Update Older Mac Book

You'll need to provide more information about your Mac in order for the community to help you as best as possible.

What model MacBook do you have?

You can check your Mac model by going to the Apple menu in the top left, then clicking About This Mac. The model name, such as MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015), would be particularly helpful, but including information like the size of your hard disk and the amount of memory in your Mac could help us help you as well. You don't need to share your serial number.

If you're looking to update your Mac's software, you can learn how to update here: How to update the software on your Mac - Apple Support. The latest version of macOS is macOS Catalina 10.15.5.

Some general tips to make sure your Mac is running as quickly as possible include:

• Make sure you don't have any extra tasks running in the background that might be consuming lots of energy. You can check what exactly your Mac is going with Activity Monitor.
• Make sure you have enough free space on your hard disk, as macOS likes to have lots of space free. You can check how much storage you have remaining by going to the Apple menu > About This Mac, then clicking on the Storage tab. Click Manage... to optimize your Mac's storage and delete any old files that may be taking up lots of space.

If your Mac runs slowly - Apple Support

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) comes with a hard disk drive, while newer Macs come with solid state drives, known as SSDs. SSD storage is much faster than hard drive storage, and it's possible to install an SSD in your Mac. This does require opening up your Mac, but many say that installing an SSD is the single best thing you can do to speed up an old computer and to elongate a computer's life.

That said, I'm not sure I can link you to instructions on how to install an SSD in your Unibody MacBook Pro on these forums, but I would encourage you to look into that yourself if you feel comfortable doing so.

If you do think you can install an SSD in your Mac, I would strongly recommend backing up your Mac with Time Machine before you even consider opening it up. Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support

The 2012 model RAM can be upgraded to 16GB total and the rotational hard drive can be replaced with an SSD. I owned a unibody MBPro and can say from first hand knowledge that replacing the hard drive with an SSD is like getting a new computer. The difference is that dramatic. If you have 4GB of RAM upgrading it is worthwhile but being curious, back then I tested the difference between SSD and RAM upgrade in real world situations and for the SSD was more important. Do both if you can afford it. Get the SSD if you can afford only one upgrade.

One important note: the unibody MBP does have one achilles heel, so to speak, and the 2012 model seems to be the worst. The SATA ribbon is subject to wear and it the kicker is, that wear doesn’t seem to have a huge impact on the rotational drive but is a killer for an SSD. A couple years ago I began replacing SATA ribbons the same time I upgraded to an SSD. The cable isn’t expensive and can be found numerous places.