Is there a Mac Cleaner to make it go faster?

The only thing that will speed up your 2017 21.5" iMac is to get an external SSD and use that as your start up drive. You could do that however because the computer is nearing old age (from a computer point of view) you may want to consider replacing it with a current mod Mac mini that would be considerably faster and not nearing obsolescence. You can get a nicely configured new one including a nice 27" display for about $1200. If you decide to get an external SSD, you will spend about $200-$300.

If you opt to go with the external SSD use the instructions in How to setup an external SSD as your startup disk and the SSD I'd recommend is the OWC Envoy Pro SX .

ttreen1950,

Simple because many of the VPN apps out there can modify Mac OS which can make Mac OS:

• Slow
• Unstable
• Appear Buggy
• create unwanted "features" that uses do not want.

Not to mention they don't do anything that Mac OS does not already do. In short they are a waste of system resources, time and $$. Your computer though, you can do to it what you want so if you don't mind having a slow, unstable, buggy computer go for it.

Do NOT use 3rd party cleaning apps. They will do nothing but bork your machine.

Mac cleaning software is not nessecary, it will only slow down your Mac instead of speeding it up, so I would recommend against using any mac clean up software

CLASSIC dont buy those buy these lol

I guess you chose to do no research on "these." "These" does not purport to clean your Mac or do any sort of maintenance at all. And, you don't have to buy it.

I do not trust any cleaner. These one trick ponies are in fact more damage than good.

Backup now, or forever hold your peace - … - Apple Community

has several utilities that backup the data on your Mac, which should be done prior to using any utilities, as utilities can erase important files.

https://freemacsoft.net - has an AppCleaner that does just one good thing and that's remove unnecessary apps and their dependent files. You may need to boot in safe mode (shift key at startup) to ensure all components get removed.

Etrecheck - the handy reporting tool for … - Apple Community

helps identify background apps that can or should be removed if there is no need for them.

Amended comments to MacKeeper tip - Apple Community

is a tip I wrote to discuss alternatives to cleaners for optimizing.

The problems with most cleaners are they either -

1. Delete system caches that are used to optimize Mac operations.
2. Run in the background creating conflicts for programs that use system level files.
3. Duplicate functionality that the Mac does on its own when it is left on overnight in screen saver instead of energy saver mode.
4. Create crash files which can become really big when an application doesn't know why a resource is not available.

In short, you should avoid them at all costs.

Hi Mama2six,

Remove Webroot. It is unnecessary and takes up a lot of background task activity.

Clean up space on your hard disk. You are right at the 15% empty point of diminishing returns where the computer will be automatically generating swap files to manage memory, and it has no place ot put them.

AVHelper is not needed either.

If you don't know what Rakutan Cash Back is for, remove it.

libdispatch.dylib: BUG IN CLIENT OF LIBDISPATCH: Unbalanced call to di

indicates you have some untested software installed on your system that should be removed, and is crashing a lot in the background.

Please start a new topic thread with any questions.

There are a bunch of scams out there designed to hack up your Mac and claim to give it a little speed boost. There are no 3rd party apps that can directly improve performance. It's simply not possible.

Carolineoies wrote:

However, you can opt for a 3rd-party Mac cleaning app if you don't want to play with commands. This types of apps will do the cleaning staff automatically, which saves time and effort.

Just because they are available does not mean you should use one. All you need to do is use the Search option on the top of this page and enter any Mac cleaning app into the search field. You will get the truth about these apps and saving time and effort has not been the case for the users who have installed them.

Caches themselves are used to optimize performance. Some in fact, if not not present or corrupted will prevent you from being able to launch Application such as System Settings/Preferences. So optimizers that do anything with system caches should be treated with kid gloves. They can in fact make your system less stable than more stable. We don't control the fact that Apple has allowed certain system cache cleaners to be available on the Mac App Store, when all are inherantly dangerous for that behavior. Some like AppleJack are the closest to being able to manage it safely, because they launch before the GUI in an administrative mode if properly setup. But any system that already is having trouble with caches, may in fact have more trouble when something non-system tries to clean them. You are better off backing up your data, and freeing up at least 15% free space, and removing non-essential applications if you are experiencing slowness.

"What's wrong with subscribing to a (reputable) VPN for security when

using public Wi-Fi on a laptop when not at home, and to change your

apparent location for streaming services?"

Public wifi sites do not have the bandwidth to do streaming video. You end up hogging the bandwidth of anyone else on that public wifi. Don't do that. It is selfish and rude to do so.

Believe it or not...

EtreCheck is a FREE simple little diagnostic tool to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac. It will not display any personal info.

https://www.etrecheck.com/

Thanks for Old Toad’s etrecheck instructions…

Slow iMac 2017 - Apple Community

Use the Note tool on the bottom of this editor's toolbar, as shown in the image, to copy and paste the output from EtreCheck. In a Reply before you click post, look for this to add longer texts...

But I do like Mac Cleaner Pro...

https://nektony.com/mac-cleaner-pro

Having trouble with TimeMachine - can't run backups. Deleted LocalSnapshots and still cannot backup. Moved Downloads to an external SSD (~20GB) and Emptied the Trash (~19GB)....

Ran EtreCheck, which tells me I'm dangerously low on space on my 500GB SSD, but 45% of it is "Unknown" in the pie chart. Ran "Storage" and "Clean up" after granting Full Disk Access, but EtreCheck reported it could not free up any storage space.

Attached my EtreCheck Report... Any suggestions?

EtreCheck report

Mac is slow to start up and launch apps, generally not too bad while using the same app, but very slow switching from one to another.

If anyone can advise on some solutions I'd be most grateful.

ekajjake wrote:

EtreCheck report

Mac is slow to start up and launch apps, generally not too bad while using the same app, but very slow switching from one to another.

If anyone can advise on some solutions I'd be most grateful.

That’s the i5 8 GB HDD, and though it’s a Fusion model which is somewhat better than the lowest-spec HDD model, but the Fusion is Busy Busy. Basically, you’re out of RAM for all of what’s been loaded here, and that not-all-that-speedy i5 is now attempting to compensate for that lack of memory by hitting the Fusion hard. Hard. And hitting a Fusion hard runs at HDD speeds. Slow. Slow.

Remove the VPN add-on apps; Proton, Tunnelbear, etc., and remove the hosted file services, too. Likely remove the Google apps, too. Remove anything you don’t absolutely need.

Here’s why HDDs are slow: Why is my hard disk drive iMac so slow? - Apple Community

Your Mac hits that Fusion HDD whenever it needs to shuffle stuff to or from the Fusion SSD.

Moving to an SSD might help: Use an external SSD as your startup disk … - Apple Community

But an i5 8 GB Fusion isn’t ever going to be speedy.