Better, But Still Behind Quicken For PC
Quicken was traditionally known as one of the best personal finance software options for desktop users. However, the Mac version had traditionally lacked the features found in the PC version, and that was disappointing to many users.
Over the years, Quicken has tried to close the gap between its two software versions. And that was again the case with its latest iteration — Quicken For Mac.
So is the Mac version finally on equal footing with the PC software? Unfortunately, no. Quicken for Mac still lags the Quicken for Windows experience. But it’s still a power piece of software that may perfectly meet all your needs. In this article, we’ll look at the latest features in Quicken for Mac and compare it against the current Quicken for Windows.
Quick Summary
- Navigation is still a bit clunky
- Gets the job done but less efficiently than Quicken for Windows
- Strong customer support
Quicken For Mac Details |
|
---|---|
Product Name |
Quicken For Mac |
Price |
$41. |
Refund Window |
30 Days |
Promotions |
$1 Off the Per-Month Pricing for Quicken Deluxe & Premier subscriptions |
Table of Contents
Who Is Quicken?
What Do They Offer?
What’s New In Quicken For Mac 2021?
What Does It Cost?
How Does Quicken Compare?
How Do I Buy It?
Is My Money Safe?
Is It Worth It?
Quicken For Mac FAQs
Quicken For Mac Features
Who Is Quicken?
Quicken is a personal finance software company. It used to be part of Intuit. Quicken was spun off from Intuit in 2016 and was purchased by H.I.G. Capital. The CEO of Quicken is Eric Dunn. He joined Intuit as employee #4 when Quicken was still under the Intuit umbrella.
We recently named Quicken on of the Best Budgeting Apps because of their robust tracking and both desktop and mobile syncing.
What Do They Offer?
Quicken offers a personal finance software product by the same name. It is available for Windows and Mac. In this article, we’ll focus on the Mac version.
Anyone who has used Quicken for Windows and then tried Quicken for Mac probably came away from the experience disappointed. Spoiler alert — that experience hasn’t really changed much in the latest Quicken for Mac.
Quicken for Mac still trails Quicken for Windows in ease of use, interface (i.e., navigation), intuitiveness, versatility, and features. Quicken for Mac also falls a bit short when it comes to investment tools, especially in regard to its lack of automatic cost-basis calculations.
Another area that people have complaints about is the interface. For example, the home screen makes it a bit difficult to find things. There aren’t any widgets or ways to customize the home screen. Additionally, if you are coming from Quicken for Windows, there isn’t a one-to-one transition where everything’s the same in Quicken for Mac. Some things will be familiar, while others will not and require some searching around to find.
Still No Home & Business
The Quicken Home & Business subscription allows you to run your personal and business transactions within the same software. However, Quicken H&B is not as nearly business feature-rich as Quickbooks.
Quicken for Mac is still missing the H&B option. You can only get it in Quicken for Windows.
What’s New In Quicken For Mac?
Each version of Quicken gets faster and more robust. That hasn’t changed with the latest version. Being a subscription, you’ll automatically get the latest updates. Both the Windows and Mac version got the following enhancements:
- Over 500 customer-requested improvements and fixes plus significantly improved reliability
- The most powerful connectivity to banks and brokerages of any personal finance software; more than 14,500 financial institutions and 11,000 online billers
Specifically for Mac users, the following features have been added:
- Up to twice as fast on start-up
- Charts and graphs also load twice as fast
- Backup is four times faster than prior versions
- Access to 11,000+ online billers, bill PDF downloads*
- New enhanced Portfolio View
- Refreshed overall look & feel of Bills & Income
- 5 GB of secure online backup for your Quicken files with Dropbox
- Free Quicken Bill Pay and priority access to Quicken phone support (Premier and above)
- Manage your money anywhere with Quicken on the Web
Quicken added new options to the Portfolio page for its Mac version as well as an all-new Investing Dashboard.
By selecting their account type (Investing, Brokerage, Retirement, or Education), Mac users can now view snapshots of their holdings across multiple accounts. Snapshots that have been added include:
- Holdings Type
- Allocation by Security Type
- Allocation by Asset Class
With these new insights, it will be easier for investors to analyze their asset allocation and make changes when their current mix of asset doesn’t match well with their risk profile.
Quicken On The Web
Quicken on the Web is a recent development for Quicken. While most other financial apps are completely web-based, Quicken on the Web is only a companion. This means it is a scaled down version of Quicken. If Quicken can continue developing Quicken on the Web into a full-blown financial app, it will eliminate the inferior Mac user experience.
With Quicken on the Web, you can do all of the following:
- View balances, budgets, accounts, and transactions
- See spending trends by category, payee, and more
- Monitor investment performance with up-to-the-minute portfolio value
- Search and see details of past expenses
- Keep your finances continually up to date: your accounts sync across desktop, web, and mobile
- Enjoy a fresh, streamlined Quicken experience
What Does It Cost?
Quicken moved to a subscription-based pricing model in 2017. Unlike many other subscription services, Quicken’s software is not purely cloud-based. It is desktop, mobile, and cloud-lite. Desktop software still needs to be installed to use all of Quicken’s features.
While some may balk at no longer having one-time charge licensed software, the subscription model does make better sense in the end. It means more cash flow for Quicken. And hopefully, with more cash, incremental improvement will keep coming, making the software better each year.
As of January 2023, here are current prices:
Deluxe |
Premier |
Home and Business |
|
---|---|---|---|
Best For: |
Basic budgeting, no investments |
Users with investments and loan tracking |
Users who want BillPay or Premium Support |
Price: |
$2. |
$4.19/mo |
$5.99/mo |
The Quicken for Mac prices do mirror the Windows prices. Also, Quicken does come with a 30-day money-back risk-free trial.
Note: Home and Business is only available for PC at the moment.
How Does Quicken Compare?
Quicken has long been a leader in the personal finance software space. It has a plethora of features and is available on multiple platforms, including Mac.
Still, it might not be the best fit for everyone. Specifically if you’re a crypto investor, you’ll be disappointed to find that you still can’t track cryptocurrency assets on Quicken.
Even if Quicken does everything you need it to, there are plenty of Quicken alternatives that might be able to meet your needs just as well at a lower price. Check out this table to see how Quicken compares:
Header |
|||
---|---|---|---|
Rating |
|||
Pricing |
$35. |
$15/mo or $150/yr |
Free |
Net Worth Tracking |
|||
Budgeting |
|||
Cryptocurrency Tracking |
|||
Cell |
How Do I Buy It?
You can visit the Quicken website to purchase and download Quicken.
Is My Money Safe?
Yes – like many other financial apps, Quicken uses encryption and secure connections to financial institutions.
Is It Worth It?
If you want to use Quicken on Mac without installing a Windows emulator, Quicken for Mac is the only way to go. Despite it being less efficient than Quicken for Windows, there isn’t much of a learning curve and one can fairly quickly overcome most drawbacks.
But if you’re willing to give another brand a try, you may want to consider Moneydance. Moneydance offers a well-designed and fully-featured Mac version in addition to its Windows and Linux options. Plus, you only pay for the software once instead of having to renew a subscription each year. Learn more in our Moneydance review.
Quicken For Mac FAQs
Here are the answers to a few of the most common questions people ask about Quicken for Mac.
Does Quicken for Mac offer monthly subscriptions?
No, all of its plans have an annual billing schedule.
Is there a free Quicken app?
Yes, Quicken has free mobile apps that can be downloaded on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. However, to log in to the app you’ll need to buy a desktop software subscription and input your Quicken ID.
What happens if I don’t renew my Quicken subscription?
You’ll be able to continue to use the version of the software that you purchased to view your data and manually enter transactions. However, you won’t receive any future product updates and you’ll no longer be able to have transactions automatically download from synced accounts.
Is Quicken offering any promotions?
Yes, Quicken is currently offering $1 off of the per-month subscription plans for Quicken Deluxe (from $4.99 to $3.99) and Premier (from $9.99 to $8.99). All plans also come with a 30-day money back guarantee.
Quicken For Mac Features
Price |
$2. |
Platform |
Mac, iOS, PC |
Budgeting |
Yes |
Bill Pay |
Yes |
Credit Score Monitoring |
Yes |
Net Worth Tracking |
Yes |
Cryptocurrency Tracking |
No |
Import Data Files |
Yes, QIF, QXF, and TAX files |
Foreign Currency Support |
Yes |
Paper Check Printing |
Yes |
Reminders |
Yes |
Customer Service Number |
650-250-1900 |
Customer Service Hours |
Mon-Fri, 5 AM to 5 PM (PT) |
Chat Support |
Yes, 5 AM to 5 PM (PT) daily |
Promotions |
$1 Off the Per-Month Pricing for Quicken Deluxe & Premier subscriptions |
Quicken
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User Ratings
I am using Quicken 16.10.3. I switched from Bantivity when they got worse and worse on Support and compatibility. When I couldn’t get the latest Bantivity 8 to sync properly (even support could not fix it) I decided to try Quicken again a year ago. I don’t do Subscription apps but this one is worth it the hassle. I Pay on yearly plan instead of monthly.
What a surprise from the old Quicken for Mac days. It seemed much better right off the bat but knew it still needed work. I only use it for Syncing my Bank accounts not for Investment or anything else. I have had to call support I think three times in the last year and they were outstanding each time. They were patient, friendly, professional and stuck with me until the problem was resolved. And it was resolved quickly. Great support means everything.
The best thing is you can talk to a real person not like Banktivity (Emails and chats).
To me and for my needs Quicken just keeps getting better and while it is doing that Support is there for you. Keep up the good work Quicken.
Been using it for a few years now, just keeps getting better and better.
Just a couple of months ago I complained about Quicken having become a virus. They have since managed to make it even worse! A couple of weeks ago they overwrote all of the categories that I had used for the past 28-years to keep track of my expenditures and, even more important, to fill out my taxes which I was in the process of doing. It appears that they had a 112-year old glance at my payee names and guess a useless category such as “bills and utilities” instead of “rental water” (a business expense). It will not allow me to change them which would take months of work.They make no sense whatever in addition to being inconsistent. Pure useless garbage! When I complained (angrily) they cancelled my subscription-no refund.
This is a comprehensive financial program that has become indispensable to me.
It is easy to use and very intuitive. I just finished my 2021 income tax. Quicken reports made it very easy to recall the pertinent information. Yes it is now on an annual subscription plan, but it is worth every penny. When I have infrequently needed telephone support, it has been more than satisfactory. Recommended without reservation
I have been using Quicken since about 1994 and kept version 2007 and Snow Leopard until Catalina came out. I regarded it as an essential. The past several months I have come to regard it as a virus. The last few updates added several different files & log in names except that they were labeled “ME original”, “ME original2” etc but I kept my same login. I was slow to realize that these newbies were making reconciling difficult. I called support and the woman was adamant that Quicken could not create these but I just had to pick one of the logins & label it Main. This cost me years of data for my taxes. I don’t know how to recover years of lost data.
Quick rev is indeed 6.4.0 but the MacUpdate download is 6.3.3. Intuit’s download file naming scheme is between difficult and impossible to decode.
Too bad this app went to the subscription mode. I don’t mind paying once for an app but I refuse to pay a monthly fee to use it. Time to look elsewhere.
I’ve used this app for several years and it is a solid choice, though, especially now that it’s possible to connect to my bank and automatically update all accounts.
Quicken 6.0 and later is now a universal binary that will run on Intel Macs as well as run natively on the new Apple Silicon M1 Macs. I subscribe to Quicken Deluxe and have been very pleased. Reports are up to par now. Portfolio management is adequate. My IRAs, Bond Funds, Securities all auto-update and provide me with a clear picture of my investments. Quicken has become indispensable to me.
This product does not provide the functionality they advertise. On the page get.quicken.com (as of 12/2/2020) it clearly states that savings goals are part of the product. When I called in to support, the support person told me that is not a quicken site (now that is really stupid). I have a screen shot of the page. He denied it over and over.
Stunning. I rated Quicken recently at four-stars. But the latest reporting changes make Quicken 2020 essentially useless for small business use. It’s tax season for late business filers. But I cannot get the data out as with prior versions. The new reporting framework is entirely misplaced. Why oh why did they not learn from the original Quicken 2007 of the Mac. It’s easy to record data, near impossible to report it in a meaningful fashion.
For example, I merely want to summarize by category the income and spending related to a single account, irrespective of whether the funds are linked to another account.
That’s simply not possible with the latest report generator. Those transactions that originate in another account are treated differently and not summarized by category.
VERY LIMITED TO 6 CHECK PAYMENTS, CANNOT CONVERT FROM BILL PAY, CANNOT MAKE A CHECK PAYMENT ON A SPECIFIC DATE, CANNOT SPLIT PAYMENTS, QUICK PAY DOES NOT RELATE TO ANY OF MY ACCOUNTS, BANK PAY IS ALSO WORTHLESS, I GUESS IT IT TIME TO MOVE ON WHAT WE PAY FOR PREMIER SUPPORT – 6 CHECKS SERIOUSLY, OH YES TRY TO DO A RECURRING PAYMENT WITH THIS NOPE- I WILL PASS ON TO MY CLIENT, FRIENDS, AND EMPLOYEES AND CANCEL NOT WORTH IT.
I held on to Quicken for Mac 2007 until Catalina. Had previewed several previous incarnations (and competing financial apps), and finally made the leap. The transition was not as smooth as I hoped, importing transactions and categories and I’m still on the learning curve after 9 months. Does operate in decidedly different ways than it’s predecessor. The 2020 version does all I need it to, and is worth the subscription price, so far….
There are THREE versions of Quicken, costing $35, $45, and $69 PER YEAR. MU needs to update this page or make three pages.
First time I have bought quicken since the 2007 version. It works pretty well, but many features either don’t work or do nothing. Like for a loan I have, I tried to do a ‘What If’. Three options are available, but nothing happens Calculate button is clicked. No matter what option you choose or criteria entered. Must use vapor code.
It’s now Quicken 2020 as of version 5.15.1. I use it every day and I find it’s well worth the subscription price. Nice and fast and the developer keeps it regularly updated. Keeper.
A time suck vs a time saver. You will spend more time trying to fix data corruption from updates and software bugs than you can possibly imagine. When I called tech support on screen sharing, we hit a bug every few minutes. Despite seeing the issues in real time, support was unable to solve the issues. REALLY REALLY BAD.
The new owners of Quicken have done a terrific job so far! The most important enhancements required for me going forward: continued improvements to the reporting features. The key part of any finance software package is flexible, relevant reporting capabilities.
I’m now relying only on Quicken 2019 ever since Catalina broke Quicken 2007 as was expected. Q2019 does meet my needs pretty well. It is nice and fast and the company updates and improves it frequently. Q2019’s reporting capability is almost on par with Quicken 2007’s QuickReport, I just wish it could run subtotals and I’m still hoping it will soon.
Pretty impressed this time. I haven’t encountered any bugs yet, which is a first. I love the simple clean interface, and its ability to interface with my banks/creditors asap. Very little fuss, and the budget features are awesome.
6 Ways to Speed Up Your Mac
If your Mac has slowed down over the years, it might be time to take care of it a little. You don’t have to spend a lot to improve the performance of your iMac or MacBook. We’ve compiled a list of things you can do to speed up your Mac without having to replace it.
Quit high-power programs
One of the easiest things you can do to improve the performance of your iMac or MacBook is to close all applications and programs that you’re not using. Your Mac can allocate memory and processor power to programs you’re not actively using. This will free up space and reduce the burden of unnecessary programs that reduce performance.
There is also an Activity Monitor utility that shows you all the processes running on your Mac device. To open Activity Monitor, go to System Preferences > Utilities or search by pressing Command + Space. Some applications and programs consume significantly more power and resources than others. Activity Monitor shows data on CPU, RAM, energy, disk space and network consumption levels for each open program.
Select the CPU tab to view CPU usage information for each application or program. Close unused applications and programs, especially if they use a lot of processor resources. Activity Monitor is a useful tool for checking the level of system resource consumption of your applications and programs.
Clear the auto-start list
Slow performance can be caused by those annoying applications and programs that start every time you turn on your system. Open System Preferences and select Users & Groups. In this section, click the Login Items tab to view the apps and programs that launch when you turn on your iMac or MacBook. Select a program that should not be run when the system is turned on and click the “-” icon at the bottom of the list to remove it.
Sync with iCloud
Syncing files and photos with iCloud across multiple desktops and devices can also slow down your Mac. When using iCloud, try not to store large files and documents on your desktop system. Keep only the documents and files you need, which will help speed up your work and spend less time waiting for all your files to sync.
This also applies to iCloud photo sync. If your Mac is taking too long to sync all your photos to all of your devices, you can always turn off iCloud Photos on your Mac to reduce load and improve performance.
Free up storage space
It’s no surprise that your Mac runs very slowly when storage is nearly full. Photos, videos and music tracks are the largest files that take up a lot of disk space.
Many people think that buying iCloud will solve the problem of lack of storage space, but this is not the case. If you delete files from your Mac after iCloud backup, they will be deleted from all your devices. If you already have iCloud and you’ve synced across all of your devices, it’s likely that many files and documents are on your Mac and are taking up disk space. For example, photos taken with iPhone and synced to iCloud will be stored on your Mac, taking up disk space.
It might be best to turn off iCloud photo sync on your Mac. There are other services that you can use to back up your files and documents in the cloud so you can delete them from your computer. Services like DropBox and Google Drive let you back up your files like photos to the cloud in the same way, without having to store them on your Mac to access them.
Downloaded music tracks can also take up a lot of space on your Mac. You can save disk space by uploading music files to an external hard drive to free up space on your computer. You can also purchase streaming services such as Apple Music, which have a feature that allows you to move your entire collection of music tracks to the cloud. Then you can remove them from your Mac and access them from any of your devices. Plus, you can take advantage of the Apple Music streaming service to listen to any song or artist without having to download tracks to your Mac, as long as you have data or Wi-Fi access.
Delete old and unused files, empty the Trash
A quick and easy way to free up disk space to speed up your Mac is to delete old and unused files and empty the Trash. It’s a good idea to periodically check your Mac for old and unused files and documents. Storing unused files locally simply takes up disk space and slows down the performance of your Mac.
Remember to delete items from the Downloads folder. Open the Finder and navigate to the Downloads folder to move the items to the Trash. The Downloads folder is often forgotten and left with a lot of documents and files.
Save old files and documents to an external hard drive and delete them from your Mac. If you no longer need them, you can always remove them from your computer. Don’t forget to empty the Trash after deletion. Otherwise, deleted files and documents will still take up disk space (in the trash).
You can set the system settings to empty the Recycle Bin on a regular basis, which saves you from having to do it manually. Click the Apple logo in the menu bar, select About This Mac (System Information), click Storage (Storage), and then Manage (Management). On the screen that opens, you can set up automatic emptying of the trash every 30 days.
Reduce quality or turn off graphics
MacOS usually runs smoothly on Apple computers, but sometimes the load can be too high to maintain proper performance. Lowering the quality or turning off graphics will help speed up your Mac.
Some users prefer to turn off the Dock to prevent slow system performance. To do this, open System Preferences (System Settings), select Dock and uncheck the boxes next to the following options:
- Magnification
- Animate opening application
- Automatically hide and show the dock
You can also select the “Minimize windows using” option and change its value from Genie Effect to Scale Effect.
Last option
If all else fails, you can try to completely restart your Mac and install a clean OS. This should be considered as a last resort as you will need to completely remove the entire boot drive. This will remove all files on your system and user libraries that may have been built for more than one year.
We recommend backing up any important files, documents, pictures, music, and anything else you may need after installing the OS. After all, if things are getting worse and your Mac isn’t getting any faster, it might be time to find a replacement.
#KingstonIsWithYou
How to speed up a slow Mac: 15 tips
Macs are fast, have great system optimizations, and have little to no user effort to keep them running. But there are always exceptions. An old Mac 5-7 years old on the most current firmware is unlikely to please with factory performance in terms of speed. Before getting rid of an old car, we recommend using the tips given in this article.
1. Clean the system
Apple in Telegram and YouTube. Subscribe! |
Whatever one may say, but regular updates, installed software, data manipulation lead to clogging of disk space, the appearance of unnecessary files and slowing down the speed of the system as a whole. In order to keep macOS in good shape, it is better to use specialized software like CleanMyMac 3, which we have already talked about in detail in a full-length review. The utility competently uninstalls applications, removes unused localizations, temporary files and cache, induces a total marathon in the system and has a bunch of highly specialized functions. The cost of a license for one Mac is €39.95. The program is definitely worth it. At the initial stage, use the free version.
Download CleanMyMac 3 for Mac (official developer site).
2. Reduce the load on the processor
If you are not using CleanMyMac or other alternative solutions, open System Monitor ( Finder → Programs → Utilities ) and look in the CPU column ( by clicking on the column, you can sort the list of tasks by the degree of workload). The most voracious tasks can be closed. Or it may be worth removing such programs altogether and replacing them with alternative less demanding options.
3. Reduce transparency and animations
Transition animations and transparency effects used in the latest versions of macOS can strain older Macs quite a bit. Disabling them can slightly improve the performance of your computer. To do this, go to menu → System settings… → Accessibility . In the left side menu, select the section Monitor and check the box next to “ Reduce transparency “.
RELATED: Mac for Dummies: 10 helpful macOS tips for newbies.
4. Disable FileVault Encryption
If your Mac is running OS X Yosemite or later, FileVault Drive Encryption will be enabled by default. Thanks to this great feature, even if your Mac is lost or stolen, the data on the drive will remain safe and privacy will not be compromised.
Of course, the encryption process requires additional system resources. If you have a stationary Mac or data protection is far from being in the first place, then it makes sense to disable this option. You can do this by going to → System Preferences… → Security and Protection → FileVault . To disable the option, you will need an administrator password. 5. Block applications from autorun First of all, this slows down the startup of the Mac, and secondly, it loads the processor and takes up RAM. It is not necessary to go into the settings of each program to exclude it from startup, especially since not all developers integrate this settings item into their software. Pass → System settings… → Users and groups . In the left side menu, select your account, go to the “ Login Items ” tab and click on the lock icon to make changes. The list contains all programs that run simultaneously with the system startup.
To disable autorun, check the box next to the corresponding utility. To clear the list, select the program and click on the minus at the bottom of the window.
RELATED: All Apple laptops in 2018: which MacBook to choose? Comparison of all models (characteristics and prices).
6. Disable Spotlight search indexing
Operating system slowdown is possible when the file system is reindexed in the interests of Spotlight search. There is no option in system settings to disable this feature. In order to disable indexing, open Terminal ( Finder → Programs → Utilities ), type the following command and press the key Enter :
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist
administrator password required .
To enable Spotlight indexing, type the following command again:
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist
7. Turn off indexing in Photo
The macOS Sierra Photos app now has automatic face detection and grouping. The option is certainly interesting, but far from being relevant for everyone, and if you also have an old car, then it will not be superfluous to turn it off completely. Unfortunately, there is no such magic button, but if you have the application Photos running, you should exit it (shortcut ⌘Command + Q) and end the process “ photos ” in System Monitor .
RELATED: How to make the function F keys on your Mac really functional.
8. Free up disk space
A disk full of files will of course slow down your computer. Users of modern Macs with SSD should also not forget the golden rule – for the system to work properly, you need to have 15-20% free space.
In order to clean up the system, you can use the new utility to free up space on Mac (first appeared on macOS Sierra). To do this, go to menu → About This Mac → Storage tab → Manage .
Use the sidebar to select how to clean up the space. Deleting applications and files is an effective measure in this matter.
9. Reset the SMC
Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) solves many minor system problems. This action allows you to organize the applications and tasks involved when you start your Mac.
How do I reset the SMC?
1 . Turn off your Mac.
2 . Connect the power cable to your MacBook and make sure it charges your laptop.
3 . Hold down the keys Shift (⇧) + Control (⌃) + Option (⎇) and press the power button . Then release all keys.
Mac will start normally and SMC will be reset.
RELATED: Startup on Mac, or how to add (remove) programs to start automatically when macOS boots.
10. Remove Flash
Back in the day, Steve Jobs said that Flash technology was unpromising. Adobe ended support for it completely last year. Safari and Chrome browsers block Flash by default. But perhaps you have a Flash application installed on your Mac that will run in the background and automatically play videos from web pages. Use any convenient specialized application like AppCleaner to remove all Flash-related components.
Read also: How to remove Adobe Flash from Mac.
If you go to Activity Monitor and you find that “kernalkask” is a process that is tiring out most of your Mac, you might have a little problem. You will find that you cannot actually exit the Kernaltask process. This is because Kernaltask is basically your operating system. And this error can be caused by obscure things.
So try to do what we talked about above. Restart your Mac, reset the SMC, uninstall Flash (this seems to fix the problem for some people), and try to remember if any unreliable third-party software has been installed lately – sort of like an app for your printer drivers. Try deleting them and check if the problem is fixed.
11. Pay attention to the Kernal Task
In System Monitor , look for the kernel_task task. This process can consume a huge amount of Mac resources (and this is not normal), but the problem is that it is a system process and cannot be closed. Therefore, be sure to heed the tips that we talked about above (reboot Mac, reset SMC, remove Flash, and so on). Also try to remember if any questionable software from an unreliable developer has been installed lately (applications, drivers, and so on). Try uninstalling from and see if the issue is resolved.
RELATED: How to view logins and passwords saved in Keychain Access on iPhone, iPad and Mac.
12. Use Safari and close unused browser tabs
The regular Safari browser is maximally optimized for macOS. Any other third-party solution like Chrome or Opera will consume significantly more RAM and drain your MacBook battery faster. Make Safari your default browser and use the same Chrome when you need to use some third-party extensions or visit sites that do not open correctly in Safari.
Also, don’t forget to close unused browser tabs (if there are more than 10).
13. Clean up the desktop
An old but still working trick. Redrawing icons and folders on the macOS desktop may not be the most time-consuming task, but it’s a load that makes sense to get rid of. This is especially useful if, by occupation, you often have to work with windows and drag and drop various objects on the desktop.
An excellent way to automatically clean (sort files) the desktop on a Mac is the utility Declutter (overview).
14. Install an SSD instead of an HDD
If you are using an older non-Retina MacBook where the drive can be easily removed, be sure to install an SSD drive. This will greatly improve the performance of your computer as a whole. Also increase the amount of RAM. In the MacBook Pro, starting from the 2012 model year, the drive and RAM are soldered to the motherboard and are changed only at a service center for a lot of money.
RELATED: 2 ways to keep the apps you want in the Dock on Mac (macOS).
15. Reinstall macOS
If the above methods do not help, reinstalling the operating system will be an effective measure. The macOS recovery utility will automatically format your hard drive, reinstall the OS, and update to the latest version.
To reinstall macOS, turn on the computer while holding down the 9 keys0079 Command (⌘) + R .