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What is your Mac cleaner?

Alonzozo

Alonzozo

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 22, 2017
11
4
Netherlands
Hey Guys,

I'm new to the MacRumor forums, i've in possession of a MacBookpro 13' from late 2015 and I absolutely love it.

Still i'm wondering if it's smart to use an app that keeps my MacBook clean. Not because I get a lot of trash on it, because I'm very organized about the stuff I install on it, but just to keep it as clean as possible.

I've heard about CleanMyMac and I was wondering if anyone has experience with this app or another which is good.

Looking forward hearing from you all!
 
Alonzozo said:
I've heard about CleanMyMac and I was wondering if anyone has experience with this app or another which is good.
Click to expand...

First of all, I want to say that there's no need for any kind of cleanup software or anything, and aside from fixing issues that could theoretically, but unlikely occur with parts of the system, CleanMyMac is more a way of saving storage than cleaning from things making the system slower or anything like that. In general that's largely not a problem you get on the Mac.
All that said, CleanMyMac is sleek and well developed and does a good job. If you want a cleaning app, I do recommend it, but as I said, I don't think it's necessary.
I can also recommend the free app OnyX
www.titanium.free.fr
It's both a customisation and maintenance app. It doesn't offer cleaning in the same way as CleanMyMac, but it's free and offers some maintenance tools that also give you the same ability to fix potential but unlikely issues that could crop up and so forth.
 
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Thank you for your replies! I have more questions about the battery life. But I think i'll have to post this elsewhere on the forums because it does not belong to the App section. Thanks again!
 
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entropi said:
cocktail & tech tool pro
Click to expand...

Cocktail does nothing the free OnyX doesn't, and whilst I haven't researched Cocktail enough to now when they started, OnyX has been at it since like Panther.
Tech Tool Pro does add a little, but almost all of what it offers I can do without paying a buck, with built in Terminal commands like fsck and then of course, yet

keysofanxiety said:
Cleaning apps will only do more damage than good.
Click to expand...

To a large extend I agree with you on this. To the informed user, there can be a lot of use in things like OnyX, CleanMyMac, etc. but you need to really know what it does before continuing I think. And in general, as you say, macOS will take care of itself.

A lot of these cleaning apps for instance advertise how they "Periodically run maintenance scripts". What this actually refers to, are maintenance scripts that macOS actually automatically runs daily, weekly and monthly respectively - the apps just invoke them manually.
 
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I run cCleaner to clean web cookies and data and that is it

Also this is an IOS application forum - you might want to post this on a MAC OS forum where they would related to MBP
 
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CTHarrryH said:
I run cCleaner to clean web cookies and data and that is it

Also this is an IOS application forum - you might want to post this on a MAC OS forum where they would related to MBP
Click to expand...

Excuse me for that, allready thought I would do something wrong :-(
 
casperes1996 said:
Cocktail does nothing the free OnyX doesn't, and whilst I haven't researched Cocktail enough to now when they started, OnyX has been at it since like Panther.
Tech Tool Pro does add a little, but almost all of what it offers I can do without paying a buck, with built in Terminal commands like fsck and then of course, yet
Click to expand...

Well, aren't you lucky? My macs doesn't repair their broken HFS+ volume structures all by themselves and even though it is said that "the mac takes care of this by it self" - it just doesn't all the times so both the graphical GUI tools (I prefer to pretend I sit in front of a mac and not a mainframe from the 70's) like cocktail and tech tool pro have helped me a lot of times.
 
entropi said:
Well, aren't you lucky? My macs doesn't repair their broken HFS+ volume structures all by themselves and even though it is said that "the mac takes care of this by it self" - it just doesn't all the times so both the graphical GUI tools (I prefer to pretend I sit in front of a mac and not a mainframe from the 70's) like cocktail and tech tool pro have helped me a lot of times.
Click to expand...

Regarding HFS+, I did mention fsck explicitly in my post. And whilst I certainly get it if you prefer a GUI, I prefer not paying for one when I can do it myself with single-user mode and a single command
 
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The OS has almost everything it needs for normal operation, aside from a way to clean up leftovers from uninstalled applications. I believe that it is better to leave the OS and its applications alone and use specific solutions for particular problems rather than all-purpose cleaning or optimisation tools. I therefore do not recommend any of the third-party programs mentioned here, including OnyX and CleanMyMac. What they provide is either unnecessary, counterproductive or even harmful.

If you need guidance or help on maintenance or clean up, you can always ask in forums like this one.
 
old-wiz said:
Avoid "cleanmymac" - it is also known as "wreck my mac" in my book it is malware
Click to expand...

May be thinking of MacKeeper which is a scam.
I use CleanMyMac mostly to uninstall apps.
Not malware, but also not for novice users.
As others have already said, most users, like my friends and family, none of which read these forums, are better off just letting the OS take care of itself.
 
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To keep a Mac clean is relatively an easy task.
Attention should be payed when uninstalling apps (one of the solutions is to use AppCleaner and EasyFind).
Cleaning Cashes, Logs etc. can be done manually, if needed, but there are some very simple apps that can do it causing no harm, like Disk Doctor etc.
Restarting a Mac time to time can do wonders.

P.S.:

1. All the apps mentioned above are available in the App Store.
2. I would avoid CleanMyMac. Food for thought.
 
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In reference to OnyX it is the only completely free tool for system maintenance and verification that I know of that has proven completely safe and helpful where Disk Utility has failed.
As for CleanMyMac both my wife and I have been using this excellent app since inception on several different devices and have never had an issue BUT: Like all utilities that access system files a backup should be made before use. On a new machine and assuming you don't want them the Smart Cleanup script can free up gigabytes just removing language files and fonts and universal duplications of apps. Both my wife and I use this app once a week. Unfortunately the market is flooded with similar sounding applications including the dreaded and invasive MacKeeper many of which can do more harm than good.
It is well worth looking at the options and preferences in CleanMyMac 3 before first use as it is completely customizable, so if for example you do not want it to remove email attachments you need to decide this before first use.
 
I use CPU optimiser,works well for keeping my MBPr as fast as possible. For removing unwanted files,I use the file scan in my antivirus software,and manual removal of old stuff I don't need.
 
Timothy Leo Crowley said:
MacOS is the only Mac cleaner I need.
Click to expand...
That, my fingers and a good search tool like "Find any File" which, unlike Spotlight, will search your entire file system.
Handy for cleaning out the last bits of an App you do not want around.
Last few months, I've been trying Malwarebytes once in a while. Remains to be seen if I'll keep using it.
Best protection/cleanup tool is just not to put any weird stuff on your Mac in the first place.
Research before you install.

For Apps that create hidden files I use this Script I wrote ages ago:
Code: 
set buttonpressed to button returned of (display dialog "Show Hidden Files?" buttons {"Yes", "No"})
try
    if the buttonpressed is "No" then do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles OFF"
    if the buttonpressed is "Yes" then do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles ON"
    do shell script "killall Finder"
end try
 
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Stefan johansson said:
I use CPU optimiser,works well for keeping my MBPr as fast as possible.
Click to expand...

Really? CPU optimiser?

That sounds like an absolute junk app which does less than nothing.
How does it work? Other than it 'optimising the CPU', of course. :rolleyes:

Sorry to be blunt but giving advice like that should also carry the onus of proving it doesn't do any damage, let alone anything positive.
 
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Partron22 said:
For Apps that create hidden files I use this Script I wrote ages ago:
Code: 
set buttonpressed to button returned of (display dialog "Show Hidden Files?" buttons {"Yes", "No"})
try
    if the buttonpressed is "No" then do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles OFF"
    if the buttonpressed is "Yes" then do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles ON"
    do shell script "killall Finder"
end try
Click to expand...

Command+shift+. now toggles hidden files.
 
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