how i clean my mac

how i clean my mac

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Feb 4, 2014 7:55 PM

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4 replies

Feb 4, 2014 8:00 PM in response to nadiz6

First of all don't use any applications that claim to be cleaning applications


They generally do more harm then good


Mac OS X does a very good job of cleaning up after itself without any help from them


If you need to clean up disk space, I suggest OmniDiskSweeper that will tell you the files and folders using the most disk space. With that information you can decide what needs to be moved and what can be deleted.


Allan

Feb 4, 2014 7:59 PM in response to nadiz6

If you mean Externally...


How to Clean Apple Products > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3226


nadiz6 wrote:


how i clean my mac


If you mean the other type of clean... Read On...


In General 3rd Party AV Software and Cleaning Utilities tend to cause More Issues than they claim to fix...


They Not Required...


Mac OS X tends to look after itself.


See > Mac OS X Built in Security > http://www.apple.com/osx/what-is/security.html


More Info Here > https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4545776?tstart=0


And Here > Antivirus Discussion


The Safe Mac > http://www.thesafemac.com/mmg/

Feb 4, 2014 8:22 PM in response to nadiz6

If you are referring to cleaning out unneeded data off of your Mac's startup disc,

You should never, EVER let a conputer hard drive get completely full, EVER!

With Macs and OS X, you shouldn't let the hard drive get below 15 GBs or less of free data space.

If it does, it's time for some hard drive housecleaning.


Follow some of my tips for cleaning out, deleting and archiving data from your Mac's internal hard drive.


Have you emptied your Mac's Trash icon in the Dock?

If you use iPhoto, iPhoto has its own trash that needs to be emptied, also.

If you store images in other locations other than iPhoto, then you will have to weed through these to determine what to archive and what to delete.

If you use Apple Mail app, Apple Mail also has its own trash area that needs to be emptied, too!

Delete any old or no longer needed emails and/or archive to disc, flash drives or external hard drive, older emails you want to save.

Look through your other Mailboxes and other Mail categories to see If there is other mail you can archive and/or delete.

STAY AWAY FROM DELETING ANY FILES FROM OS X SYSTEM FOLDER!

Look through your Documents folder and delete any type of old useless type files like "Read Me" type files.

Again, archive to disc, flash drives, ext. hard drives or delete any old documents you no longer use or immediately need.

Look in your Applications folder, if you have applications you haven't used in a long time, if the app doesn't have a dedicated uninstaller, then you can simply drag it into the OS X Trash icon. IF the application has an uninstaller app, then use it to completely delete the app from your Mac.

Download an app called OnyX for your version of OS X.

When you install and launch it, let it do its initial automatic tests, then go to the cleaning and maintenance tabs and run the maintenance tabs that let OnyX clean out all web browser cache files, web browser histories, system cache files, delete old error log files.

Typically, iTunes and iPhoto libraries are the biggest users of HD space.

move these files/data off of your internal drive to the external hard drive and deleted off of the internal hard drive.

If you have any other large folders of personal data or projects, these should be archived or moved, also, to the optical discs, flash drives or external hard drive and then either archived to disc and/or deleted off your internal hard drive.

Good Luck!

🙂

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