CleanMyMac

If you had really been lurking for 10 years, the response to your initial and subsequent posts wouldn't have come as a surprise to you, because you would know the history.

• Maintenance apps like this are not required to keep Mac OS X running efficiently, as the OS maintains itself.
• Other free apps such as Onyx and Monolingual do not have the same reputation of causing problems for users.
• CleanMyMac has a history of causing problems for many users. Therefore, its reputation is tarnished among more experienced Mac users and forum members.
• Over the years there have been several MacPaw employees and/or shills who have joined the forum only to defend/promote CMM, then they disappear after 1 or a handful of posts. They had no intention of contributing to the overall forum; only to promote their product. This is a violation of Forum Rules.
• Your first two posts in the forum were to defend/promote this app, which is consistent with the pattern of shills or employees.
• Your vehement defense of the app in the face of factual evidence that the app's reputation is in question makes you sound even more like someone with a vested interest in the app's success.
• If you had been lurking for 10 years, you would also know the Forum Rule about trolling, unless your "lurking" consisted of visiting the site briefly every few months or years.
• As I said before, if you had truly been visiting the site for that long, you would have found plenty of opportunities to participate in this discussion, as I myself have participated in well over 100 threads on this topic.

 

Gold star for that response. Go to the top of the class.

Come on now fella, you can't be that serious that you didn't see how facetious my 10yrs of lurking comment was? It was purely a laugh at how much weight you guys put behind your tenure on a forum. From my POV, quite laughable, but again, you guys take this **** seriously, lol

 

It's not about tenure, which doesn't matter. It's about being fully informed and knowing all the facts before posting. It just happens that if you hang around the forum long enough, you'll learn quite a bit, so your posts are more factual and helpful to other members. Unless, of course, you purpose is something else.

 

I find this interesting as a similar discussion came up in relation to MacKeeper on another thread. In the interests of full disclosure I do have an ad for that product on my blog, but I only placed it after I was approached to review it and was impressed with what it did. As a professional IT consultant I'm not in the business of recommending bad software.

I am a recent Windows convert, so I understand the thinking behind this:

BUT I debate the fact that they are "useless." Every time I periodically use MacKeeper it easily frees me up 1GB of hard drive space in the same was that the Windows "Disk Cleanup" tool does. If I have the time and energy to use the duplicate files tool I can free up a lot more space. For people with MB Airs with small SSDs and limited space, this could be invaluable.

I respect the fact that Mac machines do a relatively good job of keeping themselves maintained but I think it's a fallacy to think there is no place for 3rd party cleanup tools.

NB. I've never used CleanMyMac, so I can't speak for that at all.

 

As the saying goes never judge a book by its cover, hence I don't care if GGJ has been here for 3 years or 10, the thing that does matter to me and i find fishy in this situations is however is that somebody, with a pretty low post count (which mainly consists of defending the said product) but not contributing with their help towards the forum is instead defending something that the majority of people are having a problem with and insulting forum members as-well.

It isn't a dictatorship forum but in your case it sounds too much like the pattern we experienced with the MacPaw people like GGJ already stated.

 

True, true, now re-read your post and apply that methodology. Cheers.

 

fair enough... so tell me how come multiple users are having difficulties with the said product but you aren't?

 

A lot of it has to do with which files are being "cleaned up". For example, if you delete a cache file to free up space, that cache will automatically be rebuilt and grow again. If you've consumed that space with user files, there is no room for the cache to grow. Multiply that times all such files and you could have an issue with no drive space available. There should be at least 10% free drive space left available, for better performance. Also, if you're using a tool to remove architectures and languages, you can create serious problems if you remove the wrong thing. Removing some languages can prevent some apps from working or updating properly, as was the case for years with Microsoft Office for Mac.

Again, these tools appeal, for the most part, to those who aren't as technically advanced, who think they need something to keep their system running well, because that's what they're used to with Windows. Any of these tools in the hands of a neophyte can result in problems. If you don't know enough to manually select and delete what you want, then you don't know enough to properly manage the tools that can do the same thing. That's where users have had problems, letting such tools make decisions for them, without the knowledge to say "Wait! That shouldn't be deleted!"

There are many ways of managing space outside of deleting system files, languages, architectures and cache files. Splitting an iTunes library between internal and external drives, using network drives, etc. are methods that any user can do to maximize space utilization without risking the integrity of their system.

Many choose these apps because they claim to make Macs run faster or with better performance. None of these apps improve speed or performance. They only free up drive space, which has no impact on performance, and there are safer methods than entrusting that job to an app, especially one with a less than stellar reputation.

 

Guess I'm just special

Incorrect. I've had a number of "you have a small post count" or "I've been here longer than you" comments, which means it does matter in the eyes of the people that have come out with such comments, of which I find quite humorous.

Can I cash in my high score on Donkey Kong from my local arcade for some posts?

In my opinion, me stating that I like the product and have had no problems, all I have done is state two simple facts. I like it. And my Mac is running fine after numerous usages. There is no hidden purpose, no hidden agenda, no one standing on the grassy gnoll etc etc etc.

I like Cleanmymac. I like what it does. I haven't had any problems using it.

And yes, when I've had problems in the past, some of my searches of this forum have helped, doubt this thread is gonna be one them, lol

 

I agree with that part - as I said in my review..."Powerful perhaps to the point of being dangerous for a novice user."

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Having thought about it, I'm not sure I concur regarding cache files. While I accept they will build up again, if you don't clear them they will just take up even more space, unless of course we assume that the developers of every application set a ceiling on them. Same applies to log files, which you didn't mention.

I would have to study the results in detail to prove my theory but, as a basic example I ran MacKeeper about 10 days ago having not used it for about 8 weeks, and I cleared about 1.2gb in logs and cache files. I just ran it again and there was only 350mb worth to remove. That tells me that cache files continue to build unless you clear them out...

 

While it may or may not address all cache/log files:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2319

You may also find this relevant: Five Mac maintenance myths

 

Actually you only have to clean out caches in case that your system slows down or an app is malfunctioning, otherwise caches are good as an app can load quicker from them etc.

 

I will not allow you to piggyback on DavoteK's hopeless defense of CleanMyMac to promote MacKeeper. I have nothing good to say about CleanMyMac, but I will not say that it is an outright scam. However, I will say without fear of contradiction that MacKeeper is an outright scam. The developer's annoying pop-under ads only raise suspicions. Its websites that only an idiot would not recognize that it owns declaring that MacKeeper is not a scam--really it isn't--confirm that it is in fact a scam.

Please. Don't pretend to be reasonable. You are promoting a scam.

 

My best information is that MacKeeper is a port of the developer's WinKeeper utility suite. Windows's closest relative is VMS whereas MacOS X is UNIX. Therefore, a port of a Windows utility cannot possibly be effective on the Mac because their underpinnings of the two are fundamentally different. It matters not because WinKeeper is also a scam. Now that every Windows user with the sense God gave red brick knows this, the developer changed the name to Super Utilities. Now that only the dumbest Windows users will purchase their crap, the developers are now targeting Mac users with a vengeance. How dumb do you have to be to send your money to these people?

 

Never had an issue with CleanMyMac. It came with a Macupdate bundle I believe that I bought.

But then again I don't use it often and have most catagories unchecked as default. I also look through the stuff and what it is removing.

But it really is not needed.

 

Ok, my bad. Not elitist. Condescending?

While your attitude towards me is water off a ducks back, others may not be so charmed by your utterings when it comes to slating users choices (informed or uninformed) and the products they use.

As you state, you advise people, but you push your agenda a bit further than simple advise. More of a my way or the highway kinda thing. Personally, I like that, makes for a good forum tennis match, but others, they may get touchy about it. Touchiness is rife on this forum, isn't it

 

You're the one throwing around personal-attack words like "elitist", "condescending", "numpty", and "MacDictatorship". I haven't been emotional at all. I haven't called you names. I haven't attacked you personally; only the accuracy of your statements and the apps themselves. I think most people can figure out who's "touchy" and who isn't.

That's completely false. As I already stated, I have no vested interest in whether or not people buy any particular app. What I do have an interest in is making sure that the information they find in this forum is accurate, so they can make informed decisions. Sales pitches that gloss over or ignore reported problems or potential problems are not useful to someone looking for sound recommendations.

Look at threads about other apps that have good reputations. You'll find one person recommend an app, followed by post after post of others agreeing, since their own experience with that app proves the recommendation to be a sound one. I doubt you can find a single thread like that about CMM anywhere on this forum, because there have been too many who reported problems with it.

If you have used it and haven't had any problems yet and you like the app, then by all means keep using it, if that's your preference. Just don't try to dismiss all the overwhelming evidence of the problems it has caused, because that's misleading to new Mac users and forum readers who don't know any better.