Having a Mac and by using macOS can require you to use Bonjour, mDNSresponder is the most essential part of Bonjour. But have you asked yourself if is this needed to be on your Mac? Does it take up a lot of space? Will it result in running out of application memory of your system? Well, we’ll learn about mDNSresponder on Mac and how to disable it as we move along.

But first, we will let you know what the purpose of mDNSresponder is, when and how it works and if you feel the need to eliminate it on your Mac know that you can do it as well.

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Contents: Part 1. What Is mDNSResponder on My Mac?Part 2. How Do I Get Rid of mDNSResponder on Mac?Part 3. Speed Up Your Mac without Disabling mDNSresponderPart 4. Conclusion

Part 1. What Is mDNSResponder on My Mac?

It started when OS X Yosemite was released back in 2014, a lot of users noticed that mDNSresponder is vital in Bonjour they are working hand in hand to do the work properly.

You might be asking what is Bonjour? Bonjour is the one responsible for your Mac to detect other devices such as local networks like printers and devices like media and storage. Since not all of the devices are macOS friendly, you might need the help of Bonjour from time to time.

This may be really sound like a very important program on your Mac, but some people actually think that it is causing too much weight on their mac since its doing magnificent work.

What Is mDNSresponder on Mac

Disadvantages of mDNSresponder on Mac

Some Mac clients have announced that mDNSResponder's system utilization is causing issues on their Mac, and that it's flooding the system with garbage bundles and traffic that hinders on transfer speed. They find this utilizing instruments that screen organizes traffic. Therefore, they feel the need to just.

Be that as it may, eliminating mDNSResponder will break Bonjour and make it difficult to discover and connect to other networks. You can eliminate Bonjour and yet that would cause you a lot of work to do by manually keying the information and details of the devices that you wish to connect and doing everything on your own without any automation.

How to Check if Bonjour is Running on your Mac

Follow the steps below to check if Bonjour administrations are running on your system:

  1. Open Safari and snap the little book symbol on the upper right of the window
  2. On the COLLECTIONS menu, click Bonjour. On the Bonjour wayfarer, all gadgets that are bonjour-empowered will show.

Part 2. How Do I Get Rid of mDNSResponder on Mac?

You will then need to use the Terminal App to do this process, though this is something that is not likely advisable to do due to Bonjour is somehow a vital part of your mac.

Though we have learned about how it can go into your processes and storage you can opt to disable mDNSResponder for quite some time and turn it back on whenever you like:

  • Open Terminal App then Key In: sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSresponder.plist

Now if you would like to put it back On:

  • Open Terminal App then Key In: sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSresponder.plist

Disable mDNSresponder on Mac

To use the two commands, you may need to key in your Administrator Password as root and use of sudo. This method is advisable to be used by advanced users of mac. If you are unsure about executing this, we may not recommend you do this since we don’t want your mac to be messed up.

Part 3. Speed Up Your Mac without Disabling mDNSresponder

We have covered what is mDNSresponder and Bonjour and how it plays a very important role on your Mac. The reason behind as much as possible we don’t want to meddle on how Bonjour works and just let it do its work to automate looking and connecting to networks and devices for us.

If your main concern is your storage and the speed of your mac reason behind you want to get rid of mDNSresponder, there is a wonderful tool that can do its magic for you in a few clicks.

Use iMyMac PowerMyMac to declutter your junk files, and remove the unnecessary files that you no longer need. All you have to do is listed below:

Step 1. Install and Open iMyMac PowerMyMac

Go to iMyMac PowerMyMac’s official website then select the icon that states FREE DOWNLOAD then Launch the application.

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Step 2. Scan the Junk Files

At the right-hand side of the screen, you will see different categories, choose Master Scan. Then you will see a SCAN icon, click on that icon, once finished it will display all the items that are considered as JUNK on your Mac, such as System Status, System Junk, Photo Cache, Mail Trash, Trash Bin, etc.

Step 3. Choose the Items to Delete

Select all the files that you no longer need, may it be cache, attachments, and logs, if you don’t wish to delete a category all you have to do is to ‘untick’ the box for it not to be deleted. Once done click on the icon CLEAN.

 Choose the Items to Delete

Step 4. Summary of Clean Up

A different screen will appear, and it will give you a brief report on how much of your storage was cleared and your remaining storage. If you wish to do the process again you may click on the icon REVIEW and just repeat the steps above.

Clean DNS Cache

Part 4. Conclusion

Though mDNSresponder and Bonjour are taking a lot of storage on your Mac, it is extremely beneficial for it to be up and running on your machine.

Without it, just imagine you are a blind person and if you need to get on the kitchen like your food, you will then need to ask someone who doesn’t know where your kitchen is then you will then need to instruct that person every detail and every part of the house just to get the food for you. Therefore, think of Bonjour as your assistant that already knows where to get the food for you.

So, instead of thinking about disabling mDNSresponder and Bonjour to clear up some storage and memory on your Mac, use the powerful tool iMyMac PowerMyMac to save you from doing a process that may cause you a bigger mess.