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Natrauss's avatar
Natrauss
Copper Contributor
Apr 17, 2026

How to speed up macbook air as it is very slow

My MacBook has become very slow lately, and I am not sure what to do to make it run faster. It takes a long time to start up, apps open slowly, and sometimes the whole system feels laggy even when I ...
Truetto's avatar
Truetto
Copper Contributor
Apr 17, 2026

How to speed up a slow Mac? Your Mac has built-in daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance scripts that clean out temporary files, rotate logs, and repair permissions. Normally, these only run if your Mac is awake and plugged in between 3–5 AM. If you shut down at night, they never run.

The zero-effort fix:

Leave your MacBook Air plugged in, powered on, and asleep (not shut down) overnight. Do this for two consecutive nights. The scripts will run automatically, cleaning out system junk that slows things down.

This is completely native — no software, no manual clicking.

If you are still looking for a way about how to speed up a slow Mac? Safari has an obscure built-in feature that automatically unloads memory-heavy tabs and clears stale website data when system memory runs low. You just need to turn it on once:

  • Open Safari > Settings > Advanced
  • Turn on "Show features for web developers"
  • From the Develop menu (appears in the menu bar), select "Disable Caches" (this forces Safari to fetch fresh data, avoiding bloated cache buildup)

 

Also in Develop menu, enable "Memory Pressure Notification" — Safari will then silently drop old tab data when your Mac is struggling.