Memory For Mac
Oct 07, 2019 Choose Apple menu About This Mac, then click Storage. This is an overview of available storage space on your Mac, as well as the space used by different categories of files: Click the Manage button to open the Storage Management window, pictured below. (The Manage button is available only in macOS Sierra or later.). If you have recently upgraded your Mac RAM, or if you are experiencing strange system crashes, it’s a good idea to test your memory modules integrity using a free tool called memtest. Essentially, memtest is a utility designed to stress test RAM for errors. Without getting overly technical in the. Memory When you get your Mac, you don’t want to be restricted because your machine comes standard with the bare minimum memory. When it comes to system performance, memory matters. This is why we often load up and max out our upgraded machines with as much as memory as we can. Jan 01, 2019 Hello, New to the forums and to Macs in general. I have a question that I'm hoping someone can help clear up for me. I have a 2009 Mac pro that. This is the most important indicator that your Mac may need more RAM. Physical Memory: The amount of RAM installed in your Mac. Memory Used: The total amount of memory currently used by all apps and macOS processes. App Memory: The total amount of memory currently used by apps and their processes.
Memory When you get your Mac, you don’t want to be restricted because your machine comes standard with the bare minimum memory. When it comes to system performance, memory matters. This is why we often load up and max out our upgraded machines with as much as memory as we can. A memory stick (also known as flash drive or thumb drive) is used to store data in a convenient, portable way. Transferring data to or from these devices is quick and easy. Connect the device to your computer, find it on your desktop, then click and drag your files.
“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.
First, remove desktop clutter. Get a combination of Setapp apps that clear away unneeded desktop files.
Download Declutter Free“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 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, 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
Open 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 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.
The easiest way to do it (without racking your brain with system settings) is via CleanMyMac X app:
- Download it for free and go to Optimization tab.
- Click on the right panel to remove unwanted login items.
- Click Perform.
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 memory on your Mac — just see for yourself.
In this way you’ll free up the solid amount of memory on your Mac — 100% free of charge.
Tip # 2. Tune up Chrome’s Task Manager
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.
Go to Chrome settings (dotted icon in the top right corner)
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 reduce memory usage on 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. Disable Dashboard widgets
As of 2017, Dashboard functionality looks somewhat obsolete as there are standalone apps for most of the tasks the Dashboard offers. If you turn it off you won’t really lose anything, and that should additionally reduce memory usage on your Mac. A quick way to do it is via System Preferences app.
Go to System Preferences.. -> Mission Control
In the dropdown menu next to Dashboard choose Off. This completely switches off the Dashboard. Bye-bye Dashboard, you were great once ago.
Tip # 5. Reduce memory usage in Finder
There is a simple trick that can save you about 1 GB of RAM previously eaten by Finder. By default preferences, your Finder is set to search across all your files when you’re browsing folders. In other words, Finder has to remember the path to all these files and keep them in RAM which is an excessive burden to your Mac.
Memory For Mac Mini 2018
Click Finder
In the top menu Go to Finder -> Preferences…
Open General tab
Use the dropdown menu to set any other location except All My Files. For example, you can set it to Downloads or whatever folder you like. Now close Finder.
The last step is to relaunch Finder: double-click it while holding Option button and choose Relaunch.
Congratulations, you’ve just saved a bit of RAM for your Mac.
Tip # 6. 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 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.
- Go to the Maintenance tab on the left.
- Click Free Up RAM.
- Click Run.
As simple as that!
And you can do it even with a free version of the app.
Tip # 7. Remove browser extensions
Plugins, add-ons, and 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 three-dot burger menu.
At this point, you may not even be aware 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.
So, how to free up RAM on Mac? Simple: in order to root out extensions, widgets, and add-ons completely, 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. For example, below are the extensions I’ve found built in my Safari browser.
To delete browser extensions:
1. Open CleanMyMac app.
2. Go to Extensions module.
3. Choose extensions you want to delete.
Tip # 8. 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.
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.
Best format for external hard drive. Mar 15, 2018 When you connect a Mac-formatted drive to Windows, you’ll be informed that “you need to format the disk in drive X: before you can use it.” Don’t click the “Format disk” button or Windows will erase the contents of the drive–click “Cancel”! This message appears because Windows doesn’t understand Apple’s HFS+ file system. Jul 05, 2017 How to Format a Drive on a Mac. If you want to use a different file system on your USB drive, you’ll need to “format” it. Again, formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep. To format a drive. Aug 22, 2019 The first technique to format write protected USB drive is by using the Registry Editor on Windows. It is a dedicated system utility tool that stores all the vital details and parameters related to Windows settings. To learn how to format write protected. Find out how to format an External drive or USB disk making the drive work with both Windows PC and Mac can read and write. You will learn the easiest way to format drive on Mac and Windows as exFAT.
- Replace AdBlock (very memory-demanding) with a lighter extension
- Keep fewer opened tabs in 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.