Some users have no choice but to face the problem of why their MacBook Pro has slow internet compared to other devices.

Have you ever wondered why your MacBook Pro has slow internet? A number of affected Mac users consider the connection almost unusable and comparable to EDGE connectivity. While their Apple devices such as iPad work well with their Wi-Fi and enjoy strong signal, their MacBook is a different story.

Cleaning the hard drive so it’s at most 85 percent full will help not only your browsing speed but the performance overall. Besides cleaning your Mac drive, here are a few more tricks to speed up MacBook Pro speed. Final Words A slow Mac internet is at the very least frustrating. Yeah sorry about your bad luck, I knew I wasn't crazy. This is the second one after returning the 1tb one for a 500gb just so I can get full write and read speeds like everyone else is getting. Maybe Im overreacting, but maybe I will wait another year. I was one of those waiting for a few years for the full overhaul type update.

Let us have a deeper look at the problem with this article and try a few quick solutions.

How to Connect Your Mac to the Internet

Let us start with the different ways that you can connect to the internet with your Mac machine. This can be done through Wi-Fi, personal hotspot, and Ethernet, to name a few. Here are steps to connect to a secure Wi-Fi network:

1. Click in the menu bar. If Wi-Fi is turned off, click and then select Turn Wi-Fi On.
2. Next, select a network.
3. Enter the password and click Join. Don’t know the password to the network? Contact the network administrator then.

You may also connect to a hidden network through these steps:

1. In the menu bar, click . If Wi-Fi is off, select and choose Turn Wi-Fi On.
2. Select Join Other Network.
3. Enter the network name and make sure to enter it correctly.
4. If the network is secure, choose the Security type. Afterwards, enter the password.
5. Click Join.

You may also use a personal hotspot. Most carrier plans enable you to share the cellular data connection of your iPhone or iPad with your Mac. In addition, you can connect to the internet over a wired connection. Do this by connecting an Ethernet cable between your router/modem and then the Ethernet port of your computer. Note, though, that some Macs require the use of an Ethernet adapter.

Help: My MacBook Pro Has Slow Internet

So you actually find that your MacBook Pro has slower-than-usual internet connection. For many users, a slow connection is synonymous with a slow machine. This is because nearly everything they do, from checking email to doing online research, requires internet access.

If your MacBook is suffering from crawling internet connection, then try these basic checks:

• Check Your Network Preferences – It may be unclear if webpages are taking a really long time to load or if your connection is broken. Follow these steps:
  1. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences. Afterwards, select Network.
  2. Hit Assist Me > Diagnostics, and then choose your connection type.
  3. Click Continue in order to run the tests.
  4. If a problem surfaces, then follow the recommended advice from the Network Diagnostics tool to solve it.
• Look at Your Connection Speed – You can try Speedtest.net, Comcast Speed Test, or TestMySpeed.com, whichever you prefer or find applicable. Have a look at your internet bill or check with your provider what your upload and download speeds should be.
• Disconnect and Reconnect Your Modem – Unplug your modem, wait for some 10 seconds, and then plug it back in. Wait for things to reboot and then check your internet speed again.
• Test All Your Mac Machines – Do you have more than one Mac? It’s smart to test the internet speed on all of them. If the slowdown is happening only one of them, the problem is likely limited to that Mac. It could be, for instance, a weak Wi-Fi connection that’s acting as the culprit.

You can also make sensible troubleshooting steps to address the slow internet on your MacBook Pro. Consider the following:

• Restart Your MacBook – Among the simple steps to take is to restart your Mac. This can potentially cure the slowdown, both in internet connection and of the computer itself. It forces background processes to quit and frees up RAM.
• Free Up Disk Space – Your computer cannot function at a decent pace (including having a workable internet connection) if there isn’t adequate free space on your startup drive. Check disk usage via Activity Monitor, search for and delete large files that are no longer necessary, and delete cache and log files. While you are at it, clear out junk files using a reliable Mac cleaning tool to optimize speed and system stability.
• Use Safe Mode – Safe mode will tell you if the issue is connected to a startup item or plugins. This usually corrects the issue at hand. To start up in safe mode, follow these steps:
  1. Start or restart your machine.
  2. Immediately press and hold the Shift key.
  3. Here, the Apple logo shows up. Release Shift once you see the login window.
  4. Leave safe mode by rebooting your Mac without pressing any keys while at startup.
• Check If Your Antivirus Is Running – Most major antivirus systems constantly run in the background. They can then slow your machine down and even affect your internet speed.
• Close Unnecessary Apps and Browser Tabs – If your MacBook Pro has slow internet, then check if you have dozens of apps and websites open. All these are trying to connect to the internet in order to update and synchronize, slowing down your connection. Websites might even begin to hang! Close unnecessary apps and tabs to solve the issue.
• Enable Wireless Security – If your internet suddenly runs slow, then you should check if you have turned on security settings on your router. If this is not enabled, your neighbors might be enjoying free access as you try to diagnose the problem. Set up the highest security level and have an appropriate password that isn’t so easy to guess.
• Use an Ethernet Cable – If your wireless internet is acting up, then you might want to consider directly connecting to the router using a cable. In fact, Wi-Fi doesn’t often achieve the speed that Ethernet can. This is because of its distance from the router, signal loss, and related factors. Just plug your MacBook in using a cable and see if this boosts the speed.
• Call Your Provider – If nothing much seems to work, then it might be time to call your internet provider and discuss the problem with them. They can help fix your internet woes through remote commands or an in-person visit.

Final Notes

A powerful MacBook Pro can be rendered useless if it has very slow internet connection. Most activities on your Mac these days likely require internet connection, so this is an urgent concern to tackle. Try one of the troubleshooting steps and fixes we enumerated above.

Got an experience with connection on MacBook Pro slower than other computers? Let us know in the comments below!

Check Fan Speed Macbook Pro

Every time my MacBook Pro is run, I typically find myself doing the same things over and over again, all to get the speed to a point that I am satisfied with.

So, I figured it would be a good idea to write a checklist on how to speed up a MacBook Pro, and that’s what I’m going to show you in this article — a quick list that covers dozens of things you can do when it comes to improving your MacBook Pro’s performance.

There’s one thing I want to state before you embark on your journey: there is no single tactic that magically works. For example, upgrading to SSD or adding extra RAM would help if you are using an old 2009 MacBook; if you are using a shiny new MacBook Pro with limited storage, you may find cleaning up the drive most useful.

If you can do everything on this list (very unlikely though :-)), that’s great. If you want to skip some, that’s okay too. After all, the goal is to speed up your MacBook Pro by making the most of your time and investment. But in general, it’s close to impossible that you’ll be able to do all these things.

The Checklist to Speed up MacBook Pro

Check off items as you go along. Not all of these may apply to your Mac.

Basic (require little time or money)

• Have you restarted your Mac lately? Doing so on a regular basis helps clear system caches and shuts down applications, which often results in better performance.

• Slow startup? Check out these six simple guides. Most likely you’ll need to manage Login Items, remove some apps & services automatically launch on startup.

• Have you cleaned up your hard drive? It’s the best yet easiest way to speed up a Mac with an almost full hard drive. You can save time by using a tool like CleanMyMac.

• Have you really quit unneeded applications or services? Hint: clicking the red “X” button sometimes does not quit an application — it just closes the window. Right click and select “Quit”.

• Is “System Storage” (or “Other Storage”) taking too much disk space? macOS greyed out the section so you won’t be able to analyze further. However, you can use CleanMyMac (via Space Lens feature) to figure out detailed info and consider deleting some of the unnecessary system files.

• Does your MacBook lag all of a sudden? Open “Activity Monitor” to figure out the culprit (resource-hungry application or process) — and kill it. Check out this Apple article for more.

• Have you closed unneeded tabs and windows on Safari, Chrome or Firefox? This helps lighten your web browsers, thus making Internet surfing smooth.

• Have you disabled FileVault? Doing so usually resolves slow boot issues. Note: we do not recommend disable it if you think data encryption is more important than performance.

• Have you turned off visual effects? You may be impressed by the Magnification and Genie Effect, but the entertainment is a tradeoff for performance. Go to “System Preferences” -> “Dock” to change.

• Are you used to saving files and folders directly to Desktop? If so, clear off the desktop clutters as it could result in your MacBook Pro running sluggishly.

• Have you uninstalled third-party applications you don’t really use? You can quickly identify and remove them by CCleaner for Mac (via the Uninstaller feature).

• Have you emptied Trash on your MacBook Pro? It could help you free up much valuable disk space as well as ease your hard drive a little bit.

• Have you cleaned up web browser cookies, caches, histories, and plugins? Over time these files may take up gigabytes (GBs) and slow down your Mac. You can do so manually or by using CleanMyMac for efficiency.

• Have you removed duplicate files on your Mac? These days it’s easy for us to save multiple copies of those precious media items (photos, movies, songs, etc). Getting rid of them may release good amount of precious storage. You can use Gemini 2 to quickly locate and delete these duplicates.

• Have you removed unneeded Widgets from Dashboard? Those widgets can take up quite a bit of system memory (RAM). Learn how to do from this article.

• Have you disabled unneeded notifications? Constant notifications tax your system performance — plus, they are big distractions. This Apple support article shows how to turn them off.

• Have you removed unused system preference panes? They can take up some valuable system resources, and make it harder for you to find those you often use.

• Have you changed “New Finder windows” setting from “All My Files” to a specific folder? The new folder can be “Desktop” or “Documents”. This trick can speed up the generation of a new Finder window. Learn how to do here.

• Have you performed software updates for all Mac applications installed? An update tends to help you stay away from the application freezing issues.

• Have you tested your wireless network? Sometimes your Wi-Fi is the bottleneck rather than your MacBook. Read this MacWorld article and learn how to speed up Wi-Fi on your Mac.

Advanced (require some time, money or technical skills)

• Is your MacBook Pro running the latest macOS version? Not only does a new version tends to be faster, it’s usually more secure and reliable. To date, the latest macOS version is 10.15 Catalina. Here are a few things you need to check before updating.

• Have you waited till Spotlight finish indexing? After a system upgrade, Spotlight indexing can take 24-48 hours. If you use your MacBook Pro during the time, it tends to be slow on everything.

• Do you regularly verify and repair disk permissions with Disk Utility (see how)? This ensures your Mac hard disk error-free and run dynamically. (Note: this option is only available on OS X Yosemite or earlier. There’s NO need to do so if your MacBook has updated to El Capitan or macOS Sierra.)

• Have you fixed corrupted preferences files? A broken preference file can cause an application to run abnormally — e.g. unable to open, application crash/freezing.

• Have you reset SMC and/or NVRAM? This would help speed up your MacBook Pro’s overall performance, especially when there’s hardware (battery, keyboard, etc.) issues keep showing up.

How To Speed Up My Macbook Pro

• Have you tried to add extra memory (RAM)? This will help you run larger apps (e.g. video/photo editing) more smoothly, though it greatly depends on your Mac model, learn more from this article Best RAM for MacBook Pro we recently posted.

• Are you using an old MacBook Pro, have you replaced your MacBook’s hard drive with a solid state drive (SSD)? An SSD is much faster and more durable than a traditional HDD. You can learn more from our best SSD upgrade roundup.

Macbook Pro Getting Bad Download Speeds Faster

Let us know if you find this list helpful, or you have another awesome tip to add. Leave a comment below.