My Mac has become noticeably sluggish, but it shows I have plenty of storage space left. I’ve closed unnecessary apps and restarted it multiple times, but the performance isn’t improving. Could there be another reason behind this slowdown? Would love any advice to get it running smoothly again.
Could be a million things, honestly. Available storage isn’t the magic cure-all for speed issues. First, check how much RAM is being used—sometimes macOS ends up swapping memory to disk if you’ve got too much going on, even with apps ‘closed’ (modern apps love to lurk in the background, sneaky little devils). Open Activity Monitor and see if anything’s chomping through your CPU or memory like it’s an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Also, one word: updates. Is your macOS up to date? Apple loves rolling out software that magically slows things down on slightly older Macs, 'cause, ya know, why not nudge you toward that tempting shiny $2000 upgrade?
Oh, and if you’re one of those people who hasn’t restarted the thing in weeks (yes, I see you), clearing up that cached system junk with a restart or even a Safe Boot can sometimes do wonders—it’s like giving your Mac a spa day. BUT, you did say you already restarted—guess it’s not that simple this time.
If that doesn’t help, it might also be the health of your hard drive (even SSDs slow down when they’re aging). Run a diagnostic or check for errors using Disk Utility.
Finally, background processes: Spotlight indexing, iCloud sync, or even these dodgy antivirus programs (why are you even using one on a Mac?) could be sneakily dragging things down.
If none of this works… well, enjoy your new career in IT troubleshooting.
Hmm, so your Mac’s slacking despite having storage? Yeah, storage isn’t the knight in shining armor people make it out to be. Like @viajantedoceu said, RAM might be your bigger culprit here. But let’s talk about some less obvious suspects they didn’t cover.
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PRAM/NVRAM Reset: Macs can get… moody. Resetting the PRAM/NVRAM could help—it clears out weird little gremlins like sound volume, display resolution, and maybe some other performance quirks. Google how to reset it for your specific Mac model. Easy peasy.
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Startup Items: When was the last time you pruned your startup items? Go to System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items and uncheck anything unnecessary. Sometimes outdated junk lurks there from apps you don’t even know you have anymore.
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External hardware: Are you running anything off an old external hard drive? Those can secretly be the anchors dragging your performance down. Or worse, maybe some peripheral device is being weird and messing with your Mac’s chi.
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Heat issues: Is your Mac roasting marshmallows over its own heat vents? Sometimes high temps throttle performance. Do a quick check if the fan’s revving too high or if the device burner-hot. Dust might be clogging the cooling system—give it a clean or get canned air involved.
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Corrupt caches or preferences: If apps regularly hang up, you might be looking at corrupted cache or preferences files. You’ll need to dig into ~/Library and manually toss them. It’s annoying, but occasionally weird glitches vanish once you do this.
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Battery health: Sounds random, but a dying battery can mess with performance if Apple’s energy-saving voodoo kicks in. Check your battery stats under System Report > Power.
And I’ll disagree slightly with @viajantedoceu about antivirus. They’re not all “dodgy,” but most are overkill for Macs—the built-in protections combined with common sense usually suffice.
If NOTHING here resonates and you’ve exhausted all other options, reinstalling macOS might be your nuclear option. It’s a pain, but sometimes it’s like hitting reset on a game that went way off the rails.
Alright, so let’s mix things up and look at a few other culprits @sonhadordobosque and @viajantedoceu skipped over! Sure, storage isn’t the ultimate fix-all, but what about your macOS system resources itself? Sometimes it’s not just apps hogging RAM or CPU; often, macOS modules like WindowServer can act up and eat away at resources like a diva in the background. Give Activity Monitor’s ‘Energy’ tab a glance next time.
GPU matters too. If you’re running graphics-intensive software—or connected an extra display—your Mac’s graphics card might be secretly flailing. Older integrated GPUs, in particular, struggle with modern software’s fancy animations. Unfortunately, not much we can do here… unless you disable transparency effects in System Preferences > Accessibility > Display. It’s a small tweak that can smooth things out.
Another quirky tip? Check if Siri Suggestions or Spotlight have gone rogue through constant reindexing. Head over to System Preferences > Spotlight and temporarily exclude your entire drive. If performance improves, Spotlight was your sneaky villain. Consider unchecking categories you don’t use (like Documents or Mail).
Oh, and Safari tab overload syndrome. Before rolling your eyes, remember each tab is like its own mini-app pulling data. Close tabs or try a tab suspension extension to kill unused ones after a set time—they save memory without losing where you were.
One thing I’ll throw out there that might contradict the others—PRAM resets are rarely that impactful nowadays. Useful? Yes, but it’s hardly the cure-all it used to be. Don’t over-rely on that as it mostly handles peripheral settings, and your macOS slowness might run much deeper.
Lastly, I fully agree with the Safe Mode route, but I’ll add one extra trick: after booting in Safe Mode, rebuild Launch Services database. Open Terminal and type:
/Applications/*/Contents/MacOS/*launchservices -reset
This clears up quirky default app assignments or system delays.
Final thought—yeah, antivirus can drag Macs down (more than save them), but if you’re stuck troubleshooting for weeks, reinstalling macOS does act as the digital “reset button” for sanity’s sake. Can’t say @viajantedoceu didn’t have a point there.