In reality, these tricks will not increase the speed of the system itself, but rather the de some main applications the same one that we surely use more or less regularly and that can help us to also improve the performance of OS X, where that small improvement should be felt.
Already previously in other different entries we have explained how to carry out a correct maintenance of your Mac and also how fix common problems With a few simple steps, this time we are going to improve the speed in certain applications.
iTunes
iTunes contains your entire multimedia library and as we add more and more files it grows in size As is logical, that is why if after a long time you have ended up with a 'gigantic' library, the performance may have become slow and tedious so sometimes the best thing is to create a second library for that content that we do not use or let us use it very rarely.
- To create a new library, we will hold down the Option key (ALT) and immediately execute iTunes, which will bring up a dialog box where we can choose or create said library.
- We will choose «Create Library» and the name that seems best to us
- iTunes will then open with a completely blank library
- To carry out the exchange of content between the two libraries, something that a priori may seem cumbersome since there is no direct way to do it, we can alleviate it a little bit by creating a playlist with the elements that we intend to transfer from the original to the new one and then simply by dragging and dropping said content to a new folder on the desktop. of communication between libraries is cumbersome as there is no direct way in which to do it. One way is to create a playlist of items that you intend to move from the original library to the new one, and then drag and drop the contents of this playlist into a new folder in whatever location you want and back. to open your new library file by selecting again with ALT, check that everything has been moved and that is when we will proceed to delete the old content of the previous one.
This, although it is not a very efficient or fast way to do it since it will take you a while to select and order if it guarantees a better performance in iTunes and in the system in general, only recommended for when you have a too large library.
Delete files permanently
Maintaining free disk space helps increase the responsiveness of your Mac. The files are not actually removed when you click on delete, the system marks the space they occupy so that they can be rewritten, stopping counting said space as occupied, but the data is still there. That is why the most advisable thing is to permanently erase the free space, achieving an improvement in its management. To do this, follow these steps
- Empty the Trash in the Finder
- Launch Disk Utility in Applications> Utilities> Disk Utility
- Select the HDD of your Mac (By default Macintosh HD)
- Select the Delete tab
- Now click on Clear free space
- You will see a new dialog box appear. The options allow you to choose between the fastest and safest options for writing on unused space.
- Choose faster for time reasons and in most cases it will be sufficient
- Click Clear Free Space
- Now all the content will have been really deleted.
Safari
Although the way Safari handles memory has improved and the browser no longer tries to run Flash video with a built-in economizer unless we give it permission, a few things are still needed to finish fine-tuning this fantastic browser. For example, if we open several tabs or browser windows, we may experience a general performance drop. One way to 'avoid' this is to install a third-party program such as Memory Cleaner or FreeRAMBooster that will keep memory consumption at bay.
Most guides for improving Safari performance suggest clearing the cache, restoring Safari, Clearing bookmarks, removing preferences, or disabling plug-ins. Though the most obvious is that if a significant lag begins to be generated in its use, that is, generalized slowness ... the best solution is to relaunch the application.
Disable preview in Finder
Every time a new Finder window opens on your Mac, preview gets going on the Mac to generate a thumbnail of that file and 'show us2 the content. We can deactivate this to slightly improve performance.
- Finder> View> Show View Options (or CMD + J in Finder)
- Deactivate the Preview Icon option
- In the future, the Mac will not attempt to display icon previews in the Finder.
I have a 2009 mini the 2ghz with 8gb and a 720gb hybrid seagate HD.
68gb in iTunes, something similar in Aperture 3 and it is not slow at all.
Is your mac really drowning? It is true that the hard drives that come standard are slow but I don't know, mine has a lot of life left.
That size is not outrageous either, but it is true that the smaller the library to handle, the better. These are small tips to improve performance somewhat, so it does not mean that it has to go wrong already.
It goes without saying, of course. What I do see are those bottlenecks in HD. I have been in stores looking at iMac that were i5 or i7 and opening iTunes was like three times more than mine, or the fact of showing the album covers when scrolling. Indeed open a small iPhoto or iTunes library for some things because you gain perception of speed but then you have the hassle of if you use an iPad or iPhone and transfer songs or photos to the device ... which library do you import them from?
I have a 256 SSD and the option to erase free space is disabled. For what is this? Does it have to do with the fact that I have TRIM enabled?
Regards,
Antonio.
Is it possible that when installing the Mavericks some keyboard keys stop working? a with the lion it did not happen to me and now the delete key or the accentuation do not work, is it that the keyboard is finished? the iMac is only 2 years old or so, but not long.