Computer Running Slow (MacOS)

Computer Running Slow (MacOS)

Issue [Computer Running Slow (MacOS)]

  

Devices [MacBook, Mac]

  

Suggested Resolutions [See Steps Below]  

Startup disk available storage

Your computer’s startup disk may not have enough free disk space. To make disk space available, you can move files to another disk or an external storage device, then delete files you no longer need on the startup disk. MacOS can also help you optimize storage by storing files in the cloud and helping you identify files you no longer need.
  1. Choose Apple menu  > System Settings, then click General  in the sidebar (you may need to scroll down).
  2. Click Storage on the right, then click the storage recommendations you want to use.

App usage and Activity Monitor

An app you’re using may require more memory than your Mac has easily available. You can use Activity Monitor to see how much memory your Mac and apps are using. Also see the documentation that came with the app to find out its system requirements.

In the Activity Monitor app  on your Mac, click Memory (or use the Touch Bar) to see the following in the bottom of the window:
  1. Memory Pressure: Graphically represents how efficiently your memory is serving your processing needs. Memory pressure is determined by the amount of free memory, swap rate, wired memory, and file cached memory.
  2. Physical Memory: The amount of RAM installed.
  3. Memory Used: The amount of RAM being used. To the right, you can see where the memory is allocated.
    1. App Memory: The amount of memory being used by apps.
    2. Wired Memory: Memory required by the system to operate. This memory can’t be cached and must stay in RAM, so it’s not available to other apps.
    3. Compressed: The amount of memory that has been compressed to make more RAM available. When your computer approaches its maximum memory capacity, inactive apps in memory are compressed, making more memory available to active apps. Select the Compressed Memory column, then look in the VM Compressed column for each app to see the amount of memory being compressed for that app.
  4. Cached Files: The size of files cached by the system into unused memory to improve performance. Until this memory is overwritten, it remains cached, so it can help improve performance when you reopen the app.
  5. Swap Used: The amount of space being used on your startup disk to swap unused files to and from RAM.
To display more columns, choose View > Columns, then choose the columns you want to show.

App compatibility

Quit any app that isn’t compatible with your Mac. For example, an app may require a different processor or graphics card. See the documentation that came with the app for information about its system requirements.
  1. To see what processor your computer has, choose Apple menu  > System Settings, click General  in the sidebar, then click About on the right.
  2. To see which graphics card your computer has, choose Apple menu  > System Settings, then click General  in the sidebar. Click About on the right, then click System Report. Click Graphics/Displays to see the name of the graphics card installed your computer.

Quit any apps you're not using

If you use an app only occasionally, you may want to quit the app when you’re done using it, especially if the app uses significant energy.

  1. To quit an app, choose App Name > Quit App in the menu bar. For example, choose Preview > Quit Preview (or press the keyboard shortcut Command-Q).

Keep in mind that if you click the Close button  in the top-left corner of an app’s window, the window closes, but the app remains open (a small dot below the app’s icon in the Dock indicates that the app’s open).

Possible disk problems

Disk Utility can check for and fix errors related to the formatting and directory structure of a Mac storage device.
Disk Utility can fix certain disk problems—for example, multiple apps quit unexpectedly, a file is corrupted, an external device doesn’t work properly, or your computer won’t start up. Disk Utility can’t detect or repair all problems that a disk may have.
To check and repair a disk, you need to run First Aid on each volume and container on the storage device in turn, then run it on the storage device itself. 
If Disk Utility tells you the disk is about to fail, back up your data and replace the disk—you can’t repair it.
A Disk Utility window showing three volumes, a container, and a storage device in Show All Devices view.
Note: If you’re checking your startup disk or startup volume, restart your computer in macOS Recovery. See the Apple Support article About macOS Recovery on Intel-based Mac computers. Next, select Disk Utility in the macOS Recovery window, then click Continue. If you check your startup volume (Macintosh HD), make sure you also check your data volume (Macintosh HD - Data). 

  1. In the Disk Utility app  on your Mac, choose View > Show All Devices. If Disk Utility isn’t open, click the Launchpad icon  in the Dock, type Disk Utility in the Search field, then click the Disk Utility icon .
  2. In the sidebar, select a volume, then click the First Aid button .
  3. In the First Aid dialog, click Run, then follow the onscreen instructions.
  4. When the First Aid process is complete, click Done.
  5. Repeat steps 2 through 4 for each volume on the storage device.
  6. In the sidebar, select a container, then click the First Aid button .
  7. In the First Aid dialog, click Run, then follow the onscreen instructions.
  8. When the First Aid process is complete, click Done.
  9. Repeat steps 6 through 8 for each container on the storage device.
  10. In the sidebar, select the storage device, then click the First Aid button .
  11. In the First Aid dialog, click Run, then follow the onscreen instructions.
  12. When the First Aid process is complete, click Done.
If Disk Utility reports that the disk appears to be OK or has been repaired, you’re done. You can click Show Details to see more information about the repairs. Otherwise, you may need to do one of the following.
  1. If Disk Utility reports “overlapped extent allocation” errors, two or more files occupy the same space on your disk, and at least one of them is likely to be corrupted. You need to check each file in the list of affected files. Most of the files in the list have aliases in a DamagedFiles folder at the top level of your disk.
    1. If you can replace a file or re-create it, delete it.
    2. If it contains information you need, open it and examine its data to make sure it hasn’t been corrupted. 

  2. If Disk Utility can’t repair your disk, or you receive a report that the First Aid process failed, try to repair the disk or partition again. If that doesn’t work, back up as much of your data as possible, reformat the disk, reinstall macOS, then restore your backed-up data.
If you continue to have problems with your disk or it can’t be repaired, it may be physically damaged and need to be replaced.

Links verified on: 4/24/2023

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