Achieve total fan speed control on Mac: Ultimate guide

Mac fans are too noisy? Master these skills and control them easily!

Mac fans are usually unknown until they make an annoying noise. In fact, it is crucial in maintaining the internal temperature of the Mac and preventing overheating. When a Mac handles a large number of high-load processes at the same time (such as image post-processing), the chip, hard disk and graphics card will heat up. If the heat is not dissipated in time, it may cause irreparable damage. The fan cools the hardware by improving air circulation, keeps temperature stable and ensures maximum performance output.

But sometimes, the fan can get out of control, either overrunning when the Mac is not hot or running too slowly when it is overheated. At this point, you may need to manually control the fan speed and even understand how to turn off your Mac fan when you don't need it.

Note: It is usually not recommended to adjust the cooling settings of your Mac. Do it only if you are sure there is a problem and do not over-tune to avoid damaging your Mac.

How to achieve complete control of fan speed

Under normal circumstances, the Mac fan speed monitor will automatically adjust the fan strength. When you perform high-load tasks, the fan starts up and continues to operate for a period of time after the task is completed, ensuring that the Mac is completely cooled.

However, you can monitor your Mac fan control settings and even change them if you find problems. You only need the right application.

The iStat Menus is an advanced Mac monitoring system that resides quietly in the menu bar, displaying all possible data, from CPU load to memory usage, to battery life and fan activity. All sensors report data in real time, and you can adjust the settings to display only the required data.

If your Mac fan is not working properly, you can use iStat Menus to increase fan speed, but you can't lower it below the SMC (System Management Controller) default.

Use iStat Menus to control fan speed:

1. Click the Sensor icon in the menu bar.
2. Go to the Fan drop-down menu.
3. Use the Exhaust slider to increase fan activity.

Note: iStat Menus cannot control the fans on the latest Apple Silicon Mac. In addition, the post-2015 MacBook Air and some MacBooks do not have fans.

How to reduce the speed of Mac fans

For most users, the iStat Menus is the ideal solution for monitoring and controlling fans. However, since the iStat Menus does not have an option to slow down the fan speed, you may want to try other applications if your Mac fan is often overroaring.

Macs Fan Control is a free utility that provides all the necessary Mac fan control settings. While it's not a dedicated fan speed monitor, Macs Fan Control allows you to view the current speed of the exhaust fan and change it accordingly by moving the slider.

Use Macs Fan Control to control fan speed:

1. Start Macs Fan Control.
2. Click "Custom" next to a specific fan.
3. Use the slider to set the desired value.
4. Click OK.

How to turn off Mac Fan

Normally, turning off the Mac fan completely is a bad idea as this can cause immediate internal overheating. So don't do this just because of fan noise.

However, sometimes your fan may fail and get out of control for no reason. In this case, it is very useful to know how to reset SMC on your Mac to fix it.

SMC is a low-level Mac utility that manages aspects such as light sensors, batteries, power supplies, temperature, and more. So resetting the SMC will turn off the fan and allow it to restart.

Here's how to turn off the Mac fan by resetting the SMC:

1. Disconnect the Mac and turn it off completely.
2. Hold down the Shift Control Option key and hold the power button for 10 seconds.
3. Open your Mac as usual.

To avoid frequent SMC resets, it is a good idea to develop the habit of monitoring tasks that take up too much CPU and keep the overall optimization of the Mac. Using an application like CleanMyMac X is the easiest way to do it.

CleanMyMac X is the leading Mac optimization software. It can help you remove junk files, completely delete apps, simplify processes, scan malware in your Mac, protect your privacy and more.

To keep your Mac in good shape with CleanMyMac X, we recommend running the maintenance script every few weeks or so:

1. Start CleanMyMac X.
2. Navigate to the Maintenance tab.
3. Check out all applicable improvements you want to make.
4. Click "Run".

As you can see, it is not difficult to learn how to control Mac fan speed with a powerful monitoring solution like the iStat Menus. If you feel the fan is too slow, just use the iStat Menus to speed it up slightly. To slow down the fan speed, you can download Macs Fan Control. Finally, you can reset the SMC when your fan gets out of control, but it's better to always use CleanMyMac X to keep your Mac optimized.

Best of all, both iStat Menus and CleanMyMac X are available for free during Setapp’s seven-day free trial. Setapp is a platform with over 210 top Mac applications covering everything from using cloud storage as a local drive (CloudMounter) to focusing on specific Mac windows (HazeOver). Try all Setapp applications now for free and create your new favorites!

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