SOLVED: Macbook Pro Still Slow After Factory Reset
After years of use, the performance of your MacBook Pro might slow down. The worst is when you feel the MacBook pro is too slow to handle your daily activities. As such, there are several ways to help boost the performance of your MacBook pro and sometimes it involves factory reset.
What is factory reset? Some would ask. Factory reset is when you restore your Mac back to its default settings. Once the device has its factory settings, then the performance will be better.
What if the MacBook Pro is still slow even after a factory reset? Whenever this happens, it means there are other underlying issues that have to be resolved if you hope to achieve more performance.
These issues will vary from one Mac device to another. We look at the most common reasons your MacBook Pro is still slow even after a reset below.
Reasons Your MacBook Pro is Still Slow After Factory Reset
Old Hardware
You might have been using the MacBook Pro for years. Even with the changes in newer Macs, you did not bother to switch to a newer model. When the hardware gets old, it becomes hard for it to perform as it used to do.
One of that hardware that can affect your device’s performance is the hard drive. If the hard drive is too old for newer standards, then it might be hard for the device to perform well. It is why we recommend that you switch to a newer version of storage such as the SSD.
Hard drives can be great, but SSD is now better. With SSD, the operating system can read and write files faster than before.
Below is a video that gives you steps on how to generally upgrade from an old hard drive to SSD
Another common hardware issue might be memory available to run several apps you install after a factory reset. By modern standards, it is advisable to use at least 8GB of RAM for your device to work better. Unfortunately, some users are still working with 4GB RAM Macs that might not perform as expected.
So, when upgrading your old hard drive to SSD, consider also upgrading to a more RAM. With 8 or 16GB RAM, your device will perform a lot better.
Too Much Junk on Your Device
After a factory reset of your MacBook Pro, you will find that the files and apps are deleted. This prompts most users to add more files back to the MacBook Pro hard drive. These are the files that they need for their work. During the process, sometimes you end up adding more junk to your newly reset Mac device.
With many unnecessary files, sometimes you end up with low space on your hard drive. Such will lead to slow performance of your device. So, what is the solution to dealing with low space on the hard drive? We recommend that you use CleanMyMac X software to clean any junk from your device.
With the software installed, launch it to access the multiple tools that come with the software. The window will look like the image shown below.
Since we are looking to optimize the whole system, we recommend you stick to the Smart Scan option. Proceed to click on Scan.
The software will go through the various tools it has to analyze what could be the problem with the Mac making it slow. Such include looking for system junk, malwares, apps, large files, and much more. Once the scan is complete, you will see the following window.
The software gives you a summary of what could be slowing your Mac down and have options to delete and optimize some of these files. Click on Run to allow the software to optimize the device. Once it is done, you should have a smoother running Mac.
If you have to remove any large files from the hard drive, then use the Large & Old Files category to free up more space from your hard drive.
Check Resource Usage
Sometimes you might end up with a slow MacBook Pro after factory reset because there is a strain on the resources. Depending on the applications you are running, some tend to take up more resources such as the CPU, disk usage, energy, and more.
To find out which app is taking up too many resources, use the Activity Monitor tool. The tool highlights the various apps currently running and the amount of resources they are using as shown below.
To open Activity Monitor, launch Spotlight and search Activity Monitor. Launch it from the results that appear.
The first thing you should look at is the CPU usage. Some processes tend to put a heavy load on your CPU, making it slow. If you find these processes, make sure to quit them to see if that improves the performance of the device.
Sometimes it is not even the processor load, but being low on Memory. It can surprise you when your high-performance MacBook Pro cannot keep up with demands and the CPU load is at 50%. This is because it is out of RAM to load more files of the various applications you are running. Switch to the Memory tab to see which app is using a lot of memory.
If your device has the best processor and enough memory, but it is still slow, look at the additional reasons on the list.
Too Many Startup Items
Once you reset your MacBook Pro to factory settings, even the startup items are reset too. If you had optimized them before to improve your Mac’s performance, then you might want to consider doing the same. If you are new to managing these startup programs, then consider following the steps below;
- From the Applemenu, select System Preferences
- Click on the Users & Groupsicon
- From the window that appears, choose Login Items
- Proceed to uncheck the apps that you do not want to start whenever you login
The CleanMyMac X tool is also crucial for improving the bootup speed by disabling the Launch Agents and Login Items. The tool is easy to use and you would not have to go through many steps.
Once the CleanMyMac X software is up and running, choose the Optimization tab. It will give the option of optimizing both the Launch Agents and Login Items. Go through each of the subsections optimizing them by following the onscreen instructions.
It is an intuitive software, so you should be done with the optimization process in no time.
Large Duplicate Files
Having restored most of your data to your MacBook Pro after resetting it, sometimes you end up with duplicates. The worst is when these duplicate files take up a lot of space on your hard drive, thus slowing down your device again.
It can be hard to trace some duplicate files on your hard drive. It is why you could use the Gemini 2 software to find these files. The Gemini 2 software is an intuitive tool that even new users can find it easy to use. Within a few steps of setting it up, it should be possible to run it through your system to get all the duplicates.
Once the scan is complete, you will get a detailed report showing you the various duplicate files and where to find them.
The video below shows you how the software works. Check it out to learn more.
In Summary
Resetting your MacBook Pro to factory settings always leads to better performance. It is the first reason people do it all the time. Whenever it seems like the performance is not what you expected after a reset, then look at the solutions we have offered above. Sometimes it is as simple as quitting a few apps taking up too many resources.
Well, at times you need to upgrade the hardware to get better performance. Whichever the case, it is always good to explore various solutions.