So you’ve had your Mac for a while, and things don’t feel as fresh and clean as they used to? Although Macs don’t require a lot of maintenance for cleaning, those temporary files, app leftovers, and system cache do accumulate. These files may slow down your machine and take up a lot of valuable space. In this article, we share quick and easy ways to clean up your MacBook. Let’s get started!
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. Open the app, choose System Junk and then click Scan followed by Clean. Alternatives are OnyX (free) and Mojave Cache Cleaner (£12.15/$14.99). All these apps do far more than just deleting caches.
How to clean your Mac automatically
Here’s a simple diagram to explain the most common types of computer junk, sorted by size. Some of these, like Trash bin files, are easily reachable, while others are stored away in hidden system folders. Sadly, there’s no easy way to clear them up without special skills.
If you don’t feel like spending the next several hours cleaning your Mac manually, you can use a powerful cleaning tool CleanMyMac X to find and remove all the clutter your Mac contains. It knows which files are useless, how to find them and remove completely. CleanMyMac has everything to finish the 3-hour task of a Mac cleanup in under 5 minutes. It will even clean up the junk you didn’t know about and give your computer a speed boost.
How to clean up system storage on Mac with CleanMyMac X:
Done! Now your Mac looks much better!
How to Clean Mac Hard Drive Manually
If you never performed an automatic or manual system cleaning — it means that your Mac has been collecting unnecessary files and clutter for years. You can quickly clean up your Mac with these easy steps.
1. Clean up cache
You’ve probably heard “Remove your cache” as a web browser troubleshooting tip. In fact, your Mac stores a lot of information in files called caches, allowing fast access to that data and reducing the need to get it from the original source again. Unfortunately, those files take a lot of space on your Mac, and instead of speeding the things up, they slow your computer down. Therefore, if you want to give your system a boost, clean your Mac from the cache files.
There are two ways to do that: you can delete them manually or use a MacBook cleaner like CleanMyMac X to do the job for you. Of course, the second way is an easy and fast one. However, if you decide to clean up the cache manually, check out a comprehensive guide on “How to Clear Cache on a Mac.”
2. Uninstall apps you don’t use
The applications you’ve installed on your Mac take up space, of course. And over time when your Mac becomes full of different apps, it may start running slowly. How to clean MacBook? In the first place, you need to remove the apps you no longer use or need. To do this, right-click on the app you want to remove and choose Move to Bin.
You may be surprised to find out that sending an app to the Trash will not uninstall it completely because the app leftovers still remain on your Mac taking up a lot of storage. So, if you want to be a responsible Mac user, you need to uninstall applications the right way. Here’s a step-by-step guide on “How to Uninstall Apps on a Mac.”
Extra step: Trim down your login items
Login items are applications that run automatically upon startup. Nowadays, every second app tries to become as prominent as possible and get into your Login Items. First of all, you may not even know what they are (not all of them appear in the Dock). Secondly, such apps consume memory. That's enough reasons to get rid of extra login items you don't need.
You’re done.
3. Remove old Mail Attachments
You get different attachments via email — PDFs, Word Documents, images, etc. Sometimes we all make a mistake of double-clicking the file. When you do that, the file saves itself to your Mail Downloads folder. Double click enough files and that folder can blow up like a balloon. That’s why you need to remove old Mail Downloads.
How to do that? How to clean my Mac? The easiest way is to use Spotlight. Press Command+Space to make the search field appear and type Mail Downloads. In the Folders section, you’ll see the Mail Downloads folder. Once you get to the folder, you can select the files and delete them. Make sure to check and empty it every year or so.
4. Empty the trash
Even though you’ve deleted the files, they reside in your Trash bin taking up a lot of storage on your Mac. They are just waiting to be removed completely. If you want your precious hard drive space back, you need to empty the Trash.
Here’s how to clean your MacBook from the trash:
The process is quite simple, right? There is even a more effortless way to clear Trash. CleanMyMac X scans your Mac for junk and lets you remove all trashed files. To do that, launch CleanMyMac X and press Scan. When the scan is completed, click Review Details to see what exactly CleanMyMac X has found.
I’ve already cleaned Bin a couple of weeks before, but over some time, almost a gigabyte of trashed files has accumulated. Now, I can simply click Back to Summary and then Run to clean Trash and system junk.
5. Reduce clutter
Apple has already thought about the clutter that can be generated on the Macs and provided a possible solution. Here’s how to reduce clutter on your Mac:
Here’re some recommendations for saving space on your Mac. You can choose Review Files to examine apps, documents, and other files that are stored on your Mac.
You can choose any file in every category (Applications, Bin, Documents, etc.) and click Delete to remove it and optimize space. Look through other recommendations and make the necessary changes to use your Mac’s space more efficiently.
6. Delete large and old files
It has always been a rule of thumb among computer geeks, that you should keep a minimum of 15-20% of free space on your main hard drive. This is just a rough estimation, but the more free space you have, the faster your Mac works. A computer magazine once performed a test on this, which concluded that the difference in speed can reach as much as 35%. If you work with heavy graphics or video rendering, even more free space is recommended.
How to have more free space? Delete large and old files.
The first way is totally manual and requires you to find them one by one, while for the second way, you just need to make two clicks and CleanMyMac X will do the job for you.
How to clean up Mac with CleanMyMac X:
That’s it!
7. Remove old iOS backups
Having your files backed up is a wonderful thing. But over time your Mac becomes overloaded with old backups that take gigabytes of storage on your hard drive. That’s why you should consider removing the old iOS backups you no longer need.
Each backup remains stored on your computer and is accessible via iTunes. To delete the old backups, you need to do the following:
That’s it! The backup files are gone from your Mac forever.
8. Wipe out Language files
Unused language localizations take up about 1 GB of storage space. Mac applications come with language files for every language they support. It allows starting using the app in that language immediately. Cool, right? Not always. Just consider: when was the last time you used the app in Bengali or Korean? Since you don’t speak those languages, such files just waste space on your Mac. You need to remove the unnecessary language files and clean MacBook from that clutter.
How to delete the language files? Go to Finder > Applications, then right-click the app which language files you want to remove and choose Show Package Contents. Open the Resources folder and then find folders ending with “.lproj.” Every folder contains language files for one particular language. Note that for every app you should manually find and select the files to remove. But there is an automatic way to delete the language files that will save you tons of time — CleanMyMac X. Just download the application (for free) and it will do the job for you.
![]() 9. Delete old DMGs
Disk images (DMGs) often take up valuable space on your Mac. Here’s how to perform a Mac cleanup and get rid of those files:
CleanMyMac X allows you to locate and delete DMGs quicker. With its System Junk module you can remove unused disk image in the single click of a button:
Just press Clean and it’s done!
10. Remove duplicates
Useless copies of your documents, files, and photos eat up your Mac’s precious space. Therefore, if you wonder how to clean up a Mac and boost its performance, try to delete the duplicates. Note that the process of finding and removing the duplicates requires either a lot of patience and time (if you decide to delete them manually) or a duplicate finder app. Whatever method you choose, make sure to check out this article on “How to Find Duplicates on Mac.”
11. Tidy up your desktop
Many people use Desktop as their primary destination for files. But this could be tricky because your OS treats every file on a desktop as an active window. When items on your desktop are too many, Finder gets substantially slower. This leads us to the most compelling advice in this article — cleaning up desktop does miracles!
Rather than just leaving every file on your desktop, organize them into folders. The latest macOS does that automatically thanks to the Stacks feature. You can also use Google Drive, Dropbox or any external storage device to save your files and keep your desktop tidy.
12. Clean your Mac’s keyboard
Our last but not least advice is to wipe your Mac’s keyboard. As you use your keyboard daily, it quickly gets dirty. Moreover, all those crumbs may live under the keys forever!
If you were wondering how to clean Mac’s keyboard, there are no special rules here. You can try blowing the dust and other particles out of your keyboard once in a while. Disinfecting wipes and alcohol-based sprays may also prove useful. Just choose the piece of fabric and wipe the keys gently to make them clean and shiny!
All in all, be careful with your system files. Don’t delete things you’re not sure about. If you are not completely confident that you can manage the task by yourself, better use a dedicated utility like CleanMyMac X to get a fresh and clean Mac in just two clicks. Here's the video describing quick tips to clean up your Mac:
Happy cleaning!
These might also interest you:
What Is A Mac Cleaner App?
Mac Cleaners are dedicated utilities designed to scan, monitor, and manage your Mac machines from stray files that occupy unnecessary storage space & eventually slow down your computer. These include – caches, logs, duplicates, partial downloads, localization files, old backups, large/unused programs, and other residues. Using the Best Mac Cleaner Applications, you can keep an eye & eradicate these files & apps which may hog your memory & finally some cleaning appeals monitor for viruses & other vulnerabilities.
Cleaning your Mac regularly is an essential task as with time junk files accumulate on your Mac, making it slow. The junk files include unnecessary cache files, log files, temporary files, trash items, duplicate files, and more. Cleaning all this junk manually is time-consuming. Also, it doesn’t even guarantee accurate results. The best solution available to clean this junk is to use advanced apps to clean Mac. So wondering which are the best Mac cleaning software available in the market? Let’s discuss.
Top 3 Mac Cleaners and Optimizers
7 Best Mac Cleaning Apps 2020 (Free & Paid)
Mac cleaner software is capable of removing junk, optimizing disk storage and enhancing the performance of your Mac. Here, we have listed some of the best apps to clean your Mac. The list includes free and paid versions available in 2020.
List of Content1. TuneupMyMac
Price: $49.95
Ratings: 4.9
Compatibility: OS X 10.7 or later
Free Version: Trial Available
Your search for the best Mac cleaner ends today with TuneupMyMac. This advanced cleaner for Mac helps you deep scan your system storage to find and clean all junk effectively. You can use TuneupMyMac to optimize your system for better performance and seamless user experience. You can download its free version to explore various features of this powerful cleaning app for Mac. Read full review
Features of TuneupMyMac
2. CleanMyMac X
Price: $34.95
Ratings: 4.9
Compatibility: OS X 10.10 or later
Free Version: Trial Available
CleanMyMac X is next best Mac cleaner you should try in 2020. It helps you clean megatons of junk and makes your system run faster than ever. Technically, it removes the need to install dozens of cleaning and optimization software as it comes loaded with all necessary features. It works as a macOS cleaner, a malware remover, a performance monitor, Mac optimizer, and more. It chases junk in all corners of your macOS and helps you deep clean it to free up GBs of disk space.
Features of CleanMyMac X
3. CCleaner for Mac
Price: $19.95
Ratings: 4.8
Compatibility: OS X 10.6 or later
Free Version: Available
CCleaner for Mac is all-in-one Mac optimizer that is designed to clean and optimize your system for better performance. It deep scans your system storage to find & clean junk even from the remotest corners of your Mac. It offers one-click cleaning to make your Mac run faster and smoother. To help you reduce clutter, it cleans Trash items, temporary files & folders, broken permission entries, and more.
Features of CCleaner for Mac
Clean Up My Macbook Air
4. IObit MacBooster 8
Price: $39.95
Ratings: 4.3
Compatibility: OS X 10.9 or later
Free Version: Trial Available
IObit MacBooster 8 is a powerful cleaner for Mac that is meticulously designed to clean and protect your device. It helps you clean up to 20 types of junk files and effectively removes malware and virus threats. Its smart algorithms help you optimize Mac hard disk for an excellent performance boost. With smart security features, MacBooster helps you protect your data and system privacy. It works seamlessly to clean Mac even if you are using a smaller SSD or hard disk on your system.
Features of IObit MacBooster 8
5. EaseUS CleanGenius for Mac 5.0
Price: $35.34
Ratings: 4.0
Compatibility: OS X 10.7 or later
Free Version: Trial Available
If you are using older Mac OS X 10.7 or later version, then EaseUS CleanGenius is one of the best cleaning software for Mac. It is designed to work tirelessly to keep your system clean of junk and helps you free up tons of disk space effortlessly. The best part is, it also works as a security and privacy protector. Its smart security features keep your system safe against malware and online threats. Read full review
Features of EaseUS CleanGenius for Mac
6. Avira Optimizer for macOS
Price: Free
Ratings: 4.0
Compatibility: OS X 10.12 or later
Free Version: Available
Being one of the best Mac cleaning software, Avira Optimizer for macOS brings effortless cleaning and Mac optimization. It is a state-of-the-art solution that offers on-demand privacy and storage optimization. You can use this powerful Mac cleaner to make room for more files with a single click. It not only helps you clean up GBs of disk space, but it also improves overall Mac performance. This efficient Mac cleaner tool is trusted by millions of users around the world.
Features of Avira Optimizer for macOS
7. AVG Cleaner for Mac
Price: Free
Ratings: 4.3
Compatibility: OS X 10.8 or later
Free Version: Available
AVG Cleaner for Mac is the best free Mac cleaner that gives you the detailed information of all junk files. For better control, it allows you to select files for deletion. You can even keep them if you want. You can preview these files before you delete them to avoid accidental deletion. You can use this advanced Mac optimization tool to delete cache files, log files, leftover junk, temporary files, duplicate files and more. It deep scans your Mac for effective cleaning.
Features of AVG Cleaner for Mac
![]()
Conclusion
The complex task of cleaning junk on your Mac and optimize it for better performance could be easily performed using best Mac cleaner tools. Here, we have tested & reviewed some of these best options. Do try them and share your experience in the comments below.
Frequently Asked Questions: Top Mac Cleanup Solutions (2020)
Q1. Are Mac Cleaners Worth It?
The short answer is Yes! Just like any other computer, your Mac machine requires some clean-up work done once in a while. Consider using a Mac Cleaner App when your Mac isn’t performing up to the mark. Scanning your machine with a legit Mac Cleaning Software can certainly help you restore the past performance. Also, having privacy & overall protection is an excellent reason one should consider before using a computer cleaning utility.
Q2. Is There Any Free Mac Cleaning App?
Yes, there are several free cleaning software for Mac, all claims to clean and optimize your Mac while only a few of them hold the potential to keep your Mac machine free from all the junk, viruses & other vulnerabilities. We suggest using TuneupMyMac free version that offers advanced cleaning methods to deep clean your computer & frees it from memory hogging resources for better performance & seamless user experience.
Q3. Does App Have A Mac Cleaner?
Well, yes, your macOS has a built-in Mac Cleaning Utility called Optimized Storage. It lets user’s free up storage space by making the system keep things in iCloud automatically. Though its capabilities are limited, you can use the Optimized Storage feature for basic system cleanup. For extra flashy features & through protection, you are required to switch to a dedicated Mac Cleaning Software.
Q4. How Often Should You Clean Your Mac?
Well, all the aforementioned Mac Cleaning Utilities are capable of cleaning & optimizing your Mac machine as an when required. However, it is equally important to take care of your MacBook externally. It would help if you gave your Mac machine a quick clean every two days using a microfibre cloth to keep it safe from low-dust environments.
Free Mac Clean Up
Suggested Reads:
Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
December 2020
Categories |