AppAddict
July 9th, 2024

An Unemotional Look at Clean My Mac X

Mac Apps
Clean My Mac Uninstaller
Clean My Mac Uninstaller

I'd like to talk about a controversial app without a bunch of hot air and over excitement. If you are adamantly against subscription-based software, never intend to subscribe to Setapp or are a Russia loving troll out to disparage a Ukrainian company, skip this review. It is not for you. Additionally, if you are a cold metal systems engineer who helped Steve build the Apple 1 or you have close to that amount of experience, you probably should go to the Apple Forums and tell people who don't know you how smart you are. If, however, you would like some information on an often recommended and popular software utility for Macs, please, by all means read on. I'm not 100% enthusiastic about it, but I'll honestly describe it for you.

Clean My Max X is a collection of utilities made by MacPaw, the company that is also behind Setapp.  Do not confuse it with the old Mac Keeper malware program that we  techs fought to remove from machines in years past. It is not that. If you have an old slow Mac with a nearly full hard drive and inadequate RAM, Clean My Mac X is not going to be miracle worker. Don't get your hopes up. The elements of Clean My Mac X are:

  • Mail attachment cleaner
  • Automatic trash remover and error resolver
  • Malware remover and real time protection
  • Privacy enhancer (removed browser and chat history)
  • Launch agent and login item manager
  • App uninstaller
  • App updater
  • System extensions manager
  • File size manager
  • Large and old file finder
  • File shredder


As you can see, if you are currently using or thinking of buying utilities like Daisy Disk, MacUpdater, Lingon X, App Cleaner or MalwareBytes, you get similar features in Clean My Mac X.  Each of the single purpose utilities I mentioned is better for its purpose than its matching element In Clean My Mac X.

All of that is on top of Clean My Mac's most controversial feature, its optimizer

Optimizer:

  • Free Up RAM
  • Free Up Purgeable Space
  • Run Maintenance Scripts
  • Flush DNS Cache
  • Speed Up Mail
  • Reindex Spotlight
  • Repair Disk Permissions
  • Time Machine Snapshot Thinning
  • Verify and Repair "PC Files"

Some of these tasks, like freeing up RAM are only temporary fixes and it's questionable how much benefit it provides. You can flush your DNS cache easily enough with a terminal command. The maintenance scripts will run on their own time if you leave your Mac running, but if it gives you peace of mind to run them more often, have at it. I don't use Apple Mail, but I've never read many complaints about it being slow. It's easy to force a Spotlight reindex without this app. You can use the built in Disk Utility to repair permissions. Time Machine snapshot thinning is pretty useful and the description of verify and repair PC files is pretty vague. Having said all that, running the optimizer is not going to hurt your computer.

Still, it's a useful product with utilities you will use often if you don't own or intend to get the alternatives. For 95 cents a week (a year's subscription is $39.99 for a single Mac), it's not a bad deal and certainly in line with other products of it's type. If you have a Setapp subscription, download it and see how you like it.

If you want to see some mainstream press on Clean my Mac X, here you go.

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