If used right, MacBook Finder can be a quick and efficient tool to find your files. If not taken care of, using Finder can be a downright pain, especially if the contents of a folder take forever to display, or just scrolling through your files is slow and choppy.
If you find that looking for files on your computer takes forever, don’t just chalk it up to an old computer, it could just be that your Finder cache is clogged and needs to be cleared out.
Without getting too geeky, all the applications on your Mac store commonly used information in cache files for quick retrieval. Guess what? That little two-toned, smiley face that you frequently click on to find your files is an application, and the more you use Finder, the more stuff gets stored in its cache. Since spring is right around the corner, here are two ways to clear out your Finder cache.
1. Delete the MacBook Finder Cache
Similar to how we deleted unused application cache folders in a previous post on recovering storage space on your Mac, you’re going to find and delete the com.apple.finder folder.
1. Click Finder and in the menu bar click Go > Go to Folder
2. Type ~/Library/Caches and click Go
3. Locate the com.apple.finder folder and delete it
Don’t worry, you aren’t deleting any important files, you’re just forcing your Mac to rebuild the folder brand-new after a restart.
2. Safe Boot Your Mac
Probably the easier way to force your Mac to clear your Finder’s cache is by starting your Mac in Safe Mode. Safe Mode is your Mac’s way of doing a system check, and dumping some stuff (like certain application caches).
To do this, restart your Mac and hold down the Shift Key during startup (as SOON as you hear the “Bong” sound or see any lights on your screen). Don’t worry, that weird thing your computer screen is doing is normal.
You will know if your Mac is in Safe Mode is by looking up in the right-corner of your Mac at the login screen. Now you can ogin in normally and when your computer desktop, icons and other stuff shows up, you can shut down and restart your computer normally.
Your MacBook’s Finder window should now be much smoother and more tolerable. So don’t get rid of her yet, use that money to add more RAM (memory) or upgrade to a Solid State Drive (SSD) to speed up your Mac even more.
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