Maintaining Your Mac: A Joe On Tech Guide

Keep Your Mac Running Smoothly
Macs, like all machines, are prone to break down eventually—in either a physical sense (a component going bad) or a logical sense (files becoming corrupted, apps misbehaving). You can reduce the risk of such problems, and minimize the damage when they do occur, with a regular maintenance regimen. This book contains simple steps you can take to keep your Mac humming.
In much the same way that you brush and floss to prevent cavities, or change your car’s oil periodically to prevent engine damage, you should eliminate the crud on your Mac (whether that’s dust, outdated apps, or useless files) and perform other tasks to keep it healthy. By doing so, you’ll improve your Mac’s performance, prevent problems, and increase your productivity. This book is for all Macs running OS X 10.9 Mavericks or later.
Updated for macOS 10.12 Sierra!
Start on the right foot by addressing common maintenance issues.
Eliminate disk clutter and free up storage space.
Make sure your software is up to date.
Check your hardware for hidden faults before they become major problems.
Choose useful maintenance utilities (and know which ones to avoid).
Perform simple daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly maintenance tasks.
Learn why you should skip certain frequently recommended tasks.
Understand what you should do when Apple releases a new version of OS X.
Monitor your Mac’s health as you use it.