Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Mac maintenance
- Thread starter ThemacNub
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Mac OS X will defrag itself as long as you have 10% of the capacity of the hard drive as free space. Also, Macs have daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance scripts that run by default to keep itself healthy but rarely extra maintenance is needed to help out. I tend to use Disk Utility to repair permissions after any major software update.
I also use the utility called Maintenance. Maintanence is an app that has a good balance of power and simplicity to help with these extra tasks. It is powerful enough to get the job done without messing with anything that could create other issues.
I use Maintenance's cleaning functions about once a month but I generally use Disk Utility to repair permissions and allow maintenance scripts to run by default as opposed to using those function in Maintenance. I do not have any specific reason why I do not use Maintenance for repairing permissions and running the maintenance scripts other than personal preference so do not avoid using those features.
I use the rebuild functions in Maintenance when the specific task seems appropriate. For example, rebuild "Spotlight Index" when Spotlight seems sluggish.
I also use the utility called Maintenance. Maintanence is an app that has a good balance of power and simplicity to help with these extra tasks. It is powerful enough to get the job done without messing with anything that could create other issues.
I use Maintenance's cleaning functions about once a month but I generally use Disk Utility to repair permissions and allow maintenance scripts to run by default as opposed to using those function in Maintenance. I do not have any specific reason why I do not use Maintenance for repairing permissions and running the maintenance scripts other than personal preference so do not avoid using those features.
I use the rebuild functions in Maintenance when the specific task seems appropriate. For example, rebuild "Spotlight Index" when Spotlight seems sluggish.
Last edited:
- User-defragging is unnecessary. The OS does that automatically--free of charge!
- There are no MacOS X viruses. Therefore, scanning for viruses is a waste of time.
- The MacOS X periodic tasks are run automatically. Running them manually is a waste of time.
In the event that you know or suspect a problem, non-routine maintenance may be useful. DiskWarrior falls into this category. Another useful tool in the event a real problem is to run fsck from the command line in Single User Mode.
In the absence of a known or suspected problem, running maintenance software on your Mac is the computer equivalent of paying for the undercoating on your new car.
I am not sure if it was a coincidence or a cause, but after getting and using Maintenance (my spotlight was slow, so I wanted to run that fix, though it appears to have prevented spotlight from working at all now) my mac has started behaving very funky in a variety of ways.
I do nothing. I let OSX do the work for me. It's the beauty of a mac. Just use it and dont worry. Delete your virus scan, theres nothing to look for. Virus scans on a mac usually cause more harm than anything. Theres no reason for a weekly disc permissions repair.
Check out your library folder and look at all the crap left behind and added from cleanmymac
You don't need to do any regular maintenance on Mac OS X. It does a good job of maintaining itself.
You also don't need to do a virus scan or have anti-virus software installed on your Mac:
One app that I would not recommend, based on the number of complaints that have been posted in this forum and elsewhere, is CleanMyMac. As an example: CleanMyMac cleaned too much
After rebuilding the Spotlight index with any utility, Spotlight will be slow as it re-indexes itself. While Spotlight is re-indexing, a dot will pulsate in the miidle of Spotlight's magnifying glass in the menubar. Once that is complete, Spotlight's performance will be improved.
There are specific versions of Maintenance for each version of OS X. Make sure you have the version of Maintenance tailored to your OS.
What other issues are you having?
Last edited: