How to Make Your Mac Boot Faster


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Just like humans and animals, gadgets also age. Most, if not all, computers start to slow down after a couple of years. It’s not just the age that affects your computers this way but also how you use them in the first place. You’ll notice that your Mac might be starting to boot much slower than it used to over time. However, there are a few things you can do to speed things up and make your Mac boot faster.

How to Make Your Mac Boot Faster

  1. Upgrade to an SSD drive.

One of the best ways to make your Mac boot faster is to upgrade your hard drive to an SSD drive. It’s the latest generation of a hard drive that uses memory on a chip. An SSD drive does not contain any moving parts so you won’t hear the usual whirring sound that a regular hard drive makes. It makes your Mac run and perform much faster and this includes boot time. Of course, if you have the newer versions, you’ve got an SSD drive built-in already.

  1. Close all apps before shutting down.

If you’re currently using the newer versions of macOS, then you’d know that Macs automatically open all apps from when they were last shut down. This means that all the apps that you did not quit before shutting down would automatically be reopened when you reboot. This makes your Mac work much harder than it should during boot time.

There are two ways to remedy this scenario. First, you can simply quit all apps on your Mac before you shut it down. That way, no apps would be reopened when you boot your Mac. Second, simply change your settings and disable the automatic reopening of apps. This would stop your Mac from automatically opening apps and would make it boot faster.

  1. Free up memory space on your hard drive.

It’s common for your Mac to run slower if its hard disk is full of memory. Freeing up disk space would let your Mac perform faster and smoother. Try to free up your memory on your hard disk by at least 10%. Better yet, make it 25% just so you can see the difference in your Mac’s speed. This will improve your disk performance and help make your Mac boot faster.

  1. Declutter your desktop.

Believe it or not, how clean your desktop is also matters in this regard. Every time your Mac boots, it has to load every single icon or file on your desktop. Hence, if you have hundreds of icons on your desktop, your Mac will naturally take a longer time to boot up. Organizing your desktop and making sure that there’s only a limited number of icons in there would definitely help make your Mac boot faster.

  1. Remove unnecessary startup items.

Your Mac automatically uses and loads certain drivers and add-ons when it turns on. However, you don’t necessarily need some of these. Removing them would help make your Mac boot faster. Among these items are login items, which you can edit and remove in your System Preferences under Users and Groups.

  1. Increase your memory.

As mentioned earlier, memory space affects your Mac’s performance and speed. If you’ve already removed all unnecessary apps and files from your Mac and you still don’t have enough memory space, you might have to increase your disk’s memory capacity. You can also opt to use external hard drives for files that you don’t constantly need to be in your Mac.

  1. Remove unnecessary apps.

Some apps on your Mac that you might not even be using may also be hogging memory space. Review all apps on your Mac and remove apps that you don’t use anymore. This includes some “virus checkers” as well as “Mac cleaners.” More often than not, these apps take up a lot of memory in your drive. It not only takes up memory space and but also slows down your Mac’s performance. Removing them from your Mac would help speed up its performance and make it boot faster.

These are only some of the things you can do to make your Mac boot faster. If these don’t work and your Mac is also already old, you might have to consider replacing it. After all, Macs can only last for so long before it becomes outdated. An upgrade might be in order.


Kokou Adzo

Kokou Adzo is a stalwart in the tech journalism community, has been chronicling the ever-evolving world of Apple products and innovations for over a decade. As a Senior Author at Apple Gazette, Kokou combines a deep passion for technology with an innate ability to translate complex tech jargon into relatable insights for everyday users.

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