'Why is my Mac so slow?' we hear you say to yourself. Stay right where you are if you want to get some great tips from those who really know. Let's kick off with 3 of them - plus something extra.
A full hard drive
It could be you've had your Mac for a while now, or at least a couple of years or more - and you have the hard drive to show for it. Your Mac actually needs about 20% free hard disk to work its best. If an issue is present, there's a way to be sure. Click on 'About This Mac' to open up a summary window of your Mac's memory, processor, graphics, and other features. Navigate the tabs at the top of this window and click 'Storage'. Once here, you can see an overview of your 'Macintosh HD' hard drive storage and which things are taking up the most space. Click 'Manage' to reveal some further helpful options, such as 'Empty Trash Automatically' and 'Reduce Clutter'. No doubt Apple's in-built tools are helpful, but it's worth pointing out that CCleaner for Mac can help remove hidden, lurking cache and temporary files that can take up valuable space on your hard drive, possibly more than you realize. We think it's much easier than Mac's standard tool for cleaning files like these, especially because CCleaner can manage multiple aspects of your Mac's maintenance in one place.
Nov 15, 2015 The same thing is happening in the App Store, with download speeds averaging around 256 kilobytes per second. I have tried changing the DNS to both Open DNS and Google Public DNS, and none of them seem to fix the problem. Again, I am having extremely slow download speeds only in Apple applications.
The reason this may improve download speeds is that DNS servers may return endpoints to Apple's CDN according to the location they think you are coming from. If you use a general one (not one from your ISP, or otherwise close to your location) you may get a CDN endpoint that is not optimal for you, resulting in slow/stalled downloads. Check Your Internet Connection. The App Store is an internet-dependent service. And though you’re less likely to face download issues, such as slow downloading speeds, unable to resume download, interrupted download, frequent disconnection, etc., while downloading the Big Sur update via System Preferences or Mac App Store, it’s still probable. It’s possible that the speed is fluctuating or the connection keeps breaking while the Mac App Store tries to download an app. In this case, the download or the update will be slow and give the impression that it is stuck.
Software that's not up to date
Updates can sometimes feel like a nuisance, but they actually play a central role in fixing bugs in your computer software, plus any Mac security issues that might exist on your machine. Missed updates can slow down your Mac too; so if you're currently wondering 'why is my Mac so slow', there's a chance this could be a cause, at least one of them anyway. A good way to ensure you're doing regular updates is to visit the Mac App Store and click on 'Updates' within the App Store's toolbar. For a slightly simpler method, visit your Mac's 'System Preferences' and then go to the App Store settings. Here, you can set it so that it checks for new updates automatically or downloads them in the background once they become available.
Mac App Store El Capitan
Too many startup programs
A Mac that's had a lot of use could also have a lot of apps installed. If you're also thinking 'why is my Mac so slow when it starts up', it could be that a lot of these apps launch automatically each time this happens. Processes from these apps can run in the background and bog down your system performance as soon as you start your computer. Annoying - to say the least.
macOS gives you a tool to fix this yourself. To do this, go to your 'System Preferences' and then 'Users & Groups'. Find your username, click it and then go to 'Login Items'. If you've reached this stage, you should be able to identify and choose which apps you don't want to auto-launch each time you start up your Mac. Something you might not know is that, again, CCleaner for Mac provides an easy way to solve this problem too, among other handy features designed to help you out. Perhaps you can guess what the 'something extra' we mentioned, in the beginning, was referring to?
Mac App Store Slow Download Speed
Try out CCleaner for Mac
Mac App Store Very Slow Download
Yes, there may be various helpful, built-in tools so you can look after your Mac, but having one simple, dedicated app that can manage unwanted startup programs and delete junk files to free up hard drive space is a much better long-term solution. That's why we built one. CCleaner for Mac does both these things as well as helping your Mac security by deleting internet files and passwords. It can also help with things like repairing disk permissions to help ensure the smooth operation of your computer. So if you're looking for an answer to the question 'why is my Mac so slow?' the good news is that CCleaner for Mac can help with this in addition to improving your security. Why not try it for free right now?