Nowadays, technologies change at near the speed of light. With each new model, iMac only gets better. As a result, macOS becomes more convenient and faster, and the user experience improves significantly. At the same time, developers in Cupertino remain faithful to the “classical” models of Apple computers. Tim Cook’s company is not hastening to write off two, four or even six years old iMacs. Since they still support modern functions and macOS updates.
Buying new iMac, we all expect to get the highly productive device. Costly hardware with a worldwide-known name should justify our expectations for 100%, right? Unfortunately, over time it also becomes outdated. New applications and tasks require a larger resource, so your monoblock is giving up. So what to do, when you face such a problem as iMac running slow?
Do not rush to get upset and think about buying a new model. In most cases, you can successfully upgrade your old iMac. How to do this? This is exactly what we are talking about today.
Reasons for slow iMac performance
Before getting down to the matter of the article and uncovering the ways to eliminate the problem, let’s examine the reasons for your iMac slowdowns. So, the most common causes of iMac running insanely slow can be:
- Shortage of hard disk space
- High processor usage
- Outdated OS version
- Cluttered desktop
- Negative mechanical impact
- Obsolete iMac model, no Apple software update
How to speed up iMac?
1. Clean up the hard drive. Keeping your iMac’s hard drive clean is a good way to make your device run well.
- To do so, go to the Finder and select any folder. Look at the bottom part of the Finder window. If the amount of free space is less than several GB, you should take appropriate steps. If the number is 0 – urgent actions must be taken.
- To clear a hard disk space, first go to the Downloads folder and delete all unnecessary files and programs there. Next, free up space on the disk. There are special programs that facilitate this process, for example, MacProCleaner. This application scans the system and then graphically shows how much disk space is occupied and by what types of files.
- Use system cleaning up. There are a lot of free and paid utilities to optimize the system. These programs optimize your applications and delete old unused files.
- After the scan process is completed, restart your iMac.
2. Clear or add more random access memory (RAM). If the free hard drive space influences on iMac’s performance indirectly, the factor of RAM affects the speed of the computer straighforwardly. Because of a lack of RAM macOS uses virtual memory, which is much slower than the operating system. What can you do? Basically, you have two options – periodically kill running apps that you do not need at the moment or buy and install additional memory modules.
3. Clean up your Desktop. Thoroughly examine your Desktop for unnecessary stuff. Do you know that all the icons that appear on your desktop take up memory? And those files that you wanted to sort out take hard drive space? So, it is strongly recommended to delete all unnecessary files or move them to a separate folder.
4. Do not forget about updating the software. When updating the software in time, you are guaranteed to use the most current version without bugs and vulnerabilities. Keep in mind that background processes connected with the software update can cause a temporary slowdown of the system. Be patient, install the updates and restart the iMac. Regular updates are the best thing you can do in order to prevent macOS lags.
5. Install the SSD. Your iMac was released before 2012 and still is running on HDD? Replace it with an SSD. You will see right away how the performance of your iMac enhances and how much faster it became. Yes, it will cost you a good buck, but you will probably forget all your money worries once you launch the machine.
There are many various options of using iMac both for work and for entertainment. However, sometimes this monster of modern technologies for different reasons simply cannot properly cope with some tasks. But the distinguishing feature of Apple has always been the stability of macOS and its flexibility when it comes to increasing the system’s productivity using built-in utilities or third-party apps.
Even if for some reason iMac starts to run slowly, it does not lose its uniqueness and optimization capabilities. Thanks to this, new Apple computers are almost completely devoid of “malfunctions” and “hangs” until the end of the life cycle.