Most of the time, Macs don't make much noise. Then at times, out of nowhere, your Mac fan can become noisy pretty quickly, which can soon get annoying, especially if there’s no obvious reason. So why is your MacBook fan so loud all of a sudden?

First on the menu of changes is Apple Silicon M1 support. This means that if you have a shiny new M1 MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, or Mac mini, CleanMyMac X has you covered.

May 19, 2019 CleanMyMac X retails for $34.95 for a one-year subscription or $89.95 as a one-time payment for a single user; the MacPaw store offers different purchase tiers depending on license needs. Jan 04, 2021 CleanMyMac is a software product developed by a commercial company, MacPaw Inc., which is unrelated to Apple. But now you can download CleanMyMac X from the Mac App Store. Is CleanMyMac free? CleanMyMac X isn’t a free app, but there is a free trial version so you can fully evaluate it before deciding to spend your money.

Why is your Mac fan so loud?

Your Mac fan may kickstart when you’re running intensive tasks or resource-heavy apps that make your Mac overheat. With MacBooks in particular, fan noise can sound as though your Mac wants to take off. By the way, in case of overheating, your Mac usually slows down.

If your fan has been louder than usual, there are some safe ways to reduce fan noise and cool down your Mac, which we’ll cover in this article.

Popular solutions to Mac fan noise

There are several solutions for a loud Mac cooling fan, and you should be able to get it under control fairly soon.

1. Improve air circulation

Sometimes we’re all tempted to use our Macs in bed. But, it’s important to remember that duvets and soft pillows can affect your Mac fan behavior. Any soft surface you put your Mac on can cover the air vents on your machine, making the fan run faster and louder.

So the quickest solution is to place your Mac on a flat surface, give the fan more air to work with. Unless you need to keep working — which isn’t advisable as a Mac that overheats too much could switch off, to preserve hardware and data - give the Mac a few minutes to cool down.

For a more long-term fix, there are countless Mac holders and laptop stands for bed you can buy; they elevate a Mac off the surface and provide a better view angle, which helps improve your posture, solving several problems at once.

2. Free up memory and processing power

Another solution, also a useful short and long-term fix, is finding out what uses so much processing power. It can be an app or process that runs in the background and drains your CPU.

To find out what is taking up processing power, the first place to look is Activity Monitor.

1. Open Activity Monitor (Applications > Utilities).
2. In the CPU tab, you will see the list of all active tasks and apps. The most resource-heavy will be at the top.
3. Click the task and press the “X” sign in the top left corner to quit the processes.

Disable heavy memory consumers

There’s a quicker and easier way to identify heavy-consuming apps and processes and quit them. CleanMyMac X has a feature that detects those intensive tasks as you use your Mac and helps you shut them down. The app is notarized by Apple and has a free version to try it out.

1. Download a free version of CleanMyMac X.
2. After you install and launch the app, go to Optimization.
3. Click “View All Items” and then select Heavy Consumers.

CleanMyMac X will identify the apps that heavily drain your CPU and thus overburden the fan. Check the box next to the app name and press Quit. That’s all!

3. Test your cooling fans

If your Mac has been continuously exposed to heat, its cooling devices may become unstable. Overheating may not only damage the fan, but your whole machine: your Mac may shut down unexpectedly when the thermals fail to cool the laptop.

If your Mac has been overheating, and you’re worried whether the fan is not damaged, one thing you could do is to run Apple Diagnostics.

How to run Apple Diagnostics (Apple Hardware Test)

To run Apple Diagnostics on your Mac, open this instruction on any other device, and get started:

1. Disconnect all external devices except keyboard, speakers, mouse, display.
2. Go to the Apple menu and choose Restart.
3. Press and hold the D key as your Mac reboots. Keep holding it down until you see the list of languages appear.
4. Select your language. Apple Diagnostics will run automatically.

When it's finished, you will see the list of problems it has diagnosed.

4. Reset SMC settings

SMC stands for System Management Controller. This is a driver responsible for your Mac's hardware, including fans, processor, and motherboard. So one potential solution to loud fan noise is to reset SMC settings:

Clean My Mac Apple Store

For Mac’s with non-removable batteries (which is the majority in use now):

1. Unplug the power cord.
2. Go to the Apple menu > Shut Down.
3. Once it has shut down, press Shift-Control-Option on the left side of the keyboard.
4. Now press the power button and keep all four buttons pressed for 10 seconds.
5. Release all of the keys and press the power button to switch on again.

For newer Macs with anApple T2 Security Chip (2018 and later Macs), the process is slightly different:

1. Shut down your computer.
2. Press and hold Control-Option-Shift for 7 seconds.
3. Then press the power button and hold all four keys for another 7 seconds. You may turn on and off during the process.
4. Release the keys, wait a few seconds, and turn on your Mac.

5. Free up space on your Mac

Free hard drive space is like fuel for your processor. When your drive is cluttered, the processor reaches its peak capacity and begins asking for some fresh air. The least-invasive method to fix a roaring fan is to delete junk on your startup drive. You'll be surprised how much space you can free up without deleting any important data.

A free edition of CleanMyMac cleaner could be helpful in this case.
It removes system junk, outdated cache files, broken downloads. In my case, I could find 13.97 GB worth of useless files.

After giving your Mac some brief rest and preventing heavy or unnecessary apps from running when they aren't needed, your computer should cool down and start operating normally. If those solutions still haven't solved the problem, then it could be a hardware malfunction. It is then worth taking the Mac to a certified Apple repair shop.

CleanMyMac X is one of my favorite Mac utilities for uninstalling apps I no longer needed, freeing up hard drive space by clearing full caches and general macOS maintenance. Today, they’ve released a great update that adds support for Apple Silicon, a refreshed interface for macOS Big Sur, and the option to remove Intel binaries.

Apple Silicon Support

Although it ran great under Big Sur using Rosetta 2, CleanMyMac X is now optimized for Apple’s new M1 chip using Apple Silicon technology. MacPaw has made some important changes to get the app running even faster for those using one of the new MacBook Airs, MacBook Pros, or Mac minis.

Refresh UI for Big Sur

macOS Big Sur brought on one of the biggest changes to the Mac user interface in many years, so most apps have some work to do in order to “fit in” better with the new design. Today’s update to CleanMyMac X brings it more inline with Big Sur with a new icon, refreshed colors, simpler shapes of UI elements, and few a subtle 3D Parallax animations.

Cleanmymac Apple Store Online

Remove Intel Binaries

Rosetta 2 technology allows developers to ship a single version of their app containing the Apple Silicon and Intel code. CleanMyMac X allows you to remove Intel binaries if you are running a computer with Apple Silicon in order to save precious hard drive space. A previous update to CleanMyMac X added a new macOS Big Sur widget as well.

CleanMyMac X is available for free with a Setapp subscription or a standalone one-year subscription for $39.99. If you’re running the Mac App Store version, the update will be available within the next week.

Cleanmymac Apple Store Promo Code

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More.