How To Maintain And Optimize Your Mac For Speed, Space And Reliability

Has your Mac been running low on storage or is it not as fast as when you first pulled it out of the box? Some might tell you its natural. It's not.

As your device gets old it does not slow down because it catches rust and dust, but rather, it builds up on the unnecessary files, backup, caches, and cookies which render the decline in speed, space, and reliability. We here at MacInfo have researched exactly how to solve these problems and are here to help.

While using computers nowadays has become fairly simple compared to the early years of the Macbook (and PC for that matter), there remains a whole world of functionality and performance that can be tapped into with either a little know-how... or a little help.

CleanMyMac X is a fantastic utility, offering convenience to the tech-savvy, and a glimpse into being a power-user for the less experienced.

Even if you don't use your Mac for intensive purposes like work, content creation, video editing, or some other tougher task, maintenance is key. These machines are infinitely complex with countless processes running to give you a smooth user experience, and correctly maintaining your Mac will make it faster and last longer.

CleanMyMac X is a convenient utility that basically does all that for you.

Features

CleanMyMac X is a complex, but easy to use, utility with more features than the name would imply. Looking in the App Store for Mac there are several different, independent software solutions for each of disk cleaning, malware removal, defragmentation, tuning, and performance monitoring - sometimes each with its own subscription fee or price tag. CleanMyMac X rolls all of that into one neat package.

Many of these are tasks that you could technically do manually, but it would take hours and a lot of know-how with a high chance of error. Automating these tasks saves you time and headache, with the end result of a faster Mac and more storage space to use.

Waste Management

As the name would imply, one of the main features of CleanMyMac X is removing junk from your machine. This junk can take many forms - temporary files that no longer serve any purpose, old iPhone backups and updates, old logs, duplicate files and apps you haven't used in a long time. Naturally, the software will double-check with you before nuking anything, and you can customize what you want it to categorize as junk.

Junk doesn't necessarily mean files either. At any time dozens of needless processes and services may be running that are unnecessary and serve no practical purpose but use up system resources all the same, leaving less RAM and processing capacity left for the stuff you actually care about. The program combs through every running process and shuts off those that aren't required.

While results will vary system to system, MacPaw states that you can expect around four times faster booting, 2.5 times faster response times from applications, and even 5 times the free storage space you had before using the utility. From my own experience of using the software for over three years, those numbers don't seem too far off.

Ensuring Security

CleanMyMac X pulls double - triple, quadruple, whatever - duty as an anti-virus program as well. MacPaw has security databases large enough to rival those of dedicated anti-virus services and can detect anything from common adware and viruses to all the fancy, newfangled -wares swirling around the web.

While CleanMyMac X doesn't serve as a VPN - we recommend NordVPN for that - it does sport some privacy features beyond ensuring that your system is entirely malware-free. You can delete your browsing history along with every online and offline activity tracker with one fell swoop.

Control Center

This utility also serves as an application manager, which makes keeping everything up to date much simpler. Instead of needing to check every app individually, CleanMyMac X will display every installed application in a library view and note what needs updating - you can even automate updates requiring even less effort from your part.

The uninstaller also makes removing unneeded apps entirely much simpler, with the same aggregate library view letting you quickly - and completely - scrub the app from your system. Every trace that it ever existed on your Mac will be gone.

You can also get a clear picture, whenever you want, of just what exactly your Mac is doing at any given time - what apps are running, what login items are queued, what processes are using a lot RAM and note hung apps. It's easy to optimize your machine from here, and the software is happy to do it for you.

Convenience is the name of the game here, and while CleanMyMac X packs a lot of features, the developers know that the whole point of this is that users don't want to spend much time with keeping their machine in top shape. As such, the software has a single, big button that will do everything automatically, tuning up your Mac instantly using every tool available - it's called "Smart Scan". And even this can be automated.

MacPaw has cultivated a sizeable safety database and ran countless tests to make sure their software's algorithm correctly identifies what's junk and what isn't, both in terms of files and processes, to make sure you needn't worry about the button deleting important documents or shutting off essential applications.

Pricing

CleanMyMac X is available with different pricing schemes. It's possible to buy it as a one-time purchase which lets you use the current version of the software forever at no additional charge, but updates and additional features need to be purchased individually. For one device, this one-time purchase cost $89.95.

You can also opt for a subscription, which requires a smaller initial investment and grants you access to CleanMyMax X and all updates and features during the duration of the subscription. The only subscription plan available lasts for one year, which you'll need to renew annually, and costs $34.95 for one device.

There's also a free version available, but with severely limited functionality, so we'd suggest investing in the full version - your Mac will thank you.

Overall, the yearly subscription seems to be the best option. It's a smaller price, and while you have to renew it, $35 a year isn't a tall order to keep your significantly more expensive Mac in top shape. The one-time purchase requires a bigger lump payment, and if you want the updates and new features you'll be paying extra later on anyway.

Pros

• Convenient - keep your Mac maintained with just one button
• Versatile - one software takes care of storage cleaning, optimization, adware removal and tuning
• App Management - makes keeping your apps updated, and removing those you don't want to keep much simpler

Cons

• Privacy half-feature - while CleanMyMac X does help you delete browser history and trackers, it doesn't feature advanced privacy features, like a built-in VPN which we thought would be a no-brainer for such a versatile utility. Maybe in an update?

How to Install CleanMyMac X

Now that we have established how good of a Mac companion app CleanMyMac X is, let us take you through a step-by-step guide on how to install and use it.

Buy The Software

You can buy the license for CleanMyMac X direct from MacPaw here. Once the payment is through, the CleanMyMac X installer will be saved to your computer. From there all you have to do is run it.

Install it to your Mac

On this window, all you have to do is drag the CleanMyMac X icon to Applications.

Look for CleanMyMac X in Applications

Congraturalions, you have successfully installed CleanMyMac X! Now look for it in your Applications pane and double click the icon to launch!

Run the Application

On this window, all you have to do is click 'open.'

Scan your Mac

So here you are, ready to remove all the junk from your Mac for good. Click 'Scan' and let it run. In our experience, the scanning process should take less than one or two minutes. However, don't worry if it takes longer for you, your device might be more full of junk that needs cleaning!

Reveiw the Scan Results

And here you have it, you can review the scan results, delete all the junk files and logs. Your Mac will feel brand new again.

Conclusion

When you already made the investment to purchase a Mac, keeping the machine operating at peak efficiency is something we absolutely think deserves the relatively small expense purchasing CleanMyMac X asks, and the sheer amount of features included makes this utility an essential piece of software. With CleanMyMac X you can say goodbye to lags, shortage of space, and any unnecessary shutdowns or restarts.