OnyX program for Mac

I agree completely. I think most of the people on here have no idea what it does at all. It does nothing whatsoever except run maintenance tasks and change settings that you can and are commonly asked to do... by apple... with a gui.

Have used Onyx for many years and no problems. Works well

How to maintain a Mac

1. Make two or more backups of all your files, keeping at least one off site at all times in case of disaster. One backup is not enough to be safe. Don’t back up your backups; all should be made directly from the original data. Don’t rely completely on any single backup method, such as Time Machine. If you get an indication that a backup has failed, don't ignore it.

2. Keep your software up to date. In the App Store or Software Update preference pane (depending on the OS version), you can configure automatic notifications of updates to OS X and other Mac App Store products. Some third-party applications from other sources have a similar feature, if you don’t mind letting them phone home. Otherwise you have to check yourself on a regular basis.

Keeping up to date is especially important for complex software that modifies the operating system, such as device drivers. Don't install such modifications unless they're absolutely necessary. Remove them when they are no longer needed. Before installing any Apple update, you must check that all system modifications that you use are compatible. Incompatibility with third-party software is by far the most common cause of difficulties with system updates.

3. Don't install crapware, such as “themes,” "haxies," “add-ons,” “toolbars,” “enhancers," “optimizers,” “accelerators,” "boosters," “extenders,” “cleaners,” "doctors," "tune-ups," “defragmenters,” “firewalls,” "barriers," “guardians,” “defenders,” “protectors,” most “plugins,” commercial "virus scanners,” "disk tools," or "utilities." With very few exceptions, such stuff is useless or worse than useless. Above all, avoid any software that purports to change the look and feel of the user interface.

It's not much of an exaggeration to say that the whole "utility" software industry for the Mac is a fraud on consumers. The most extreme examples are the "CleanMyMac," "TuneUpMyMac," and “MacKeeper” scams, but there are many others.

As a rule, you should avoid software that changes the way other software works. Plugins for Photoshop and similar programs are an obvious exception to this rule. Safari extensions, and perhaps the equivalent for other web browsers, are a partial exception. Most are safe, and they're easy to get rid of if they don't work. Some may cause the browser to crash or otherwise malfunction. Some are malicious. Use with caution, and install only well-known extensions from relatively trustworthy sources, such as the Safari Extensions Gallery.

Only install software that is useful to you, not (as you imagine) to the computer. For example, a word processor is useful for writing. A video editor is useful for making movies. A game is useful for fun. But a "cache cleaner" isn't useful for anything. Cleaning caches is not an end in itself.

Never install any third-party software unless you know how to uninstall it. Otherwise you may create problems that are very hard to solve. Do not rely on "utilities" such as "AppCleaner" and the like that purport to remove software.

4. Don't install bad, conflicting, or unnecessary fonts. Whenever you install new fonts, use the validation feature of the built-in Font Book application to make sure the fonts aren't defective and don't conflict with each other or with others that you already have. See the built-in help and this support article for instructions. Deactivate or remove fonts that you don't really need to speed up application launching.

5. Avoid malware. Malware is malicious software that circulates on the Internet. This kind of attack on OS X was once so rare that it was hardly a concern, but malware is now increasingly common, and increasingly dangerous.

There is some built-in protection against malware, but you can’t rely on it—the attackers are always at least one day ahead of the defense. You can’t rely on third-party protection either. What you can rely on is common-sense awareness—not paranoia, which only makes you more vulnerable.

Never install software from an untrustworthy or unknown source. If in doubt, do some research. Any website that prompts you to install a “codec” or “plugin” that comes from the same site, or an unknown site, is untrustworthy. Software with a corporate brand, such as Adobe Flash Player, must come directly from the developer's website. No intermediary is acceptable, and don’t trust links unless you know how to parse them. Any file that is automatically downloaded from the web, without your having requested it, should go straight into the Trash. A web page that tells you that your computer has a “virus,” or that anything else is wrong with it, is a scam.

In OS X 10.7.5 or later, downloaded applications and Installer packages that have not been digitally signed by a developer registered with Apple are blocked from loading by default. The block can be overridden, but think carefully before you do so.

Because of recurring security issues in Java, it’s best to disable it in your web browsers, if it’s installed. Few websites have Java content nowadays, so you won’t be missing much. This action is mandatory if you’re running any version of OS X older than 10.6.8 with the latest Java update. Note: Java has nothing to do with JavaScript, despite the similar names. Don't install Java unless you're sure you need it. Most people don't.

6. Don't fill up your disk/SSD. A common mistake is adding more and more large files to your home folder until you start to get warnings that you're out of space, which may be followed in short order by a startup failure. This is more prone to happen on the newer Macs that come with an internal SSD instead of the traditional hard drive. The drive can be very nearly full before you become aware of the problem.

While it's not true that you should or must keep any particular percentage of space free, you should monitor your storage use and make sure you're not in immediate danger of using it up. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of free space on the startup volume for normal operation.

If storage space is running low, use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeperto explore the volume and find out what's taking up the most space. Move seldom-used large files to secondary storage.

7. Relax, don’t do it. Besides the above, no routine maintenance is necessary or beneficial for the vast majority of users; specifically not “cleaning caches,” “zapping the PRAM,” "resetting the SMC," “rebuilding the directory,” "defragmenting the drive," “running periodic scripts,” “dumping logs,” "deleting temp files," “scanning for viruses,” "purging memory," "checking for bad blocks," "testing the hardware," or “repairing permissions.” Such measures are either completely pointless or are useful only for solving problems, not for prevention.

To use a Mac effectively, you have to free yourself from the Windows mindset that every computer needs regular downtime maintenance such as "defragging" and "registry cleaning." Those concepts do not apply to the Mac platform.

A well-designed computing device is not something you should have to think about much. It should be an almost transparent medium through which you communicate, work, and play. If you want a machine that needs a lot of attention, use a PC.

The very height of futility is running an expensive third-party application called “Disk Warrior” when nothing is wrong, or even when something is wrong and you have backups, which you must have. Disk Warrior is a data-salvage tool, not a maintenance tool, and you will never need it if your backups are adequate. Don’t waste money on it or anything like it.

Your Mac does not need this kind of "cleaning." MacKeeper is a scam that does its best to convince you that this unnecessary procedure is vital to your Mac's health... it is not. You do not need MacKeeper, OnyX or any other utility for "cleaning" your Mac. See The myth of the dirty Mac.

(Fair disclosure: I may receive compensation from links to my sites, TheSafeMac.com and AdwareMedic.com, in the form of buttons allowing for donations. Donations are not required to use my site or software.)

Onyx is an excellent program. I also have been using it for years.

It is basically a single user interface for standard Unix and Mac user maintenance commands that are otherwise normally accessed via Terminal, Disk Utility, and System Preferences. Onyx also clears caches (for the system and for applications) in the Mac. You can also use it to re-set the Spotlight database, re-set folder appearances and other "UI things." There's a useful command called 'automation' that does all of these things in a single command - rather than having to use several programs for this.

It is not a host for malware, spyware, or anything non-native to the Mac.

There's a lot of fear-mongering out there, from people who are either paid by a sponsor or work for companies that make money selling anti-ka-ka-ware - as people have said in this thread. The long post (above) is a sensible prescription for any Mac user - although I differ slightly with "Relax, don't do it". It's correct that some of these are extreme measures (such as zapping PRAM). Also, the Mac defragments its drive automatically, so no need for that. Running maintenance scripts is one of the things that Onyx also does (as does Disk Utility), and it should be done periodically.

End of soapbox

Steve H wrote:

It is not a host for malware, spyware, or anything non-native to the Mac.

Nobody said that it was.

Running maintenance scripts is one of the things that Onyx also does (as does Disk Utility), and it should be done periodically.

Actually, no, it shouldn't. The only maintenance tasks that need to be done periodically are already done by Mac OS X periodically. There is no need for a third-party app to help you run them. The scripts I believe you are referring to used to need to be scheduled to run in the middle of the night, and if your Mac wasn't on at the time, they never got run. Thus the need for utilities to force them to run. That need was eliminated many years ago, and those script run automatically at the first opportunity after their scheduled time now.

As for clearing caches, that can be an important troubleshooting step in certain very limited situations, where a problem exists that may be due to a corrupt cache. This happens rarely, but can happen. However, clearing caches routinely as a "maintenance" step does your system more harm than good, by keeping it from running as fast as it can.

Please read the page that I gave Alfromil a link to, which explains all this and more.

I checked out The Myth of the Dirty Mac, and it's very informative. I noticed that it was written or updated in 2012. Are there any pertinent changes with the Yosemite OS?

oskarmatzerath wrote:

I checked out The Myth of the Dirty Mac, and it's very informative. I noticed that it was written or updated in 2012. Are there any pertinent changes with the Yosemite OS?

Nope, that info is all still relevant.

Here is my issue. If using a third-party application is not the solution, please tell me how to avoid it:

My Mac Pro (2010) -- 2.8 GHz quad core intel with 3GB memory and running OS 10.8 -- gets sluggish mid-day. Just switching from my internet browser to an app like Word can take a full minute of waiting while I listen to the hard drive chug. I may as well go for a cup of coffee.

Sometimes quitting and restarting my web browser/s helps, but I find it annoying. I use a lot of tabs on my browsers (I use Chrome and Safari, mainly, but sometimes Firefox) and I often browse in private mode, so getting them back up and running with the same tabs can be especially laborious. I would rather not have to restart browsers, and I'd also rather not be told to avoid using tabs or browsing in private mode -- it's how I work.

Regardless, other times restarting browsers simply does not work -- the computer remains sluggish/chugging and I need to restart. This is also extremely annoying in the middle of a work day.

What is my solution?

bradleyfromrutherford wrote:

What is my solution?

It's not OnyX, or any other "cleaning" utility. Those won't fix your problem.

As to what it might be, that's hard to say without more information. I'd recommend that you start your own topic to discuss this. Include a clear description of the problem. In addition, download EtreCheck and include its report in your post:

http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck