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Best cost effective mac optimiser and uninstaller? No ratings available.

Good day.


Which is the best mac optimiser and uninstaller on the appstore that is free or cost effective?


Kind Regards

Posted on Jan 6, 2020 11:21 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 9, 2020 2:33 PM

Read Optimize storage space on your Mac - Apple Support.


Never once in the history of macOS and its predecessors have I found it necessary or beneficial to "clean" a cache. Those things as well as memory "cleaners" can only result in degraded performance and accelerated hardware failure. If a Mac starts to do something odd, simply restarting it will often fix it. Or, boot Safe Mode which deletes certain cache files maintained by the system (among other tasks). That is the only "cache cleaning" that will ever be required.


Products claiming magical ability to "optimize" "clean" "protect" or otherwise enhance a Mac's performance are extremely popular and highly lucrative scams. Don't be a victim.


  • Secure erase/shredder


A software product that can provide absolute assurance of irreversible data destruction does not exist for a variety of technologically sound reasons. Those reasons vary for magnetic media vs flash memory as they do for various file storage systems (HFS+ / APFS / others), but they're valid nonetheless. The only way to ensure data remains secure and hopelessly irretrievable without the correct encryption key is to use full disk encryption. For Macs that means FileVault.


There are a variety of highly rated popular products that claim to securely erase or "shred" Mac files. They're all 100% worthless and a total waste of money. Some of them are quite expensive. $50 is a lot to pay for a meaningless animation. Once again... don't be a victim.

9 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 9, 2020 2:33 PM in response to willem239

Read Optimize storage space on your Mac - Apple Support.


Never once in the history of macOS and its predecessors have I found it necessary or beneficial to "clean" a cache. Those things as well as memory "cleaners" can only result in degraded performance and accelerated hardware failure. If a Mac starts to do something odd, simply restarting it will often fix it. Or, boot Safe Mode which deletes certain cache files maintained by the system (among other tasks). That is the only "cache cleaning" that will ever be required.


Products claiming magical ability to "optimize" "clean" "protect" or otherwise enhance a Mac's performance are extremely popular and highly lucrative scams. Don't be a victim.


  • Secure erase/shredder


A software product that can provide absolute assurance of irreversible data destruction does not exist for a variety of technologically sound reasons. Those reasons vary for magnetic media vs flash memory as they do for various file storage systems (HFS+ / APFS / others), but they're valid nonetheless. The only way to ensure data remains secure and hopelessly irretrievable without the correct encryption key is to use full disk encryption. For Macs that means FileVault.


There are a variety of highly rated popular products that claim to securely erase or "shred" Mac files. They're all 100% worthless and a total waste of money. Some of them are quite expensive. $50 is a lot to pay for a meaningless animation. Once again... don't be a victim.

Jan 7, 2020 11:41 PM in response to Yer_Man

This is great news. I would prefer to not use the third part apps but how do I do all the things the apps do without the apps? Perhaps I need the Apple way of doing the following:


Examples:

  • Optimise hard-drive space
  • Uninstall an app properly with all its files in different locations
  • Cleaning all cach
  • Remove applications and photos Junk
  • Clean the memory/Ram
  • Remove updates not needed on all mac apps
  • remove broken downloads
  • Browser Cleaner including chrome
  • Downloads cleaning
  • Duplicate file finder
  • Large Files finder
  • Malware removal
  • Optimise privacy
  • Free VPN
  • Set passwords on external Folders and drives
  • FULL READ AND WRITE TO NTFS DRIVES
  • Secure erase/shredder


Is it not good for a Disk to have a defrag to optimise the information on the drive and extend the hard drives' life?


I would love to know the apple way of doing all this. My next question would be how to do it easier then having one app that does it all by selecting the options and then have a single click of a button to do this optimisation. Please specify the Apple way of doing it.


Best Regards




Jan 8, 2020 1:15 AM in response to willem239


Optimise hard-drive space


Lovely phrase. We're all in favour of optimising everything. What does it mean here tho?


Uninstall an app properly with all its files in different locations


This isn't windows. There's no registry. Drag the app to the trash. Use its uninstaller if it has one. That gets all the important bits. All that's left a plist files, typically a couple of kb is size.


Cleaning all cach 


Love this one. Cache cleaning is an excellent way to slow down your computer. There is a single occasion where this is useful - if you have a corrupted cache. If you're having that frequently then you have other problems. As a rule, don't clean caches, they don't get dirty. If you must, restart in safe mode. That'll do it for ya.


Remove applications and photos Junk


What junk are these? What is 'photos' junk?


Clean the memory/Ram


Utterly unnecessary these days and will actually interfere with how Macs use Ram.


Remove updates not needed on all mac apps 


Say what? If you don't want an update don't download it.


remove broken downloads


What is this? 1998?


Browser Cleaner including chrome


What does this mean that's not covered by the browser's own reset features and the aforementioned cache cleaning.


Duplicate file finder


There are several quite good ones. I've used this one: https://dupeguru.voltaicideas.net


Large Files finder


This is good: https://sourceforge.net/projects/grandperspectiv/


Malware removal


Be very careful what you choose to install here. There's a lot of FUD about and even more crapware. The Macs own X-Protect system is very good, and that plus some common sense is all you need.


Optimise privacy


Another lovely phrase. What does it mean?


Free VPN


First step to optimising privacy? Avoid free VPNs. But anyway, there are loads. Try a google search.


Set passwords on external Folders and drives


Check out Disk Utility in your Applications/Utilities folder.


FULL READ AND WRITE  TO NTFS DRIVES


Install Paragon.


Secure erase/shredder


Your Mac have an SSD? Then these mean very little. But there's one built-in to Pathfinder.


Is it not good for a Disk to have a defrag to optimise the information on the drive and extend the hard drives' life?


I doubt anyone has defragged a Mac Disk since 2005. It's built-in to the OS.


My next question would be how to do it easier then having one app that does it all by selecting the options and then have a single click of a button to do this optimisation.


Most of your list is basically voodoo, my friend. The problem with these apps is that they promise a lot but in the hands of an inexperienced user they can also do a lot of damage. Your Mac is really good at looking after itself. Better than you are. By all means clarify what you mean by 'optimise' disk space and privacy. It's exactly the kind of term that these apps use. It means nothing.

Jan 9, 2020 1:52 PM in response to willem239

Are you running a NT file system or a Unix file system? Mac Extended Journaled is a Unix file system, it does not scatter files over the drive like NTFS, and does not gain any benefit from optimization.


If you are trying to write NFTS from a mac what is it doing with the NTFS file permissions? NTFS file permissions are not interchangeable with Unix.


My suggestion is if you want these and you want most of them to do something then Windows 95 is the OS that would be better suited for this nursing. Mac OS does not gain much or any benifit from most everything on your list.


Best cost effective mac optimiser and uninstaller? No ratings available.

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