How to Fix a Slow Mac

Follow these steps to restore peak performance to your Mac. Identify resource-heavy processes, manage startup items, and clear system bottlenecks.

1. Identify resource-intensive processes. Open Activity Monitor from Applications > Utilities. Click the CPU tab and sort by % CPU to identify applications consuming excessive processing power. Select the unresponsive or high-drain process and click the X button in the toolbar to force quit it.
2. Manage startup and login items. Navigate to System Settings > General > Login Items. Under the Login Items list, select any unnecessary applications and click the minus (-) button to remove them. Review the Allow in the Background section and toggle off items for applications you no longer use.
3. Free up storage space. Go to System Settings > General > Storage. Review the recommendations to empty your Trash automatically and optimize storage by moving files to iCloud. Manually delete large, unused files or application installers found in your Downloads folder.
4. Run system and app updates. Open System Settings > General > Software Update to install the latest macOS patches. Open the App Store and select the Updates tab to ensure all installed third-party applications are optimized for your current version of macOS.
5. Clear temporary system caches. Open Finder, select Go > Go to Folder from the menu bar, and type ~/Library/Caches. Delete the contents of these folders to clear temporary data that may be corrupting system speed. Restart your Mac immediately after to allow the system to rebuild necessary cache files.
6. Restart the Window Server. If the desktop environment feels sluggish, sign out of your user account by clicking the Apple menu and selecting Log Out. Log back in to force a fresh launch of the macOS user interface and system processes without a full reboot.