How to make my Mac mini faster

weeklycod wrote:

I used to. but etrecheckPro crashes and beachballs I dont know what is happening

You posted an Etrecheck report than indicated "Excellent" performance and lots of free disk space. So you did get Etrecheck to run. "Etrecheck crashes" -- what does that mean? What happens when it "crashes?"

With utm you were running virtual machines. Those emulate other hardware using software and the Mini's processor, not actual other hardware, so not only are virtual machines much slower than real computers with those other OS, but they can tax the Mini's processor in a major way. Including beachballs.

You indicated the utm is now uninstalled, but again, as with Norton anti-virus, the software has to be COMPLETELY uninstalled and removed or remnants could remain and impact what you see when operating normally.

As for your original question, unless there is some remnant of Norton still lurking in the background somewhere, there really is not anything you can do to "make my Mac mini faster." You have plenty of free disk space, you cannot change the 16 GB memory (which is somewhat minimal but should be adequate), your processor can only run as fast as it runs, but it is an M4, that's a powerful chip. So what you see is what you get.

I would say: make sure what you uninstalled is really completely uninstalled, but barring that, don't worry about your Mac and just go ahead and use it.

If you see beachballs that are disrupting your use of the Mac, please take note of exactly what was running and what you were doing, as just saying "beachballs" here is too vague for anyone to try to diagnose anything.

I have a similar Mini but with a larger storage drive. Your speed is the same as mine. Just don't let the free store get below 80-100 GB. If you need additional storage get an external drive, preferably an SSD.

What apps are slow?

What are you trying to do with the Mini?

You have Norton listed in the report. Use the shareware app Find Any File to search for any files with a particular file name.  For Norton software you'd do the following search(es): 

1 - Name contains norton

Any files that are found can be Option dragged from the search results window to the Desktop to get a copy of the file.

FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't like invisible folders, system folders and packages.

weeklycod wrote:

it just crashes without even opening, it just beach balls and crashes

(1) Start up your Mac in Safe Mode. Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support If the beach balling goes away in Safe Mode, then something is still installed causing your problem. Owl-53's "atomic" option could fix that.

(2) Boot into Recovery. How to start up from macOS Recovery - Apple Support Select Disk Utility and have it perform First Aid on each and all the levels of volumes shown (from within Disk Utility select View => Show all devices). Repeat until no errors are reported. Then reboot normally and test.

(3) Reboot normally. Create a new user, this is for testing only. Log in as that new user. Test to see if the beachballs are gone. If they are, then something in your main user configuration is improper and causing the problem.

If none of the above help, and beachballs remain, then try Owl-53's "atomic" option. If that does not resolve it, and constant beachballs occur with just ordinary operations, then you should contact Apple for Service. Note that the first thing Apple usually does is what OWL-53 described as the "atomic option," they wipe the computer and install a new MacOS.

weeklycod wrote:

how to make my Mac even faster

Mac mini m4, 256 gb, 169 free, no anti virus or cleaner app

<etrecheckPro app.log>

Easy

If the user believes these current issues stem specifically from macOS 26 Tahoe.

For a thorough test of both Tahoe / Hardware and to  determine the root cause of all the computer issues.

Use the “Atomic” option and select “Erase All Content and Settings.” Apple Silicon computer

Use the Erase All Content and Settings feature to quickly and securely erase all settings, data, and apps, while maintaining the operating system currently installed.

Always make a Time Machine backup before proceeding.

Run the computer without installing any additional software and without restoring from your Time Machine backups.

Run the computer in this mode for approximately 2 to 3 hours

Then report back if the previous issues reoccur.

The M4 Mac Mini , in and of itself. barring a genuine hardware issue is more often not the root cause of slowness or unexcited behaviours

It more often than not, the third party software installations

Any performance details are available in below link from Apple

Mac mini (2024) - Tech Specs

weeklycod wrote:

how to make my Mac even faster

weeklycod -- you posted an Etrecheck report, it shows nothing amiss. Noting that you have one of the lowest priced Mac Minis (which has since been replaced with better equipped Mac Minis, even at the low end of Apple's offerings), a super fast and powerful Mac would likely cost 2x-3x as much, maybe more. The more one pays, generally speaking, the faster and more powerful the computer.

I still have not seen any indication that there is anything wrong with your Mac Mini. For regular uses, it should be fine, lots of readers and users here have Mac Minis. If you burden it with virtual machines or demanding games, I can see how that might cause it to not perform as well, but it's an M4 Mac so it's a fairly good computer in its own right.

I think it might be time for you to accept what you decided to purchase and make peace with it, and to move on and enjoy it, it's an excellent product that really doesn't need "speeding up."

There is probably nothing wrong with it but if you want to know how your mini compares with others you need to download the free version of Geekbench and run it.

You can then compare your results with world averages for your model.

https://www.geekbench.com/

About the only way you could get a faster Mini would be to purchase a Mini M4 with the Pro CPU chip and a larger, 1 TB, storage. Primarily it would be the CPU.

Or if you really want to go up in speed and power get the Mac Studio.

 OT 

If, in the end, you have to take it into the nearest  Apple Genius Bar or Apple Authorized Service Provider for a diagnostic check be sure to have a current and complete backup of your user data. Time Machine may be best for recovery after it's fixed but any complete user data backup is a must. Be aware that Apple will not charge for the diagnostic check but the Apple Authorized Service Provider probably will an will wave the charge if you get it repaired by them if it needs repairs.

Why? Because the first thing Apple will do is erase the drive entirely an install a system without any 3rd party software to make sure it's not the 3rd party software that's casing the problem.

Is the Mac Mini still in warranty?

 OT 

Faster at what? Ultimately, your Mac is limited mainly by the processor and amount of RAM you have, and you can't do anything to increase those other than buying a new Mac.

The fact that you have 256 GB internal storage indicates you have the base model M4 processor, 10 CPU cores and 10 GPU cores and 120GB/s memory bandwidth. The mini with an M4 Pro processor has 12 CPU cores and 16 cores, and 273GB/s memory bandwidth, and can be configured with a processor upgrade to 14 CPU cores and 20 GPU cores. Those higher-spec models would be faster than your Mac.

weeklycod wrote:

how to make my Mac even faster

Mac mini m4, 256 gb, 169 free, no anti virus or cleaner app

<etrecheckPro app.log>

This shows in your recent software installs:

2026-05-23 Norton (26.4.0)

That can slow down a Mac significantly. Maybe it has since been uninstalled but if there are any leftover pieces, those can create problems.

Also, I can't tell exactly but it appears that you are using this Mini for various gaming activities. If you are, then exactly what games are being run and how they work (local, over the internet, etc.) can greatly impact loading of the Mac and lead to beachballs if it can't handle the load.

A beachball now and then does not necessarily indicate a problem, even for an app like Etrecheck. I get a beachball for about 3 seconds every time I open TurboTax and every time I close TurboTax on my MacBook Pro. And with large and complex tax returns, or when I have 3 or 4 open at once, it will show a beachball for maybe 5-10 seconds when closing the program, while it saves changes, cleans up, etc.

Allan Jones wrote:

disk0 - APPLE SSD AP0256Z 251.00 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

———-

WILL slow you sooner than later.

Indeed. A 256 GB internal drive is small these days. The OP technically has a Mac mini (2024), it has an M4 chip and while the current Mac minis still have an M4 chip, the base model with that same chip comes with 512 GB of storage.

neuroanatomist wrote:

Faster at what? Ultimately, your Mac is limited mainly by the processor and amount of RAM you have, and you can't do anything to increase those other than buying a new Mac.

The fact that you have 256 GB internal storage indicates you have the base model M4 processor, 10 CPU cores and 10 GPU cores and 120GB/s memory bandwidth. The mini with an M4 Pro processor has 12 CPU cores and 16 cores, and 273GB/s memory bandwidth, and can be configured with a processor upgrade to 14 CPU cores and 20 GPU cores. Those higher-spec models would be faster than your Mac.

That's all correct. It is true that weeklycod has a very cost efficient Mac.

But bottom line, it seems to me that an M4 processor with 150+ GB free and 16 GB memory should be fine for most uses. My MacBook Pro 2019 (Intel) seems very responsive and nimble yet it has to be MUCH slower than a new M4 Mini.

weeklycod wrote:

I was playing sneaky Sasquatch, then snake.io Apple Arcade, then among us ( it is very bad). all this is past

steve626 wrote:

That all sounds normal. If you see a beachball for a second or two when opening a program, once in a while, that is likely ok. It you are CONSTANTLY being interrupted by beachballs that prevent typing, web browsing, Mail, etc. then that is not right.