If your Mac is showing signs of aging and or feeling sluggish, before you discard it, there might be some easy ways to fix it. Here are the solutions to five common Mac issues.

1. Startup Problems

In case your Mac does not boot properly and you are left looking at a blank screen or gray startup screen then try booting in it Safe Mode. In Safe Mode, MacOS will boot with the least required softwares & drivers. It will also run a check of your startup disk. It would further repair any directory issues that might be the cause of your startup ills.

To start your device in safe mode, turn on your Mac and then press and hold the Shift key. The Apple logo will appear followed by the login screen. Release the Shift key after the Apple logo is gone and the login screen pops up. While MacOS runs its diagnostics on your hard disk, the login screen may appear a bit late. To leave Safe Mode and start up your Mac per usual, just restart your Mac without holding any keys.

2. Login items that are not compatible

Apps that start automatically when you start up your Mac may sometimes be incompatible with MacOS. This would lead to a blue screen. If you a bit of hit & trial, you’ll be able can identify the troublemaking app. 

Consider removing the login items one at a time. Now start up your Mac after each removal to see if the problem is gone. In order to perform this, go to System Preferences > Users & Groups. Now click your name on the left under Current User. Next, click the Login Items tab above the window to the right. Select an app and then click the “-“ sign below. It will get removed from the list of Login Items. Now you can restart your Mac to see if your startup issue has been fixed. If the problem persists, you can go back to the list and remove another app. Try this until you find the culprit. Add items back to the Startup Items list by hitting the “+” button and selecting items from your Applications folder.

3. Unresponsive app

Sometimes, an app may shut down down your Mac or make it hang. Also when it hangs, it freezes the screen & doesn’t even allow you to exit out of it. Enter: Force Quit. In such an event, open up the Force Quit menu from the Apple icon in the upper-left corner. You can also do this by hitting Command-Option-Escape. Select the app that is unresponsive and hit the Force Quit button.

You can also select multiple apps to force quit. Perform this by using holding down the Command or Shift keys when making your selections.

4. Spinning beach ball

If you notice the spinning beach ball more often, then it’s time to investigate the reason behind it. Open the Activity Monitor (you can search for it or find it in the Utilities folder). The Utilities folder is inside your Applications folder. Use it to see how much of an impact the apps you are currently running have on your system resources. In the Activity Monitor window, real-time stats are visible. They will tell you about the amount of CPU and memory resources each app is using. You can also use the Activity Monitor to quit any app that’s using more than its required share of resources. Choose an app from the list, click the X button in the upper-left corner. Now choose Quit or Force Quit.

5. No internet connection

Sometimes your MacBook may be unable to connect to a Wi-Fi network. The fastest way to fix this is to tell it to forget the network. Later, reconnect as if it were brand-new. 

On the Network page in System Preferences, click the Advanced button in the lower left. Now you’d see the Preferred Networks list. These are the Wi-Fi connections you’ve connected to in the past that your MacBook remembers for future uses. Select your Wi-Fi network and click the “-“ button and then choose Remove to forget it. Now you can click the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar and reconnect to your network. Do this by entering your password and starting anew.

Still facing trouble with your Mac?
Get in touch with the No.1 PC Experts in Seattle WA.