How to Reduce Internet Data Usage on Your Mac (and When You Should Do It)
As a freelance journalist, I travel a lot and often work from remote locations. This means I often have to use a personal hotspot or a slow metered connection, forcing me to limit my bandwidth usage. All the while, my Mac is downloading large app updates, OS updates, and sending large bursts of data when apps call home. All this can be a big problem when I travel and work. That’s why I rely on apps that limit my Mac’s data usage under certain conditions. You should do this too.
Why You Should Limit Internet Usage on Your Mac
Macs generally do a good job of limiting hotspot data usage, but not so much when using metered connections while traveling. Even with these features, I noticed that when I use my iPhone as a hotspot, sometimes the app starts syncing in the background and downloads an abnormally large amount of data. This slows down the connection for tasks that actually require a lot of bandwidth, and speeds up the drain on the battery of the iPhone running the hotspot.
I became acutely aware of these problems one day when I was working at a café where loading multiple images took a good 20 minutes. The culprit? Around the same time, someone sent me a great video. If the same thing had happened at a hotel with limited free internet access, I would have run out of bandwidth the day before I even started working. Luckily, you can avoid these situations by using a few strategic tools.
How to Limit Internet Data Usage on Your Mac
There are a few different ways to stop apps on your Mac from downloading a ton of data when you need the bandwidth for other tasks. The simplest is to use the built-in low data mode on your Mac. It reduces data usage on certain Wi-Fi networks and is turned on by default whenever your Mac connects to a personal hotspot.
Turn on low traffic mode for Wi-Fi networks on Mac
To turn it on for other Wi-Fi networks, click the Apple logo in the top-left corner of your Mac’s screen and choose System Preferences > Wi-Fi . The connected Wi-Fi network will appear on the right and you can click the “More details…” button. Enable Low Traffic Mode and you’re good to go. You’ll have to repeat this process for each Wi-Fi network you want to use sparingly, but it’s worth it.
Use TripMode to limit application bandwidth usage.
Mac computers do a good job of reducing data usage, but the problem is that you don’t have much control over the process. To change this, you can rely on third-party applications. TripMode has been around for a long time, and it’s one of the best ways to limit the amount of data on your Mac. The app allows you to set up multiple profiles and add data restrictions to them accordingly. It can use your location to determine which profile to activate, further reducing the need to fiddle with the app. You can set a data limit, which is 1GB for most hotels I visit, and ask it to reset the counter daily, weekly, monthly, or at specific intervals.
You can even schedule TripMode to run at specific times of the day, which is handy if you work with time-tracking data networks. I’ve seen networks that allow unlimited bandwidth from 12am to 7am, but have data caps throughout the day. TripMode works for this too. Once TripMode is configured, you can control the application via the menu bar. Click the icon in the menu bar and you can use the drop-down menu to switch profiles and uncheck the box next to any app to lock its data.
TripMode is a good app, but it hasn’t been updated for about nine months (at the time of writing this article). This caused a problem during the installation process. The app asked me to install a system extension, and when I clicked the button to do so, it took me to the wrong settings page on the Mac. The correct page can be found under System Settings > General > Login Items and Extensions > Network Extensions . Once you enable TripMode on this page, you will be able to continue with the installation. You can try this app for free for a week, and it also costs $5.99 per month.
Datacever lets you track app data usage
As much as I like Tripmode’s settings, they can be intimidating for someone who just wants to press a couple of buttons and block apps that are hogging bandwidth. For those who prefer a simpler interface, DataCever ($6.99) is a good alternative that I discovered thanks to App Addict . It also hasn’t been updated for a long time, but there were no problems during the installation process. Once I launched it, I clicked the icon in the menu bar and unchecked the apps I wanted to block online.
Datacever neatly divides the list of applications into three tabs – “All” , “System” and “Applications” . This arrangement allows you to quickly find specific system processes or applications that you want to keep offline. You can also go into the app settings and adjust the data limits for individual apps using the slider. You can set a limit of up to 1GB per app, which is great, but I would like more flexibility. If I could manually enter the data limit instead of using a slider to set it, it would be much easier for me to do this.
Datacever’s appeal lies in its simple user interface and pricing model. Some people prefer to buy apps in one go rather than making regular payments. However, it lacks the advanced features that make TripMode worth using.
As an alternative to these apps, you can also consider using firewall apps on your Mac . Apps like Radio Silence and Little Snitch prevent apps from calling home, and while they are overkill for limiting hotspot data usage, you can easily use these apps for work.