iCreate - UK (2019-08)

In Disk Utility you can also partition your Mac hard drive so that it can run two

separate operating systems, like the new macOS Catalina beta, perhaps?

Wehavealreadymentioned that certain special effects can place

anincreasedworkloadon your Mac’s system – especially if it is

alreadyworkingtothelimits of the latest macOS requirements

anddoesn’thaveloadsof RAM – but there are other features you

candisabletooin orderto speed things up...

1

LimitSpotlight

ManypeoplefindSpotlighta useful

tool,butindexingdisks,especially

mechanicalonesin olderMacs,is slow.Go

toSystemPreferences>Spotlight>Search

Resultsanddisableanycategoriesthat

youdon’tneedtosearchin.

2

Ignore disks

Stillin theSpotlightsettings,clickon

the‘Privacy’tab,thenclickonthe‘+’icon

andthenselectanydisksthatyoudon’t

wantincludedin theSpotlightsearch,

suchasconnectedbackupdisksand

USBdrives.

3

Disable FileVault

Anything that makes work for the

CPU will slow your Mac down. Encrypting

your Disk is great for security but it will

slow down your Mac – go to System

Preferences>Security & Privacy>FileVault

and try turning it off.

UseDiskUtility

YouwillfindtheDiskUtility

appin yourMac’sUtilities

folderin Applications.Open

it, clickon‘FirstAid’andthen

click‘Run’to checkyourMac

HDforerrors.

Checktheusage

DiskUtilityis usefulfor

checkinghowmuchspaceis

usedandtheremainingfree

space.Makesureyoudon’t

letthefreespacefallbelow

5GBforoptimumspeed.

Selecta disk

A diskmaybedividedintoseveral

partitions.Selectthebootvolumeand

checkit withFirstAidto makesureit is

okay.AlsoselectexternalUSBdrives

andcheckthose.

FirstAid

Problemswiththedrive

hardwareareveryrareand

mostdiskproblemsarewith

thefilingsystem.Errorscan

slowdowntheMac,soclick

on‘FirstAid’to fixthem.

Viewthedetails

Severaltestsareperformedonthe

disk.Youcanclick‘ShowDetails’

to viewa detailedreportof each

one.If allof theerrorsarenotfixed

thenrunFirstAidagain.

Use Disk Utility to spot errors

Limit Mac features

Restrict key features to help speed up your Mac

Use Terminal to kill

animations

As well as disabling Mojave’s Dynamic

Desktop you can also use your

Terminal app to halt other unnecessary

animations that your Mac performs...

Dock animations

Enter: defaults write com.apple.dock

launchanim -bool false

Quick-look animations

Enter: defaults write -g

QLPanelAnimationDuration -float 0

Window animations

Enter: defaults write NSGlobalDomain

NSAutomaticWindowAnimationsEnabled

-bool false

Run First Aid on all of your drives to fix any problems