A five-minute weekly Mac care routine, with a checklist

Once a week, do six things: install any waiting updates, restart, check how much storage is left, clear out Downloads, make sure your backup actually ran, and glance at battery health if you use a MacBook. Most weeks the whole list takes about five minutes, a little longer if an update needs installing, and most weeks nothing is wrong.

That is the point. Mac problems rarely arrive all at once. A disk fills up over months, a backup drive stops being plugged in, an update waits for a restart that never comes. A short weekly look catches each of these while it is still small and boring to fix.

The checklist

Pick a regular slot. Friday afternoon works well for many people, because the week's work is winding down and a restart costs nothing. If you tend to forget, a repeating reminder in the Reminders app ("Mac care", every Friday at 4 PM) is enough to make it stick.

1. Install updates

Open System Settings > General > Software Update. If an update is waiting, save your work and install it. Most macOS updates restart the Mac, which takes care of step 2 for you.

While you are there, click the info button next to Automatic updates and check what is turned on. Letting macOS install security responses and system files automatically keeps the most urgent fixes flowing without you having to remember. Big yearly upgrades are a separate decision, and there is a case for waiting a little before you take one: see should you install macOS updates right away.

Apps you got from the App Store update from the App Store's Updates section. Apps from elsewhere usually check for updates themselves, often from a menu in the app.

2. Restart

If no update restarted the Mac, choose Apple menu > Restart. A weekly restart clears out apps that have slowly taken more memory than they need, background processes that have got stuck, and the odd Bluetooth or Wi-Fi glitch. Closing the lid doesn't do this, because sleep is not a restart.

Before you click, save anything open. In the restart dialog, untick "Reopen windows when logging back in" if you want a clean start, or leave it ticked to pick up where you were.

3. Check storage

Open System Settings > General > Storage and look at the bar at the top. You are not looking for a particular number. You are looking for change: if free space has dropped noticeably since last week, find out why now, while you still have room to move. The usual causes are video, device backups and a Downloads folder nobody has opened in months.

If the disk is already tight, what to do when your startup disk is almost full goes through the culprits one by one.

4. Clear Downloads

Open Downloads in Finder, choose View > as List and click the Date Added column so the newest files are at the top. Then work down the list:

• Installers and disk images for apps you have already installed can go.
• Documents you want to keep belong in Documents or a project folder, not Downloads.
• Anything you can download again, and don't need this week, can go.

Then empty the Trash (Shift-Command-Delete in Finder), because files sitting there still count against your space.

5. Check that your backup ran

Time Machine fails quietly. A drive that has sat unplugged for two weeks looks, from your chair, exactly like one that works. In System Settings, click General, then Time Machine: under your backup disk is the span of your backups, oldest to newest. The date at the newest end is the one that matters.

• Recent: good, move on.
• Several days old: the drive probably hasn't been connected. Plug it in and Time Machine picks up again on its own, or choose Back Up Now from the Time Machine icon in the menu bar.
• No backup disk at all: this is the most important item on the list. Set one up with our Time Machine guide.

To see this at a glance every day, turn on the Time Machine icon in the menu bar. In recent versions of macOS that is in System Settings > Control Center, next to Time Machine.

Once every month or two, go one step further. Open Time Machine, find an old version of a file and restore it to the Desktop. It takes a minute and proves the backup works.

6. Glance at battery health

On a MacBook, open System Settings > Battery and look next to Battery Health. Normal is what you want. Service Recommended means the battery's capacity has dropped well below what it was when new, or it isn't working normally, and it may be time to talk to Apple about a replacement. Click the info button to see the maximum capacity and to check that Optimized Battery Charging is on.

Battery health changes slowly, so a weekly glance is plenty. Desktop Macs can skip this step.

What you can skip

A few old habits still circulate and are not worth your five minutes:

• Cleaning caches by hand. macOS manages them, and apps simply rebuild what you delete.
• Defragmenting the drive. Macs with solid-state storage don't need it.
• Running Disk Utility's First Aid every week. It is a repair tool for when something seems wrong, not routine care.
• Cleanup apps that promise a faster Mac. The steps above cover what matters.

If you have a spare minute, wipe the screen with a soft, lint-free cloth. Apple advises against spraying cleaner directly onto the Mac.

Let the crew remember part of it

Some of this list is easy to forget for weeks at a time, and the restart is the worst offender. In Notchpals, two of the six steps belong to the Tech care area. With Gumdrop or Juice in your crew, seven days without a restart earns a visit from the notch during working hours (9 AM to 6 PM), at most once a week.

GumdropSave your work and restart. I'll have a treat ready when you're back.

The same character speaks up when the startup disk has less than 10 percent free, which covers step 3 between your checks. On a MacBook it also warns about a battery under 20 percent that isn't charging, though that is the charge level, not battery health. If the Friday restart becomes a habit, you will rarely see the restart visit at all.

Updates, Downloads, backups and battery health remain yours. Notchpals doesn't check those, which is exactly why the five minutes on Friday are still worth doing.