I've read a lot about this app, but what does it exactly do and is it really unsafe?
I have Sophos installed (yes, I use Virus Scanners and Safari security plugins - better to be safe than sorry)
I cannot access their website, because Adguard (security plugin for Safari) shows that it's unsafe. So is it really unsafe or can I check it out what it is and what it exactly does?
MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)
If you keep installing stuff like Sophos and TuneUpMyMac you'll be sorry sooner than safe. About half of the slow/problematic Mac reports in these forums are caused by software like that.
Antivirus apps are not all that necessary on Mac OS X and all the commercial antivirus software out there negatively impacts OS X operation and performance.
Totally uninstall Sophos
http://www.sophos.com/en-us/support/knowledgebase/119182.aspx
Here my tidbit of advice on how to avoid viruses, trojans and general adware/malware, if you ever encounter these in the future.
Some anti-virus solutions can slow down your Mac, but to be honest, the best anit-virus app is you, the user and your brain.
Don't visit questionable websites or website you are unsure about.
Don't use Torrents or engage in "Torrenting"
Don't install pirated software or software downloaded from a questionable or unknown websites or untrutsted sources
Java is still a vulnerability concern, if you do not need it, don't use it.
Use a browser filter and pop-up blocker
Don't open email attachments from email addresses that you do not recognize.
Install security updates when they become available
Educate yourself as to what threats are common and active.
In effect, use your own brain as the antivirus filter.
Follow that advise and in MOST cases, you will be fine and won't risk your Mac to potential Trojans, malware or viruses.
If you feel you need some baseline virus protection that is only minimally invasive on the Mac OS X system, install
ClamXAV
Apps like MacKeeper or any other maintenance apps like CleanMyMac 1 or 2, TuneUpMyMac, MacCleanse or anything like these apps, installed on your Mac, while they appear to be helpful, can do too good a job of data "cleanup" causing the potential to do serious data corruption or data deletion and render a perfectly running OS completely dead and useless leaving you with a frozen, non-functional Mac.
Plus, these type of apps aren't really necessary OR needed. They really aren't.
There are manual methods to clear off unnecessary data off of your Mac that are safer and you have complete control over your Mac and not just leave a piece of auto cleaning software in charge of clearing off data off of your Mac. Their potential of causing OS X issues outweighs the implied good and benefits these types of hard drive or memory "cleaning" apps are written to do.
These types of system 'cleaning" apps are very poorly written and are really a scam to rob newbie and novice Mac users of their hard earned cash for a poorly written maintenance program that will do much more harm to a perfectly normal running OS X system than the good that the app developers purport these types of apps will do.
Plus, the software companies that write these apps make it hard to easily uninstall these apps if something DOES go wrong and these apps work in a way where you have no recovery or revert function to return your Mac back to its former, working state in the event something does go wrong.
It is best to never, EVER download and install these types of apps.
The risk to your system and important data is too great a risk!
TIme to educate yourself more on Macs and OS X
Also, read these links
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-1982
http://www.thesafemac.com/mmg/
http://www.thesafemac.com/arg/
http://www.thesafemac.com/mpg/
Good Luck!
If you think your Mac's hard drive needs some cleaning/thinning out,
Here are some general tips to keep your Mac's hard drive trim and slim as possible
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 or Aperture, both have 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 are an iMovie user, iMovie has its own individual Trash location that needs to be emptied, too!
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.
To find other large files, download an app called Omni Disk Sweeper.
Download an app called OnyX for your version of OS X.
http://www.titanium.free.fr/downloadonyx.php
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.
Moving iTunes library
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
Moving iPhoto library
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2506
Moving iMovie projects folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/ph2289
Good Luck!
White-1 wrote:
I've read a lot about this app, but what does it exactly do and is it really unsafe?
You can read many user comments on WOT. It doesn't do half of what it claims to do:
Clean your Mac in single click
Free up space on your hard drive
Speed up your Mac by removing junk files
Delete sensitive and confidential data securely
Optimize your hard drive and make your Mac more stable
and could easily slow or disable your OS or third party apps if you don't know what you are doing with it or what it's really doing to your Mac.
Bottom line, applications like this are not needed by any Mac user.
Thank you for your kind and long reply.
I know it's off topic , but I also have an older MacBook that can run Lion (technically you can install Mountain Lion as well with MLPostFactor and it seemed to work fine), but at the moment it's just running Lion, but in a few years Lion won't receive any security updates or Safari no longer will be updated on it. What would I have to do then?
I used to use CleanMyMac on Leopard & Snow Leopard era and it caused no harm, but ever since Lion it doesn't work properly, so I uninstalled it awhile ago.
I do use Torrents from time to time (last time I used it for downloading Lubuntu for my old PC, because it was faster) and I do not use pirated software, but I rather use used copies (Adobe programs, because the original ones are too expensive, so I got it from eBay once) and iWork is free luckily.
What I am afraid is that Lion will have Leopard's future pretty soon. No developers develop anything for Leopard anymore (especially for Intel. The only app I know that is developed is TenFourFox, which is a web browser that only works on PowerPC platform (on Intel it doesn't work). I do not think I should worry yet because there are many developers that still develop for Snow Leopard (Google Chrome for example), but someday Lion will be unsupported as well and there might be no up to date web browsers available for Lion as well.
I will try ClamXav: just in case. Before I enter my PayPal or bank account I do scan my Mac before. Nothing has happened yet, but once again…better safe than sorry.
I do not use Java, but I do use Flash a lot because I need it and for some unexplained reason Flash websites work so much better on my Mac than HTML5 websites. Video Players as well and there are many websites that only use Flash Player.
Good thing that nobody's using Silverlight, because it's the worst.
CleanMyMac 1 OR 2 is total "garbageware"/"scamware"!! It has always been!!! This software was never, EVER any good for Macs and OS X.
Completely useless and unnecessary software,
I would remove any virus scanners you have installed, also.
This stuff is not necessary with Macs and OS X ( unless you are running Windows on your Mac).
Macs with OS X ARE NOT Windows PCs.
You are seriously handicapping your Mac by having all of this, mostly, unnecessary security software installed.
If your Mac is behind a router with FireWall protection from the router, I would do as I did and just access the router's own installed software and increase your Firewall protection there, instead.
If you have turned on OS X's own Firewall protection, turn this back off (it is off by default). This will slow your Mac even more.
Completely uninstall ALL Google software per the instructions on Google's website. Google apps do not play very well and are NOT 100% compatible/compliant with newer versions of OS X and I do not see this changing much in the future.
If you do not like Apple's Safari Web browser, as an alternative, try using Mozilla FireFox. Mozilla constantly updates FireFox and just released a new update recently. Plus, Firefox is much more stable on OS X than Google Chrome.
Uninstalling Chrome.
https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95319?hl=en
Uninstalling Drive
https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375081?hl=en
P.S.,
I use Silverlight on both OS X Snow Leopard and Mavericks (for Netflix) with NO issues.
Thank you for your kind reply.
So…as it turns out I cannot uninstall Sophos… It shows that the uninstall was successful, however it's still on my apps. I've restarted my Mac already, yet it's still there.
Can I just delete it from the applications folder?
The reason why I use Google Chrome is that my mobile phone is Sony Xperia and it syncs all my bookmarks, visited websites and everything automatically, but Firefox doesn't do it.
I have no plans buying an iPhone, because Xperia is waterproof and shockproof and it even has nicer looking UI than the iPhone has. Also on Android I don't have to be afraid that it'll be obsolete (for example you cannot install Whatsapp on iOS 3, while you can install it on Android 2.2.3 and I'm happy with my phone and don't feel like I'd need an iPhone. Xperia seems to be quite a copy of an iPhone itself. It has similar apps to iMovie and iPhoto and it works for me. It's also very fast (2GB of RAM) and I can always add an SD card), but yeah…this is why Google Chrome is great for me. I do like Safari - don't get me wrong, but Apple won't release Safari on Android. There are rumours that they'll release iTunes on Android very soon. I'm not sure how true it is)
I'd also like to point out that PCs can be fast as well and if you use Linux then you won't need antivirus software. I am using Windows 7 for my MacBook as well, but that's for work and I don't need to use Internet on Windows, so it doesn't have a virus scanner).
I'd say that Chrome works better than Firefox. Chrome loads websites very fast, while Firefox kinda doesn't.
True. Silverlight doesn't have any issues, but it loads quite slowly and it's uncomfortable, while Flash loads faster on my Mac than any HTML5 website or silverlight sites.
My Mac does work well and it loads fast, it even boots up fast. Now the only issue is not being able to uninstall Sophos, I've discovered... I do not use Google Drive or any similar software. I'm rather amazed how well Xperia and Sony Bridge works with Mac. It just takes lots of RAM for some reason. Sony Bridge seems to be a copy of iTunes and it's the only way to sync your device with a Mac.
I am using my old Android phone as a router. I'm not sure if it has a firewall. It does have WPA2 protection. The reason why I'm doing this is because in my country it's cheaper to get a fast 3G than to pay for the Internet monthly. Plus I can always change the speed and pay less according to my needs.
How do I uninstall Sophos though?
White-1 wrote:
I will try ClamXav: just in case. Before I enter my PayPal or bank account I do scan my Mac before. Nothing has happened yet, but once again…better safe than sorry.
I'll have to disagree with MichelPM's advise on this one. As long as you only use it for manual scanning and don't enable the Sentry capability ClamXav won't handicap your Mac in any way. It may or may not be needed today, but it's smart to have it in reserve if you should ever need it. OS X provides protection against all commonly found malware, except for the one that was discovered yesterday which we are still learning about. Most BitTorrent sites are run by cybercriminals who won't hesitate to try and pass on adware or malware along with the download packages.
Keep you OS and it's apps fully up-to-date, don't disable any of the built in protection and heed the warnings is sufficient for most users, but it's.
MadMacs0 wrote:
White-1 wrote:
I will try ClamXav: just in case. Before I enter my PayPal or bank account I do scan my Mac before. Nothing has happened yet, but once again…better safe than sorry.
I'll have to disagree with MichelPM's advise on this one. As long as you only use it for manual scanning and don't enable the Sentry capability ClamXav won't handicap your Mac in any way.
And I will have to disagree with yours.
All AV software has some negative impact on performance when used, and none will do much to protect. All that will happen is that the user thinks they are 'protected' when they are not.
The uninstaller didn't work?
Before I suggest just dragging the Application from the Application folder to the OS X Trash and emptying the Trash, download and install an app called FindAnyFile and use it do a search on your computer for anything that says Sophos and if you have to delete every file individually to rid yourself of everything Sophos.
http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/
I do not know why the uninstaller did not work.
This gets back to something I wrote in an earlier thread to you in this post.
I completely disagree with your view on CleanmyMac 2.
I have been using it (and it's predecessor) for well over 3 years and have never had an issue.
It does clean out superfluous files freeing up valuable space. Also it's uninstall feature is extremely useful for removing those non-standard installs.
It is not Garbageware.
Uh...yes it is!!!!
Total, utter garbage software.
Search these forums and other Mac forums to see just how bad CleanMyMac really is before you supply your own unsubstantiated claims.
Many of us, including myself, who regularly contribute to these forums for a long time have seen the results of such badly written software.
So, unless you can provide ANY other empirical evidence to the contrary that CCM is such great software, I would refrain from posting any more "claims" that this software is safe and benign to use.
There are plenty of examples on these support forums to the contrary.
And, no. I am not going to search and link such examples for you.
If you want to see proof yourself of how bad CCM and ALL the other so-called "cleaning" apps are, do your own searches of these forums, yourself.
You clearly have noooo idea what you are talking about.
I am going to have to concur with Michael on this. Have yet to see where it has done good on any of the Mac I have been called in to help fix. Most of the time as long as it hasn't had enough time to totally destroy OS X, the simple act of remove it was like magic at how quickly the Mac recovered itself.
It's a complete scam, and the developers of CleanMyMac and MacKeeper have been known to pay people to post positively about it...
CleanmyMac is pure crap. Plain and simple. It's a scam perpetrated to take advantage of the unwitting and unwary. Unfortunately, the more people who make the switch from PCs to Macs, the more victims the purveyors of this garbage have to prey on.
Is TuneUpMyMac really unsafe?
