You are, probably, using your Mac constantly for your business or school work. Therefore, you heavily rely on your Mac’s performance. Thus, you really do not want any problems with your Mac. Macs are relatively hassle-free, still, you can greatly decrease your chances of having issues.
Users running Mac OS X 10.6.8 or earlier must download version 4.22. For 64-bit Macs download version 4.23 Techtool Pro —a comprehensive application to check for filesystem errors, I/O errors, Power On Self-Test (POST) errors, Internal battery condition, hard drive health (SMART), bluetooth hardware. Maintenance 1.2.7 for Mac OS X Leopard 10.5 Requirements: Mac PowerPC or Intel computer running Mac OS X Leopard 10.5. Maintenance only runs from an administrator account.
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Simply, go to Apple menu > Software Update. If there is an update, download and install it. You need to enter your admin user and password.
Software Update (in System Preferences) can also be configured for automatic upgrades. By default, it automatically checks for updates weekly.
The software update will not update your apps. To update the apps that you have downloaded from the Mac app store, choose App Store then click “Updates”.
Back ups are always good. For instance, you may need to restore your entire system from a backup. You should back up your Mac regularly. You can use Time Machine (Mac OS X v10.5 and later). Time Machine can automatically back up your entire Mac.
Your Mac may seem slower after using it for a few days or weeks. Restarting your Mac may solve this issue.
Periodically clean your Mac. Use only a soft, lint-free cloth and avoid any cleaning material that can damage your Mac.
Obsessed with tech since the early arrival of A/UX on Apple, Sudz (SK) is responsible for the editorial direction of AppleToolBox. He is based out of Los Angeles, CA.
Sudz specializes in covering all things macOS, having reviewed dozens of OS X and macOS developments over the years.
In a former life, Sudz worked helping Fortune 100 companies with their technology and business transformation aspirations.
As a consultants we are sometimes asked what maintenance should be done on a MAC. The response is surprisingly little. OS X has a number of things baked into the operating system that keep your MAC running (for the most part) at optimum efficiency. OS X has maintenance scripts that run periodically. The scripts perform various functions. The main three scripts are daily, weekly and monthly.
The Techbeast has a nice breakdown of what they do:
Each maintenance script — daily, weekly, and monthly — has a specific function. Their functions have varied over different versions of Mac OS X.
You can see when the last time the scripts ran by opening the terminal command and run the following commands:
The results should look something like this:
Note the time of the last run of each script (10:43 on). These scripts are typically enough to keep your Mac running in its optimal state. While you can run these scripts manually there really is no reason to as the operating system itself does a fairly good job at doing it for you.
All things considered, there are other areas that should receive more attention than trying to run these scripts manually such as updating the operating system and making sure other software is up to date via the Mac App Store. It is very common for us to work with clients and find numerous updates that have never been installed. This is one quick and easy operation that a client can perform to insure the continuing smooth operation of their respective Mac.