Among all of MacPaw’s products, CleanMyMac seems to be the most controversial. Some people swear by it, while others say it’s worthless and completely unnecessary. On Reddit, not known for temperate language, the word “scam” comes up occasionally.*
I’m interested in hearing MPUers’ takes on it. I have no experience with CleanMyMac and have an open mind about it.
* By contrast, controversy about Setapp seems to be mostly about whether or not its business model delivers good value to customers.
I use it, but lightly.
Enjoy the simple uninstaller, and the scans for removing unwanted log files and other cruft. Especially now with smaller internal SSD system drives.
Yes, there are free or other tools to do similar things, but I prefer the clean UI and not having to juggle a bunch of different utilities from various places and worrying about them staying up to date with the latest macOS changes.
Clean My Mac is useful Mac utility. You do need to read the screen and not use it carelessly.
Mackeeper is not safe, or reliable. I’d classify it as malware. The two apps are frequenbtly confused.
I have an ongoing problem with Universal Clipboard not working on my MacBook Pro which I am investigating with Apple support. They are pointing the finger at Clean my Mac and we are having considerable problems getting the app uninstalled. I have no idea yet whether this is the cause of the issue, but Apple support, seem to think that it may be.
I have to say I’m getting very little support from Mac Paw in helping remove the vestiges of clean my Mac. YMMV
I use it on my laptops and have no issues. It always frees up a good deal of space, and I use the uninstaller all the time.
We use it across our team of 6 and it’s a great way for those that aren’t MPUs to run regular cleans on their Macs. @SteveinLeicesterUK UC works well for me with CMM installed.
I would rather it didn’t have the default agent that runs, however for most that is the right thing.
Does a great job of helping to keep storage optimised, the large file finder is great.
No real independent testing with the Malware / Virus feature, but hoping it does work well enough to make a difference.
I’ve never used it on any of the Macs since 2007 and have never had any issues because I didn’t use any of the specialised ‘cleaning’ apps.
I’m using the free and widely recommended AppCleaner, which launches automatically when it detects apps being removed from Applications and cleans up whatever is left after them in the Library folder and elsewhere.
Every now and then, I check for large files using DaisyDisk, and that’s it.
Just to add that I also occasionally run Patrick Wardle’s KnockKnock to check for potential malware and persistently installed extensions. I feel this, plus AppCleaner and sensible computer and security practices is enough to keep Macs in good shape.
However, CMM might be good for less tech-savvy users.
I have CMMX as part of my SetApp apps. I use it to update or uninstall apps as well as to disable launch agents or purge space. Yes, other apps could do these things. I appreciate the one-stop location.
<fatuous mode>
As an added bonus, my circle of friends is always excited when I Share Results that I obtained with CMMX.
</fatuous mode>
–
JJW
When I quit Chrome completely, even AppCleaner couldn’t fully remove it. I had to follow these instructions to get rid of all of its nasty little traces: https://chromeisbad.com/
I’ve been using many of the CleanMyMac features for several years and find it very useful. I particularly like the malware scanner (Though I have no information as to how good it is. Just a second opinion on top of macOS built-in malware defenses.), the uninstaller, and the updater. I use some of the cleaning features too, but you have to be really careful with them. There is no undo or even log files of exactly what was whacked.
I stopped using it after I had to restore privileges to my documents folder twice after running some cleanup script CleanMyMac recommended. That didn’t leave me with a lot of confidence in this program’s ability to keep my data safe.
I Clean My Mac with Onyx. Never did anything that made me sorry I used it.
With CleanMyMac X the cleaning choices must be made carefully - no undo and no logs. I use the malware scans, review Login Items, and use the Uninstaller and the Updater.
As far as Setapp goes, I feel that it is a good value for me, but understand that the usefulness could vary a lot depending on the individual. I use 27 of the hundreds of apps available on Setapp. Probably if I had time to try others, I would use more of them.