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Is CleanMyMac safe to use on my MacBook Pro? If not is there an apple approved app that gets rid of duplicate files? What about Gemini 2 - is that a better choice? How do I know it won't delete duplicates where the file name has been changed?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 13.6
Yayaal wrote:
Is CleanMyMac safe to use on my MacBook Pro?
No.
Do not use any 3rd party virus apps (Avast, AVG, Bitdefender, Intego, MacAfee, Norton, Kaspersky, ESET NOD32, Trusteer, PC Matic etc) or 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up" apps (CleanMyMac, MacKeeper etc). They produce obscure errors and corruption and are not needed. macOS takes care of those things itself.
Yayaal wrote:
Is CleanMyMac safe to use on my MacBook Pro?
No.
Do not use any 3rd party virus apps (Avast, AVG, Bitdefender, Intego, MacAfee, Norton, Kaspersky, ESET NOD32, Trusteer, PC Matic etc) or 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up" apps (CleanMyMac, MacKeeper etc). They produce obscure errors and corruption and are not needed. macOS takes care of those things itself.
Yayaal wrote:
When you say "macOS takes care of those things itself" what do you mean?
I meant that macOS takes care of viruses and regular maintenance by itself. 3rd part anti-virus and "cleaner" apps cause nothing but trouble.
Duplicate files is a different matter. Photos.app has built-in duplicate detector and there are 3rd party pretty good alternatives as well. But I would not trust automatic duplicate deletion so even then I'd manually accept the results.
Duplicate photos and files outside Photos might need some sleuthing. Maybe a 3rd party app like Find Any File etc, but I have not used those because I try to manually keep the duplicates in control.
The only way to remove duplicate files is to select and delete them. If your HD gets too full your Mac will stop functioning and then you will have a real problem. I suggest getting an external disk for storage. It will be easily connected using a vendor provided USB cable.
I think Cleanmymac is the most common app used.
Thank you for your reply. When you say "macOS takes care of those things itself" what do you mean? I have so many duplicate files, docs and pdfs that I did not create. How and when does macOS take care of this? I am a mac user since laptops became popular in approx 2000, and I have never found mac to take care of this on it's own. Thank you for any suggestions.
I do use an external drive, but I do not delete the files after I have run a back up. I use the external hard drive as a safety measure. I do not know what files I may need in the future so I do not remove anything from the internal hard drive itself. I'm sure this is not the best use of the external hard drive. I suppose I could remove files one by one from my MacBook's Hard Drive but this seems so tedious since I have years and years of docs, pdfs, mp3s, etc. If you have any suggestions on how to do this without spending years of my life trying to clean up my mess, I would be open to hearing them!
I've heard good things about that one. In the past many years ago I used Gemini as well as Duplicate Annihilator at various points. Both seemed to work well, although I don't know if they have kept up the quality and are still well-regarded.
I mean, I have no reason to think they wouldn't be, but I haven't used them in so long that I couldn't give either a valid personal endorsement.
What are the best Apple-approved duplicate file fleaners for Mac?
