimize getting unwanted notification at midnight on your mac,
- Click on the Notification Center button on the menu bar.
- Swipe down until you see the sign that says “Do Not Disturb.”
- Turn on the “Do Not Disturb” mode.
- You could also click the Notification Center button while holding down the Option key.
When Do Not Disturb is turned on, the icon for the Notification Center on the right gets darker. But, During that time, the notifications quietly arrive in the Notification Center until midnight, or the time they are supposed to.
#2. Enable Do Not Disturb for Your Preferred Amount of Time
With Notifications System Preferences, Mac users can set when they don’t want to be disturbed and how apps show notifications. Do the following to turn off notifications at the time you want:
- Open System Preferences from the Apple menu in the top left corner.
- Click on “Notifications.”
- Stop notifications during a certain time range, when the screen is sleeping, or when you are mirroring the screen.
#3. Disable Safari Notifications
Safari’s push-up notifications are still relatively new, but more and more websites are starting to offer them. Most of the time, a user chooses to sign up for a website’s notifications through a pop-up window. But sometimes it happens by accident. To optimize and disable unwanted notifications from a website on your mac, follow these instructions:
- Open Safari and click Safari -> Preferences in the menu bar at the top.
- Open the tab called Websites.
- Choose Notifications from the list on the left.
- You can disable specific website notifications.
#4. Turn Off Update Notifications
When updates are made available for loaded apps, the Mac App Store sends out a notification. Now, it’s easy to turn them off. Just do the following:
- Click on Apple in the menu bar at the top.
- Start the System Preferences.
- Search for the App Store.
- Turn off the “Automatically check for updates” setting.
All the steps for turning off notifications on your Mac are now done. Make sure to turn them back on when you’re done with your job so you don’t miss any important notifications!
How Long Does It Take To Optimize Your Mac?
It takes a few minutes to a few hours, depending on a variety of things, including the speed of the computer and drive, and what tasks are being performed.
Should I Defragment My Mac?
Yes, defragging a Mac is rarely needed, because Macs can defrag themselves.
What Happens if I Turn Off Optimize Mac Storage?
Disabling Optimize Mac Storage may force your Mac to download data from iCloud,
Why Is My Mac So Slow Lately?
Your Mac might be slow because of an outdated operating system or a full hard disk
Is It Good to Optimize Mac Storage?
Yes, you can make more room on your Mac by optimizing its storage.
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