CleanMyMacX - The Sting in its Tail

Software
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CleanMyMacX is the latest incarnation of that useful maintenance tool CleanMyMac, which has been on all my Macs for a decade or more. CleanMyMac has a useful little armoury of assorted admin tools, ranging from freeing off disk space by removing assorted system junk (that’s my most-used functionality), uninstalling apps (that’s the other took I use regularly), running assorted maintenance scripts, finding and deleting old and large files, etc etc. I have a few favourites, but I don’t use everything that’s there, even though I’m glad that some of the other facilities are available “just in case” I should need them, even if I’ve never used them.

CleanMyMacX It has a few useful additions compared to previous versions, and is the only version to run on Catalina, so there are several good reasons to purchase. (Or, if you use Setapp, to install from there!)

I do, however, have one serious reservation.

One of the additions to its arsenal of useful tools is a system Health Check. It’s not entirely clear what that does, but it sounds like the kind of feature it’s handy to have around. Another, unadvertised, feature is a Health Monitor. If you launch CleanMyMacX it starts up this Health Monitor process, and when you terminate the app it secretly leaves that process running. It doesn’t ask if it can do this, it doesn’t tell you it’s doing this, and there is no way of preventing it. Start the app and close it again, whatever functionalities you may run (or none of them), and you will find the Health Monitor process is running - and it will continue to run until you kill it or shutdown the system.

I raised this with MacPaw as a support issue, and they confirmed (after a 3-week pause!) that it isn’t possible to opt out of this - allegedly it is “a necessary process for the full functionality of CleanMyMacX” This is clearly nonsense: at best it is a necessary process for the functioning of a continuing Health Monitor, but that is just another function that one may or may not wish to use; it isn’t of itself essential to anything.

Now, I don’t deny the potential utility of a Health Monitor function (although MacPaw give no indication what it is doing to check the system’s health, so how would one know?), but I do resent it being foisted onto my system whether I like it or not. I take the view that as a matter of principle no well-behaved app should leave - deliberately or otherwise! - any unexpected (note my emphasis!) processes lying around, and that to start them secretly and without permission is distinctly shady practice. After all, who owns this Mac anyway? :slight_smile:

So far as I’m concerned, MacPaw could easily fix this by making launch of the Health Monitor optional, but they clearly have no intention of doing so. In my experience of MacPaw over the last decade they have - up until now! - been an exemplary developer, but to I am now in the process of seriously revising my opinion. I have uninstalled CleanMyMacX, and have no intention of re-installing it until this issue is resolved.

Does anyone else take a view on this?

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HealthCheck and what it does are explained at the link below.

I installed an application to monitor the health of my computer and help protect me from malware. If it stopped doing that when I closed the GUI, it wouldn’t be living up to its promise.

This isn’t like Zoom running a secret webserver and leaving it behind when uninstalled. Like antivirus or malware protection software, CleanMyMacX’s is expected behavior.

https://macpaw.com/support/cleanmymac/knowledgebase/cleanmymac-processes

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Exactly. I agree.

OTOH, a standard counter response might be that you can also reproduce the options in CleanMyMacX using manual tools and not have the background monitor.

So you pick your poison.

—
JJW

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Well, absolutely right. However, that is not, never has been, and is unlikely ever to be my purpose in installing CleanMyMacX, and I kind of resent it assuming that would be my purpose. I’m very happy that the app should provide the Health Monitor as one of its many useful tools; my problem is that it provides it whether I want it or not, and doesn’t tell me it’s doing so. It doesn’t delete system junk without my first telling it to do so; why should this be so different?

Thanks for the link you provided - that at least resolves the issue of what the Health Monitor does. However, if one is honest it does nothing terribly useful - if I want to monitor any of those things I can already do so using other tools. That doesn’t make it a bad thing, agreed, but it does make me wonder why MacPaw would be so insistent that it is so “essential” that it has to be forced upon me. It just isn’t. I might well want to run it on particular occasions, but I see no reason to keep it running 24/7.

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Thank you.

That’s a fair point, except that up until this version, CleanMyMac has simply been a toolbox: one could launch it, use the tools one needed, and close it again. That was a convenience for which I am prepared to pay good money. CleanMyMacX is not quite the same. Sure, it’s still a toolbox from which one can select the tools one wishes to use (and there are some additional useful tools there too!). But one of those tools is now compulsory: if I open the toolbox then the tool runs whether I like it or not.

Besides, it isn’t sensible that, should one wish to run the Health Monitor, one needs to launch the main app. If this were half-way sensibly designed (or remotely as important as MacPaw say it is!) then the Health Monitor would be launched at start-up, quite independently of whether or not I run the app.

It seem to me that MacPaw have really screwed this up. The Health Monitor is a genuinely useful, but absolutely non-essential, functionality - just like all the other functionalities in the CleanMyMac toolbox. It could easily have been neatly integrated with the main CleanMyMac app, like the CleanMyMac Menus, giving the user full control over whether or not to use it. Instead they have - entirely uncharacteristically! - clumsily bolted it onto the side of the app, and have then either forgotten to give the user proper control of it, or they have arrogantly assumed that they know better tham the user what the user wants. Either way it is a very poor advert for them as developers, and they certainly won’t be getting any more of my custom unless and until they see sense.

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Looks like monitoring capability was added October of last year.
It’s always good to check the release notes.

https://macpaw.com/cleanmymac/whats-new#4.5.0

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I agree with everything you say in your reply.

I don’t think that MacPaw is going to change their approach on this new feature any time soon.

If CleanMyMacX was not part of the SetApp bundle, and if I had the energy to remember well enough what other apps I used to use to do its things, I would certainly no longer keep it. Convenience can appear be a terrible habit to fall into at times. :open_mouth:

–
JJW

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I have been using CleanMyMac 3, and saw no reason to update to CleanMyMacX until I discovered that 3 doesn’t run under Catalina, which I installed only about a month or so ago. “X” (vs “3”) is what I meant by the version. In this context the sub-versions are not particularly interesting …

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This is an old thread, but I thought I would check in on it. I’m running CleanMyMac X Version 4.15.13 on a new MacBook Pro M4. I’ve been having nothing but problems with Alfred “forgetting” folder and file locations. When I contact Alfred tech support, they asked if I was running CleanMyMac, as it can cause indexing issues with spotlight. Even though I quit CleanMyMac, each morning Alfred would forget. I also got some error messages from another app I use (Jettison) that would say CleanMyMacX Menu is using “filename” which indicates it is still doing something in the background. Does anyone know if this has been corrected in the newer versions, or how I can turn off CleanMyMac entirely, other than uninstalling it?

MacPaw tech support has been missing in action, which I understand and can sympathize with, given the situation in their home country.

Any thoughts would be very appreciated. Thanks!

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I have used a ton of apps like this on Windows machines and I can just advise you that there is not a single reason to use an app like that on MacOS.
And when I say something bold like this I can already hear some critics: “But…”
One part of those optimization tools has some useful functions built in. Like on off switches for options you would need to go into a ton of sub menus in system settings or options that you have to use the terminal.
For those use cases apps like CleanMyMac can be useful.
But the other part is just snake oil. When you use your Mac in a normal way without fiddling around in the Library folder or any other system relevant part, there won’t be anything to repair or delete or optimize. You won’t gain anything and you will jsut have problems.
They sell you optimization that isn’t really there.
Let’s look at some “optimization” steps:
Clearing the caches. Caches help apps to work faster. They are files that improve speed. Sure, too much cache files can use a lot of space. But then just delete those caches in the apps. No need to have a 3rd party app for that. And buy bigger storage.
Deleting logs and temporary files. No speed gained. Just space. And temporary files are most of the time… temporary. And logs are so small that there is no saving in deleting them.
Uninstalling leftover files. They are so small that it doesnt matter. and even if it gives you a clean feeling when they are gone. It doesn’t matter at all.
Running maintenance scripts. MacOS does this by itself.
Freeing RAM. I have no words for that.
Malware scanning. You are on a Mac. If you use it with common sense there won’t be any malware on your Mac.

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No need for anyone else to raise counter examples. You do a good job of it entirely on your own.

  • One part of those … For those use case apps … can be useful (!! at least one reason does not equal not a single reason)

  • When you use your Mac in a normal way … (This “when” implies the case when you do not use your Mac in a normal way)

  • Sure, too much cache files can … But … (!!)

  • Deleting logs … are so small that there is no saving (so small does not equal no saving)

  • Uninstalling leftover files … are so small … it doesn’t matter at all (same as above)

  • Malware scanning … If you use it with common sense … (This “if” implies the case if you do not use it with common sense)

To be clear, the list has some grains of truth. The bold assertion (not a single reason) has none at all.

–
JJW

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I’m sorry. I’m not a native English speaker.
You’re kind of picking apart the wording instead of the actual point I was making, you’re analyzing the grammar of my statements, not the substance.
Sure, I used words like if, when, can, etc. That doesn’t magically turn these apps into something essential.
Yes, you can find tiny edge cases or convenience features, but none of them justify the category of Mac cleaner apps as necessary. Yes, some of these tools have a couple of convenience functions.
A tool having minor conveniences does not contradict the point that macOS does not require third-party optimization apps to run well.
If you have an example of a real world scenario where CleanMyMac provides an essential, noncosmetic benefit that macOS cannot perform on its own or that a user cannot do manually in a safer way, I’m genuinely open to hearing it.
Clearing a few MB of logs or uninstall leftovers doesn’t change anything in real-world use. It’s not a reason to run a whole optimization suite.
Same with malware: if you stick to normal, common-sense usage, macOS already protects you. And if someone doesn’t use common sense, a cleaner app won’t fix that either.
So yes, technically you can find tiny exceptions if you analyze every sentence. But practically? There’s still no meaningful reason for the average Mac user to run a tool like CleanMyMac. And if you do find a real, actual scenario where the app provides something macOS can’t already handle on its own, I’m honestly open to hearing it.

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You don’t have to run the suite; you can choose what to run.

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No, he’s pointing out the use of hyperbole, which is unwarranted.

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Consider the differences in meanings of these two statements.

… there is not a single reason to use an app like that on macOS.

… there is not a single reason to require using an app like that on macOS.

After you agree that you meant to argue the second statement, not the first one, your grammar is fine.

–
JJW

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You don’t have to run the suite; you can choose what to run.

I never said people were forced to run every module… Whether CleanMyMac is modular or all-in-one doesn’t change the fact that none of the modules provide essential value on macOS. Sure… you can choose the individual parts but choosing between unnecessary features doesn’t make the app necessary, right?

I’m sorry for my unwarranted use of hyperbole. I wanted to underline the problems and frustrations tools like this caused me and is obviously causing others without a real benefit. If someone thinks the statement is exaggerated they can give a real example that contradicts it. Im happy to revise my stance if such an example exists.

I did mean “no meaningful reason to use,” not “no requirement.” macOS doesn’t require these tools, and in normal use there’s no practical benefit to them either. If someone disagrees, I’m open to hearing a concrete scenario.

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Disclaimer: I have stopped using CleanMyMacX when I cancelled my SetApp subscription. I consider it to be too expensive for my purposes to subscribe to it on its own. That being said…

You consider it as „a fact that none of the modules provide essential value on macOS". I think that it is more of an opinion than a fact. :wink: If it was a fact, nobody would use CleanMyMacX. :slight_smile:

Back to @Dickie.Dunn, he had an actual question, maybe somebody who is still using CleanMyMacX has an answer… :slight_smile:

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Ok, just a follow up. Today when I woke my Mac up from sleep, I received the following error message from the app Jettison (which I use to mount/unmount my TimeMachine).

5_TB_MBP_TM: CleanMyMac X Menu is using Signpost

So, even thought I had quit CleanMyMac X, it apparently is still doing something in the background that was related to my TM backup.

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I think that I am not the best option for an answer because I am no CleanMyMac user any longer, but here are some ideas:

  1. You already have tried to restart your Mac in order to resolve the issue? If not, this is the first measure.

  2. Disabling the Menu app might be another option.

  3. To prevent CleanMyMac X from running constantly, you should be able to prevent it from launching when booting into macOS. Change Login Items & Extensions settings on Mac - Apple Support. I am no current CleanMyMac X user. The disadvantage of this option could be that you lose some of the app’s functionality or protection (I have no idea) the app provides. Updates to CleanMyMac X can potentially reenable login items.

If all of this does not help, MacPaw should help you. If they don’t, it may be a reason to abandon the app - as hard as it may sound.