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Save Space and Uninstall Apps with CleanMyMac 3
Joe Kissell
In the early days of Mac OS X, Apple made a big deal about how most
applications were, by design, self-contained. To install them, you
dragged them to your Applications folder, and to uninstall them, you
dragged them from there to the Trash. Done! Everything you needed was
contained in the application package ' a folder that looks and acts
like a single file. That was the theory, anyway.
Of course, it wasn't quite true that apps were self-contained. Even for
simple drag-to-install apps, there'd nearly always be preference files,
logs, and a few other items stored elsewhere. As Mac OS X evolved, more
and more apps needed to put more and more files in more and more
places. Running an installer or opening an app for the first time might
scatter files all over the place, particularly in various subfolders of
/Library and ~/Library, such as Application Support, Caches,
Frameworks, and LaunchAgents. An app might also add login or startup
items, System Preferences panes, Dock icons, menu bar doohickies, and
assorted background processes. Pretty soon, figuring out how to get rid
of all that extra stuff when you wanted to stop using an app became a
serious concern.
In 2010, Macworld asked me to write an article about uninstallers. The
two questions I was tasked with answering were 'Are they safe?' and 'Do
they work?' Long story short, the answers were Yes and Yes, with
various qualifications (see [1]'Mac utilities: Do uninstallers work?').
I tested four of the most popular uninstaller apps available at that
time, and found that although they all missed certain files, and some
were easier to use than others, they seldom removed things they
shouldn't ' and even when they did, it was rarely a serious problem.
The uninstaller landscape has changed since then, but uninstallers are
still as important as ever. And since most Mac developers (for reasons
I can't quite fathom) don't provide their own, a third-party
uninstaller utility is handy to have around. That's how I mainly think
of [2]CleanMyMac 3, even though the developer, MacPaw, positions it as
an all-purpose cleaning and maintenance app. I've found it to be a
great way to find and eliminate stuff I don't need on my Mac '
especially on my MacBook Pro, whose too-small SSD is constantly on the
verge of filling up.
A Reality Check -- Before I get into the specifics of what I like about
CleanMyMac, I want to take issue with a marketing assumption that
underlies nearly all Mac maintenance apps, including this one: that
deleting files is a magical cure for your Mac's problems. While it's
true that your Mac can slow way down and exhibit all sorts of
misbehavior if you run out of disk space entirely (or come close to
it), someone with 1 TB of free space is no better off,
performance-wise, than someone with 100 GB of free space. There are
good reasons to delete things you don't need even if you're not short
on disk space (such as preventing or resolving software
incompatibilities, and reducing the time and disk space required for
backups), but if you already have plenty of free space and you're
looking only for a performance boost, deleting stuff may be a waste of
your time.
Likewise, a lot of the ostensible 'junk' that maintenance utilities
remove is in fact useful (which is not to say essential). All those
gigabytes of cache files, for example, may seem worthless but are in
fact helping numerous processes on your Mac to run more quickly and
efficiently; removing them may slow down your Mac rather than speed it
up. And, because Mac OS X rebuilds caches automatically anyway, that
space savings you achieve by deleting caches will soon disappear.
And I should also point out that no matter how thorough a maintenance
app may be, no app, by itself, handles all the preventive maintenance
tasks you should perform regularly to keep your Mac in top working
order. I talk about a great many more in my new book '[3]Maintaining
Your Mac: A Joe On Tech Guide,' which also covers a variety of other
maintenance apps.
So, you should approach CleanMyMac, or any app of this sort, with the
right expectations (and a bit of circumspection). It will help you find
and remove files you don't need, uninstall unwanted apps (including all
those pesky, scattered files), and perform other useful maintenance
tasks. But it might not improve your Mac's speed, and if you want the
best and safest results, you should carefully examine all its
recommendations before agreeing to let it delete anything.
Cleaning Features -- Let's get down to specifics. CleanMyMac divides
its features into two sets ' cleaning (that is, deleting stuff) and
utilities (including the Uninstaller and a long list of other tools).
When you launch the app, you're initially presented with a Smart
Cleanup screen, which gives you a simple way to run all the cleaning
tasks at once. Your first step ' which is, itself, nondestructive and
safe ' is to click Scan so that CleanMyMac can figure out what may be
ripe for deletion.
[4][tn_CMMSmartCleanupBefore.jpg]
Do click Scan and wait for the results, but don't click Clean until
you've reviewed all the candidates (which you can do by selecting a
category and then clicking Review Files or Review Details) and
deselected anything you want to keep.
[5][tn_CMMSmartCleanupAfter.jpg]
Here are the categories CleanMyMac considers:
* System Junk: This broad category encompasses a dozen types of data,
including user and system caches, user and system log files, broken
preferences and login items, 'leftovers' (files that belong to
software you've since uninstalled), your iOS photo cache, and
'development junk' (redundant files created during an app's
installation or configuration). All those things can be deleted
safely, although as I said, deleting caches isn't necessarily a
win, so I deselect the caches for the apps I use most frequently.
Also in the System Junk category are a few items that are less
clearly junk. Language Files (resources needed to run apps in other
languages) are selected by default, on the grounds that if you're
only going to run your app in one language, all those extra files
are worthless to you. Years ago, I saw cases where removing extra
language files (using a utility such as [6]Monolingual rendered
certain apps inoperative, such as those in the Adobe Creative
Suite. I haven't seen that problem with CleanMyMac, which appears
to have a well-curated internal list of what can safely be removed
and what can't. The same goes for OS X Localizations, which allow
OS X itself to display its interface in other languages; as far as
I can tell, removing them is safe. Similarly, leaving Universal
Binaries selected removes code that's inapplicable to your Mac's
processor (as in, removing PowerPC-specific code when running on an
Intel-based Mac). But if removing any of these components from an
app's package makes you nervous, you can easily deselect that
category.
* iPhoto Junk: CleanMyMac can remove the original versions of images
in iPhoto that have been rotated or had red-eye reduction applied,
since those can be restored to their original states if necessary.
It can also optionally remove other sorts of original images, if
you're sure the versions you modified are all you need. Notably,
however, it doesn't offer similar cleaning for Aperture or Photos.
* Mail Attachments: With this option selected, CleanMyMac removes the
extra copies of attachments that Mail stores if you open an
attachment from within a message. It doesn't remove the original
attachment from the message, however, nor does it remove
attachments you've manually saved outside Mail. In other words '
and this is a general theme with CleanMyMac ' it defaults to
removing only those files you can easily recover.
* iTunes Junk: Depending on how you use iOS devices, iTunes may store
copies of iOS apps, software updates, and outdated device backups
that you can safely remove. But, if you have an important reason to
preserve an older backup or software version, you can deselect it.
iTunes junk also includes partial downloads that never completed.
* Trash Bins: CleanMyMac can empty not only your Mac's Trash (as you
can do by choosing Finder > Empty Trash) but also the Trash in
Mail, Aperture, and iPhoto. (Again: no, not the Recently Deleted
items in Photos.)
* Large & Old Files: By default, CleanMyMac lists ' but does not
select for deletion ' files over 50 MB, which you can sort by size,
access date, and other criteria. This makes it easy to identify not
only the largest files on your Mac but also smallish files that you
simply haven't used in a long time. You must manually select the
items you want to remove, and you can choose to delete them
outright, move them to the Trash, or relocate them to another
folder or volume.
Although CleanMyMac's cleaning features are no panacea, I've found them
to be both effective and safe. But they're just a part of what this app
can do.
Uninstaller -- My favorite feature in CleanMyMac 3 (and the first one
listed under Utilities) isn't flashy, but it's effective: the
Uninstaller. After you've scanned your disk, it lists all your apps.
Select any apps to see all the files CleanMyMac thinks are related to
it. You can then check the box next to the app's name to select all the
related files, or individually select or deselect any files you want to
keep. To erase the selected files, you then click Uninstall. (You can
also click an Application Reset button to delete only preferences and
supporting files, returning the app to its original post-installation
state.)
[7][tn_CMMUninstaller.jpg]
You can uninstall multiple apps at once, and search for apps by name.
The Uninstaller also lets you sort apps by size, name, last launch
date, and so on, and lets you filter the display to show old,
unsupported apps that are no longer compatible with your Mac anyway.
Other Utilities -- The remaining utilities are features that, with one
exception (Extensions), I consider largely filler ' they're no big deal
and there are other (free) ways to do the same thing:
* Maintenance: The Maintenance category gives you access to seven
features, each of which can be run with two clicks. That's nice,
although every one of these tasks can also be accomplished on the
command line in Terminal, or in some other way ' you don't need an
app for it. The tasks are:
+ Run Maintenance Scripts: Force Mac OS X's built-in daily,
weekly, and monthly clean-up scripts to run right now.
(Normally they run overnight, but no harm will occur if they
never run at all.)
+ Repair Disk Permissions: Identical to the feature in Disk
Utility (which, as you may have heard, will be disappearing in
OS X 10.11 El Capitan ' and not a moment too soon; [8]Apple
has made it unnecessary).
+ Verify Startup Disk: Just like clicking Verify Disk in Disk
Utility.
+ Speed Up Mail: Deletes the files that make up Mail's envelope
index, which facilitates searching on message metadata such as
sender, recipient, subject, and dates. (This can solve certain
search-related problems, but I would not say it speeds up
Mail.)
+ Rebuild Launch Services Database: Fixes problems with
documents being associated with the wrong apps or having the
wrong icons; also rebuilds the Open With contextual menu that
appears when you right-click or Control-click a file
(sometimes it shows duplicate apps, or fails to show
compatible apps).
+ Reindex Spotlight: Forces Spotlight to rebuild its entire
index. This can fix certain search problems, but be prepared
to wait a long time (perhaps hours) as Spotlight does its
thing.
+ Flush DNS Cache: Fixes network problems that are caused when a
server's DNS entry changes but Mac OS X still has its old IP
address cached.
* Privacy: As much as I appreciate privacy, this category is one I'd
personally stay away from because it can too easily delete
important and useful data. It includes Browsing and Surfing on the
Internet (clearing information from your browsers such as autofill
values, browsing and download history, cookies, and tabs); Instant
Messaging (removing conversation, call, and file transfer history
from Skype, Messages, AOL Instant Messenger, Jabber, and Yahoo);
and Viewing Items on Mac (clearing the Recent Items submenu of the
Apple menu). For all these categories, you can select or deselect
specific items and also choose a time range (including just the
last hour or two, the last day, the last week, or everything).
* Extensions: Your Mac contains all sorts of things that load on
startup or login and add features of various sorts. CleanMyMac
gives you a central location where you can see and manage all these
things. Not only can you delete them selectively, you can also
disable them without deleting them, which I find incredibly
convenient for troubleshooting. Items in the Extensions category
include Audio Plugins, Contacts Plugins, Dictionaries, Finder
Plugins, Growl Plugins, Internet Plugins, Launch Agents, Login
Items, Mail Plugins, Preference Panes, Quick Look Plugins,
QuickTime Player Plugins, Safari Extensions, Services, and
Spotlight Plugins. Whew! For most of these, you should exercise
caution when deleting them, but being able to turn these things on
and off without a lot of digging around in the Finder is wonderful.
[9][tn_CMMExtensions.jpg]
* Shredder: This feature can delete files securely by overwriting
them. It doesn't offer a configurable multi-pass overwrite, as Disk
Utility and other apps do, but it's handy nonetheless.
Dashboard and Menu -- CleanMyMac 3 has two other components worth
mentioning. The Dashboard, which you can reach by clicking the
Dashboard button on the CleanMyMac window, provides real-time
statistics about disk space, RAM, and CPU usage, as well as your
battery level (if applicable). You can hover over the graphs with your
pointer for more details (though it would be far better if CleanMyMac
did not hide them in the first place).
[10][tn_CMMDashboard.jpg]
Next to the Memory label is a Free Up button; you click it to 'free up'
extra RAM. MacPaw doesn't say exactly how this works. Sure, the amount
of 'free' RAM goes up after you click the button, but I suspect it's
merely purging RAM contents that OS X itself would have purged as
needed (somewhat like the purge command-line tool). So the increase in
free RAM might be largely illusory.
There's also an optional system-wide CleanMyMac menu, which is enabled
by default. This menu shows the same data as the Dashboard (including a
Free Up Memory button if you hover over the Memory category). But in
addition to displaying statistics on demand, the menu component
includes a background process that watches for certain conditions and
alerts you when they occur.
[11][tn_CMMMenu.jpg]
When I started using CleanMyMac 3, I felt the menu component was
excessively chatty and intrusive. Notifications frequently reminded me
to perform cleanups, for example, but I don't want or need to be
reminded. You can change the reminder frequency, or turn off reminders,
in CleanMyMac 3 > Preferences > Scheduler. Similarly, you can change or
disable the notifications that appear when you get low on disk space
(where 'low' is whatever figure you choose), or when your Trash exceeds
a certain size, in CleanMyMac 3 > Preferences > CleanMyMac 3 Menu.
Additional notifications you can't disable without turning off the menu
entirely include impending disk failure (as reported by a drive's
S.M.A.R.T. monitoring system), battery failure (which OS X itself will
report), and excessive RAM usage.
The menu also notices when you drag an app to the Trash and asks if you
want CleanMyMac to uninstall it completely. That's not unreasonable (as
it prevents having useless, leftover files), but if you dislike this
behavior, you can turn it off in CleanMyMac 3 > Preferences >
CleanMyMac 3 Menu. The same pane also lets you turn off notifications
that appear when an app isn't responding, and you should definitely
turn it off. I found that even if an app failed to respond for a few
seconds because it was clearly busy doing something important,
CleanMyMac prompted me to force-quit it. But doing so would only mean
the app would have to restart that task when I launched it again. If an
app is truly hosed, I can force-quit it with Command-Option-Esc; I
don't want or need CleanMyMac's help.
Bottom Line -- The presence of a few 'meh' features notwithstanding,
I've found CleanMyMac3 to be both effective and safe. It's easy enough
for a beginner to use, the explanations of each feature are useful, the
Help is helpful, and I even happen to like the little animations and
sounds that accompany most actions in the app (though you can turn them
off if they bother you). CleanMyMac 3 runs on OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
or higher. It costs $39.95 for one Mac, $59.95 for two Macs, or $89.95
for five Macs, and is a 31 MB download. A free trial version lets you
delete up to 500 MB of data and use up to three of the maintenance
utilities.
To learn how CleanMyMac fits into an overall strategy of preventive Mac
maintenance, be sure to check out '[12]Maintaining Your Mac: A Joe On
Tech Guide.'
References
1. http://www.macworld.com/article/1151403/essentialutilitiesuninstallers.html
2. http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=*FrSLxcytM4&offerid=375360.94&type=3&subid=0
3. http://joeontech.net/books/maintaining-your-mac/?referrer=TidBITS
4. http://tidbits.com/resources/2015-08/CMMSmartCleanupBefore.png
5. http://tidbits.com/resources/2015-08/CMMSmartCleanupAfter.png
6. https://ingmarstein.github.io/Monolingual/
7. http://tidbits.com/resources/2015-08/CMMUninstaller.png
8. http://www.macworld.com/article/2948140/os-x/private-i-el-capitans-system-integrity-protection-will-shift-utilities-functions.html
9. http://tidbits.com/resources/2015-08/CMMExtensions.png
10. http://tidbits.com/resources/2015-08/CMMDashboard.png
11. http://tidbits.com/resources/2015-08/CMMMenu.png
12. http://joeontech.net/books/maintaining-your-mac/?referrer=TidBITS