If you then click on the “Memory” tab, you’ll get a handy-dandy guide at the bottom for how much you’re using. You can check to see if that’s indeed the problem by first opening a program called Activity Monitor-it’s within Applications> Utilities. If you can imagine having to swap a folder back into your virtual filing cabinet every time you want to look at a new one, you’ll get an idea of what your Mac is probably trying to do when it’s giving you that sad little beachball. When too many programs, documents, browser tabs, and so on are running at once, the Mac starts swapping data out to your storage drive to make up for not having enough memory, which is way slow. If you fill up the surface of your desk, you’ve gotta start putting folders back into your filing cabinet to be able to pull out more, and this is exactly what your computer does, as well. You take stuff out of your filing cabinet and plop it on your desk for quick access, just like your Mac uses RAM to get to items you’re using frequently. The RAM (memory) is akin to the surface of your desk. Your Mac’s storage (your hard drive or SSD) is like a filing cabinet it’s where you keep all of your documents.

I’ll hear things like “I empty my trash and clean off my desktop! I shouldn’t be out of RAM!” For confused folks, I like to use an analogy. A lot of people misunderstand what RAM is and how it works. To that end, let’s start troubleshooting the three most common causes of sad, slow Macs!ġ.

Of course, slowness can often be attributed to age-just because your 2010 MacBook Air can run Yosemite doesn’t mean that’s gonna work out amazingly well for you-but even so, it’s best to figure out what’s going on. If your Mac is as slow as molasses or you’re seeing the dreaded spinning beach ball of death a lot, it’s time to do some sleuthing.

Spinning wheel in os x utilities