macOS Catalina - should I upgrade??

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FineWine

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Nurse (R)

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#2748144 22-Jul-2021 13:15

There is also one other thing you can do and that is to use, what I call a "Grease & Oil Change" maintenance program called Onyx. This is a FREE program that is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the structure of the system files, to run miscellaneous maintenance and cleaning tasks, to configure parameters in the Finder, Dock, Safari, and some of Apple's applications, to delete caches, to remove certain problematic folders and files, to rebuild various databases and indexes, and more. I always use it prior and post system OS updates and about once a month. In your case I would use pre upgrading to a higher OS and then post that upgrade.

This program is available here: Titanium Software - Onyx. ONLY DOWNLOAD THE VERSION FOR THE RELEVANT macOS !!!!

NOTE: This is NOT the CleanMyMac program which quite rightly has had a lot of bad press.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

Newtown

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#2748181 22-Jul-2021 14:23

Onyx is amazing, I use it all the time. Another tool is TinkerTool to change some under the hood preferences or dark mode settings: http://www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerTool.html

However, eventually the system will slow down due to low RAM and slow hard drive.

OnceBitten

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#2748320 22-Jul-2021 16:35

Groucho:

Yes I should have added my 2012 Mini had an SSD installed as my Christmas 2019 present to myself as it was getting slower and slower. I had already maxed out the RAM to 16GB. I was contemplating buying a newer machine but the SSD made ALL the difference!

I kept the old HDD and bought a cheap USB enclosure for it. If for some reason I need to access one of my old 32bit apps I can boot from that HDD. I've done it once to test, performance isn't pretty over USB2 especially also being used to SSD speed but was good peace of mind for my upgrade anyway.

thanks for that

Mine says 500 GB SATA Disk

if upgrading to SSD is better and faster then that's something I need look at. there is a local repairer in Milford (Auckland) that repairs iPads / iPhones and Mackbooks...etc...

cheers

Groucho

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#2748324 22-Jul-2021 16:43

OnceBitten:

Mine says 500 GB SATA Disk

if upgrading to SSD is better and faster then that's something I need look at. there is a local repairer in Milford (Auckland) that repairs iPads / iPhones and Mackbooks...etc...

You won't regret doing it! SSD is solid state (like a USB flash drive) so there's no moving parts and no seek time for the OS to locate files scattered all over a hard drive. You will still be hamstrung by your RAM and processor speed but an SSD will dramatically improve things. If your MacBook battery still has enough life to use without being plugged in you'll also find it will last a bit longer as its not having to power a physical disk spinning at 5400rpm.

FineWine

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Nurse (R)

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#2748327 22-Jul-2021 16:52

You might find this article helpful in finding all those old 32bit app's: How to check if your Mac’s software is 32- or 64-bit

Also here is a great little program to help you clean out all those old 32bit programs: (free) AppCleaner

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

Newtown

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#2748331 22-Jul-2021 16:59

OnceBitten:

if upgrading to SSD is better and faster then that's something I need look at. there is a local repairer in Milford (Auckland) that repairs iPads / iPhones and Mackbooks...etc...

If you feel brave, you could give it a go yourself. As long as you don't end up frying the internals.

https://www.ifixit.com/Device/MacBook_Pro_13%22_Unibody_Mid_2012

At a minimum, go for 8 GB RAM and 240/256 GB SSD. You can also put the old hard drive in an enclosure and use it as an external drive.

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