Is your Mac eating up too much of your internet data? There are a few ways to make your Mac use less data. They basically include disabling certain automatic downloads, closing syncing apps, and so on.

You might want to optimize your Mac for data usage if you’re on a restricted internet connection, using a tethered mobile connection, or have a VPN with a limited amount of data.

Regardless, in this guide, you’ll learn how to make your Mac use less data online.

1. Turn Off Automatic Software Update Downloads

macOS software update downloads often use a huge amount of data. To have your Mac use less data, you should turn of automatic update downloads on your Mac.

You can always check for macOS and any other updates manually when you've got a better connection.

To disable automatic update downloads:

  1. Click the Apple logo at the top-left corner of your screen and select System Preferences.
  2. In System Preferences, click Software Update.
  3. Select the Advanced button at the bottom of the following window.
  4. Here, untick the Download new updates when available option.
  5. Click OK to save your settings.
Disable update downloads on Mac

From now on, your Mac won’t automatically check for new software updates. To manually find these updates, head into System Preferences > Software Update on your Mac.

2. Disable iCloud Sync

If you use iCloud sync with your Mac, it’s possible your Mac syncs all your Documents and other files with iCloud's servers. This ends up using a significant amount of data, especially if you’re syncing large photos and videos.

Luckily, iCloud lets you choose what you’d like to sync, and you can disable large items:

  1. Click the Apple logo at the top-left corner and select System Preferences.
  2. Choose Apple ID from the System Preferences window.
  3. In the sidebar on the left, click iCloud.
  4. On the right pane, untick the boxes for the items that you don’t want to sync with your iCloud account. Photos can use quite a lot of internet data and so make sure to uncheck that one.
Turn off iCloud sync on Mac

3. Prevent Email Attachment Downloads

When you receive a new email with an attachment, most email clients tend to automatically download those attachments. This uses your Mac's internet data, and you should turn this off and selectively download attachments if you want to save data.

Related: Tips for Avoiding Common Issues With Apple Mail Attachments

Most email clients offer the option to toggle on and off the email attachment download option. In the built-in Mail app on the Mac, you can turn that option off as follows:

  1. Launch the Mail app on your Mac.
  2. Click the Mail option in the menu bar and select Preferences.
  3. Go to the Accounts tab in the window that opens.
  4. Select your email account from the list on the left.
  5. On the right pane, click the Download Attachments dropdown menu and select None.
Disable email attachment downloads on Mac

With automatic attachment downloads disabled, you’ll need to manually download the attachments from the emails you want.

4. Turn Off Sync Options for Various Apps

In addition to iCloud, you might have installed other apps that sync your Mac’s data with the cloud. These apps can include Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, and more. To limit the use of internet data on your Mac, you should turn syncing off in these apps.

Note that disabling sync in these apps will prevent your Mac’s data from being uploaded to the cloud.

As an example, here’s how to disable sync in Google Drive:

  1. Click the Google Drive icon in your Mac’s menu bar.
  2. Click the three-dots button next to your account name.
  3. Select Pause from the menu.
Pause Google Drive sync on Mac

Google Drive should stop syncing your files. If you ever want to re-enable sync, click the same three-dots button and choose Resume.

Related: How to Uninstall and Remove Google Drive From Your PC or Mac

5. Watch Videos in Low Resolution

Online videos eat up a significant amount of data. While you may not want to stop watching videos on the internet just to save data, you can change their resolution so they use less data.

When you’re on a video website, click the option for video resolution and choose a lower resolution. This way, your video will play in lower quality, potentially saving a huge amount of your data.

On YouTube, you can change a video’s resolution as follows:

  1. Open the page for your video on YouTube.
  2. At the bottom of the video, click the gear icon.
  3. Select Quality from the menu that opens.
  4. Choose a resolution that’s lower than your current one. For example, if you’re watching videos at 1080p, make 720p or lower your new resolution.
  5. Your video will play in your chosen resolution.
Lower the video resolution in YouTube on Mac

6. Enable Content Caching

macOS has a feature called content caching where one device downloads required content and then allows other devices to use that content instead of downloading the same content again.

It’s worth using this feature if you have multiple Apple devices on your network.

To enable content caching on your Mac, follow these steps:

  1. Click the Apple logo at the top-left corner and select System Preferences.
  2. Select Sharing on the System Preferences window.
  3. From the options on the left, enable the Content Caching option.
  4. Wait for content caching to start.
Enable Content Caching on Mac

If you ever want to disable the feature, simply untick the Content Caching option on the Sharing screen.

7. Close the Apps Using the Most Data

In addition to iCloud and apps like Google Drive, there might be other apps on your Mac using your internet connection. Take a look at the apps accessing the internet and decide whether you really need them right now or not.

If you don’t know what apps are using your data, macOS offers a utility to let you check what apps are using your internet data:

  1. Click Launchpad in the Dock, search for Activity Monitor, and open it.
  2. Navigate to the Network tab in the Activity Monitor.
  3. Here, you’ll see a list of apps that are using your internet connection. The columns next to the apps show the amount of data that each app uses.
  4. You can use this information to find the data-hungry apps and close those apps on your Mac.
Find data hungry apps on Mac

There Are Many Ways to Save Data on a Mac

If you have a restricted internet plan or your VPN has certain data limits, the methods outlined above should help you save data on your Mac. All these methods are easy to perform, and you should see a significant difference in the amount of data usage once you apply these methods.