Signs your Mac needs more than a restart
Macs tend to fail quietly. There's rarely a loud error, just a machine that takes longer every month until one morning it sits on the Apple logo and goes no further. These are the problems we see most on MacBooks, iMacs and Mac minis.
- It stops at the Apple logo, a progress bar that never finishes, or a folder with a question mark.
- The spinning beach ball shows up every time you open Mail, Photos or a browser.
- A "Your disk is almost full" message keeps coming back, and updates refuse to install.
- Mail asks for the same password over and over, or stops receiving without saying why.
- iCloud says your storage is full, or photos on the Mac and the iPhone no longer match.
- You bought a new Mac and the old one holds fifteen years of photos, documents and email.
- There's no backup, or there's a backup drive nobody has checked in years.
What we do
Every job starts the same way. We ask what changed, we look at the Mac, and you get a quote before any work starts. If you bring the Mac into the shop, the diagnostic is free. (That doesn't apply to home or office visits.)
Startup problems
A Mac that won't start has one of a few causes: a damaged system, a failing drive, an update that was interrupted, or a hardware fault. We test from outside the installed system, check the health of the drive, and repair the disk structure when that's the real fault. If macOS itself is damaged, we reinstall it over the top so your files and apps stay where they are.
Before any repair that could put files at risk, we talk to you about what's on the Mac and whether a current backup exists. If it doesn't and the drive looks shaky, getting the files off comes first. Our data recovery page explains how that works.
Slowdowns
A slow Mac usually comes down to one of four things: a nearly full drive, software that launches at login and never quits, a browser loaded with extensions, or a drive that's wearing out. We find which one it is before changing anything. Yes, Macs get adware and unwanted software too. Our virus and scam removal page covers how we clean that up.
Storage full
Photos, Messages attachments, old iPhone backups and mail downloads are the usual space hogs. We show you what's using the space, then you decide what stays on the Mac, what moves to an external drive and what goes. We don't delete your files to make a number look better.
Moving to a new Mac
Apple's Migration Assistant works well when both Macs are healthy. It struggles when the old Mac is failing, when the old one holds more than the new one can fit, or when you'd rather not carry over years of clutter. We plan the move first: what comes across, what gets archived, which older apps won't run on the new machine, and which accounts need signing in again. Then we check your mail, photos, printer and passwords before you take it home. Coming from Windows instead? We do that move too, and our home office setup page covers getting the rest of the desk working.
Backups with Time Machine
Time Machine is built into every Mac, and it's good. It only works if a drive is plugged in and the backups are finishing. We set it up on the right kind of drive, turn on encryption if you want it, and then restore a test file so you've seen it work with your own eyes. Time Machine and iCloud are different things. iCloud keeps your devices in sync, which means a mistake syncs too. For anything you can't replace, we like a second copy somewhere other than your house.
Email and iCloud account trouble
Most Mac mail trouble is account trouble: a password changed on one device and not the others, a provider that changed its sign-in rules, or a mailbox that hit its limit. We track down which account is failing and fix it at the source. For Apple Account problems (what used to be called Apple ID), we help you through Apple's own recovery steps, set up two-factor authentication properly and add a recovery contact. We can't get around Apple's account security or Activation Lock, and nobody honest will tell you they can. If the mailbox belongs to an office, see our page on Microsoft 365 and email.
What you can safely try first
None of these steps will make things worse.
- Restart it properly. Use the Apple menu, then Restart. A Mac that only ever sleeps can go weeks without a real restart.
- Check your free space. Open System Settings, then General, then Storage. If the bar is nearly full, that alone explains a lot.
- Look at what's running. Open Activity Monitor from the Utilities folder and sort by CPU, then by Memory. One runaway app is often the whole story.
- Start in safe mode. On a Mac with Apple silicon, shut down, hold the power button until the startup options appear, pick your disk, then hold Shift and choose to continue in safe mode. On an Intel Mac, hold Shift while it starts. If the Mac behaves in safe mode, something that loads at startup is the cause.
- Run First Aid. Open Disk Utility, select your startup disk and click First Aid. It checks the disk and repairs what it can.
- Check your backup date. Open System Settings, then General, then Time Machine, and look for the last completed backup.
Stop there. Don't erase the disk, don't reinstall macOS without a backup, and don't install a "Mac cleaner" app that showed up in an ad. If First Aid reports errors it can't repair, back up what you can and call us.
When Apple is the better choice
We're an independent shop, and we'd rather send you to the right place than take a job someone else should do. Some hardware repairs on newer Macs are best handled by Apple. On recent models the storage and memory are built onto the main board, and several parts are matched to that board, so the repair is really Apple's to do. The same goes for any Mac still under Apple's warranty or an AppleCare plan, and for anything covered by one of Apple's own repair programs.
When that's the case, we'll tell you plainly, and we can help you get a backup made before you hand the Mac over. Apple's repair process can involve erasing the machine, so the backup matters. One more thing about newer Macs: because the storage is part of the main board, a serious board failure can take your files with it. On these machines a working backup is the safety net, and it's the first thing we check.
Repair or replace
We'd rather tell you a Mac isn't worth fixing than sell you a repair you'll regret. Here's how we think it through with you.
Repair usually makes sense when the problem is software, storage, an account or a missing backup. It also makes sense when the Mac still runs a version of macOS that Apple supports with security updates, or when it's an older model whose drive can be swapped for a faster one.
Replacing usually makes sense when the Mac can no longer run a macOS version that gets security updates and your browser has stopped updating with it. The same is true when the repair estimate comes close to what a comparable Mac would cost you, or when the machine was bought with too little storage or memory for the work you do now and neither can be added.
If you do replace it, the old Mac still matters. We move your files across, sign it out of your Apple Account and erase it properly, so your data doesn't leave with it. If the Mac spends summers shut inside a closed-up house, read our seasonal home tech page, and see the desert computer guide on pdgeeks.com for what heat does to batteries and drives.