I want to clean up my system -- MacKeeper?

Question

Level 1

65 points

I want to clean up my system -- MacKeeper?

I see this MacKeeper whenever I Google cleaning up my Mac. Is it some kind of scam? Some kind of a program that doesn't work? Or is it a decent program that does what it advertises?

And are there other, better programs that help you to clean up your mac? Windows has several very good programs that do this, I was just wondering if Mac has the same. Something to clean out all unused or temp files, icons and images from various Web pages, long unused files, scrape away all data in erased files and in partial clusters etc., and to offer the user opportunities to get rid of very big files the user might not even know exist?

All advice about this very welcome, thanks.

24" iMac Alum 2.66 GHz, 11.6" Macbook Air, Mac OS X (10.6.5), Fusion, Win 7

Posted on Jan 29, 2011 11:52 PM

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Answer 1

babowa

Level 9

78,097 points

Jan 30, 2011 12:00 AM in response to Pier Rodelon

You generally do not have to do the same type of cleaning; I do clear browser caches/history regularly, but other than that, the Mac OS takes care of itself. Some of the "cleaning" utilities do more harm than good.

It's generally recommended that you repair permissions after any software update or install and, if there is some unexplained behavior, there is an excellent utility called "Disk Warrior" - I run that occasionally; you can take a look here:

http://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/

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Answer 2

fruhulda

Level 6

15,161 points

Jan 30, 2011 12:08 AM in response to babowa

I use Onyx from http://www.titanium.free.fr/. I don't have any knowledge of MacKeeper.

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,242 points

Jan 30, 2011 1:02 AM in response to Pier Rodelon

Here are some comments on MacKeeper

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/33710/mackeeper

There is no need to do this kind of work on your Mac unless there is an actual problem. There is no need to empty caches or histories on Browsers or anything else (and therefore slow them down) unless you have a problem with the Browser, no need to repair permissions unless you have a permissions issue etc etc etc.

Regards

TD

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Answer 4

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

Jan 30, 2011 2:00 AM in response to Yer_Man

Browsers, especially Safari, DO need to limit and manage history, cache, etc. And no, on broadband disk I/O with thousands of small files to find and load does get in the way and isn't necessary or going to speed things up, quite the opposite.

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Answer 5

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,983 points

Jan 30, 2011 3:45 AM in response to Pier Rodelon

IMHO, apps like MacKeeper practically are scams, since they encourage people to pay money to have things done regularly that are not necessary. As others have said, you don't need to clean your machine much, and over-cleaning can be a cause of slowdowns. I don't even ever empty Safari's cache and history... the history goes back only 1 week and can't really be a cause of problems (unless you've been looking at things you don't want someone to know about) and the cache only needs emptying if you have a cache-related problem.

See [Five Mac Maintenance Myths|http://www.macworld.com/article/133684/2008/06/maintenance_intro.html] for more on this sort of thing.

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Answer 6

babowa

Level 9

78,097 points

Jan 30, 2011 8:48 AM in response to Yer_Man

I don't use Safari, but Firefox tends to get "bogged down" if I do a lot of surfing; I have it set to empty history and caches when I quit. But, occasionally, I need to do it while it's open and no, it absolutely does not slow anything down the way it did on older, less powerful Macs. Pages load just as fast.

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Answer 7

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jan 30, 2011 3:57 PM in response to Pier Rodelon

There is some maintenance that needs to be done, but your Mac will usually do it automatically.

Do you power your Mac down every night? If so, the built-in "Maintenance Scripts" aren't running. That's not as big a problem on Snow Leopard as it was on earlier versions, but they should be run now and then. The simplest way to fix that is to just let your Mac sleep, instead of powering it off, as recommended by Apple. See [Sleeping your Mac vs. Powering it Down|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/Sleep.html].

With regard to old log files, see the green box in [OSX Log Files|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/Logs.html].

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Answer 8

babowa

Level 9

78,097 points

Jan 30, 2011 4:54 PM in response to Pondini

Pondini,

I usually shut mine down; I don't obsess and check all the time, but when I've checked the logs, the scripts have been run - I am assuming whenever it's back on? Which is a great thing not having to do them manually!

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Answer 9

WZZZ

Level 6

13,220 points

Jan 30, 2011 4:59 PM in response to babowa

Which logs do you check? Since I shut down at night, I'm certain my scripts never get run unless I run them manually.

You can use this command to see when they last ran.

ls -al /var/log/*.out

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Answer 10

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jan 30, 2011 5:04 PM in response to babowa

On Snow Leopard, they'll run shortly after waking-up if the Mac was sleeping at the normal time (between 3:15 am and 5:00 am local time). So if you occasionally let it sleep, that's how they're getting run.

And yes, they don't need to run every day; more and more of the tasks have been moved elsewhere on recent versions of OSX. For most of us, once every couple of weeks is probably fine.

(On Leopard, they only run if the Mac is awake at the scheduled time).

But Apple does recommend sleep instead of powering-down for a desktop Mac, unless it won't be used for "several days."

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Answer 11

babowa

Level 9

78,097 points

Jan 30, 2011 5:25 PM in response to WZZZ

Here is the info from Apple:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2319

And I may be wrong, but according to the dates and times on mine, I think it's the entries I see in System Profiler / Logs / fsck_hfs.log. If that's not it, I'm sure Pondini will (hopefully!!) correct me.

I also use this widget (shows when they were last run instantaneously):

http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/maintidget.html

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Answer 12

babowa

Level 9

78,097 points

Jan 30, 2011 5:30 PM in response to Pondini

+But Apple does recommend sleep instead of powering-down for a desktop Mac, unless it won't be used for "several days."+

I know, the problem is that I was brought up not to waste natural resources - "conserve, conserve, conserve"... 🙂

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Answer 13

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jan 30, 2011 5:43 PM in response to babowa

Barbara Daniels1 wrote:
+But Apple does recommend sleep instead of powering-down for a desktop Mac, unless it won't be used for "several days."+

I know, the problem is that I was brought up not to waste natural resources - "conserve, conserve, conserve"... 🙂

As odd as it seems, powering-down and back up may actually use more energy than sleeping; and may reduce the life of some components. See [Sleeping your Mac vs. Powering it Down|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/Sleep.html].

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Answer 14

babowa

Level 9

78,097 points

Jan 30, 2011 5:52 PM in response to Pondini

Thanks, I saw that one before (linked to in another discussion).... I've been "americanized" enough to try to find a happy medium: let it sleep about 40 - 50% of the time and shut it down the rest of the time.

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Answer 15

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,983 points

Jan 30, 2011 6:01 PM in response to babowa

As Pondini points out, there is often a hidden cost to doing something that seems on the surface to be energy efficient. For example, contrary to popular belief, idling your car for a short time is more environmentally responsible than turning it off and back on again, since the catalytic converter only works when very hot. Turning off the car lets it cool and means that, when you start it up again, your car is spewing some toxic gases until the heat from the exhaust can bring the catalytic converter back to the necessary temperature. (Don't ask me what the break-even point is, I have no idea.)

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