Why MacBooks Get Slower After Some Time
While the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro may be a pretty solid piece of kit, as it gets older, it tends to slow down. It will take longer to do anything on it and you will get more and more frustrated. But why does this happen in the first place? There are lots of reasons and we’re going to look at some of the more common ones, including how to fix your Mac issues. The following steps also apply to when your iMac is slowing down. 1. The Hard Disk (or SSD) is Getting Full This is the most common reason for a MacBook to slow down after some time. As you work away, the hard disk gradually gets filled up. When there is insufficient hard disk space, the OS cannot work properly and, eventually, the MacBook will just become unresponsive. The Mac OS uses space for saving temporary files, cache files, etc. Any data or programs you use take up RAM. Old data and any background tasks are cached or saved temporarily on the hard drive too. To find out how much space is left on yours, go to: Apple Menu > About This Mac > More Info > Storage. Delete any unused apps, files, downloads and any installer files that have an extension of .pkg or .dmg. Put photos, movies, music, etc. onto a separate storage source and remove the originals from the hard drive. Then empty your trashcan! If your free space is 2GB or less, your MacBook is going to struggle. You should have a minimum of three times the RAM. So, if your RAM is 4GB you should have at least 12GB free space. If you still can’t free up enough, you can get a new hard drive and/or move some file to cloud-based storage.