When your connection is almost full

The Advisor shows this step when your connection runs close to its top speed in one direction. Something on your network — a large download, a backup, a cloud sync, a video upload or a game update — uses most of what your connection can carry. Everything else then waits, so calls, games and web pages slow down.

Find what fills the connection

• Upload is full: the usual cause is a backup (Time Machine to a cloud service, Backblaze, iCloud Photos), a cloud sync (Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive) or a video upload.
• Download is full: the usual cause is a large download, a system or game update, or streaming on several devices at once.

PeakHour shows which side is busy. When it monitors your router, the dashboard and the Bandwidth monitors show the traffic of the whole network. When the traffic comes from this Mac, the This Mac monitor shows it too.

Steps to try

1. Pause or schedule the large transfer. Most backup and sync apps can pause, limit their speed, or run at night.
2. Watch whether the speed recovers. If the grade improves when the transfer stops, the transfer was the cause.
3. Turn on Smart Queue Management. It lets calls and games go ahead of large transfers, so a full connection hurts much less. See Turn on Smart Queue Management.
4. Check your plan. If your connection is often full during normal use, your plan may be too small for your household. Upload speed is the most common limit, because many plans upload much slower than they download. Enter your plan speeds in Settings → Dashboard → Internet Plan, and the Advisor’s Speed Test page tells you whether your connection delivers them.

Check the result

After a change, run a new speed test (Run Speed Test on the Advisor’s Speed Test page, or Settings → Dashboard → Speed Test → Run Now) and look at your grade. The Advisor stops showing this step once your connection is no longer close to full.