New MacBook Pro - Does it "clean" itself?

There are certain daily, weekly, and monthly system cleanups done by the operating system as long as the computer is turned on at the time these periodic routines are run. They do not do a thing with cache files or remove program preferences for deleted applications. That must be done by the user.

OS X does automatically defragment files under 20 MBs. Drive defragmentation is not generally ever required.

Uninstalling Software: The Basics

Most OS X applications are completely self-contained "packages" that can be uninstalled by simply dragging the application to the Trash. Applications may create preference files that are stored in the /Home/Library/Preferences/ folder. Although they do nothing once you delete the associated application, they do take up some disk space. If you want you can look for them in the above location and delete them, too.

Some applications may install an uninstaller program that can be used to remove the application. In some cases the uninstaller may be part of the application's installer, and is invoked by clicking on a Customize button that will appear during the install process.

Some applications may install components in the /Home/Library/Applications Support/ folder. You can also check there to see if the application has created a folder. You can also delete the folder that's in the Applications Support folder. Again, they don't do anything but take up disk space once the application is trashed.

Some applications may install a startupitem or a Log In item. Startupitems are usually installed in the /Library/StartupItems/ folder and less often in the /Home/Library/StartupItems/ folder. Log In Items are set in the Accounts preferences. Open System Preferences, click on the Accounts icon, then click on the LogIn Items tab. Locate the item in the list for the application you want to remove and click on the "-" button to delete it from the list.

Some software use startup daemons or agents that are a new feature of the OS. Look for them in /Library/LaunchAgents/ and /Library/LaunchDaemons/ or in /Home/Library/LaunchAgents/.

If an application installs any other files the best way to track them down is to do a Finder search using the application name or the developer name as the search term. Unfortunately Spotlight will not look in certain folders by default. You can modify Spotlight's behavior or use a third-party search utility, EasyFind, instead.

Some applications install a receipt in the /Library/Receipts/ folder. Usually with the same name as the program or the developer. The item generally has a ".pkg" extension. Be sure you also delete this item as some programs use it to determine if it's already installed.

There are many utilities that can uninstall applications. Here is a selection:

1. AppZapper 2.0.1

2. AppDelete 3.2.6

3. Automaton 1.50

4. Hazel

5. AppCleaner 2.1.0

6. CleanApp

7. iTrash 1.8.2

8. Amnesia

9. Uninstaller 1.15.1

10. Spring Cleaning 11.0.1

For more information visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on removing software.

Kappy's Personal Suggestions About OS X Maintenance

For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utility is: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption. Drive Genius provides additional tools not found in Disk Warrior for defragmentation of older drives, disk repair, disk scans, formatting, partitioning, disk copy, and benchmarking.

Four outstanding sources of information on Mac maintenance are:

1. OS X Maintenance - MacAttorney.

2. Mac maintenance Quick Assist

3. Maintaining Mac OS X

4. Mac Maintenance Guide

Periodic Maintenance

OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) See Mac OS X- About background maintenance tasks. If you are running Leopard or later these tasks are run automatically, so there is no need to use any third-party software to force running these tasks.

If you are using a pre-Leopard version of OS X, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced after Tiger. (These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion and should not be installed.)

Defragmentation

OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive except when trying to install Boot Camp on a fragmented drive. But you don't need to buy third-party software. All you need is a spare external hard drive and Carbon Copy Cloner.

Cheap and Easy Defragmentation

You will have to backup your OS X partition to an external drive, boot from the external drive, use Disk Utility to repartition and reformat your hard drive back to a single volume, then restore your backup to the internal hard drive. You will use Carbon Copy Cloner to create the backup and to restore it.

1. Get an empty external hard drive and clone your internal drive to the

external one.

2. Boot from the external hard drive.

3. Erase the internal hard drive.

4. Restore the external clone to the internal hard drive.

Clone the internal drive to the external drive

1. Open Carbon Copy Cloner.

2. Select the Source volume from the left side dropdown menu.

3. Select the Destination volume from the left side dropdown menu.

4. Be sure the Block Copy button is not depressed or is ghosted.

5. Click on the Clone button.

Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.

Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive and click on the upward pointing arrow button.

After startup do the following:

Erase internal hard drive

1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.

2. After DU loads select your internal hard drive (this is the entry with the

mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the

drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is

failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be

reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the

DU main window.

3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the

drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended

(Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to

GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait

until the process has completed.

Restore the clone to the internal hard drive

1. Open Carbon Copy Cloner.

2. Select the Source volume from the left side dropdown menu.

3. Select the Destination volume from the left side dropdown menu.

4. Be sure the Block Copy button is not selected or is ghosted.

5. Click on the Clone button.

Destination means the internal hard drive. Source means the external startup drive.

Note that the Source and Destination drives are swapped for this last procedure.

Malware Protection

As for malware protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. Starting with Lion Apple has included built-in malware protection that is automatically updated as necessary.

Helpful Links Regarding Malware Protection:

1. Mac Malware Guide.

2. Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware

3. Macintosh Virus Guide

For general anti-virus protection I recommend only using ClamXav, but it is not necessary if you are keeping your computer's operating system software up to date. You should avoid any other third-party software advertised as providing anti-malware/virus protection. They are not required and could cause the performance of your computer to drop.

Cache Clearing

I recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX 2.4.3, or Cocktail 5.1.1 that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc. Corrupted cache files can cause slowness, kernel panics, and other issues. Although this is not a frequent nor a recurring problem, when it does happen there are tools such as those above to fix the problem.

For emergency cleaning install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the command line. Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard. (AppleJack works with Snow Leopard or earlier.)

Installing System Updates or Upgrades

When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.

Backup and Restore

Having a backup and restore strategy is one of the most important things you can do to maintain your computer. Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):

1. Carbon Copy Cloner.

2. Deja Vu

3. SuperDuper!

4. Synk Pro

5. Tri-Backup

Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance and backup and restore.

Always have a current backup before performing any system updates or upgrades.

Be sure you have an adequate amount of RAM installed for the number of applications you run concurrently. Be sure you leave a minimum of 10% of the hard drive's capacity or 20 GBs, whichever is greater, as free space. Avoid installing utilities that rely on Haxies, SIMBL, or that alter the OS appearance, add features you will rarely if ever need, etc. The more extras you install the greater the probability of having problems. If you install software be sure you know how to uninstall it. Avoid installing multiple new software at the same time. Install one at a time and use it for a while to be sure it's compatible.

Additional suggestions will be found in:

1. Mac OS X speed FAQ

2. Speeding up Macs

3. Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance

4. Essential Mac Maintenance: Get set up

5. Essential Mac Maintenance: Rev up your routines

6. Five Mac maintenance myths

7. How to Speed up Macs

8. Myths of required versus not required maintenance for Mac OS X

Referenced software can be found at CNet Downloads or MacUpdate.

Search for preference files in the /Home/Library/Preferences/ folder. Select those belonging to deleted applications and put them in the Trash. Cache files will be in the /Home/Library/Cache/ folder.

To make the /Home/Library/ folder visible:

Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder and paste the following at the command prompt:

chflags nohidden ~/Library

Press RETURN.

Follow other instructions in the material I posted for you.

I realize Kappy has already completely answered all your questions, but a couple of remarks here.

MitchellB92 wrote:

Any way to clear up my preferences, cache, and such from programs I've removed?

Preference files take up very little room and have no impact on the OS, so I wouldn't spend a lot of time trying to hunt them down. Of greater concern would be any executables that the removed application may have scattered elsewhere on your hard drive which are either still running or trying to run. AppZapper might have gotten all of them, but just in case I would spend some time with EasyFind or Find Any File (Spotlight and Finder won't search your system by default) looking for anything remaining containing the application name. It's not 100% effective, but should take care of any problems remaining behind. That's why you should always use a developer provided un-installer to remove software you downloaded from web sites, when available. AppStore software is self-contained and will not leave such processes behind.

Cache files are there to speed things up, so it's not usually necessary to zap them as a routine activity. Only when you suspect corruption may be causing issues with a particular app or startup process. Obviously any associated with those trashed apps are no longer needed and probably use significantly more hard drive space than those pref files you were concerned about.

Kappy recommends OnyX, but in my mind that can get you into trouble if you aren't careful. The same developer has a less complex utility called Maintenance which in my mind is a lot safer for users just getting used to the newer OS X. Again, not to be used in a routine manner, just when you believe it can help with a specific issue. Otherwise the OS takes reasonably good care of itself.

Just to be clearer (more clear, if you haven't finished an English class or you are a weatherperson.) I did not recommend Onyx. Specifically, I said,

I recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX 2.4.3, or Cocktail 5.1.1

This suggests three similar utilities without suggesting they are the only ones for the job. There are other excellent utilities, but many only do one or two tasks so they are less full-featured tools (such as Mountain Lion Cache Cleaner.)

All such tools must be used carefully. Backups are recommended. There is no such thing as perfect software, so one can download one of these tools and get a version that's very buggy.

The real danger, even with something like Maintenance, is you check off things to do, but you don't really know the consequences of what you are doing. All such tools are risky for the novice precisely because the user is a novice.