Best "Cleaner" for Mac? Imac

[tmal85]

Hi

I have used Clean My Mac on an old 17 inch macbook pro for years. I have an older now 2014 Imac that still runs great but have never used anything other than Disc Util for the 1TB SSD in it.

I was wondering if i should get the new version of Clean my Mac for it? or is there now something better or is nothing needed and Disc util on the SSD is ok?

thanks much!

 

[Apple_Robert]

Why do you believe the Mac needs constant cleaning? Has your system been showing signs of problems?

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

I would not install that on a Mac at any price, but no doubt some will come to sing its praises. Have a read of this from these forums and beware more may be 'cleaned' than you bargain for:-


https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/cleanmymac-freeing-up-ram.1866244/

 

[tmal85]

Thanks for the info

I do alot of music and after a few sessions i can tell playback and other things are def slower and disjointed, i press the Imac pretty hard for long periods of time, cpu, etc

after a disc utility first aid its back to normal so i wasn't sure if i should be doing something more now that the imac is a little older. the software and plugins also grow in power as i add updates etc so i want to optimize the performance as much as possible

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"I do alot of music and after a few sessions i can tell playback and other things are def slower and disjointed, i press the Imac pretty hard for long periods of time, cpu, etc"

It's a 17" old MacBookPro, right? Or is it an iMac?
(If it's an MBPro, you should be posting this in the MBPro forum, not here, but....)

Then I'll assume it still has the original platter-based hard drive, right?

Your problem is a simple one:
The old drive has probably become hopelessly fragmented.
You need to defrag it. This will do three things:
1. re-concactenate fragmented files
2. remove all the (probably thousands) of fragments of "free space" between the files, and
3. group all the files at the "head end" of the drive, leaving a single block of "contiguous" free space at the end.
(Both "Drive Genius" and "TechTool Pro" can do the job.
I suggest DG -- I believe you can download it for a free 30-day trial)

When doing music, it's particularly important that your drive have such a solid block of contiguous space while recording music files to it. Otherwise the drive head has to "go hunting around" to find bits and pieces of free space to which it can write.

BETTER SOLUTION (if it's a MacBook Pro, not an iMac):
Put an SSD into it.
You will be AMAZED at the performance boost.
An entirely different world.

EVEN BETTER SOLUTION:
Time for something new!

 

[tmal85]

Hi

No its a 2014 Imac 27 - 3.2 (i think)quad 32 gigs ram

1TB SSD

 

[chabig]

I have an older now 2014 Imac that still runs great...

...after a few sessions i can tell playback and other things are def slower and disjointed...

So which is is? Does it run great, or is it "disjointed". With near certaintly your machine is running fine. If you really think something is broken, you should let an Apple Genius look at it. But there is no magic application that can "clean" your Mac. The only cleaning you can do it wipe the screen with a soft cloth to remove dust, and perhaps vacuum dust out of your fans.

 

[bopajuice]

I run Disk Doctor every now and then to clean out older cache files, logs, downloads, installers, etc. I got it through the App Store. $2.99

I really don't use it much anymore. I was more concerned when I only had a 128 SSD and space was a premium.

 

[Fishrrman]

Ah, ok, I overlooked the part about the NEW iMac.

In that case, I'd suggest that you don't need "Clean my Mac" at all.

For cleaning out old caches, etc., I use a small free utility called "Yasu".
It's old, no longer supported, but still works. You do have to press "ok" at the end (it won't reboot or shut down until you do).
Old "prefs" files can be deleted manually.

 

[tmal85]

Very cool, thanks for the help and suggestions! if i run it for say a week with heavy recording sessions and mixing, I can get slow downs and drop outs in the audio, even selecting large buffer sizes etc, nothing crazy and not all the time. being 4 years old roughly i was just curious. when it does get like this i have always just run disc util and first aid on the drive and its always worked well, i just didn't knwo if it was accumulating "junk" i guess that could be better cleaned.

thanks!