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Like any machine, there are times when your Mac might not be performing as you would like. Below are some basic troubleshooting steps to help resolve some common issues.
Shutdown and Restart!
It seems cliché, but sometimes a simple shutdown and reboot of your Mac can resolve your issues, especially if you haven't shut down in awhile. Go to the Apple menu, then pull down to Shutdown and let your Mac completely shutdown. Wait for a minute, then hit the power button to start it back up. A shutdown, as opposed to a restart, terminates all the different processes on your Mac allowing it to "start fresh" once the Mac is restarted.
We recommend shutting down your Mac once a day.
Application Management
We recommend keeping open only the Applications that you need. The more Applications that you have open, the more your resources your Mac has to allocate. Do you really need to have ten applications open if you are only using three? You can tell what Applications you have open by looking at the black dots next to the Application icon on the Dock. The arrows in the picture below show those dots and indicate that Application is open
If you close a window in an Application, that does not quit the Application, it just closes that document. To quit an Application, you have to go to the name of the Application in the menu bar and pull down to "Quit <Application Name>."
Browser Tab Management
We are all reliant on the web browser for many of the programs that we use daily. In Chrome or Safari, the more tabs that are open, the more resources the MacOS must allocate to that program. Do you really need all those tabs open? The fewer the tabs open, the more resources the MacOS can allocate to the ones you are really using.
Are you keeping those tabs open because you want to get back to some information on it? In the menu bar of both Chrome and Safari, there is a "History" selection that allows you to view what websites you visited.
Having trouble with your browser?
If you are having trouble with the Chrome or Safari browser and the other tips aren't working? Try quitting the browser then restarting it. If it is still not working, you can clear the browser cache. The browser cache is where the browser stores temporary files of web pages that you have recently visited so that it can recall them quickly. By clearing the browser cache, you will be deleting all those files and force the browser to go get new ones. By clearing your cache, you will also delete all your web browser history (like what is listed above) but it will not delete your bookmarks. While this is a slightly destructive step, you will find that many issues where web pages are not loading can be resolved by clearing the cache. Please see the links below on how to clear the cache in Chrome and Safari.
Are you still having issues?
You can always access our Upper St. Clair School District knowledge base articles at - https://support.uscsd.k12.pa.us or submit a help desk ticket here.
