Computers are extremely powerful machines, allowing you to tap into the vastness of the internet and create everything from documents to videos, and more.
But you only have so much room to work with, and at a certain point, you're going to have to get clear out space on your Mac to make room for more.
You should backup your Mac computer on a regular basis, and adding a cloud-based storage (or an external harddrive) to that routine is a great way to ensure that you're not using too much of your memory, which can slow you down.
Checking your current memory usage is a good first step to figure out if and when you need to back up.
Here's how to find out how much memory your Mac is currently using:
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How to check the memory on a Mac
1. Open your Finder, located in the dock at the bottom of your screen.
2. On the left sidebar, select "Applications" and then scroll down and open the "Utilities" folder.
3. Double click on "Activity Monitor."
4. Toggle over to the "Memory" section, located toward the top of the Activity Monitor window.
5. Look at the bottom of the window to see your current memory usage information.
The color of the "memory pressure" graph will give you an idea about how much of your available memory you're using.
Green indicates that you have memory available, while red means that your memory is depleted and macOS is using your startup drive for memory (in this case, Apple recommends you quit apps or install more RAM). Yellow indicates memory is available, but your Mac is beginning to run memory-management processes.
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