Like pretty much all of these "optimising" applications nothing but digital snake oil.
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MacPaw Releases Redesigned CleanMyMac With New Features
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It's not a useless product. It's not a dangerous product either. But it is horrendously overpriced for what it does. If it was a $10-20 one-time purchase, I'd probably still not buy it but I might recommend it to less computer-savvy friends. But as a subscription? No chance I'll ever buy or recommend it.
If I see an app like this affiliated with a scam website like I have seen. An example is if you go to www.residentapp.com which is one word different that www.residentapps.com (this is a community app that residents of retirement communities use) it brings up a scam website. I have seen this company be part of it.. So no I would not recommend this .... at all to anyone I help...
This is a well functioning program and it does keep the machines humming along - especially when it comes to space (or finding overly large files I have created).
While I usually don't like to use any cleanup software, I'd argue it's useless. I don't agree with the thought that MacOS is able to cleanup everything using some magic scripts. Yes, MacOS runs maintenance tasks periodically. But as easy you install apps by "just dragging to the Applications folder" or pressing a button in the AppStore, as hard it's for the OS to remove all apps' leftovers. Since there are no installers (usually), registry and all that "horrible Windows sh..", nothing really goes on when you "just move an app to trash". Many files produced by apps remain in various Library (and other) folders, and different areas in MacOS Settings continue to show deleted app (e.g. different permission settings). Even worse if you install some Unix-style software (e.g. dev and other tools) - you might need to run a special cleanup script that software is supplied with to fully remove it. In my opinion, in many cases Windows tracks app installations better than MacOS, and that's why all these cleanup tools are usually not really needed on that OS. But it feels like MacOS needs such tools way more. What MacOS is pretty good at is apps isolation, so at least for most apps (especially sandboxed/store apps) you really wouldn't notice any need for cleanup provided you have plenty of storage space. But that doesn't mean your system doesn't accumulate some garbage.
My point is that you don't need to pay a $40+ subscription price for a cutesy app when just less than five minutes of googling will bring you multiple apps that can do the same things for free. Never said macOS was perfect.
Also, never said it was a big deal getting Apple Certifications either. I did a lot more work than just apple devices.
I said this because I have seen about 100 of Macs over three years with CleanMyMac installed and those owners still complain about slowness or low storage. This app did very little to make a difference and the Apple Geniuses near me agreed.
If you think $39.95 per year is worth it for the convenience, I won't hold you.
You could make this argument for free alternatives for tons of things on the market. Why pay for something when an alternative is free? Because the customer finds incremental value in doing so. There is value in a well-maintained, easy-to-use application that has a good track record of helping me keep my computers clean and tidy. For me, that’s worth paying for. For others, it might not be.
Why pay for someone to wash your car when you can do it yourself for much less? Convenience, less hassle, and you know it’s going to look good at the end based on past experience.
Turning off start-up scripts is nice, but MacUpdater can update most of your apps for about $9 (no subscription). The convenience of having one app do everything is nice but is it worth spending $40/year for it?
Nothing placebo about removing leftover application trash from your machine and keeping your apps updated. Removing universal and x64 binaries manually is an absolute pain.
For many third party software issues, this was the one thing support would end up telling people to delete off their systems, if they had it, because it interfered with the their software from properly working. Mostly professional audio and video. I actually installed it and tried it out one time, just something simple. Big mistake. Caused all kinds of issues and broke some third party software and never looked at it again. It also left issues behind etc. Just junk.
I consider it the worst piece of software written for the Mac and was for much of its beginning life even considered malware by many. That is how bad it was.
I consider it the worst piece of software written for the Mac and was for much of its beginning life even considered malware by many. That is how bad it was.
When I worked at an Apple VAR, we charged $29 to competely uninstall and debug Macs on which clients installed this kind of "cleaner" software. We made thousands. We considered all of them malware. Just leave it to the OS to deal with it if you perceive your Mac to be somehow "dirty."
I've dropped a lot more on Airpods Max and they're trash. Everyday I see a lot of incompetent people trying to use computers at my work, it's been like that over 25 years.
the "dont update for months or years" crowd of people fascinate me. could you tell me more about the way you think?
The first iteration of a major new OS version often has bugs that get resolved in subsequent releases, especially since they now come once a year. Third party software can also need time to resolve bugs.
Not too hard to get your head around that, if you try.
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CleanMyMac doesn't help people who buy a Mac with 8GB of memory then get frustrated they can't have 82 Chrome tabs open while using Photoshop to edit pictures. Or their Mac is 8-10 years old, doesn't support the latest OSes and they don't understand why their computer has slowed down over time and they think CMM can speed it up. I've run CMM on at least 15+ different Macs in our home for years and it's never slowed a single one of them down.
Programs like CleanMyMac or AppCleaner do delete most of the files installed by programs, but sometimes not all of it. I also use EasyFind (freeware) to look for the rest of the files these programs don't uninstall. Sometimes there's plist files left over or other stuff. I search by the program name or the name of the developer/company.
I find myself not using some of the features anyway - like the monitor just seems like an extra resource hog that takes up memory and battery life. Most of what I use is the cleaner, malware scanner, and the uninstall app features.
My biggest gripe is yet another app moving to a subscription model. I don't mind paying for upgrades when a new version comes out, but charging 40 dollars a year by default is a lot.
I find myself not using some of the features anyway - like the monitor just seems like an extra resource hog that takes up memory and battery life. Most of what I use is the cleaner, malware scanner, and the uninstall app features.
My biggest gripe is yet another app moving to a subscription model. I don't mind paying for upgrades when a new version comes out, but charging 40 dollars a year by default is a lot.
I'd be very interested to know if there's a thread here about how we can manually delete unneeded files in our Macs.
My macos installation is about ten years old, consisting of one Time Machine-migrated Mac to another, OS update after OS update, going back all that time. So I have no idea how much unneeded clutter might be on my drive, or how to find it. I wish we had a thread here that reviewed the directories on a Mac and explains what's what.
My macos installation is about ten years old, consisting of one Time Machine-migrated Mac to another, OS update after OS update, going back all that time. So I have no idea how much unneeded clutter might be on my drive, or how to find it. I wish we had a thread here that reviewed the directories on a Mac and explains what's what.
ive used CMM for a few years. its great! does lots of useful stuff in a very nice, easy clean way. lovely interface. lovely people. im also super happy to support Ukraine through this app! never had a single issue. only good vibes from these guys.
Yes, well, MacRumors is a business, after all.
If it truly is a paid promotion, it should say so. But it also seems like enough folks have strong feelings (ya think?) about this app, so coverage here doesn't seem inappropriate.
