Take Control of Solving Mac Problems

by Joe Kissell

Maintain, troubleshoot, and speed up your Mac!
Version 1.2, published December 19, 2025

Macs are generally quite reliable computers, but things still can and do go wrong. When you encounter an error message, an ornery app, or other unwanted behavior, don't panic. Take a deep breath and turn to the expert advice in Take Control of Solving Mac Problems.

This book—which replaces, updates, and extends Joe's earlier books Take Control of Maintaining Your Mac, Take Control of Troubleshooting Your Mac, and Take Control of Speeding Up Your Mac—is a complete guide to both preventing and solving Mac problems. You'll learn how to think like a technician, use powerful tools and techniques, and cope with surprises.

The book covers three distinct areas.

Maintain Your Mac

Perform preventive maintenance steps that will reduce the likelihood of problems—and make it easier to recover if something does go

Make sure macOS and other software is up to date.Free up disk space and reduce clutter.Learn about backups, creating a troubleshooting account, and other measures to take before disaster strikes.Explore third-party maintenance apps that may simplify common operations.Follow a simple, ongoing maintenance routine.Troubleshoot Mac Problems

The heart of the book is about diagnosing problems and finding solutions:

Learn 14 useful troubleshooting techniques that you can apply to a wide range of issues.Find ready-to-use solutions to 25 common Mac problems.Discover how to approach novel or unusual problems without obvious remedies.Understand the best (and worst) ways to search for help online.Figure out when it's time to seek professional help, and where to find it.Speed Up a Slow Mac

Learn what to do if individual apps bog down or your entire system seems

Find out what to do if web browsing is unusually slow.Get to know Activity Monitor to find out what's going on under your Mac's hood.Learn ways to reduce CPU and RAM usage.Find memory leaks and tame background processes.Determine your options for hardware upgrades when software fixes aren't enough.That's just a taste of the extensive material in this detailed, 188-page book. It's designed for Macs running macOS 11 Big Sur or later, including macOS 12 Monterey, macOS 13 Ventura, macOS 14 Sonoma, macOS 15 Sequoia, and macOS 26 Tahoe. The following Mac models are at least capable of running a supported version of

iMac (mid 2014 or later)iMac ProMac mini (late 2014 or later)Mac Pro (late 2013 or later)Mac StudioMacBook (2015)MacBook Air (2013 or later)MacBook Pro (late 2013 or later)In other words, any Mac released in 2014 or later, plus the 2013 models of the MacBook Air,

251 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 28, 2024

About the author

Joe Kissell is the author of more than 60 books and hundreds of articles on technology topics. In 2017, he also became the publisher of Take Control Books, when alt concepts—the company he runs along with his wife, Morgen Jahnke—acquired the Take Control imprint from TidBITS Publishing Inc. He was the winner of a 2009 Neal award for Best How-to Article, and formerly wrote for publications such as Macworld, TidBITS, and Wirecutter. Before he began writing full-time in 2003, Joe managed software development for Nisus Software and Kensington Technology Group. In his hypothetical spare time, Joe likes to walk, cook, read, and practice tai chi. He lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, with Morgen and their sons.