Is Clean My Mac a recommended program?

I've been using CMM for almost 10 years. Please convenience me otherwise. Is "System Junk" a scam? How else will we clean out User Cache Files (sometimes over 5GB in size) taking up HD space. Does Apple remove this for us? If so, when? Also what about System Cache Files that keep accumulating overtime that can be gigs in size. Should we just let these extra files that clutter and accumulate? Is there a use for them?

Can the Apple OS find large files that you hardly ever use?

If I don't clear 112GB of purgable space on my HD, will it clear on it's own?

Please enlighten me.

Interestingly CleanMyMac is sold in the Apple App Store. I cannot say whether it is a good or bad thing to run but I have been using it for about seven years with no issue. One time it supposedly found a couple of infected files on email attachments that were in the Junk inbox. The comments here make me wonder if I should delete but since I have never had an issue it gives me pause.

I only recommend it to people who really, really tic me off...

Most experienced users on these forums consider CMM as malware. NEVER EVER install third party:

1. Antivirus apps
2. Cleaning apps
3. Security apps
4. VPN apps

Unless you want your computer to become unstable, slow and make Mac OS appear buggy. To keep your Mac running well simply keep Mac OS up-to-date and restart the computer about once every week or so.

Oskar2023 wrote:

Clean my Mac X is a recommended platform by many users. It might help.

CleanMyMac is NOT recommended in these forums due to the number of problems users have experienced when they have installed the software. Don't take my word for it, just click the search tab on the top of the page and enter "CleanMyMac". Experienced users recognize it simply as Malware. The app can be downloaded for free, but will give you fake alerts that require a paid subscription to remove. Inexperienced user just think that the program is working by solving these fake problems, but if they never installed it, they would not have any problems that would require the subscription to fix.

Do not install CleanMyMac. You will be back here after it causes more problems with your computer. In addition, you will be back needing help in how to delete it, as it will do its best to remain on your computer causing popups with fake problems so you will download another program for the supposed fix.

We are here to help with the current issue you are experiencing. You may want to include a screenshot of what you are seeing and any more information on when you are experiencing this behavior. Does it seem to happen after a set amount of inactivity when a screensaver should be starting?

No, do not install CleanMyMac.

The black screen with ? means that your iMac could for "some reason" not find the startup disk.

"some reasons" can be anything from an incomplete update to a flaky external hard drive.

If the black screen reappears randomly, regularly or you can not move past it.

see > If your Mac starts up to a question mark - Apple Support

Mean time, I would startup in Safe Mode followed by a normal restart.

see > Use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

Oskar2023 wrote:

Clean my Mac X is a recommended platform by many users. It might help.

CleanMyMac is not needed on Mac computers. It can harm user files and lead to poor performance and an unstable Mac. If installed, we suggest that it be deleted.

-Jack

Go to the MacPaw web site for uninstall instructions.

https://cleanmymac.com/how-to-uninstall-cleanmymac

NEVER use third-party "general" uninstallers. They get high placement in search results because they pay Google to list them high on the return page. Those are often worse than what you are trying to remove.

Apologies for the late response but this comment demands it:

CJS510 wrote:

As an It professional I can say on thing if was that harmful apple wouldn't let you buy it from the Apple Store.

That is basically true, but MAS software can absolutely be detrimental to a Mac's operation without being harmful.

Case in point: a colleague brought a Mac to me that didn't seem as responsive as it should have been. Upon questioning her she admitted using CMM to "clean" it, but all remnants of the program had been removed. Yet it still performed poorly. Booted Safe Mode, no help. Still not running well. Fan blowing, etc. I could find no obvious culprit. Using Console (which I do not generally recommend) the problem turned out to be a macOS process that was encountering constant I/O errors writing to a file. It turned out to be a log file that CMM "cleaned". File no longer existed.

What could go wrong with deleting a simple log file? Apparently, a lot.

Log files are created and maintained by the system. macOS expects them to be present. Perhaps Apple's engineers should have foreseen the possibility of users sticking their fingers where they shouldn't be stuck, and anticipated the need to create a required file that mysteriously vanished. But at some point it's unreasonable to anticipate every possible dumb thing some malicious or merely inept developer might do. This program met all of Apple's App Store requirements. It was not "harmful" yet it still caused a perfectly good Mac to perform poorly.

This is also the reason I advocate erasing any Mac that has ever had any such "cleaning" product installed. It saves time. Instructing someone in Console over a support site like this would be an exercise in futility.

For the Mac in question, I created an empty log file where it should be and all was well.

The issue here is that most of this stuff that's done by the software you can do your self, if you have knowledge or knowledge where to look.

If you have the knowledge of where to look, then you would have the knowledge to not use such things.

CMM sycophants typically defend its use by saying "it's perfectly ok to use" followed by the slightly haughty disclaimer "... if you know what you're doing."

• If you know what you're doing, you don't need it.
• If you don't know what you're doing, don't do it.

DMtn wrote:

I would like to know the answer also.

Here is how you can uninstall CleanMyMac:

How to uninstall CleanMyMac X

-Jack

CMM meets the minimum requirements for selling thru the App Store and Apple is in it for the $$$. If you do a search of the Ventura, and earlier system communities you'll find hundreds and hundreds of posts where CMM was the culprit for the problem cited.

It's your calla but none of the experiences contributors here will recommend CMM nor let it anywhere near their Macs.

You can check to see if you've removed all of the CMM supporting files by downloading and running the shareware app Find Any File to search for any files with the application's or the developer's name in the file name.  For CMM software you'd do the following search(es): 

1 - Name contains cleanmymac

2 - Name contains macpaw

Any files that are found can be dragged from the search results window to the Desktop or Trash bin in the Dock for deletion.

FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't like invisible folders, system folders and packages.  

If you get warnings that the file can't be deleted because it is in use or used by another app boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and delete from there.

Note:  if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode.  This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will assure a successful boot into Safe Mode.

Monmart wrote:

I've been using CMM for almost 10 years. Please convenience me otherwise. Is "System Junk" a scam? How else will we clean out User Cache Files (sometimes over 5GB in size) taking up HD space. Does Apple remove this for us? If so, when? Also what about System Cache Files that keep accumulating overtime that can be gigs in size. Should we just let these extra files that clutter and accumulate? Is there a use for them?

Can the Apple OS find large files that you hardly ever use?

If I don't clear 112GB of purgable space on my HD, will it clear on it's own?

Please enlighten me.

Just from this thread, there's a lot of good advice to not use CleanMyMac.

Your Mac will take care of all the maintenance. No third-party utilities are needed for this and they do more harm than any good.

-Jack

It may not be designed as malware but it's so poorly designed that it looks for items that can't be there, gives false positives, moves files it shouldn't touch which messes up the system and apps.

Apple lets it on the App Store because it brings in revenue. It's simple as that.

The only app that is designed to look for and isolate malware that I can recommend is the free version of Malwarebytes. It was developed by a long time contributor to these forums and a highly respected member of the computer security community who knows Macs.