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“No matter what I do, my Mac is still slow”, an average tech-consultant hears this phrase multiple times a day. Give a person even the most powerful computer, and pretty soon it will be cluttered with apps, extensions and things that are too much for it to handle. To reverse it, one has to go back and сlean up the mess, removing memory agents one by one. Prepare for a fight — every byte of memory is at stake. So let’s put your Mac on a diet and get it more free RAM to breathe freely.

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First, remove desktop clutter. Get a combination of Setapp apps that clear away unneeded desktop files.

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“Your system has run out of application memory”

How do you know your Mac is low on memory? Floating “rainbow wheels” aside, you may notice your Mac now takes ages to load. You’ll also see many browser applications crashing. You’ll be also thrown warning messages as “Your system has run out of application memory”. To help it, you should first visit the Activity monitor to see memory usage on Mac.

How to open Activity Monitor on Mac

Go to Applications and type in Activity Monitor in the search bar. This invokes a good old Activity Monitor that should tell how much free memory you’ve got left.

A shortcut to open Activity Monitor:

Press F4 and start typing Activity Monitor in the search bar.

I’ve attached a screenshot from my Mac and as you can see my memory usage almost reached full capacity. Here’s what it all means:

App memory: taken by apps and processes
Wired memory: reserved by apps, can’t be freed up
Compressed: inactive, can be used by other apps
Swap used: memory used by macOS
Cached files: memory you can really use

Notice the colored graph under Memory Pressure. If your graph is all but red and yellow, your Mac is really gasping for fresh memory. It seems counter-intuitive, but “available memory” your Activity Monitor is not that important after all. In fact, it’s a system intended behavior to use all memory resources when available. On the contrary, the Memory Pressure graph is much more telling, so grow a habit to check this graph in the Activity Monitor every now and then.

How to check CPU usage on Mac

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Open the CPU tab in Activity Monitor to keep in check CPU-heavy processes. Normally an app would be using 0-4% of CPU. If it takes abnormally more than that, go inside that particular item in the list and press the Quit button.

Tip # 1. Remove Login Items to lower Mac memory usage

Login items are programs that load automatically upon Mac startup. Some of them covertly add themselves to the list and this is no good. If you’re looking to free up RAM, they are the first candidates for deletion. Don’t worry, you’re not deleting the app itself, you just stop it from auto-launching every time.

So, to remove Login Items and at the same time reduce your memory usage of your Mac, you need to:

  1. Open System Preferences and select Users & Groups.
  2. Click your nickname on the left.
  3. Select the Login Items tab.
  4. Check programs you don’t want to load as your Mac starts.
  5. Press the “–” sign below.

Now, you won’t see these apps pop up the moment you turn on your Mac. Although this method doesn’t require some superpowers of yours, some special Mac optimization and memory cleaner tools may do the job faster and ensure the smooth performance of your Mac. CleanMyMac X is an excellent example of such software. Here’s how to disable Login Items with CleanMyMac X:

  1. Download it for free and go to the Optimization tab.
  2. Check Login Items to see the list of apps that get opened when you start your Mac.
  3. Click Remove.

As you’ve already come to the Optimization module of CleanMyMac, you can also fix hung apps and heavy memory consumers there. In this way, you’ll free up the solid amount of RAM on Mac — 100% free of charge.

Tip # 2. Tune up Chrome’s Task Manager

Although Google Chrome is not the one to blame for massive memory usage, it can indeed affect your Mac's performance. If you use Chrome as your primary browser, you probably have many windows opened there. Chrome runs a lot of processes to ensure a fast browsing experience for you. So, it uses your RAM for storing your tabs, plugins, and extensions. Look at how many entries Google Chrome has in Activity Monitor:

The question then arises, 'Why does Chrome use so much RAM?' The thing is that each process is responsible for a separate plugin or extension of your browser. For example, when a tab unexpectedly falls, you need to refresh it to continue your work there. If one process were responsible for all tabs and extensions, you would need to restart the whole browser instead. Can you imagine how many times would you do that? That’s the proper answer why Chrome uses so much RAM.

I’ve been using Chrome for some years only to discover (recently) that Chrome had a task manager of its own. You can use it to force quit memory-heavy processes in the browser. It’s a handy tool because it lets you see how a page weighs on CPU usage on a Mac.

  1. Go to Chrome settings (dotted icon in the top right corner)
  2. Click More tools -> Task Manager

To free up even more RAM, close the GPU process. The GPU Process, though helpful in theory to accelerate pages, eats up a considerable amount of memory. Click to end it to free up RAM on your Mac.

Tip # 3. Clean up your Desktop

This tip always comes at the bottom of instructions and unfairly so as it is quite effective. Without even looking at your Desktop I would assume it’s cluttered with mountains of icons. Thing is, your macOS was designed in a way that it treats every Desktop icon as a little active window. The more icons, the heavier memory usage on Mac. So in order to release available memory resources, it’s recommended to keep your Desktop clean.

You don’t have to do it all by yourself. With apps like Declutter and Spotless, every desktop cleaning session will be scheduled in advance and executed automatically. Your only job is to define the rules on how your files should be organized.

Tip #4. Clear cache files

Another way to free up RAM on Mac is to clear it of cache files. Of course, it won’t save you gigabytes of space, but deleting cache regularly, you can help your Mac run faster and avoid system issues.

So, to remove cache files on your Mac, you need to:

  1. Open Finder.
  2. From the Go menu, select Go to Folder.
  3. Type ~/Library/Caches in the field and press Go.
  4. In the window that appears, you will see all your cache files.
  5. Press Command+A to select all files or delete files one by one.
  6. Enter your user name and password to confirm.

If you find some files still in the folder after you emptied it, maybe you have some windows open on your Mac. Just like that, you can save up some space on your Mac. Don’t forget to empty the bin afterward.

Tip # 5. Free up disk space if Mac is low on memory

The available space on your Mac’s drive translates into virtual memory. This comes to save you when you’ve run out of physical RAM. So now your computer relies on your hard drive space to keep your apps going.

The classic geek rule of thumb holds it that you should keep at least 20% of disk space on your startup drive. Not only this potentially reduces your future spending on iCloud storage but it also keeps your Mac speedier.

What to delete to free up space:

  • Large unused files, like movies
  • Old downloads
  • Rarely used applications
  • System junk

But here’s a simpler solution to save your time — clean up your drive with CleanMyMac X — the app I’ve mentioned above. Many users recommend it as an excellent way to free up more space because it searches for large & old files, useless system files, Photo junk, mail attachments and shows everything you can safely delete. Interestingly, it finds about 74 GB of junk on an average computer.

Extra trick: How to free up RAM on Mac with CleanMyMac X

If you have downloaded CleanMyMac, you may also take advantage of its amazing feature — the ability to free up RAM in a few seconds. Try this next time you see “Your system has run out of application memory” message.

  1. Go to the Maintenance tab on the left.
  2. Click Free Up RAM.
  3. Click Run.

As simple as that!

And you can do it even if you download a free version of the app.

Tip # 6. Remove browser extensions

Plugins, add-ons, and the rest of extra tools atop your browser may alter your Mac’s behavior. Gmail alone could take up the appreciable amount of your RAM. And when the extensions are too many they seriously slow your Mac down. How to remove them? Each browser goes about it differently, but you would typically find them in Settings under a three-dot burger menu.

At this point, you may not even be aware of what widgets and plugins your browser is dragging behind. Today there are coming numerous reports of websites secretly mining bitcoins while you’re browsing their page, thus earning money at the cost of your RAM.

If you’re using Safari, deleting extensions may be easier than you think. You just need to open Safari and select Preferences from the Safari menu on the top-right. In the Extensions tab, select the extension you want to remove and click Uninstall. If you have a massive number of extensions, removing all of them may be time-consuming. That’s why it may be easier to go with an automatic solution.

An app I’ve mentioned before, CleanMyMac X has a special module to conveniently remove all the “extras” from your Mac. An Uninstaller module allows you to remove all apps you downloaded when you added extensions to the Safari browser.

  1. Open CleanMyMac app.
  2. Go to the Uninstaller module.
  3. Choose apps you want to delete and click Uninstall.

You can as well uninstall all extensions from Safari. Just go to the Extensions tab in CleanMyMac X and remove all extensions in one click!

Tip # 7. How to free up RAM on Mac: Close Finder windows

Okay, suppose you’re still asking yourself, how do I clear RAM on my MacBook Pro/MacBook Air. The next trick is as magical (you’ll see for yourself) as it is time-saving. It’s no secret that each window in the Finder eats up RAM. But how many open windows are there? Some of them are collapsed or stacked in some blind spot on your screen. This Finder command merges all your windows into one. See how to do it:

Click on Finder > Window > Merge All Windows

Now you can manage Finder windows more effectively and free up memory on MacBook.

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What else you can do to minimize memory usage on Mac

I’ve saved the easiest tips for the end, as long as these ones are self-explanatory.

  • Replace AdBlock (very memory-demanding) with a lighter extension
  • Keep fewer opened tabs in the browser
  • Restart your Mac more often to free up RAM
  • Close all hung-up print queues

That was my take on how to make your Mac a bit speedier to use. If you’re looking for more guidance, check simple ways to speed up your Mac.

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Your Mac's desktop is where you do a lot of your work. Many of us have a tendency to use it to keep files we access frequently, piling them on until your desktop becomes a hot mess. Do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to clean up your Mac desktop, then use these tips to keep it tidy in the future.

How to organize desktop items into folders on Mac

Rather than just leaving every file on the desktop, group them into folders. Folders make it easier to keep track of related items.

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  1. Right click any blank space on your desktop background.

  2. Click New Folder. You can also use the Command-Shift-N keyboard shortcut.

  3. Click on the new folder that just appeared.
  4. Hit enter on your keyboard.

  5. Type a name for the folder.

Now you can drag any items you want into that new folder.

How to align and sort desktop items automatically on Mac

If you feel you need some sort of structure to the way your folders and files are placed, your Mac can help you automatically sort your files into a nice and tidy grid by specific types of files.

  1. Right click any blank space on your desktop background.

  2. Click on Clean Up By.

  3. Choose the option you want. Your options are as follows:

    • Name
    • Kind
    • Date Modified
    • Date Created
    • Size

    • Tags

How to keep all your desktop files in a grid formation on Mac

If you find your desktop has lost all structure and files are in every corner, you can easily snap all the files and folders back into a grid formation at any time.

  1. Right click any blank space on your desktop background.
  2. Click on Sort By.

  3. Click Snap to Grid.

Now, until you change it, all your files will always snap to a grid. If you want to reverse it, you can follow the same steps listed above.

How to adjust the size of desktop icons on Mac

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If you think the icons on your screen are too small or too big, you can easily change their size.

  1. Right click any blank space on your desktop background.
  2. Click Show View Options.

  3. Adjust the icon size with the slider.

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How to change the grid spacing on the desktop on Mac

  1. Right click any blank space on your desktop background.
  2. Click Show View Options.

  3. Adjust the grid spacing with the slider.

Questions?

Want to know anything else? Let us know in the comments below!

Originally published June 2015. Updated Nov 2016 to reflect changes in macOS

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