Should you use a cleaner? What utilities do you use?

[dwilliams]

Should I use a "cleaner" program on my MBP? I don't have a problem with hard drive space.

What utilities do you use that you consider essential? I'm using Steer Mouse, Carbon Copy Cloner, Google Drive, Google VPN. and Display Menu. Sometimes Macs Fan Control. Memory Clean 3 is installed but I don't use it.

Thanks.

[mikehalloran]

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3036

[Michael Canavan]

The only "cleaner" I've used for at least 15 years now is Onyx. It's just a GUI for Terminal commands, and harmless.
https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html

Like the other Mike pointed to, mostly all other cleaners are malware at this point.
BTW Malwarebytes is the only antivirus my Apple employee friends recommend. The free version is good enough.
https://www.malwarebytes.com

[mikehalloran]

The only "cleaner" I've used for at least 15 years now is Onyx. It's just a GUI for Terminal commands, and harmless.
https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html

…

Unless you don't know what you are doing.

[Michael Canavan]

The only "cleaner" I've used for at least 15 years now is Onyx. It's just a GUI for Terminal commands, and harmless.
https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html

…

Unless you don't know what you are doing.

True, "Why are all these weird files everywhere after I selected Show hidden files and folders? I deleted them and now nothing works!"

[James Steele]

BTW Malwarebytes is the only antivirus my Apple employee friends recommend. The free version is good enough.
https://www.malwarebytes.com

I can vouch for that. I once had to deal with Apple on an issue and that’s the one the support person at Apple recommended to me.

[bayswater]

“Onyx is harmless if you know what you’re doing”.

But does it do anything useful (in the way of cleaning, or releasing space, etc.) that macOS doesn’t already do?

[mikehalloran]

“Onyx is harmless if you know what you’re doing”.

But does it do anything useful (in the way of cleaning, or releasing space, etc.) that macOS doesn’t already do?

Not really. It can partially Reset Launch Services which might solve a specific problem (Mac doesn't shut down or boot properly; apps take way too long to launch) that I have not seen since Big Sur — but it doesn't do the complete job that the following Terminal Commands do:

1. Open Terminal and run these commands:
2. /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -seed -lint -r -f -v -dump -domain local -domain system -domain user -domain network <Enter or Return key>
3. killall Dock <Enter or Return key>
4. sudo mdutil -E / <Enter or Return key> (enter Admin password when prompted, then <Enter or Return key>)
5. Restart your Mac

Otherwise, people use it to dump system caches and preference files that the macOS uses to make system routines faster. Running any such "cleaner" regularly slows your Mac down as those caches and preference files do need to be rebuilt.

We have discussed a users/(user)/library/preferences cache that should be dumped now and then that directly affects DP. I've discovered another Microsoft file that interferes with Acrobat Pro and should be purged. Then there's the old GuitarRig2, Bresink and Soundflower.kxt problems, CodeMeter runtime and Corel update monitor — any of which could really, really screw up a system (current versions are good). Onyx has no way of finding these problems, let alone fixing them. To be fair, Apple couldn't find the CodeMeter and Corel problems either but did find GuitarRig2, Bresink and Soundflower.kxts.

I download Onyx every few years or so to see if it brings anything to the table. Not for me.