Apple Support Tip: Keep Hard Drives Clean

Many customers ask for help from Apple support professionals when their computers begin to slow down or malfunction. One of the most common causes for this slow down is a crowded hard drive, but luckily, there are ways for you to keep your hard drive clean and free from issues!

Follow these recommendations from an Apple support professional:

Clear out downloads.

While browsing online, you download a lot more than you may think. Over time, your downloads folder becomes full and takes up a lot of space on your hard drive. Get into the habit of using your downloads folder as a temporary storage area. Every week or so, clear out any items that you no longer need, and move the ones that you do need to a permanent location in your documents folder. According to Apple support professionals, this habit can save you a lot of space on your hard drive and help prevent those annoying slowdowns.

Clean up the desktop.

Many people are guilty of having a disorganized, crowded desktop. Although it’s easy to save documents and pictures to your desktop so you can easily grab them later, it could be slowing down your hard drive according to Apple support professionals. Create folders on your desktop where you can organize files to incentivize you to keep everything cleaner. It may seem like a hassle to make this part of your routine, but when you notice your computer moving faster, it will motivate you to make it a regular habit!

Empty your trash.

Apple support professionals recommend taking out the (virtual) trash to help your computer run more smoothly. After you discard items from your desktop and downloads folder, make sure that you take the final step in the process of emptying the trash bin. Although your desktop and downloads folder may look less cluttered once you’ve gotten rid of the files that you don’t want, the unwanted files aren’t really gone until the trash bin is empty.

Get rid of unnecessary applications.

Apple support professionals may advise customers to get rid of any applications that they never use. Many customers are surprised to find out that there are applications on their computer that they’ve never even heard of that can easily be deleted. For example, if you never use Garage Band or iMovie, two applications that are automatically installed on new computers, then you should delete these to clear up space. To do so, click on the Launchpad and hold down the Option key. After a second or two, the icons of the applications that can be deleted will start to move back and forth. Click on the tiny “x” in the corner of each of the applications that you no longer want. If you’re having trouble finding these applications, ask an Apple support professional for help.

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