How to Use the Activity Monitor in Mac OS Mojave

Posted on 21st June 2023

How to Use the Activity Monitor in Mac OS Mojave

If you’re a Mac power user, you know that the Activity Monitor is an incredibly useful tool for troubleshooting all sorts of system performance issues. But if you’re new to the platform, the Activity Monitor may seem a bit daunting.

In this article, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about the Activity Monitor in Mac OS Mojave. We’ll show you how to launch the app, interpret its various menus and windows, and use its features to troubleshoot all sorts of performance issues.

So let’s get started!

How to Launch the Activity Monitor

The Activity Monitor is located in the /Applications/Utilities folder. You can launch it from there, or you can use Spotlight to search for it.

Once the app is open, you’ll see five different tabs across the top of the window: CPU, Memory, Energy, Disk, and Network. We’ll take a closer look at each of these tabs in a moment.

But first, let’s take a look at the toolbar at the bottom of the window. Here, you can control which processes are shown in the Activity Monitor. By default, all processes are shown. But you can use the drop-down menu to filter by process name, process ID, user, or command.

You can also control how the processes are sorted. By default, they’re sorted by CPU usage, with the highest-usage processes at the top of the list. But you can click on any of the column headers to sort by that criteria instead.

For example, if you click on the “Real Memory” column header, the processes will be sorted by memory usage, with the highest-usage processes at the top of the list.

How to Interpret the CPU Tab

The CPU tab shows you information about the processor usage on your Mac. At the top of the window, you’ll see a graph that shows the percentage of processor usage over time.

Below the graph, you’ll see a list of all the processes that are using the processor. The processes are sorted by CPU usage, with the highest-usage processes at the top of the list.

You can click on any of the column headers to sort the processes by that criteria instead. For example, if you click on the “Real Memory” column header, the processes will be sorted by memory usage, with the highest-usage processes at the top of the list.

If you see a process that’s using a lot of CPU resources, you can select it and then click on the “Quit Process” button to force-quit the app.

How to Interpret the Memory Tab

The Memory tab shows you information about the memory usage on your Mac. At the top of the window, you’ll see a graph that shows the percentage of memory usage over time.

Below the graph, you’ll see a list of all the processes that are using memory. The processes are sorted by memory usage, with the highest-usage processes at the top of the list.

You can click on any of the column headers to sort the processes by that criteria instead. For example, if you click on the “Real Memory” column header, the processes will be sorted by memory usage, with the highest-usage processes at the top of the list.

If you see a process that’s using a lot of memory resources, you can select it and then click on the “Quit Process” button to force-quit the app.

How to Interpret the Energy Tab

The Energy tab shows you information about the energy usage of your Mac. At the top of the window, you’ll see a graph that shows the percentage of energy usage over time.

Below the graph, you’ll see a list of all the processes that are using energy. The processes are sorted by energy usage, with the highest-usage processes at the top of the list.

You can click on any of the column headers to sort the processes by that criteria instead. For example, if you click on the “Real Memory” column header, the processes will be sorted by memory usage, with the highest-usage processes at the top of the list.

If you see a process that’s using a lot of energy resources, you can select it and then click on the “Quit Process” button to force-quit the app.

How to Interpret the Disk Tab

The Disk tab shows you information about the disk usage of your Mac. At the top of the window, you’ll see a graph that shows the percentage of disk usage over time.

Below the graph, you’ll see a list of all the processes that are using the disk. The processes are sorted by disk usage, with the highest-usage processes at the top of the list.

You can click on any of the column headers to sort the processes by that criteria instead. For example, if you click on the “Real Memory” column header, the processes will be sorted by memory usage, with the highest-usage processes at the top of the list.

If you see a process that’s using a lot of disk resources, you can select it and then click on the “Quit Process” button to force-quit the app.

How to Interpret the Network Tab

The Network tab shows you information about the network usage of your Mac. At the top of the window, you’ll see two graphs: one that shows the outgoing network traffic, and one that shows the incoming network traffic.

Below the graphs, you’ll see a list of all the processes that are using the network. The processes are sorted by network usage, with the highest-usage processes at the top of the list.

You can click on any of the column headers to sort the processes by that criteria instead. For example, if you click on the “Real Memory” column header, the processes will be sorted by memory usage, with the highest-usage processes at the top of the list.

If you see a process that’s using a lot of network resources, you can select it and then click on the “Quit Process” button to force-quit the app.