If your Mac is suddenly slow, you may have one or more issues that need to be fixed to get it up to speed. Nobody likes a slow computer, much less a Mac where its structure and architecture are in line with the operating system and software so that, being more closed, a better user experience is ensured without bottlenecks.
If your Mac is slow, there are several dozen problems that can happen, but there are many that you can do at home, without having to call Apple support. But let's go to the first thing you can do to make your Mac go faster: clean it up.
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Clean up files on your Mac
This step is fairly straightforward in principle, but it can be long. Look at all your personal file folders and delete all the ones you don't need. be it photos, movies, videos, images ... If you have been accumulating files that you were only going to use once or for a short time and you have not remembered to delete it, you may have made go to your Slow mac making it load files that you are not going to take advantage of. The same goes for your shows and games.
It's always good to clean up your computer, and that includes Macs. So take out the Marie Kondo digital you have and start removing what you don't need. It also looks for if a program is accumulating logs and cache records that it does not use and in the long run they are occupying several MB or GB of space based on accumulating small files that are not deleted.
Cleaning should also be done on your desk. The files on the desktop are saved as windows, which saves redundant files in folders, eliminates the ones you don't use and keep the minimum you need to operate. There is nothing wrong with having recurring files within folders within other folders. It is all a matter of organization so that MacOS does not have to load files that you are not going to use in the background. You should also clean the browser of extensions that you do not use, because despite not being used, they load and make your Mac slow.
The general idea is that you remove everything that your Mac should not load for its essential use. You may have to back up or spend hours deciding which files to remove, but it is the easiest and most accessible solution for many users.
Tuning a slow Mac
The problem may go beyond simply having too many files. There are several ways to do a little tune-up on your Mac.
Optimize hard drive storage
This is because the files on your Mac are not organized so that they are close together in sections of the hard drive, something that is not the case with SSDs. To fix this problem, simply go to the Storage section of About This Mac, and click on the optimize storage section. This will organize your hard drive and defragment it.
Update your software
You may be running an outdated version of MacOS. Given this you can simply download the new version. Go to the Apple menu and go to About This Mac and go to the software update option. This should be done every year, which is when Apple releases an update, which each one is usually done to prevent Mac from slowing down due to optimization and security problems that are revealed according to their use.
Avoid background loading at startup
Your Mac may be loading applications in the background that you don't use right after startup. In your System Preferences user, the Startup Items section will give you a list of applications that start as soon as you start the computer. Turn off the ones you don't need right away and it'll make your Mac go a bit faster by not having to load programs at startup.
Try to improve your hardware
This is a slightly more expensive solution, but you may just have outdated hardware for MacOS needs and that's why your Mac runs slow. See if you can add more RAM, or swap the hard drive for an SSD. It is possible to make these changes at home without affecting the integrity of MacOs on architecture and mounting.
However, none of these tips may be worth it and your Mac is simply far from fast again. It is time to completely renew the hardware.
Speed up your Mac on a day-to-day basis
After these steps, there are still little things you can do to keep your Mac from slowing down. Try not to accumulate many windows, because they continue to consume resources in the background even if you do not use them. The same with the browser tabs, and if you need yes or yes many, use Chrome or Firefox extensions such as The Great Suspender that make the browser consume less resources by deactivating tabs.
Make sure that background applications have stopped consuming resources with the task manager by eliminating the tasks of apps that you do not need at the moment.
