How To Clean My Mac Computer For Free

Apple's built-in backup program for the Mac, Time Machine, makes it incredibly easy to back up all of your important data so you can restore your computer if something should happen.You can even recover deleted files if you accidentally lose them. On Apple laptops, like the MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro, Time Machine includes the added feature of creating local snapshots so that, if. You can clean MacBook Pro's hard drive manually or use a free application. For this, go to the Apple menu → About this Mac → Storage. Depending on the computer, caches can occupy anything from a couple of.

So you’ve had your Mac for a while and things don’t feel as fresh and clean as they used to? Like a car, phone, or watch, anything regularly taken care of will greatly extend the lifetime of it by years. Don’t worry; there are many things you can do to make your Mac run like new again. Once you clear out all the junk your computer contains, you’ll get a faster, healthy and more productive Mac. And here’s how to do that!

How to Clean Your Mac: An Easy Way

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 your Mac with CleanMyMac X:

1. Download CleanMyMac X for free here.
2. Run the app and click Scan.
3. Then click Clean.

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 the 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 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.

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. In 2019 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.

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Go to Users & Groups.
3. Choose your nickname on the right.
4. Choose Login items tab.
5. Check startup programs you want to remove.
6. Press the “–” sign below.

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:

1. Click and hold on the Trash can icon in the Dock.
2. Select Empty Trash from a popup that appears.

The process is quite simple, right?

5. Delete large and old files

It has always been a rule of thumb among computer geeks, that you should keep minimum 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:

1. Download CleanMyMac X (a link to a free edition of the app)
2. Launch the program.
3. Go to the Large and Old Files section on the menu.
4. Click Scan.
5. Review the details, select what to clean and then click Clean.

That’s it!

6. 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:

1. Launch iTunes.
2. In the Menu bar, go to iTunes>Preferences.
3. Click the Devices tab to find the backup list.
4. Choose backups you want to delete and click Delete Backup.

That’s it! The backup files are gone from your Mac forever.

7. 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 to start 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 that 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.

8. Delete old DMGs and IPSW

Disk images (DMGs) and iPhone software bundles (IPSW) are often unnecessary and take up valuable space on your Mac. Get rid of them and do a Mac cleanup.

• Deleting DMGs: Once you’ve mounted your disc image and installed an app, you are free to eject and trash your DMG. To do that, simply drag the mounted volume to the trash.

• Deleting IPSW: Go to Library>iTunes>iPhone Software Updates and locate any unused bundles.

Keep in mind that you can save yourself from all of that by using a cleaning tool like CleanMyMac X. You won’t even need to bother how to get to Library Folder on your Mac. CleanMyMac has iTunes Junk module to help you get rid of such files quickly and easily.

9. 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.”

10. 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.

As always, be careful. Don’t let anything melt or screwed up. If you are not completely sure that you can manage the task by yourself, better use a smart utility like CleanMyMac X to get a fresh and clean Mac in just two clicks.

Happy cleaning!

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Mac Cleaner apps are often used to keep your computer optimized, especially when you don’t have time to delve through files and folders to declutter your Mac. These mac cleaning apps comes with extensive features, including junk & temp files remover, RAM cleaner, memory cleaner and optimizer, disk cleanup to make your Mac run smooth.

Confused which one to use? We have listed some of the best Mac cleaning software to help you choose as per your needs. You can remove unwanted apps and files to free up precious disk space in no time.

Top 5 Best Mac cleaner Apps

1. Smart Mac Care

Smart Mac Care is a Mac cleaning software which helps you remove clutter from your system to free up space on your computer. The app comes with a lot of advanced features and tools to improve system performance efficiently.

This mac cleaner not only helps you boost your system performance but can also keep your mac safe from malware, adware, trojans and spyware. It can scan and remove all the infections and unwanted apps, to prevent all security issues on your Mac.

With Privacy Scan, it scans and removes cookies, internet history and app cache from your browsers to ensure your privacy is intact.

Other Notable Features:

• With Disk Usage, you can sort the bulkiest files from your computer.
• Allows users to uninstallsuspicious or unwanted apps on your Mac.
• Remove login items to improve your Mac’s boot speed.
• Scan & delete duplicate copies of files to recover chunks of storage on Mac.

2. CCleaner For Mac

Ccleaner for Mac is one of the best mac cleaner software which scans and removes junk and unwanted files to make your Mac run faster and smoother. With the ability to manage login items easily, the app speeds up the boot time.

This mac cleaner can clear all the useless items from Trash, along with this, it also deletes temporary files and folders to retrieve space on your Mac. The app allows you to customize, include or exclude which files or cookies to keep or delete.

Other Notable Features:

• Erases browser search history and cookies to keep your browsing activities private
• Monitors your device in real-time
• With regular cleaning, your computer can run faster than ever
• Removes unwanted installed programs with a single click

3. CleanMyMac X

Whether you want a malware remover or a Mac cleaner, CleanMyMacX serves all the purpose. This app finds and removes unwanted files, be it partial downloads, useless localizations, caches. Also, you can get rid of clutter in your iTunes, Photos and Mail app to recover gigabytes of hard disk space.

The mac cleaning software comes power-packed with a lot of features to deal with hogged RAM, disable and manage Login Items, launch agents and more. This will reduce the burden on your computer and make it run faster.

It can not only also uninstall unwanted applications from your Mac but also can update the existing applications to make sure there are no software conflicts.

Other Notable Features:

• Removes browsing history, offline and online traces.
• Scan thoroughly to find any vulnerabilities on Mac, if any.
• Helps in deleting large hidden files to recover disk space on Mac

4. Disk Clean Pro

Another mac cleaning software, Disk Clean Pro helps you to keep your Mac optimized by deleting redundant files. With its One-click Cleaning feature, you can recover valuable disk space on your computer.

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It has also come with Junk Cleaner, Logs Cleaner and other features for thorough cleaning. With its optimization features to find duplicate files, unused and old files, large files and old downloads, you can sort your disk storage in no time.

Another than this, you can also delete files from trash, remove old backups and download to keep your system organized.

Other Notable Features:

• Removes unwanted files and partial downloads
• Deletes crash reports retrieving space on your computer
• Removes traces of browsing history to ensure your privacy stays intact.
• Removes bulky files and categorizes files as per your preferences

5. App Cleaner & Uninstaller Pro

The last mac cleaning software mentioned on the list, AppCleaner & Uninstaller Pro is a great application to delete unwanted apps safely along with leftover files. This mac optimizer can disable, or hide login items and launch agents. It can delete leftover files of previously uninstalled apps.

This mac cleaner lets you manage extensions in a single click. It can also reset apps by deleting services files and launch an application just as did the first time.

This software can also delete caches, application support files, preferences files to recover disk space and get a smooth functioning Mac.

Other Notable Features:

• Removes Internet Plugins and Mac widgets
• Deletes macOS install files
• Helps you get rid of broken service files with ease.
• It can uninstall 1000+ apps with all the files associated with it.

Which Mac Cleaning Software To Choose To Keep Your Mac Decluttered?

So, these are some of the best mac cleaner apps which can help you keep your Mac organized. However, if you still want our help to decide which app to choose, then our recommendation is Smart Mac Care. This app comes with a beautiful & user-friendly interface and comes with advanced features to clean the clutter on your Mac.

You can also try using CCleaner and CleanMyMac X which are another two renowned names in this mac cleaning apps category. However, you can choose the others listed if any of those suits your needs more.

Watch how to clean your Mac using Smart Mac Care-

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Do Mac cleaners work?

Yes, most of the mac cleaners work fine. One of the most important aspects to evaluate is effectiveness. The good mac disk cleanup available in the market such as Smart Mac Care helps you get rid of unwanted files, deletes useless language, uninstalls third-party apps along with deleting duplicates.

Q2. Is Using Mac Cleaners Safe?

Yes, using Mac cleaners is safe. These utility tools do not interfere with your Mac’s configuration or the OS, and only run system scans to improve Mac’s performance. There are no concerns about safety with these software, provided that you haven’t install any such tool from an unknown or non-trusted source of download.

Q3. Why should I use Mac cleaning app?

Even for Mac, remaining in the same working state is impossible and its performance surely does wear off with time. By using a suitable Mac cleaner, users can optimize their Mac and improve its speed and response time by clearing piled-up junk files, deleting internet cache and cookies, and removing unwanted or lesser-used applications from the system. This eventually impacts overall Mac performance.

Q4. How Often Should I Clean My Mac?

While there is no fixated interval for you to clean your Mac, but it is recommended to do so when your hard drive begins to fill up. Though cache and junk keep piling up in the system along with unnecessary app installations, its impact doesn’t show up until the hard drive is almost full, and there is little space for new installations. So, in case, you are running your Mac on a low-space hard drive, say 128 GB, then you may want to clean up your Mac once every fortnight.

Q5. How Cleaner Apps Make your Computer Fast?

Cleaner apps perform deep system cleanups via customizable scans for hidden junk files, unwanted programs and their configuration files, unknown login items, and cache and traces stored over web browsers resulting from internet sessions.

Cleaner apps root out these items and allow users to delete the unwanted ones in a time-saving automatic scan. By removing such items and files from the system, users are able to clear off storage space, and free up system memory, eventually improving system performance.

Q6. How to Clean your Mac Manually?

Removing unwanted files from your Mac is the simplest way to clean your Mac. Usually, the things that slow down your Mac includes caches, background apps, logs, junk files, trash, and other unwanted files. You must either have a Mac cleaner app to remove unwanted files or know how to deal with it manually. To clean manually, follow the below steps:

• Empty the trash bin: Locate Trash bin on the dock and press control-click on the icon & select Empty trash.
• Remove items from Download folder: locate Finder from Dock and click to open it. Now navigate to Username->Downloads. Check every file and delete the ones you don’t want.
• Remove Login Items: Click Apple icon->System Preferences->Users & Groups->Login items tab. Once there locate and delete items which you don’t want when your Mac starts up.
• Delete old disk images: Mac needs disk image to install files. There can be a lot of disc images present all over your Mac. To remove them, open Finder. Locate All My Files, then type Disk Manager in the search box. Find and delete DMG files to retrieve space on your Mac.
• Uninstall unwanted apps: Locate the app that you don’t need and drag it to the Trash bin to delete
• Delete Safari cache: launch Safari->Develop-> Empty Caches.

These are not the only things that you need to do to optimize and clean your Mac. Isn’t it too much to do? All of these tasks can be accomplished by just using one of the best Mac cleaner apps available in the market. With a mac optimizer, you can quickly clean your Mac and tune it to perform better.