My new MacBook 12" retina runs very hot

"CleanMyMac" claims another victim.

Rule 1 of Macs is don't install junk.

Rule 0 (which precedes Rule 1) is to implement and maintain a reliable backup strategy. Time Machine is an excellent backup strategy, but that Mac's Time Machine backup is very old.

To fix that Mac requires removing the junk preventing it from working properly.

Remove "MacKeeper" by following its instructions to the letter. Briefly, they involve quitting the app if it is running, followed by dragging its icon from your Mac's Applications folder (not the Dock) to the Trash. Confirm that all its components are permanently and irrevocably removed from your Mac.

"Cleaning" products do not solve problems. They cause problems. This complaint continues to appear with disturbing regularity multiple times a day.

Excerpted from Effective defenses against malware and other threats:

Never install any product that claims to "clean up", "speed up", "optimize", "boost" or "accelerate" your Mac; to "wash" it, "tune" it, or to make it "shiny". Those claims are absurd.

• Such products are very aggressively marketed. They are all scams.
• They generally operate on the flawed premise that a Mac accumulates "junk" that needs to be routinely "cleaned out" for optimum performance.
• Trial versions of those programs are successful because they provide the instant gratification of greater free disk space.
• That increased space is the result of irreversible destruction of files, programs, or operating system components normally protected from inadvertent alteration or deletion. The eventual result will be unreliable operation, poor performance and random crashes that may not become evident for months or even years after their use, when updates to programs or OS X are eventually released.
• Memory "cleaners" that circumvent OS X's memory management algorithms work by purging inactive memory contents to mass storage, which can only result in degraded performance and accelerated hardware failure.

Merely uninstalling ill-conceived "cleaning" apps, even when performed in strict accordance with their instructions (which often don't work) is usually an insufficient remedy due to the effects of having used them. Very briefly stated, the recovery procedure from having used such things is as follows, and in the following order:

1. Back up the Mac using Time Machine or an equivalent backup strategy
2. Remove the scam "cleaning" products according to their instructions, and evaluate
3. Reinstall macOS using macOS Recovery, and evaluate
4. Reinstall all other potentially affected apps, and evaluate
5. Erase the Mac completely, followed by reinstalling macOS, followed by reinstalling essential apps from their original sources, followed by migrating User content from the Time Machine backup.

Since the results of Steps 2-4 are almost always unsatisfactory, I omit them as unnecessarily time-consuming.

An expanded procedure for Step 5 is provided below the horizontal line. Be sure to read everything and understand its implications. Less drastic solutions certainly exist, but this one will probably result in the least amount of your time and need for constant interaction. It is also unequivocally supported by Apple's published documentation, is what a Genius Bar would do if you were to pay them to do it, and it is the exact same procedure I use given a Mac that has been affected by similarly categorized products.

To recover from the effects of having used "CleanMyMac" to modify macOS, the additional software you require and the essential files you need, follow the applicable recovery procedure below:

• If you have a backup that you created prior to using CleanMyMac, now is the time to use it. For Time Machine, boot macOS Recovery, and at the Mac OS X / macOS Utilities screen, choose Restore from Time Machine Backup. Choose a date preceding the installation of CleanMyMac.
• If you do not have a backup that predates the use of CleanMyMac, create one now. To do that read Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac
  • The recovery procedure will require that you completely erase the Mac using macOS Recovery, and then create a new User Account whose contents will be empty. You will then be able to use Setup Assistant to migrate your essential documents including photos, music, work products and other essential files.
  • To erase and install OS X / macOS read How to reinstall macOS.
    • Follow the instructions in that document under use Disk Utility to erase your built-in hard disk.
    • Then, follow the procedure in Move your content to a new Mac.
    • When asked how you want to transfer your information, select Transfer from a Mac, Time Machine backup, or startup disk.
    • Under Select the Information to Transfer, select only your previous User account and do not select "Applications", "Computer and Network Settings" or "Other files and folders". De-select those choices.
  • Subsequent to using Setup Assistant, you will need to reinstall the essential software you may require, once again remembering to install software only from their original sources, and omitting all non-essential software.
  • "Non-essential software" is a broad category that includes but is not limited to third party "cleaning", "maintenance", and "anti-virus" products.

While it is running hot, Please post the EtreCheck output as a "Reply" to this thread

<https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6174> or <https://etrecheck.com>

Use the EtreCheck "Share" button to "Copy to clipboard" (See the image below)

If, AND ONLY IF, you get the error:

"The message contains invalid characters"

then try posting to PasteBin.com, and give us a PasteBin URL link.

<http://pastebin.com/>

.

EtreCheck is a tool that helps Apple Support Community volunteers debug problems without any access to the troubled computers. Debugging problems can be a difficult task even when the machine is in front of you. Attempting it via a discussion forum is extremely difficult. EtreCheck is a great help that regards.

It's way too hot to put on my lap, so it can't be a laptop.

That's because it isn't. Apple has never marketed their portable Macs as "laptops". Apple builds notebooks, or portable Macs.

Excerpted from Mac notebooks: Operating temperature - Apple Support:

The bottom of your Mac notebook may become very warm during normal use. If your notebook is on your lap and gets uncomfortably warm, move it to a stable work surface that allows for good ventilation.

Please read See how apps affect Mac performance, battery runtime, temperature, and fan activity - Apple Support.

Clean up: ⓘ

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper.plist

/Applications/MacKeeper.app/Contents/Resources/MacKeeper Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/MacKeeper Helper

Executable not found!

One orphan file found. [Clean up]

Run the report again and click [Clean up].

Most posters recommend not using cleaning programs. They can destroy normal computer operations.

CleanMyMac3 Uninstall

Check for associated parts and pieces using these programs.

EasyFind – Spotlight Replacement

Find Any File

MacKeeper – Do Not Install

MacKeeper – Do Not Install (2) See SDW2001’s post

MacKeeper Removal

MacKeeper Removal

Thank you, Bob. Not sure you wanted me to paste this, but here's the EtreCheck report.

This is exactly what I wanted you to post.

You have gotten excellent advice already, so follow up with that. Especially the MacKeeper/CleanMyMac stuff.

Please read "How does Mac OS X protect me?"

<http://www.thesafemac.com/mmg-builtin/>

And Please read

<Effective defenses against malware and other threats>

Many of the forum volunteers have found that anti-virus, Mac cleaners, memory cleaners interfere with the normal operation of the Mac operating system, and have been the cause of performance issues and many a kernel panic reported in these forums.

I will comment that my Dropbox experience is that as there are file updates, Dropbox seems to consume CPU as it checks to see if the file modified was one that it needs to sync. While Dropbox may not have a lot of files it needs to sync, it doesn't know that a file change was one of those unless it looks.

So if Dropbox is NOT misbehaving, that would indicate to me, something else is churning a lot of the files on your system. I lean in this direction, because Dropbox has been around for a lot of years, and I rarely hear of it being a bad citizen on the Mac. So this high CPU usage is very unusual.

Dropbox doing that much work sounds strange to me. Towards the right side of your menu bar (top of the screen), find the Dropbox icon, right click it (2 finger click unless you changed the setting) and quit it. Wait 10 minutes and tell me if your laptop cools down

I mentioned Dropbox before, but I'm leaning towards CleanMyMac3 now as well. Your comment, BobHarris, about something besides Dropbox churning up files, causing Dropbox to do a lot of work looking at them makes a lot of sense to me.

nshibusa, I would suggest as people have already that you uninstall CleanMyMac3. If Dropbox's high CPU usage is caused by CleanMyMac3 messing with files, removing it from your system should stop your problem. That being said, I'm not really familiar with the kind of damage programs like this can do, and someone mentioned that it can mess with system files that really shouldn't be messed with. If you have any other phantom problems that seem very un Mac-like, you might have to use the nuclear option and reinstall MacOS