I had a friend complain about how the new iMovie basically doesn’t work on her Mac mini and how a lot of other functions have slowed right down for her since she upgraded to Mavericks. Her dilemma, luckily, is quite easy to resolve. She needs more RAM. There’s another possible reason, though, that you might have issues, particularly if you have sufficient RAM, and that’s insufficient hard drive space.
RAM
According to Apple, you need to have an early 2009 or newer Mac mini to install Mavericks, and at least 2 GB of RAM. Having said that, 2GB probably isn’t enough, particularly if you want to run memory-intensive apps like iMovie or tend to run multiple apps at once.
If your mini only has 2GB installed, you’ll probably want to make a hardware upgrade to at least 4GB, but the more the better. It’s quite easy, particularly if you have the aluminum body Mac mini. Just turn it off, unplug it, turn the black disk on the bottom to unlock it, and pop it up (push on one side and pry it up on the other). You’ll immediately see the memory modules. Spread the clips open at the ends to make the free edge pop out, and then pull the old memory out of its slot. Repeat to take the memory out of the second slot.
Start with the bottom slot and carefully push the notched edge in while you keep the other end slightly raised. Push down on the raised edge until it snaps in. Do the same for the top memory module.
Replace the bottom cover and turn to lock it into place. Plug in your machine and boot it up.
Hard Drive Memory
Apple says you need at least 8GB of free space, but you should have closer to 15 or 20GB. Just the installer is 5.3GB, so if you’re having issues installing it, you’ll need to wipe some stuff to make room for those temporary files. If you’ve already installed Mavericks and are having trouble, you should free up some space. One way to do that is to back up your photos and other media to an external and then wipe them from your mini. If you’re not sure what to get rid of, WhatSize is a great app that will help you find big files you can delete.
Other ways to clear out space on your drive include:
- Clearing out your downloads;
- Deleting unused video versions;
- Using Apple iTunes Match service to store your music in the cloud rather than on your computer;
- Excluding certain files from syncing with Dropbox;
- Removing old iOS backups and OS updates; and
- Using network storage instead of your hard drive space.
Good luck!
