Lagos in summer is, by most reasonable measures, paradise. The light is extraordinary. The Atlantic is cold enough to be refreshing. The sardines are at their absolute peak. Life is, broadly speaking, very good indeed.
Your MacBook, however, is having a different experience entirely.
Apple designs its machines to operate between 10°C and 35°C. Lagos in July sits at 35°C in the shade. In direct sun, on a marble table, on a terrace facing south, you are not in a temperature range. You are conducting an experiment, and your MacBook is the subject.
I have been supporting Apple Macs since 1996. I have seen what happens when people move to the Algarve and carry on using their MacBooks exactly as they did in a climate-controlled London office. It rarely ends dramatically. It ends expensively.
What Heat Actually Does to Your Mac
The battery is the first casualty. Lithium-ion batteries degrade faster at high temperatures, and a MacBook left on a sun-drenched table in August is losing battery capacity it will never recover. Apple itself recommends removing cases from MacBooks when heat builds — even a slim case traps enough warmth to accelerate degradation.
The thermal paste between the processor and its heatsink degrades over years of heat cycling. In London, this takes many years. In Lagos summers, the process has more opportunities to get going.
The fan collects dust. Lagos dust is a particular variety — fine, persistent, and extraordinarily good at clogging the tiny vents on the underside of your MacBook. A clogged fan cannot move air. A processor that cannot cool throttles itself — deliberately slowing to generate less heat. This is why your Mac feels slow in August. It is not suffering. It is surviving.
A client in Lagos old town — August 2025
She called because her MacBook Pro was "going really slowly and making a noise like a tiny helicopter." She had been working from her terrace every morning, direct sun from about ten o'clock, MacBook on a glass table. The glass was acting as a heat conductor in exactly the wrong direction.
The fan was running at maximum continuously. The processor was throttling. Battery health had dropped to 71% — it had been 94% eight months earlier when she arrived from Edinburgh.
We moved her setup to a shaded table, cleaned the vents, and calibrated the battery management settings. The helicopter noise stopped. The speed returned. The battery, however, does not grow back.
The Warning Signs — In Order of Urgency
Fan running constantly. Normal under load. Not normal when you are reading your emails.
Mac hot to touch on the underside. Normal in use. Too hot to rest on your lap — it is running warmer than it should.
Performance sluggish — apps slow, scrolling stutters. Thermal throttling. Your processor is deliberately slowing itself.
Mac shuts down without warning. Emergency thermal protection. Your Mac is saving itself. Take it seriously.
Battery draining unusually fast. Heat damage to the battery. This one does not fix itself.
What You Can Do Right Now
- Never use your MacBook in direct sunlight — find shade and stay there
- Always use on a hard flat surface — fabric and soft surfaces block the vents
- Remove the case when working for extended periods
- In System Settings → Battery, enable battery health management
- Keep the vents clear — check them occasionally for dust buildup
- If your Mac shuts down from heat, let it cool completely before restarting
What Requires a Professional
Cleaning the internal fans properly. Checking thermal sensor readings. Assessing whether the battery needs replacing. Reapplying thermal paste. Determining whether the slowdown is heat-related or something else entirely — because sometimes it is both, and sometimes it is neither, and sometimes it is a process running in the background that has nothing to do with temperature at all.
A Mac health check in Lagos takes less than an hour. It answers all of these questions at once.
MacBook running warm? Fan never stopping?
I come to you — home, terrace, or café — and tell you exactly what is happening and what needs doing. Same day. In your language. No helicopter noises afterwards.
Book a health check →Lagos is one of the finest places on earth to live and work. Your Mac agrees. It just needs a little looking after — which is, as it happens, exactly what MacLagos is here for.