Many of us are guilty of leaving our Macs open for hours or days on end and keeping all data stored on our browsers.
We download applications we need and allow them to start up manually every time we start the system. Little do you know, doing these tasks that are supposed to make your life easier eventually makes things worse.
The first thing you may notice is your browser will take forever to load. Little by little, everything starts to act sluggish.
If your Mac is running painfully slow and you want to find out how to free up RAM, keep reading this guide. You can speed up your computer again with success.
1. Shut Down Or Restart Your Mac
Although Mac computers start up quickly, most owners find it time-consuming to shut their system off unless there’s an update and prefer to leave the Mac in sleep mode.
Doing this can impact the speed of your Mac over time, especially if you have a lot of applications open.
Shutting off your PC or restarting it should be the first thing to try when you want to free up your RAM. By doing this, you allow all data on the OS to be wiped clean.
This resets your RAM by getting rid of applications, programs, and processes you have open in the background.
Everything that is open on a Mac takes up RAM whether or not you are using it actively. Shutting down or restarting the Mac allows you to start fresh.
2. Clear Cache
You can fix a slow Mac by clearing your cache too. Every time you open or download something, you take up space.
Clearing cache can make the biggest difference if you are guilty of never clearing history on your browser.
Some Mac users keep several tabs on their browsers and only add on to them. While it’s nice to log in a site that stores your login information or refer back to your days, months, or years of history when you need, you eventually take up memory as well as space.
The very cache you keep to store or download information to make loading pages faster may cause everything to run slowly when there’s too much cache. Clear your cache with ease on Safari or use a cache cleaning app for Mac.
3. Track Memory And Close Certain Applications
You can track your memory and see how much RAM you are using on a Mac by opening the Activity Monitor (click on “applications” then “utilities”). You will notice a “Memory Tab” to see all active processes.
If you have a lot of applications open or see applications that you are not using but did not close, you can end the task yourself.
Looking at the memory tab often also helps give you an idea of how much RAM you use. When you buy a Mac, the amount of RAM you get is important because it determines how much memory capacity a Mac can handle. Most Macs come with 8GB of RAM.
Check out the following link if you are confused about how much RAM you need in order to get the best out of a Mac: https://setapp.com/lifestyle/how-much-ram-do-you-need
4. Fix The Finder
When you look at your Finder and see an “All My Files” or “Recents” tab, it may be worth changing it as all data about the location of those files are stored as RAM. You can do this by opening Finder and clicking on preferences. You should see a general folder.
Pick a folder you want to be shown when you open another Finder window. Relaunch the Finder after this for it to take effect.
You can also reduce RAM usage by closing multiple Finder windows that are open. Minimizing the Finder and leaving it to the side does not take away that it is still in use.
It’s best to close them. Alternatively, you could also merge Finder folders into one. This will also help you free up RAM.
5. Remove Login Items
Login items are programs your Mac will start up on its own everything the system starts up. Most login items are there by default and are necessary for operation.
There are some you add to the startup list on your own, and there are others that launch in the background without your knowledge.
When you need to free up RAM, you want to find out exactly what login items are running and remove anything that is unnecessary. Doing this can bring things up to speed, especially if there is a specific login item that is causing your Mac to perform slowly.
You can remove login items by opening the “System Preferences” in your Mac and selecting “Users and Groups.” You should see your nickname on the left. When you click it, you will see a “Login Items” tab. Browse through it to see programs you deem unnecessary.
After you press the “-” sign, the application(s) you removed will no longer load on Mac. As a note, you can always access those items when you need them, but they won’t start up on their own anymore.
Learning How To Free up Ram When Your MAC Is Acting Sluggish
You may want to throw in the towel and have your Mac looked at by a professional or get a new Mac altogether when it’s running slow. This isn’t a sign you need to pay someone to fix it or toss it out.
When your Mac is operating slow, it’s a sign to let you know that you are operating too much RAM.
Once you find out how to free up RAM, you can fix the problem in no time. All you need to do is troubleshoot a little bit to see which problem you have.
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