We present a few tips that will help you speed up your Mac.


After using your Mac for a while, you may notice its performance isn't as good as it used to be when it was new. This is a normal process and it is due to the usage of the computer. The more you use it, the more files you create and these can eventually slow down your computer and worsen its performance.

The main issue is that lots of the files in your hard drive are in fact files you don't need, such as unused applications, old cache, unused preference and, most of all, duplicate files. What can you do to clean up your Mac and speed it up?

You have to get rid of the unwanted files. You might think that it would be a timing process and you would need several softwares. Well, you are wrong! I had the same problem: my MacBook was running pretty slow and it always had its memory filled just after a couple years I had bought it. I wanted some piece of software that would do all the work I needed, without having to spend too much on multiple softwares.

I was completely satisfied when I found out Tidy Up. This software is unbelievably featured and can really perform any kind of search you want, even the more specific ones! I was able to go through all my computer and clean it up from all the useless files I had.

In just one hour, my Mac was completely cleaned up and its great performance was restored. If you want the thing done, Tidy Up is a must!

Try Tidy Up for free

A common issue that can affect your MacBook is that after a few months of usage, it can become considerably slower. One option to solve this problem would be to upgrade your RAM. However, they're expensive and you actually might solve the problem without having to buy one.

- Don't keep open too many applications. Turn off the ones you don't use; even though it may seem useless, turning off applications like iTunes or iPhoto would speed up your computer. That's because they're both applications that use a lot of memory.

- Keep your MacBook cool. An overheated computer performs in a strange way and isn't as fast as it should be. Try to avoid using your laptop on a surface that doesn't let the fans blow air out, such as a couch or a bed. A laptop should be used on a flat surface, like a table, to have its performance at the top.

- Restart your computer regularly. When your memory is full and your computer slows down markedly, the best thing to do is to restart it. This way, the memory will be cleaned up and the computer will run faster.

- Turn off the unused applications. Many applications open at the login in automatically; if you don't use them disable the option from the System Preferences; this will save up a lot of memory.

- Disable Widgets. If you don't use them, don't even boot them up. They use a lot of the system resources.

- Remove the duplicates files. Duplicate files waste space on your hard disk and slow down its performance. They can clog your system easily, especially if you move or have moved files from other devices. There are specific applications that can do the job for you. I use Tidy Up.

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When you look for something using Spotlight, the more files you have on your hard disk, the more time it will take. Since Spotlight looks also inside the email messages, having a lot of messages will slow down the search. In addition, you will have a wider result to go through to find what you are looking for. This can become annoying, especially when many files you're checking are just duplicates.

One thing you can do to stop this process, is to eliminate all the duplicate emails in your mailbox. However, to do so, you definitely need a software that does the work for you. The software I recommend is Tidy Up; it is very fast and easy to use. You can find and delete all the duplicate emails in just a few clicks, thanks to its pre-defined email search.

See the tutorial Check out Tidy Up

Everybody who owns a Mac, most certainly uses iPhoto, importing the pictures from their iPhone or digital camera. One of the main factors that can cause iPhoto to run slowly is the fact that you simply have too many photos. Having a library of 10,000 pictures is not rare for an amateur photographer, and professionals can have more than 100,000. This can become an issue because the more pictures you have, the slower iPhoto will run. However, there isn't much you can do to solve this problem.

One thing that most people don't know, is that their library is most likely filled with duplicates. When you manage your photos, for example editing, moving them from one event to another, adding a keyword, it's iPhoto itself that creates duplicates of the modified pictures. Sometimes it happens that one imports pictures from a digital camera and forgets to delete them; the next time the same pictures will be added again, and it's not easy to recognize them, especially when you deal with a great number of photos. For others who frequently update their systems, you are probably restoring backups often, and that's another way to create duplicates.

iPhoto isn't provided with a duplicate remover system, and, to avoid having to deal with thousands of pictures one by one, I recommend using a software that will do all the work for you. I had been trying some of them, until I found Tidy Up; in a little time I managed to clean my 15-thousand-photo library and I had way more duplicates than I expected! It is really fast because you don't have to go through all the found pictures to decide which ones to keep and which ones to trash; it is provided with a "basket" system, which allows you to quickly individuate the photos to eliminate. Tidy Up is also able to find those photos scattered through your computer, so that you can easily add them to the iPhoto library, without creating more duplicates. In addition, you can decide to limit your search to a few albums and events or just exclude some of them.

So, if you have problems with iPhoto running slow or you have a library with thousands of pictures, try the free trial now and see for yourself!

Download Tidy Up now

iTunes is probably the most used application by Apple. Users always add new media files from different locations and transfer them to their iPod, iPad and iPhone; Moving the files back and forth ends up clogging up your hard disk with a huge amount of duplicates. Many people have libraries of thousands of songs and not always the tags are well-defined. As a consequence, iTunes and your Mac itself can start running slow due to all the space taken up by the duplicates.

These duplicates definitely cannot be searched manually; the process would take up too much time, even with a library of only a thousand songs. Even with iTunes' duplicate finding system, the work is still long and boring, since you have to go through each group of duplicate and manually select the items to delete. The only thing you can do is using a software that does the work for you. There are many softwares that claim to do that but, most of the times they don't allow you to customize the search and you don't even know which criteria are using to search.

The software I use is Tidy Up. It's a very effective software usable by all kinds of users, from the beginners to the experts. You can use one of its ready searches or, if you like to customize your search, you can use the advanced mode and choose the criteria for yourself. Tidy Up is also provided with a Strategy Wizard, which, in the Advanced Mode, guides your through a series of questions necessary to build your search; this way it gathers all the items to delete in a virtual basket. It is also able to restore the trashed songs back to their place if you realize you deleted the wrong ones, even after the restart of the computer.

Speed up iTunes and clean your library now! Download the free trial.

Check out Tidy Up!