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Mac maintenance - what to do daily/weekly/monthly?

Honestly, just use it!

I recommend doing any updates whenever they pop up.

Once a month or so, kill the battery all the way and charge it up. I know that new batteries are supposed to be calibrated from factory, but it makes me feel better knowing my battery is properly exercised.

CLEAN the laptop often. I cannot stress that enough. Buy yourself iKlear kit ($20 at Fry's) and clean the display, case, etc. once a month at least. The oils from your skin can make your computer look shiny and overall crap. I also invested into a keyboard protector which protects the keyboard. It protects against spills, and that nasty sheen when you just use your computer without one of those. I highly recommend the KB brand. They make one that is super thin and fits very well. Definitely better than the iSkin one.

Apart from that, laptops have evolved a long way from needing any maintenance really. Just enjoy your MBP!

2w3xt95.jpg


Included is the picture of the KB keyboard protector on my rMBP. It's very soft and nice to the touch. The keys press very easily and without too much effort compared to just a bare keyboard.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
reRESERVEDMD said:
Honestly, just use it!

I recommend doing any updates whenever they pop up.

Once a month or so, kill the battery all the way and charge it up. I know that new batteries are supposed to be calibrated from factory, but it makes me feel better knowing my battery is properly exercised.

CLEAN the laptop often. I cannot stress that enough. Buy yourself iKlear kit ($20 at Fry's) and clean the display, case, etc. once a month at least. The oils from your skin can make your computer look shiny and overall crap. I also invested into a keyboard protector which protects the keyboard. It protects against spills, and that nasty sheen when you just use your computer without one of those. I highly recommend the KB brand. They make one that is super thin and fits very well. Definitely better than the iSkin one.

Apart from that, laptops have evolved a long way from needing any maintenance really. Just enjoy your MBP!

Image

Included is the picture of the KB keyboard protector on my rMBP. It's very soft and nice to the touch. The keys press very easily and without too much effort compared to just a bare keyboard.
Click to expand...

Holy necro-bump from nearly 3 years ago, and holy hell you have a lot of stuff in that dock of yours.
 
Repair permissions? Not necessary?

I was told ages ago to repair permissions about once a month, and always before doing updates affecting OS.

So, is that not be necessary? Is repairing permissions the same as defrag?

should I stop doing this on Mac Air which only has SSD?

I thought it must have been useful on iMac in my sig, as it has never had problems.
 
nightlong said:
I was told ages ago to repair permissions about once a month, and always before doing updates affecting OS.

So, is that not be necessary? Is repairing permissions the same as defrag?

should I stop doing this on Mac Air which only has SSD?

I thought it must have been useful on iMac in my sig, as it has never had problems.
Click to expand...

Repairing permissions is fine and not the same as defrag
 
nightlong said:
So, what do you use to defrag, or does that get done automatically as some have suggested here?
Click to expand...
You don't need to defrag at all, except in some cases when partitioning drives.

You don't need "cleaner" or "maintenance" apps to keep your Mac running well, and some of these apps can do more harm than good. Some can even degrade, rather than improve system performance.

Some remove files/folders or unused languages or architectures, which does nothing more than free up some drive space, with the risk of deleting something important in the process. These apps will not make your Mac run faster or more efficiently, since having stuff stored on a drive does not impact performance, unless you're running out of drive space.

Some of these apps delete caches, which can hurt performance, rather than help it, since more system resources are used and performance suffers while each cache is being rebuilt. Caches exist to improve performance, so deleting them isn't advisable in most cases.

Many of the tasks performed by these apps should only be done selectively to troubleshoot specific problems, not en masse as routine maintenance.

Mac OS X does a good job of taking care of itself, without the need for 3rd party software. Among other things, it has its own maintenance scripts that run silently in the background on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, without user intervention.

reRESERVEDMD said:
Once a month or so, kill the battery all the way and charge it up. I know that new batteries are supposed to be calibrated from factory, but it makes me feel better knowing my battery is properly exercised.
Click to expand...
You never need to fully drain your battery in order to exercise it. Just run on battery power for a few hours every few days. That will be sufficient to keep it healthy. The built-in batteries in the newer Mac unibody notebooks come pre-calibrated and do not require regular calibration like the removable batteries in older Apple notebooks.

The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it.
 
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GGJstudios said:
You don't need to defrag at all, except in some cases when partitioning drives.

You don't need "cleaner" or "maintenance" apps to keep your Mac running well, and some of these apps can do more harm than good. Some can even degrade, rather than improve system performance.

Some remove files/folders or unused languages or architectures, which does nothing more than free up some drive space, with the risk of deleting something important in the process. These apps will not make your Mac run faster or more efficiently, since having stuff stored on a drive does not impact performance, unless you're running out of drive space.

Some of these apps delete caches, which can hurt performance, rather than help it, since more system resources are used and performance suffers while each cache is being rebuilt. Caches exist to improve performance, so deleting them isn't advisable in most cases.

Many of the tasks performed by these apps should only be done selectively to troubleshoot specific problems, not en masse as routine maintenance.

Mac OS X does a good job of taking care of itself, without the need for 3rd party software. Among other things, it has its own maintenance scripts that run silently in the background on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, without user intervention.


You never need to fully drain your battery in order to exercise it. Just run on battery power for a few hours every few days. That will be sufficient to keep it healthy. The built-in batteries in the newer Mac unibody notebooks come pre-calibrated and do not require regular calibration like the removable batteries in older Apple notebooks.

The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it.
Click to expand...


GGJstudios, appreciate your generous responses whether to my questions or others ... Thanks.
 
sammyvine said:
So you don't need to do anything really to maintain your macbook pro?
Click to expand...
No, not at all. My 4 1/2 year old MBP still runs as fast as it did day one, with no effort on my part other than just using it.
sammyvine said:
Also my cursor disappears sometimes and comes back in about 20 seconds. Do you know what it could be?
Click to expand...
Are you by any chance using 2 displays?
 
GGJstudios said:
No, not at all. My 4 1/2 year old MBP still runs as fast as it did day one, with no effort on my part other than just using it.

Are you by any chance using 2 displays?
Click to expand...

No i am not, which is why i am wondering to i have to go back to the apple shop? My mac is only a couple of months old.:mad:

When i am browsing sometimes or on YouTube, the mouse cursor thing disappears, and when i start moving my mouse like mad, it does come back after a few seconds.

Should i take my mac back?
 
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