Q: HAS ANYONE ELSE NOTICED THIS WITH MAVERICKS

Toyworks11 I wish to reiterate to you and anyone else reading this Discussion that following MacPaw's instructions to uninstall it does not work:

"Another way to remove CleanMyMac 2 is by simply dragging it to the Trash. However, by doing this, as with removing any other app, it will leave application leftovers on your Mac. It is recommended to use the Uninstaller module of CleanMyMac 2 for complete removal."

This is, unfortunately and not surprisingly, simply B.S. That characterization is also disturbingly common for garbage software peddlers regarding their uninstallers and / or usage instructions.

The following files are CreamMyMac "leftovers" (their terminology, not mine) that remained on my Mac after uninstalling it according to MacPaw's worthless instructions and rebooting:

~/Library/Preferences/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.diskSpaceWatcher.plist

~/Library/Application Support/CleanMyMac 2/CleanMyMac 2 Helper.app

/private/var/run/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2.Agent.socket

app.com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2.playlist

com.plausiblelabs.crashreporter.data

The User Launch Agent and socket remained even after reinstalling OS X, so that commonly recommended action also will not help.

I regret that I did not record the location of the last two files. If and when I find some more time I'll install CMM again and take more copious notes. There may also be other "leftovers" that I did not find, and whose effects are unknown. Why did MacPaw leave them present, what do they do, and why are they so hard to find? I have no answers to those questions. Therefore, I wish to emphasize, in an abundance of caution, that any Mac that has ever been affected by CleanMyMac at any time be completely erased and reconfigured from the ground up.

This recommendation holds true for any garbage "cleaning", "optimizing", "security" or similarly categorized filth, and is not limited at all to CleanMyMac. There are many other garbage utilities that are just as bad or worse. They are not viruses and they are not malware. They are simply scam products designed to take your money, and they do that with remarkable effectiveness. Similar products exist on every platform including iOS. There is no non-Apple "protection" product in the world that can protect you from willfully installing them.

I do not make any recommendations for actions that I have not personally verified on my own Macs, and an "erase and reinstall" is in fact what I do to ensure complete eradication from the systems I use to test the effects of it, and junk like it. When you reinstall your essential software, files, documents, and other work products, don't reinstall the junk.

There are a few ways of accomplishing that but I recommend the following procedure since it will not erase anything until the last steps, and will leave you no worse off than you are now.

1. Obtain an external hard disk drive of sufficient capacity. External 1 TB USB hard disks are commonly available for considerably less than $100. Even Wal-Mart has one for $70. If you contemplate using Time Machine in the future (which you should), given your present system consider getting at least a 2 TB hard disk drive.
2. Connect the drive to your Mac. Using Disk Utility, erase it. Choose "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" as its format, which is the default choice. Erasing will take only a moment or two.
3. When Disk Utility finishes, boot OS X Recovery by holding ⌘ and r (two fingers) while you start your Mac.
4. At the Mac OS X Utilities screen, select "Reinstall Mac OS X". When you choose the destination volume, use caution to select the external one. The correct icon is orange and bears the USB logo.
5. You will need to sign in with the Apple ID and password you used to install Mavericks.
   
6. It will take some time to download additional components from Apple's servers, an hour or more, depending on the speed of your Internet connection.
7. When it finishes, your Mac will automatically restart and begin installing Mavericks on the external volume. That will take another hour or so.
8. Then, you will be presented with a series of questions - which language to use and how your Mac connects to the Internet. They should be self-explanatory.
9. Then, you will be presented with the opportunity to transfer information. At that screen, select "From a Mac, Time Machine backup, or startup disk".
10. On the next screen, select your iMac's internal disk. It will be the silver icon resembling an internal hard disk drive.
11. The next screen will ask what you want to transfer. In it, select only your User account, and any additional accounts if you have more than one. De-select all other checkboxes.
12. It will take some time to transfer your account, a few hours given your present usage. The progress bar and time remaining estimates can be wildly inaccurate.
13. After it finishes, you will be asked to "Register Your Mac". Assuming you did that already, select "Don't Register" and acknowledge with the Skip button.
    
14. Click the arrow to "Start using your Mac" and log in with your usual password.
15. At the Apple ID Password screen, I suggest you select "Set Up Later" and acknowledge with "Don't Use".
16. Depending on the iCloud services you have been using you will be asked for your iCloud password again. Provide it each time it's needed.

After that you will have a usable but minimally configured installation, and can choose to start your Mac from it or as it is at present. To choose one or the other, use Startup Manager - hold an option key while you start your Mac. Provided no hardware problems exist, your Mac should run like blazes when started from the USB volume. If the same problems exist though, it's very likely to be a hardware problem that only an Apple Store can fix.

Use the Mac for a little while and satisfy yourself that it is running as it should. Install all Apple updates from the App Store. Install your printers and make sure they work. Install LogMeIn if you require it, and verify it works as expected. Make sure your photos, videos, music, and other documents are all intact. Only after using it and determining your Mac is operating normally, install your essential software which excludes Trusteer, CleanMy***, Conduit, and other such junk. When you do that, install new copies from their original sources - CD / DVD, or Mac App Store, or downloaded from their respective developer's authorized sources. When and if asked for a location on which to install the software, use caution to specify the external disk. I suggest you "eject" the internal one to avoid confusion. If you choose to do so, that action will be required each time you restart your Mac.

Continue to use your Mac in that manner, hours or days if necessary, until you are completely satisfied everything works to your liking. A Mac started from an external USB device won't start up as fast as it does while using its internal drive, but once you log in its performance should not be objectionably slow.

Then, when you are finally ready, "clone" the external drive onto the internal one. For that, I recommend Carbon Copy Cloner. It's $40 and worth it. There are other, similar utilities but I have not used anything else recently. You can also use Disk Utility to do the same thing but CCC is easier. Carbon Copy Cloner will create an exact, bootable copy of your external volume and place it on your iMac's internal volume, after which you can disconnect your USB drive and put it away. If something unexpected should occur, boot from your external drive again and figure out what's wrong.

Only after you are satisfied the iMac is working to your liking, re-purpose the external drive for Time Machine backups so you'll never have to face this situation again.

SIMBL has also caused problems for people.

SIMBL Uninstall

SIMBL Uninstall (2)     See solution posted by Linc Davis .

Hello Toyworks,

I am going to comment on your latest Etrecheck list.

First:

know that a Recovery of OSX does NOT clean or solve your issues: it just refreshes the OSX; some advertise that it helps clean up, but it does not, it will only be necessary when files in OSX itself are compromised.

This can be when you used CleanMyMacs options as  for example "removing languages that you do not need". That sort of "options" destruct OSX.

Second:

an extremely good search engine is FindAnyFile (http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/), download it from the developers site (never use sites as cnet, macupdate, and so on). You will find all, even hidden files, much more than Spotlight.

Third:

You do NOT have to remove items in the /private/var/db/receipts/  folder: these items are there as reminder what apps were installed (once): it is this what is played in the /System/Information/Software/Installations  list: it show all installed software (also correctly uninstalled software) and all versions of it. If you remove an entry here, the ony consequence is that it is not "remembered¨ any more.

About your list now:

- If you stopped using Logmein (as I did) now it is paid: Uninstall it. An alternative is the free Teamviewer app.

- Since you do not have Java installed you can delete the JavaApplet plugins: there was an advice that you should leave them in to "alert you" but that is nonsense. The only "Java" thing that must be there is the Javascript plugin but that has nothing to do with the Java application. The JavascriptPlugin is correctly not displayed in the etrecheck list.

- Assuming you uninstalled Conduit, there is one more file left that you have to remove:

in MacintoshHD /Library/LaunchAgents/   delete the   conduit.loader.agent.plist   file

  assuming you have uninstalled Cocktail, there is one file you have to remove in the same folder:

delete the  CocktailSystemEvents.plist  file.

when those apps are still installed, uninstall them, crapware.

  and you have to delete the  netculator.Simble.Agent.plist   also

- Then remove the CleanMyMac leftovers: in  yourHomefolder/Library/LaunchAgents/  delte the two  macpaw   files: make sure that they are gone: CMM is one of the worst crapwares.

- Take all entries out in  SystemPreferences/Users&Groups/LoginItems (with the minus sign underneath).

If I were you, I would uninstall all those softwares at the same time. Unless you insist in using Chrome (I would use Opera, when you do not want to use Safari).

- Uninstall MagicPrefs (SystemPreferences).

- In   MacintoshHD /Library/InternetPlugins/  delete the follwing plugins:

Flip4Mac, Silverlight, CocktailSystemEvents.plist  ,  JavaApplet.

- Uninstall the iSkysoft software !

Restart, empty the Trash bin.

Respond with a new etrecheck list.

Lex