MacFormat UK – June 2019

FEATURE Speed up your Mac 

These long-standing practices may be a waste of time...

macformat.com @macformat

Do I need to defrag my drive?

> In short, no. The theory

behind defragmenting

a hard disk is that they

work best when files are

stored contiguously on

the drive, rather than in

fragments all over it.

Defragmentation also

creates contiguous space.

However, macOS is good

at making sure there is

contiguous free space on

a hard drive and doesn’t

need defragmenting.

Also, the technique is only

effective on spinning hard

disks, and can shorten

the life of an SSD.

Will an antimalware tool be a drag?

> No, not in any noticeable

way. Antimalware tools

work by scanning your

Mac and comparing with

a database of known

threats. If anything is

found, the tool will warn

you and offer to remove

it, or do so automatically,

depending on how it’s

configured. Some tools

scan more quickly than

others, but they still

work in the background

and shouldn’t impact

performance – unless

you’re doing something

very demanding.

Does closing apps help?

> Only in very specific

circumstances. Generally,

if an app is sitting in

the background doing

nothing, it shouldn’t be

consuming processor

(CPU) cycles and its use

of memory should be very

limited. However, apps

can misbehave and leech

memory. If your Mac is

running slowly, follow the

advice in the section on

Activity Monitor (p23) to

identify whether any app

is consuming more than

its fair share of CPU or

memory. If it is, quitting

and reopening it should

solve the problem.

Does closing tabs help?

> For most web pages,

closing browser tabs

won’t noticeably improve

the performance of your

Mac. Modern browsers

like Safari run each tab

in its own sandbox –

a separate process – so

if a web page is poorly

coded it shouldn’t affect

the whole browser, just

that tab. It’s possible,

particularly on web pages

that still use Flash, one

open tab could hog lots

of resources, including

battery life, and cause

fans on a MacBook to kick

in, slowing it down. Again,

check Activity Monitor.

Should I turn off visual effects?

> Disabling effects is often

recommended as a way of

speeding up your Mac,

but on modern Macs

running a recent version

of macOS, it won’t make

much difference. Unless

you don’t like visual

effects, keep them on;

it’s not worth the bother

for the tiny gain. If your

Mac is old – say, seven

years old or more —

you may notice a small

improvement by ticking

‘Reduce transparency’ in

 > System Preferences >

Accessibility > Display.

Should I keep the desktop clear?

> Yes, but perhaps not

for the reason you think.

Conventional wisdom has

it that because macOS

treats every desktop icon

as a window that has to

be redrawn every time

the desktop changes,

keeping lots of files on

the desktop consumes

lots of memory. The truth

is that on a modern Mac

the impact, even of a lot

of clutter, is minimal.

The best reason to keep

it clear of files is it’s much

easier to find things that

are filed neatly.

26 | MACFORMAT | JUNE 2019

Speed-up myths debunked