How to disable unnecessary processes/services on my Macbook Pro?

[Tech198]

Bad idea, you'll just do more damage and make things run slower. New OS features aren't just an app that can be turned on or off. They're built into the operating system and linked with lots of other bits and pieces. You'll just be playing Jenga with the system stability.

If you're having issues with the system running slowly, upgrade to an SSD & max the RAM if you haven't already. Otherwise you can disable startup items through System Preferences> Users & Groups. Run volume verifications/repairs through Disk Utility or DiskWarrior. Even shutting down regularly would make a positive difference. Update to the latest version of macOS too.

Actually never update OS... Clean install only is the only best method and trashing apps/everything associated with that app after one use that you no longer need. Trash and empty all files in %home folder%/Logs. etc...

After trashing an app i don't need, i've gotten used to clearing out associated Cache content, Preferences and Application support when most files live. And only install apps you actually use..

 

[keysofanxiety]

Actually never update OS... Clean install only is the only best method and trashing apps/everything associated with that app after one use that you no longer need. Trash and empty all files in %home folder%/Logs. etc...

After trashing an app i don't need, i've gotten used to clearing out associated Cache content, Preferences and Application support when most files live. And only install apps you actually use..

Well a clean install is always a good idea if you can afford to, as is completely removing apps through something like AppCleaner. But an update doesn't do any harm; it doesn't keep the residual traces of the last OS on the system. We don't have a big Windows.old folder or anything like that.

Plus a lot of people spend a lot of time installing apps. It's simply too inconvenient to blanket statement a clean install in every scenario.

 

[Zandiman]

Thank you for that. That was the easiest and clearest way to disable the constant churning of my Imac's indexing.

RE post 19 above:

How to disable Spotlight:
Open terminal and enter:
sudo mdutil -a -i off
(password is required)

You may even be able to hide the (now useless) Spotlight icon:
sudo chmod 600 /System/Library/CoreServices/Search.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Search

...but after running this, you also need to kill and restart the menu bar to see the change:
killall -KILL SystemUIServer

To disable VM disk swapping, you can try this (again in terminal):
sudo launchctl unload -wF /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dynamic_pager.plist
(I think you need to reboot after doing this)

To remove swap files, try:
rm /var/vm/swapfile*

If this is causing you problems (it might if you don't have enough memory) you can re-enable VM disk swapping with this:
sudo launchctl load -wF /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dynamic_pager.plist

Disclaimer:
The above commands work for me using 10.8.5 and 11.8.6; not sure if they work with Sierra.

 

[orthorim]

You can turn off Spotlight indexing if you don't need it, and you've already mentioned iCloud. Other than that, there really aren't any services or daemons that use up much in the way of resources.

That used to be the case, until Apple made Photos app into some sort of Microsoft-esque monster.

Photos Agent, photolibraryd, photoanalysisd are always popping up at the worst moment.

I know theyre supposed to magically go away once they've processed my entire photo library, but that is either not working, or they're doing it at other times too (example: when the OS is updated? IDK)

I hate these with a passion, and I hate that I can't seem to turn them off. They just respawn when killed or force-killed. Heating up my computer, and slowing everything down. WTF And I never asked for the features they're working on. Photos is like a virus.

 

[Fishrrman]

Too bad there isn't an easy way to disable ALL of the "cloud-related" processes that run in the background.

I'd do that in a flash!

 

[hobowankenobi]

I'm all for optimizing, but I question much of what is discussed here. Spotlight is a hog, but it delivers a powerful feature. I can see shutting it off if you really have no use for it.

But beyond that, I don't usually see much that meaningfully impacts overall performance. On a RAM starved machine...maybe. Anybody trying to limp along on a modern OS with 4GB, OK, makes sense to really optimize. Even at 8GB, one would want to be aware.

Here is my work machine, with no optimization, and tons of cruft. I test install stuff on it all the time, and generally abuse it, and never reboot it. So it should be in worse shape than an average Mac, and tons worse than something clean or optimized.

12GB of RAM in a 2011 iMac running 10.12:

Yes, some swap has been used...but like I said, I run everything and its brother (including Win 7 via Virtual Box occasionally).

Again, outside of Spotlight (mds_stores), where is the issue?

 

[nelly22]

"I'm curious as to why Fishrrman would disable Spotlight"

I don't use it, I don't need it, I don't care for un-needed processes "running in the background". So I disabled it.

I've actually disabled VM disk swapping on this Mac, as well.
Runs GREAT. NO crashes. NONE.

I turn off as much un-needed stuff as possible. I wish I could completely disable ALL communication with iCloud (again, something I have no use for). If anyone knows how to do this, let me know!

I do the things I do… because, it's just me...

Could you share how you do all these things so others who want to stop phoning home etc can do these things too? Thanks