Spring cleaning in the winter

[cozmothefirst]

Over 16,000 photos and videos are probably the culprits in slowing down my 10.13.6 Mac OS High Sierra. I have an terabyte external drive. How should I proceed to clean, and hopefully speed up my computer without compromising videos etc.? Do I drag videos into the external drive, and then delete them from my hard drive?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

Normally, the number of photos/videos you have won't slow down your Mac, as most Macs have hundreds of thousands of files in total on their drives.

-Which exact model is your Mac?
-Is there a particular slow down you are noticing?
-Is it affecting performance of the Photos app?
-How much free space is left?
-Is this a recent issue, perhaps after you upgraded to High Sierra?

C

 

[cozmothefirst]

A Mac 10.13.6 2011, not a recent issue. I've had the spinning color wheel while doing most tasks, including opening Photos.
4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 with 4 memory slots, and two are empty, only 4GB installed. 115 GB available out of 499.GB Most of it is Documents, including movies I've made. I upgraded years ago. Is this enough info?


2.5 GHz Intel Core i5

 

[cozmothefirst]

(I thought I replied already, but I don't see it)
I have a MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6
2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
4 GB 1333 MH DDR3 Memory
Yes, Photos app is slow
114.64GB is available out of 499.25
Most are documents. Should I start to delete/move to external drive or what??!! Please help!

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hi,

Yes, sorry, missed anwering your post from the 10th.

You have almost 20% of the drive available as free space, so moving files off won't speed it up. I would guess your Mac is an iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011) from the specs.

A few more troubleshooting questions:
-Do you have a Time Machine or other backup of the data on your iMac?
-Are you running any third-party utilities like antivirus, MacKeeper, CleanMyMac, etc.?
-How many applications are running when you observer the slowness?

C

 

[cozmothefirst]

Don't think I use Time Machine, how would I check about the anti-virus or Time Machine? I don't run too many apps at once. But I do have original iMovies and photos.