Mac Inside & Out · Activity Monitor & Storage · Lesson 5 of 5

Challenge: Nadia's Full MacBook

Speed up a friend's slow MacBook with a nearly full disk.

A slow MacBook and a warning

Your friend Nadia has a MacBook that has become very slow. Apps take ages to open, and the battery is low by lunchtime. This morning a message said her disk is almost full, and a macOS update would not install.

She asks you to take a look. You decide to go one calm step at a time, using only the tools built into the Mac. No cleaner apps, and no strangers on the phone.

First, you want to see what is keeping the Mac busy. You press Command+Space and open Activity Monitor. You click the CPU tab and sort by % CPU.

A video converter app she thought she closed hours ago is still at the top. It is using a huge share of the processor, and it won't quit the normal way.

Too many apps at login

With the converter closed, the Mac feels a little better. You click the Memory tab. The Memory Pressure graph is yellow.

Nadia says she rarely uses half the apps that seem to be running. You open System Settings, then General, then Login Items & Extensions.

Six apps open at login: two game launchers, a chat app, a music app, a photo editor and her antivirus. You suggest taking most of them off the list, one at a time.

Finding the missing space

Now for the full disk. You open System Settings, then General, then Storage.

The Info button next to Documents shows 40 GB of old installers and videos in her Downloads folder. The Trash also holds 12 GB of files she deleted last month. A gray part of the bar is labeled System Data.

Nadia saw an ad for an app that promises to "clean System Data". She asks if she should buy it.

The last problem: battery

Nadia deletes the old installers and videos from Downloads. Then she empties the Trash. The Storage bar now shows over 50 GB free. The macOS update installs, and the Mac restarts.

So the Trash doesn't fill up again, you turn on the recommendation that erases old Trash items after 30 days.

One problem is left. Her battery still runs down by lunchtime. You want to see which apps used the most power over the past few hours, so you open Activity Monitor once more.