CleanMyMac???

[Dave2002]

Has anyone tried CleanMyMac? Is it worth having? I'm so often finding I've not got much space left on my MBP laptop that if this tool (or any other good recommendation) could save 20 or more Gbytes it could be worthwhile. I've seen it advertised/promoted, but don't know how it works, or how effective it is.

[MrGongGong]

NO, I wouldn't go there at all
most of the files these things find are small and insignificant (in my experience)

And don't, what ever you do, install Mackeeper

I would use this https://dupeguru.voltaicideas.net to find duplicate instances of large files and selectively delete them
Some programmes (movie editing being a good example) do make copies of big files while working so it's worth looking at those

I would get another external hard drive and dump what you don't need there

[french frank]

Has anyone tried CleanMyMac? Is it worth having? I'm so often finding I've not got much space left on my MBP laptop that if this tool (or any other good recommendation) could save 20 or more Gbytes it could be worthwhile. I've seen it advertised/promoted, but don't know how it works, or how effective it is.

I use it. But only for 'System Junk' where it gets rid of a couple of gigabytes each time, and Trash. I'm wary of Large & Old Files (why would I want to get rid of files because they're old or large?); nor do I do email attachments. So it's probably only true to say I dabble with CleanMyMac (3). It does allow you to review all the files it's proposing to delete and uncheck them.

I had a dupe deleting app too (can't remember which), but I lost a couple of files completely so uninstalled it. I have plenty of dupes all over the place taking up space

[Add. I think it was dupeguru that Gongers recommends ]

[MrGongGong]

I use it. But only for 'System Junk' where it gets rid of a couple of gigabytes each time, and Trash. I'm wary of Large & Old Files (why would I want to get rid of files because they're old or large?); nor do I do email attachments. So it's probably only true to say I dabble with CleanMyMac (3). It does allow you to review all the files it's proposing to delete and uncheck them.

I had a dupe deleting app too (can't remember which), but I lost a couple of files completely so uninstalled it. I have plenty of dupes all over the place taking up space

[Add. I think it was dupeguru that Gongers recommends ]

The key thing to any duplicate deleting app is to never let it do anything automatically, you can sometimes get files which it thinks are identical which are completely different.

What does it designate as 'System Junk' ?

[Dave2002]

Thanks to both of you for your warnings. I just keep being surprised at how much space is taken up on my MBP. I have an abundance of external drives, so I normally copy everything off to at least one before deleting anything. I use Gemini - the first version - to detect duplications. As mrgg suggests I don't let it delete anything automatically, though I have started to use the select delete feature - and hope it gets it right.

Mostly I don't lose files unless I really want to delete them, though one set of photos nearly went a year or two back. I think I only had one copy on a drive by the time I found it.

I am more and more inclined to treat the MBP's storage as temporary, and to use a fairly large SDD external for the "real" stuff. Using USB 3 with an SDD seems to work with most programs, including video editing programs such as FCPX, though my older desktop machines are challenged with only USB2 or Firewire ports which really slow things down. However, they are also challenged in CPU performance, so not so good for video anyway. I do also have a couple of multi standard drives - USB/SATA/Firewire - but even though the Firewire helps, the limitations of the CPU are the significant factors on the machines they are attached to. I had thought of using Firewire + SDD to give a speed boost, but although I had an enclosure for an SDD which supported Firewire, it was unreliable/faulty so I sent it back - and given the limitations of the machines not worth replacing.

I will probably buy new machines in the next year or two, and hopefully they will be to a very high specification (for a single user consumer machine), so some of these issues will go away. Obviously my pattern of use is (very?) different from some people. Mrs D has a Macbook Air which is older than my MBP and has half the storage capacity of my MBP (128 Gbytes vs 256 Gbytes) and there's still plenty of spare space after years of use. It doesn't have lots of music, films, video editing files and whole bunches of documents to clutter it up, though. I would advise anyone buying a new machine to have as much SSD storage as possible, unless they can be really sure they're never going to need it.

I'm still not absolutely sure that my MBP can't have a storage transplant, but I'm pretty sure that Apple aren't going to support one, or make it feasible. Unlike some PC laptops, Apple's tend to have different connectors for SSDs from the more standard ones which are compatible with hard drives. I did decide it was worth replacing the battery on my MBP - cost about £200 - and the machine is now working about as well as it ever did. However doing any form of SDD "upgrade" even by a third party supplier may just not be worth it by the time I get round to thinking more about that, so I'll probably muddle on with shifting data to and from external drives for some while to come.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

And don't, what ever you do, install Mackeeper

Agreed. It has all the hallmarks of a virus.

[Bergonzi]

I use white spirit. Does a wonderful job!

[french frank]

What does it designate as 'System Junk' ?

System junk: clean your system to achieve maximum performance and reclaim free space

Optimises your system: Remove temporary files to free up space and smoothen your Mac’s performance.

Slims application size: Remove unused binaries and localisations without affecting app functionality

Fixes various errors: Get rid of various broken items and leftovers that may result in wrong behaviour.

[MrGongGong]

System junk: clean your system to achieve maximum performance and reclaim free space

Optimises your system: Remove temporary files to free up space and smoothen your Mac’s performance.

Slims application size: Remove unused binaries and localisations without affecting app functionality

Fixes various errors: Get rid of various broken items and leftovers that may result in wrong behaviour.

Hummmm
looks fishy to me

The first (System Junk) is a bit meaningless
Why remove temporary files when they are "temporary" anyway?

None of these things (apart from the temp files) will be of any significant size anyway?

[french frank]

Hummmm
looks fishy to me

The first (System Junk) is a bit meaningless

The first line is the heading to which the other items refer.

All I can say is that the app has removed 43 Gbytes since I started using it, and I have had no adverse effects. It's a MacPaw program, the same as Dave2k's Gemini. I was simply replying to his enquiry that I use it (as recommended by my Geek company). At worst it's a placebo

[eighthobstruction]

So messed up, I want you here
In my room, I want you here
Now we're gonna be face-to-face
And I'll lay right down in my favorite place
And now I wanna clean my Mac???
And now I wanna clean my Mac???
And now I wanna clean my Mac???
Well come on !


Now I'm ready to close my eyes
And now I'm ready to close my mind
And now I wanna clean my Mac???
And now I wanna clean my Mac???
And now I wanna clean my Mac???
Well now come on....

[Dave2002]

The first line is the heading to which the other items refer.

All I can say is that the app has removed 43 Gbytes since I started using it, and I have had no adverse effects. It's a MacPaw program, the same as Dave2k's Gemini. I was simply replying to his enquiry that I use it (as recommended by my Geek company). At worst it's a placebo

Thanks for the additional information.

There might, however, be files which could easily be deleted automatically - such as download installations, and foreign language help files which could be a faff to track down and delete manually, and tools which worked without causing unwanted effects could be helpful.

[MrGongGong]

The first line is the heading to which the other items refer.

All I can say is that the app has removed 43 Gbytes since I started using it, and I have had no adverse effects. It's a MacPaw program, the same as Dave2k's Gemini. I was simply replying to his enquiry that I use it (as recommended by my Geek company). At worst it's a placebo

Sure
I know it's a genuine thing
Most of the time the downloads folder is where everything collects in my experinece

[Anastasius]

Sure
I know it's a genuine thing
Most of the time the downloads folder is where everything collects in my experinece

My desktop is where my clutter ends up. Well, hey....if my physical desktop is cluttered then so should my computers'.

[Dave2002]

Knowing the sizes of all the folders helps too - but MacOS doesn't show that as a default. It's actually quite simple - when you know how.
There are a few web sites which explain how to do it - but the explanations aren't good enough.

However this video shows it - https://9to5mac.com/2016/07/01/how-t...list-view-mac/ - and after all the pain of trying to figure this out (not just now, but over years) - actually getting the sizes of all the folders within a folder is the work of a moment once one has configured the display.

Once that is done it is much easier to identify candidate folders for attention - Pruning, Archiving, Deleting etc.
It also helps to sort the list on decreasing size of folder, and attend to them working down from the top.

Basically:
1. Open the folder with the subfolders you want a list for.
2. Put the view mode into either List View or Cover Flow.
3. Go to the menu bar at the top - select View->View Options then check the box for Calculate all sizes in the pop out menu.

Note that the particular option is only available in the menus for List View or Cover Flow. Sometimes the option may be grayed out, so a bit more work is needed, but when it works it's very quick.

You may also be able to leave the pop out menu floating, so you can apply it to different folders.

I'm sure many man years would have been saved world wide if Apple had just provided this information in the first place, or if this information had been widely known.