Here is 5 easy way to improve performances and speed up the whole thing.
Foreword and warning:
-You could be tempted to use an app called MacKeeper. Me, myself and I, DO NOT recommend at all the use of this... well, this thing.
Some call it MacKrapper, and I concur 100%.
- Backup your stuff. Always. Always backup your stuff.
For that, there is Time Machine, or even better a Time Capsule. I can not praise enough Time Machine, and when coupled with a Time Capsule, it's nothing short of orgasmic. See under External HDD, I'll show you a fantastic way to backup your stuff and bullet proof your life.
This article has 2 sections: The easy-quicky way, and the deep cleaning
Easy-Quicky
Start Up Items
Yes, it's cool to have 5 apps opening at boot, but you are draining your system right from the start.
If you can avoid it, it's better. Furthermore, you are unlikely to use 3 or 5 apps right from the start.
Also, take a look at your Menu bar: having 10 items up there does no good for you: You most likely will only use a few.
Go to System Preferences > Users and Groups > Login Items
Uncheck at will. I roughly uncheck everything but the critical.
Purge
A quick and very easy way to purge your RAM: Open Terminal and just type "purge" , without the quotes you silly! Don't forget to press enter! (#justsayin')
You need 10.7 + for purge
Widgets
Ditto, get rid of what you don't use. Furthermore, if you really miss them, you can always re-install them in a click.
Add More RAM (memory)
Yes, it costs, but there is no secret! Adding more RAM will greatly increase the performances of your machine, it's by far the most efficient fix.
You do not need to buy your RAM from Apple, as they charge way too much!
This 16GB DDR3 1600 MHz
module cost less than $125, compared to the $300 - $400 charged by Apple.Why:
When your memory start to run low, your OS will "swap" electronic memory to "virtual" memory. Virtual memory is nothing less than Hard Drive space used as memory. The issue is that the speed (Read/Write) of an Hard Drive compared to pure electronic memory is much slower... hence it simply takes more time and make your computer appears to be sluggish.
- If you do not know what type of memory you need, check under "About this Mac" > More Info > Memory
- If you do not know how to change the memory, follow this link
- Be aware that some iMac, i.e 21.5 inches cannot have a memory upgrade
- Pairing the memory:
☞ If you have only 2 slots, (i.e Mac Mini, most of Macbook, Macbook pro, Macbook air) you will have to change the memory completely: It is NOT recommended to add just one memory: You cannot have one 2 GB and one 4 GB. Mixing memory modules only works if you have 4 memory slots.
If you have 2 memory slot, you'll have to change both and get the same size, i.e 2x4GB or 2x8GB
☞ If you have 4 memory slots, i.e iMac 27inches, you can add more memory by pairing it correctly, hence you do NOT have to change all the memory modules
Example: You already have 4GB, and want to upgrade to 24 GB by adding 16GB as 2x8 GB
(iMac is upright)
Slot 1 --> 4GB (Top)
Slot 2 --> 8 GB
Slot 3 --> 4GB
Slot 4 --> 8 GB
(Bottom)
De-cluster
Easier said than done, but you probably have more junk on your hard drive than you would admit. I know, it's a tedious job that nobody wants to do, but it works ...
So here is an easy way to de-cluster:
Get yourself a copy of:
- Trial version of the "Classic" Clean My Mac, not the new "Clean My Mac 2"
- Free copy of App Cleaner
Run the trial version of Clean My Mac, there is a limit of ~500MB
Be careful and read the preference pane.
Once you have reached the limit, close the app and run App Cleaner on Clean My Mac and select ONLY the plist, delete the Plist, and re-start Clean My Mac
Automagically, you'll restart with a brand new trial version.
You can do the same by manually deleting the plist file located at: ~/Library/Preferences/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac.plist
Remove Un-used and obsolete Apps
Now that you have App Cleaner, use it. You can trash those apps that you have not used for the past 2 years.
Reboot
I have seen Macs with 60 days+ without a reboot
From time to time, it's a good idea to reboot: it takes 20 sec and will give your machine a breather, clears the swap and RAM
Deep Cleaning
Once you've done all of the above, let's go a little deeper ...
Repeat: Adding RAM is what will make the most serious difference.
Furthermore: As the upgrade for Mavericks is free, a lot of people have upgraded directly from 10.6.8 and then realized that their Mac got a little bit sluggish. Well... RAM my friend! 10.6.8 was able to run on 1GB RAM, not so much for Mavericks! That's what 10.9 uses for a snack.
Repair permissions
Go get yourself a free copy of Onyx and run it.
Be careful with Onyx, it's powerful...
Once done, go take a look under "cleaning" Use with caution, i.e "cookies"
always check the big offenders, Firefox, Google Earth, etc are Cache Hogs.
Check also your logs, some people like to keep them, some don't.
Unused Languages, part 2
Delete unused languages (Klingon, Uzbek, Telugu, Etc ) with Monolingual
Monolingual removes more languages than Clean My Mac
Proof? 628MB of languages removed after cleaning with Clean My Mac ...
DO NOT REMOVE ENGLISH! Some apps will only work with English.
Check carefully the languages that you remove!
Deep De-Cluster
That's the most painful and tedious for me, so I took the easy solution:
Get yourself an external HDD and bullet proof your Digital Life. Here is how:
- You can find a 1TB External HDD USB 3
for less than $70 w/ free shipping. Get one! - Get yourself a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner (Donation-ware)
- Partition your HDD in 1,2 or 3 partitions if you want to. (With DiskUtility, it's very easy)
1) Carbon copy your HDD and transfer the copy to your external HDD
- You have now a fail safe exact replica of your Mac OS, with everything, shall your Mac HDD fail, or you Mac altogether AKA Starbucks accident! you can now boot with the USB (just hold the option key at boot) and have your life back.
You can also also boot on any Mac, if you have fried your Mac, you can use a second Mac, or even go to an Apple Store and explain the situation...
2) If you have selected a multiple partition, you can have a either a multiboot drive i.e OS X and Ubuntu or Windows
Or
3) A carbon copy of your present OS + another OS + a partition used as backup for your files and junk.
Now that you have everything backed up, let's go into the work ...
Big offenders
Get yourself a free copy of Disk Inventory X, install and run it
You'll get a picture of where your space went..
You can now move your big files to your External HDD, or zap' em
A quick check on my HDD revealed 24+ GB of old iMovies, junk etc ... now gone or saved elsewhere
Mac Mail
If like me you've kept all your email since the birth of Jesus, you have a ton of junk.
It's time to trim the fat out of Mac Mail
- Sort by size and delete those funny videos that you have not watched for the last 3 years, etc ...
- Search for the word "unsubscribe" in your email: You'll find a zillion marketing emails that you don't care about.
Look for those pictures that are also in iPhoto, in Dropbox and also in your email: Yes, you have 3 copies...
Find Duplicates
That's tedious, and takes a long time, but it may be worth it.
Always be cautious when removing duplicates! Thread lightly and always double check.
Dupe Guru is a "Fairware", without buying it, you can only remove 10 dupes at a time
Magician can also find dupes, it's free, but will ask for an email (?) it's an ok App, but only scans by folder (to compare). I make no warranty whatsoever about Magician. It does also other stuff and feel like an "Everything on you plate" kinda menu. I mean that they serve you the ice-cream on top of your steak.
MacKeeper I'd rather burn my Mac than install that crapware. It's App Porn. They have a bad, bad, bad karma. If you wish to spend money, then do it properly, for a good App: Araxis has a 7 days trial.
Finder anyone?
Finder has a little "+" button, often overlooked.
Once you click it, you'll find a zillion ways to search for specifics. It goes as far as finding pictures taken with the flash "on" with a specific aperture.
Defragmenter
Without going too deep into the intricate details of OS X, you do NOT need to defragment OS X. "When writing files, Mac OS X optimizes your disk space and avoids fragmenting large files into smaller segments"
That's it. Buying a defragmenter for Mac is money down the drain.
Also, if you have an SSD, (Solid State Drive) defragmenting is NOT recommended at all. Don't do it.
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