My mac seems to be getting slow, what can I do to speed it up?

My iMac seems to be getting slow..I see the "colorful wheel from ****" (as I like to call it) far too often these days. In addition, videos are freezing far more often than they ever did before. It often requires me to restart completely.
Is there anything I can do to fix this?

Step by Step to fix your Mac
Why is my computer slow?
Most commonly used backup methods
If you get pinwheels when off the Internet, it coudl be a failing boot drive or just a few bad sectors as it has a hard time reading from it.
This is a possible cure, it's a lot of work though.
Reducing bad sectors effect on hard drives
How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6

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HT1338 My mac is getting slower - what can I do?

My Mac seems to be getting slower and slower when it is processing, what can I do to clean it up?

See Here...
macworld.com/mac-troubleshooting-what-to-do-when-your -computer-is-too-slow.
Basically... Make sure you have enough Free Hard Drive space for your Mac to Perform as expected...
This is what Apple has to say.
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10798
More Info Here...
ds store > Why is my computer slow?
Thomas A Reed > Mac Performance Guide

Mac book pro is running very slow what can i do to speed it up?

mac book pro is running very slow what can i do to speed it up?

Things You Can Do To Resolve Slow Downs
If your computer seems to be running slower here are some things you can do:
Start with visits to:     OS X Maintenance - MacAttorney;
                                  The X Lab: The X-FAQs;
                                  The Safe Mac » Mac Performance Guide;
                                  The Safe Mac » The myth of the dirty Mac;
                                  Mac maintenance Quick Assist.
Boot into Safe Mode then repair your hard drive and permissions:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions Pre-Lion
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
Repair the Hard Drive - Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the Utilites Menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD disk icon and click on the arrow button below.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
Restart your computer normally and see if this has helped any. Next do some maintenance:
For situations Disk Utility cannot handle the best third-party utility is Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible.
Note: Alsoft ships DW on a bootable DVD that will startup Macs running Snow Leopard or earlier. It cannot start Macs that came with Lion or later pre-installed, however, DW will work on those models.
Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced since Tiger. These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard or later and should not be installed.
OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive.
Helpful Links Regarding Malware Protection
An excellent link to read is Tom Reed's Mac Malware Guide.
Also, visit The XLab FAQs and read Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware.
See these Apple articles:
          Mac OS X Snow Leopard and malware detection
          OS X Lion- Protect your Mac from malware
          OS X Mountain Lion- Protect your Mac from malware
          About file quarantine in OS X
If you require anti-virus protection I recommend using VirusBarrier Express 1.1.6 or Dr.Web Light both from the App Store. They're both free, and since they're from the App Store, they won't destabilize the system. (Thank you to Thomas Reed for these recommendations.)
Troubleshooting Applications
I recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX, Mavericks Cache Cleaner, or Cocktail that you can use for removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc. Corrupted cache, log, or temporary files can cause application or OS X crashes as well as kernel panics.
If you have Snow Leopard or Leopard, then for similar repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the command line. Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard. Applejack does not work with Lion and later.
Basic Backup
For some people Time Machine will be more than adequate. Time Machine is part of OS X. There are two components:
1. A Time Machine preferences panel as part of System Preferences;
2. A Time Machine application located in the Applications folder. It is
    used to manage backups and to restore backups. Time Machine
    requires a backup drive that is at least twice the capacity of the
    drive being backed up.
Alternatively, get an external drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Carbon Copy Cloner
2. Get Backup
3. Deja Vu
4. SuperDuper!
5. Synk Pro
6. Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files. For help with using Time Machine visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.
Referenced software can be found at MacUpdate.
Additional Hints
Be sure you have an adequate amount of RAM installed for the number of applications you run concurrently. Be sure you leave a minimum of 10% of the hard drive's capacity as free space.
Add more RAM. If your computer has less than 2 GBs of RAM and you are using OS X Leopard or later, then you can do with more RAM. Snow Leopard and Lion work much better with 4 GBs of RAM than their system minimums. The more concurrent applications you tend to use the more RAM you should have.
Always maintain at least 15 GBs or 10% of your hard drive's capacity as free space, whichever is greater. OS X is frequently accessing your hard drive, so providing adequate free space will keep things from slowing down.
Check for applications that may be hogging the CPU:
Pre-Mavericks
Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the Processes dropdown menu. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order. If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar. Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process. See if that helps. Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.
Mavericks and later
Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the View menu. Click on the CPU tab in the toolbar. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order. If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar. Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process. See if that helps. Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.
Often this problem occurs because of a corrupted cache or preferences file or an attempt to write to a corrupted log file.

I have a mac pro that is running slow. what can be done?

I have a mac pro that is running slow. what can be done?

Read the last two replies in this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/message/24218682#24218682
Reply here, not there.

My computer seems to be getting slow how can I change this?

I had purchased this computer in 2010 a Mac OS X version 10.6.8 and it seems to be moving slower and slower, also there are certain sites that I can no longer get on to because the page doesn't completly load. Is there any thing that I can do?

1. Reset the PRAM. http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4405
2. Reset the SMC. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
3. Reset Safari. http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5043
4. Empty Safari's Cache.http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5041
5. Power-Cycle your Router. (Power cable out, wait 30secs and back in)
6. Remove the login items. http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4333
These are all general things for you, as your not very specific. Good luck and post back with more info.

Mi mac book pro is too slow what can I do?

My Macbookpro is too slw what can I do?

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then try the action that you're having trouble with again. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

My mac book is extremely slow. what can i do to speed it up?

What should I do to speed up performance on my MacBook. Should I move my music or photos?

Well.....which MacBook? How much ram? Which version of OS X? How much free space on the hard drive? Need more info in order to offer any suggestions.

My MacBook Pro is running increasingly slow - What can I do to speed it up?

My MacBook Pro is starting to run slower. I have used it for about 4 years now. What can be done to improve the speed? I am using the same software most of the time ie: Pages, Numbers and Browsing.

See ds store's excellent user tip - Why is my computer slow? You may gain some insight and solutions from the article.
Clinton

My Mac seems to be running slow, and what I call the rainbow wheel runs longer than I think it should.

My Mac seems to be running slow, and what I call the rainbow wheel, runs much longer than I think it should.

Step by Step to fix your Mac
Why is my computer slow?
Most commonly used backup methods
If you get pinwheels when off the Internet, it coudl be a failing boot drive or just a few bad sectors as it has a hard time reading from it.
This is a possible cure, it's a lot of work though.
Reducing bad sectors effect on hard drives
How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6

My mac is getting slower what to do????

my mac is getting slower what to do????Please

Start with this comprehensive troubleshooting article:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3521
Ciao.
An early 2011 MBP would have 10.6 installed, not 10.5. I assume that is a typographical error or is the MBP model year incorrect?
Message was edited by: OGELTHORPE

My imac seems to be getting slow on the internet. sometimes its good sometimes it acts up. is there anything that I can do to speed things up ?

my imac seems to be getting slow on the internet. sometimes its good, sometimes it acts up. is there anything that I can do to speed things up ? Is there software available to tune up my imac?

If this is Internet related, the slow downs can be caused by increased user activity on your ISP's server.
The more people on your ISP's server doing things on the Internet, the slower your connection will be.
Is there certain times of the day when you notice the Internet is slow?
If so, that's probably the reason.
Also, do you share a connection with anyone else? Either on WiFi or Ethernet?
That will slow your connection, too!
Do you know what your Internet download speeds are?
Not a high enough bandwidth and slow downs will be more evident.
If on a WiFi, is the router you are you using 802.11 B, G, or N speeds?
Might be time from a newer, faster router?

My Mac Pro (2006) seems to be running slow. Can anyone advise me?

My Mac Pro (2006) seems to be running slow. Can anyone advise me?

macworld.com/mac-troubleshooting-what-to-do-when-your -computer-is-too-slow.
Basically... Make sure you have enough Free Hard Drive space for your Mac to Perform as expected...

Can't seem to sync my iphone 4 running ios 7 with itunes 10.6 running on a mac running osx 10.5.8 What can I do to fix this?

can't seem to sync my iphone 4 running ios 7 with itunes 10.6 running on a mac running osx 10.5.8 What can I do to fix this? Is there an itunes update? or How can I return to the previous ios?

To sync an iOS 7 device you need to be running iTunes 11.1.1; iTunes 10.6 is way too old and won't work. You need to install iTunes 11.1.1, but to do that you need to be running at least Mac OS X 10.6.8.
So you need to do the following:
1. Upgrade your Mac to at least OS X 10.6.8 (later preferably, but 10.6.8 at the miniumum).
a. Check first to see if your model Mac can be upgraded, check that it has enough RAM and so forth (2GB at the least, more if possible).
b. If you can't upgrade your Mac, or don't want to, then you will have to buy a new Mac with the latest version of OS X (currently 10.8.5, soon to become 10.9) and iTunes 11.1.1
2. Install iTunes 11.1.1 on your newly upgraded Mac.
3. Sync your iOS 7 iPhone with iTunes.

My Mac is slowing down. What can I do to speed it up?

My Mac is recently showing signs of slowness. What can I do to speed it up? It is MacBook Pro (Non-Retina) Early 2012.

First: check your hard disk's free space is between 1x and 2x your RAM. This is nedded for a good virtual memory operation.
Be sure the HD is OK (check SMART Status in System Profiler) and verify the volume in Disk Utility.
Download Mountain Lion Cache Cleaner and perform:
1)
- premission control
- scripts cleaning
- prebindigs rebuilding
Restart when asked.
2) restart MLCC and perform all & deep cache cleaning.
Restart
The computer should be slow but will become faster as much as you use it.
Be sure the HD is OK (check SMART Status in System Profiler) and verify the volume in Disk Utility.
Good Luck!!!

My Mac has gotten so slow what can I do to bring it back

My Mac has gotten so slow what can I do to bring it back

It would help all of us if you gives us more info about your iMac.

My mac seems to be getting slow, what can I do to speed it up?

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