I love my Mac. It’s a 2015 refurbished model. I’ve never had a laptop last this long with so little trouble. However, it’s not all smooth sailing. I bought a Mac with a relatively small hard drive and over time, it’s become a bit clogged up. I’ve come across a solution a few times called “Clean My Mac” but it’s only ever gotten mixed reviews. So I got a Clean My Mac License sorted out and decided to give it a try myself.
What Is Clean My Mac?
Clean My Mac is a piece of software that helps keep your macOS computer running smoothly. Over time, your Mac will start to gather old systems files and other junk. Essentially, your laptop starts to look like your home office. Documents lying around and taking up space, generally ruining your efficiency.
Clean My Mac helps you clean up that junk.
Once installed, you run the program and it runs around your computer. Clean My Mac finds all the system files that are somewhat redundant but very well hidden and measures the size of files in your Junk Folder. Another useful feature is Space Lens. This gives you a user-friendly view of what’s taking up space on your hard drive. For me, it puts the size of a Football Manager install into context, more particularly the face pack I’ve installed.
You can also free up RAM by using Clean My Mac to end processes that are running in the background. My Mac has 16GB of RAM and sometimes that’s maxed out. With Clean My Mac, you’re one click away from reclaiming over 10GB of RAM and speeding your laptop up.
Other Clean My Mac Features
Beyond the removal of hidden files, Clean My Mac has some additional tricks up the sleeve to keep things running smoothly. The app can help you remove programs that run on startup that you don’t use that often. This means your laptop will start faster and use less RAM during general use. The Uninstaller tab of the app lets you easily see big programs, determine what you don’t need and easily uninstall them. My Mac was running out of space and this helped me find and remove a 20GB installation of The Sims I wasn’t using anymore.
The app can also do deep scans for Malware and this is where I find things get interesting. There’s an arrogance around Apple’s computer eco-system, from both Apple and industry commentators. Just check out this thread on Apple’s Discussion Forum. I’m not sure of the science here, but my experience with the app is at odds with the comments in that thread.
Which brings me to the big question. Does it work?
Does Clean My Mac Work?
Yes. Clean My Mac is extremely helpful when it comes to keeping your older laptop running smoothly. It doesn’t do anything that you can’t technically do yourself, but it makes it easier. Stopping processes from running in the background isn’t all that hard, but with Clean My Mac it’s just a simple click of a button.
What Clean My Mac does very well is remain user-friendly. Keeping an older laptop running smoothly isn’t a job any laptop owner really wants to take on. It’s the point when most people will just cave and head out to buy a new laptop. By creating a program that makes maintenance easier, the Clean My Mac team is saving consumers money – and that’s always a good thing.
Does Clean My Mac Slow Down Your Computer?
Given the idea behind Clean My Mac is to speed up your laptop, there are a lot of reports that it does the opposite. Clean My Mac doesn’t slow down your laptop. From what I’ve seen, it doesn’t constantly run in the background either. That makes it unlikely that it slows down performance.
Is Clean My Mac Worth It?
Clean My Mac costs about €40 but you’ll often see special offers appear on the website. This means you can get the app for as little as €27.97 sometimes. That’s a small price to pay for getting your Mac back up to speed. I can only say good things about this solution from MacPaw so it’s at least worth a punt.
It is important ot note that’s a one year license. You can also purchase a lifetime license that’s about triple the price. A good long term investment perhaps, but do consider whether or not you’ll still have your aging machine in a few years time. You won’t need Clean My Mac on a new Mac.
One final thing I want to say. I started reviewing Clean My Mac a couple months ago. MacPaw, the creators, are a Ukrainian company. MacPaw were prepared for the Russian invasion of Ukraine and while their office is located in Kyiv they securely host all their infrastructure and user data on Amazon Web Services; outside of Ukraine.
MacPaw is also donating funds, volunteering on-site and provided media personnel covering the war with a free year of CleanMyMac.
