Maintaining Your Mac A Joe ON Tech Guide Maintenance Basics You - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Mar 07, 2023 400 likes •541 views

Maintaining Your Mac A Joe ON Tech Guide Maintenance Basics You wouldnt buy a new car and expect to drive it for five years without ever changing the oil or checking the tires and brakes. Similarly, you shouldnt expect your Mac to

SLIDE 1

Maintaining  Your Mac

A Joe ON Tech Guide

SLIDE 2

Maintenance Basics

You wouldn’t buy a new car and expect to drive it for five years without ever changing the oil or checking the tires and brakes. Similarly, you shouldn’t expect your Mac to run smoothly for years without routine maintenance. Fortunately, the recommended maintenance steps are quick, easy, and inexpensive (or free).

SLIDE 3

Start on the Right Foot

Update macOS: The latest version of macOS

contains new features and bug fixes.

Update third party software: App updates also fix

bugs and compatibility problems.

Clean out cruft: Remove unused apps and

unneeded files, especially if low on disk space.

SLIDE 4

Start on the Right Foot

Prune login items: Remove anything you don’t

need from System Preferences → Users & Groups → You → Login Items.

Set up backups: Configure versioned backups and a

bootable clone.

Test your hardware: Run Apple Hardware Test or

Apple Diagnostics.

SLIDE 5

Start on the Right Foot

Run Disk Utility: Use the Disk First Aid feature.
Use a surge protector or UPS.
Update weak passwords: Make sure every

password is long, random, and unique.

Get a utility or two: OnyX and CleanMyMac are

good choices.

SLIDE 6

Daily Tasks

Update your versioned backup. (In most cases, you

can set this once and forget it.)

Check (but don’t necessarily install) software
updates. macOS and many third-party apps can

check automatically.

Empty your inbox.

SLIDE 7

Weekly Tasks

Clean up your desktop.
Empty your Downloads

folder.

Update your bootable

duplicate.

Rotate physical backups
ffsite.
Install App Store software

updates.

Check for other third-

party software updates.

Restart Your Mac.
Check your spam

mailbox.

SLIDE 8

Monthly Tasks

Empty your Trash.
Use Disk Utility’s Disk

First Aid feature.

Test your backups.
Clear any problematic

caches.

Clean your screen.
Clean your mouse or

trackball.

Exercise your laptop’s

battery.

Check for ebook updates.

SLIDE 9

Yearly Tasks

Remove dust from the outside of your Mac, all
penings, and (if feasible) the inside too.
Clean your keyboard.
Make archival backups.
Remove unneeded files.
Check your UPS battery.

SLIDE 10

Tasks You Can Skip

Using Disk Utility’s Repair

Permissions feature (Yosemite and earlier)

Defragmenting hard disks

(and never SSDs!)

Using anti-malware software
Running macOS’s scheduled

maintenance tasks

Changing passwords on an

arbitrary schedule

Deleting browser cookies

These tasks do little or nothing to prevent problems:

SLIDE 11

New macOS Releases

When Apple releases (or is about to release) a new version of macOS:

Buy Take Control of Upgrading to… for detailed

upgrading information.

Make a fresh bootable duplicate.
Upgrade!

SLIDE 12

Monitor Your Mac’s Health

Use monitoring utilities (Activity Monitor or a third-

party app) to keep track of CPU, RAM, disk, and network usage, plus temperatures and other interesting statistics.

Check S.M.A.R.T. status with Disk Utility, System

Information, or a third-party utility to catch imminent disk/SSD failures.

SLIDE 13

Learn More

Maintaining Your Mac

A Joe On Tech Guide  by Joe Kissell

Available in PDF, EPUB,

and Kindle (Mobipocket) formats plus paperback

alt.cc/mym