MacKeeper

You don't need it, it might actually harm your computer. Cheers.

 

You don't need "cleaner" or "maintenance" apps to keep your Mac running well, and some of these apps can do more harm than good. MacKeeper is an app with a terrible reputation and should be avoided. Most only remove files/folders or unused languages or architectures, which does nothing more than free up some drive space, with the risk of deleting something important in the process.

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These apps will not make your Mac run faster or more efficiently, since having stuff stored on a drive does not impact performance, unless you're running out of drive space. In fact, deleting some caches can hurt performance, rather than help it, since more system resources are used and performance suffers while each cache is being rebuilt.

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Many of these tasks should only be done selectively to troubleshoot specific problems, not en masse as routine maintenance. OS X does a good job of taking care of itself, without the need for 3rd party software. Among other things, it has its own maintenance scripts that run silently in the background on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, without user intervention.

Five Mac maintenance myths​

Macs are not immune to malware, but no true viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any since it was released over 12 years ago. The only malware in the wild that can affect Mac OS X is a handful of trojans, which can be easily avoided by practicing safe computing (see below). 3rd party antivirus apps are not necessary to keep a Mac malware-free, as long as a user practices safe computing, as described in the following link.

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Read the What security steps should I take? section of the Mac Virus/Malware FAQ for tips on practicing safe computing.

 

Stay away from it. There a many threads addressing this, and other "cleaner" apps. MacKeeper has the annoying characteristic of cleaning too much. Absent some serious problem, your Mac will take care of itself when it comes to "cleaning"

You need not worry about malware as long as you practice safe computing. There are no viruses in the wild that effect OS X. Not that Macs are immune to viruses, but there has never been a virus in the wild that effects OS X.

If you really feel the need to have an av, ClamXav is good, in that it only runs when you run it and is not a resource hog.

There are others here who know far more than I, and I'm sure they'll be along to give you a more detailed answer than mine...but practice safe computing, and enjoy your Mac!

Edit: Well, darn you, GGJ! I have to learn to type faster!

 

MacKeeper itself is regarded as malware by many people. It is a terrible program and I would highly recommend staying away from it.

 

Suppose you have a well-kept and well-running household and then somebody barges in and tries to improve things by doing additional things in a different way...

At best they don't do any harm, but they don't help either.

At worst they eventually disrupt something or just make everything run less smooth by requiring additional attention etc.

 

MacKeeper should be called MacWrecker, a widely advertised ,...

 

MacKeeper? Just say NO.

I'd be wary of using anything of this sort. Chances are you simply don't need it. MacKeeper is particularly suspect. It scatters useless (or worse) files all over the shop. You're basically paying good money to voluntarily install malware. I use Onyx - which is free - for occasional maintenance scripts and cache cleaning but I'm not sure that even this is really necessary. OS X is designed to keep run smoothly with the minimum of user input. Whatever you decide, ALWAYS back up everything before you run any alleged performance-enhancing software.

 

I have used Onyx for maintenance and I'm not a power user so I stopped using it, didn't suit my needs. I can say that ClamXav is great. Not pretty to look at but it does the job and no harm to my Mac. Sometimes I use Dr. Web Light but it really bigs down the system when in use. Good luck!

 

Mac Keeper will not remove

Hello, I think I have read all of your Mac Keeper posts but unfortunately I am still stuck with this Malware for the past 3-months.

I know this program is in my library but I am unable to do anything about it. I have a Mac Book Pro.

I went to the Apple App Store and found a highly recommended malware finder program called Bit Defender. After downloading this program it identified the malware located in my hard drive library, but the program says it was unable to quarantine it.

It found adware.MAC.OSX.Vsearch.A by going to the hard drive - library, and was able to click on it to highlight, but command delete or anything else will not remove it.

I am at a loss in how to get this program removed.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you,

 

Hi,

you might run AdwareMedic.

Also see the developer's site : http://www.thesafemac.com/ongoing-mackeeper-fraud/

 

poncho wrote above:
[[ I am at a loss in how to get this program removed.
Any help would be appreciated. ]]

First, try AdWareMedic as Bruno mentioned in the post directly above this one.

If that's not working, I suggest that you download a piece of freeware called "EasyFind".

Open EasyFind.

Set it up this way:
- Select "files and folders"
- Operator "Phrase"
- Comparison "Ignore Case"
- Include Package Contents
- Check Invisible Files & Folders

Type "MacKeeper" in the search text area and hit the magnifying glass at the right to start the search.

If you get some hits, see below.

You can now select items in the EasyFind window and delete them manually.
If an item won't delete, RIGHT CLICK on it and choose "reveal in finder"
In the finder window, locate the item and try to drag it to the trash.
If you are prompted for your password, enter it. That should do the trick.

When everything is in the trash, empty the trash.

Now, REPEAT the EasyFind search that you ran above, to be sure everything's gone.

 

Anything that comes up as a popup is a no-no for me.

 

How is CCleaner? (Free version) Just curious because I've heard good things about it.

 

This whole thread contains posts about the Mac not needing maintenance. Did you not read through them?

Give it up. Don't install anything to "clean" your Mac. It doesn't need it. It cleans by itself, by running daily, weekly and monthly scripts. It does NOT need anything more than that. I've been a Mac user for over 6 years now, never have I needed to "clean" by Mac.

People think that cleaning up cache files means they're speeding up the system, but they're actually doing the exact opposite!


To future people that may be looking at this thread, the answer is NO. Don't install any "cleaner" software.

 

Your answer lies in post #3.

 

Yes, I did read through the thread. But I've experienced uninstalling items from my iMac (the appropriate way) and it DIDN'T remove every file.

Apple is good but it's NOT perfect. If you have a difficult time with people asking questions, I suggest you stop reading them. Try learning some patience.

 

If you elect to use apps like CCleaner for removing apps, be aware that in most cases, app removal software doesn't do a thorough job of finding and removing files/folders related to deleted apps. For more information, read this and this. If you just want to delete the app, drag the .app file to the trash. No other software needed. If you want to completely remove all associated files/folders, no removal apps will do the job.

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The most effective method for complete app removal is manual deletion:

Best way to FULLY DELETE a program​

 

Thanks for your response. It's what I was initially taught - just drag the .app file to the trash. That's what I did. It works great most of the time, but, periodically, I'd find that it still left files behind.

When I went to the Apple Store to ask about it, an employee said that it's not always 100% in catching every file. He did suggest manually searching for orphaned files and removing them that way. Since I'm not the most technologically inclined, I didn't want to do that. CCleaner was recommended to me by numerous other Mac owners, so I tried it once. It DID find orphaned files to remove, but I never ran the program again, and deleted it.

I prefer to have only Apple programs on my iMac. But, I did see the benefit from using a cleaner. (Thankfully, I never fell for the MacKeeper scam.)

If cleaners aren't necessary, what do you do if you start noticing some lag in your computer's speed? Sites take longer to open and going from screen to screen takes longer... Especially when you have ample memory.

 

If you're having performance issues, this may help:

Performance Tips For Mac OS X​

 

lagging computer speed and orphaned files are unrelated unless your hard drive is full to capacity.

if you feel you must have a cleaner I've found that Appcleaner is good middle-ground between more than dragging to trash and manually reviewing what it finds.

 

Just run adwaremedic when you are concerned you might have adware. I wouldn't worry about a full time scanner.

 

You may not have noticed, but the OP hasn't been on this site for almost a year.

 

I hadn't, I saw it a.t the top and just took it that it was new. I guess I need to check the date of the op in threads.