CleanMyMac X Mac App REVIEW

CleanMyMac X takes your Mac back to ‘new’ operating status with this utility. 

Since I review many different types of applications and take tons of photos of products, my computer gets bogged down, and periodically, I have to go through my system and clear it out of all the junk. This process gets tedious and time-consuming as most of the time I am doing it 100% by hand. MacPaw, a creative software company that designs applications primarily for macOS systems, has a great utility app called CleanMyMac X that is designed specifically for cleaning out the junk from your system. The application is a paid application, but it does have a free trial with limited features. I recently installed the app on my M1 MacBook Air and was impressed with the results. Here is a rundown of my experience as well as the details of the app. 

DETAILS

CleanMyMac X is designed to bring your macOS system back to its original state – clean and free of junk files. After using the app, a system can have a 4x faster boot time, have 2.5x more responsive apps, and have 5x gigabytes of free space. The application replaces dozens of optimization tools for the Mac including cleaner, performance monitor, and malware remover. The utility app identifies and cleans out unneeded files such as outdated caches, broken downloads, logs, and useless localizations. This clutter clogs up your system and slows it down. The files are hidden in all corners of your macOS system and can be found in application files such as iTunes, Mail, and Photos. CleanMyMac X takes the guesswork out of cleaning up your system. With just one big button, the app tracks down all your junky files so you don’t have to search them out on your own. 

In addition to removing bad files, CleanMyMac X also has tools that assist you with running maintenance tasks that speed up your Mac. The app can free up RAM, run maintenance scripts, manage Login Items, Launch Agents, and Hung Applications. All of these items lessen your system load and tune up your system for maximum performance so that you can be more productive. CleanMyMac X also fights off malware, adware, and ransomware that are specific to macOS. When an issue is found the utility deletes it right away. The malware database is updated regularly. Finally, CleanMyMac X helps keep the apps you want organized and updated. The app has an integrated Uninstaller and Updater to help users sort out what they want and don’t want. 

As mentioned above, CleanMyMac X is a paid application with a free trial option. Users can select a subscription model or a full license (one-time purchase) option when purchasing the app. Depending on how many Macs you want to use the utility on will depend on your plan level. The pricing starts at $39.95 per year (subscription) or $89.95 one-time purchase. The free trial includes a lot of the full version features with some limitations. I have listed the trial features below. If you own another MacPaw product, you can receive a 30% discount (when purchasing through macpaw.com). The app can be purchased through macpaw.com, the Mac App Store, or through Setapp.

FREE TRIAL FEATURES

Smart Scan:

• Run as many scans as you want;
• Remove up to 500 MB of junk* automatically, using the Run button;
• Start Speed improvements up to 2 times.
• Cleanup modules: Use the Clean button to remove up to 500 MB* of unneeded items automatically, across all modules. Scan and remove files manually without limitations. The Photo Junk and iTunes Junk modules are not available.

Protection modules:

• Malware Removal: Scan for malware as many times as you want.
• Privacy: Remove any number of Privacy items but only once. Cleanup of cookies isn’t available. Scan without limitations.

Speed modules:

• Optimization: Remove any number of Optimization items but only 2 times. Disable, enable, and relaunch items without limitations.
• Maintenance: Run any task but only once.

Applications modules:

• Uninstaller: Remove 1 application completely or reset it to the initial state.
• Updater: Update up to 2 applications.
• Extensions: All functionality is absolutely free. 

Files modules:

• Space Lens: Remove up to 1 GB of data. Explore without limitations.
• Large & Old Files: Remove no more than 500 MB* of data. Scan without limitations.
• Shredder: Erase any number of files in a secure or regular way.

CleanMyMac X Menu:

• Remove up to 500 MB* of junk from the Trash folder;
• Free up RAM once;
• Review system statuses, get important alerts, and run the speed test any number of times.

*The trial mode of CleanMyMac X has a shared 500 MB limit across all modules, except Space Lens. In other words, if you reach the trial limit in one module, cleanup in other modules becomes disabled. 

USER EXPERIENCE

Before I outline my experience of setup and use, I want to state that the version of CleanMyMac that I installed was from the Mac App Store. It is for the full lifetime license (one-time purchase). While that shouldn’t make any difference with the way the application performs, I still wanted to outline which version I have (CleanMyMac X, version 4.9.3). 

When I started up the app for the first time, I was greeted with a musical introduction that highlighted the features of the application. The intro ends when the “Welcome” screen opens up with the features menu on the left side of the screen. The first thing the app wants you to do is to start with a scan of your Mac. There is a very large, clear button that says, “Scan” on the bottom of the screen. This process is actually a Smart Scan. When you click the Scan button you then have to grant access permission to your Home Folder in order to continue. You will also have to grant other permissions for protection checks and file analysis.

This process looks at Cleanup options, protection (analyzes potential threats), and looks for large/old files that are unneeded. Now I want to state that I originally purchased this MacBook Air in September of 2021. So, it’s only been in use for about three months. Therefore, it’s not an overused system. That said, the initial scan revealed that there was 827.6MB of unneeded junk and a possible 91.59GB of files that could be removed. After the analysis of your system is completed and the results are shown, there are options to review the details of the cleanup and files. 

Looking at the Cleanup details, I found that the User Cache Files were the biggest culprit of the junk space. There was a total of 710.2MB of space used with those files, which was approximately 85% of the total amount of system junk detected by the scan. Once you review the details of the scan, you can select all the system junk for removal or just the files you know are not essential. The same option is available for the Large & Old Files Summary. You can review and select specific files before you run the cleanup on the Smart Scan utility. 

Each one of these activities can be selected and run individually as well as a part of the Smart Scan. After running the Smart Scan, I ran the Malware Removal scan again and nothing was found. I also looked at the Optimization suggestions. This feature highlighted the Launch Agents that I currently have activated in the macOS preferences. There are only two at this time so I didn’t feel that I needed to adjust this option at this time. The Uninstaller has a really nice interface. Once again, you have to grant access to the Applications folder in your system. Once you do, all the applications in your system are shown within CleanMyMac and you can select the applications you no longer want on your system to be removed. This is a much easier option, in my opinion than trying to do this sort of app removal manually. You never know what might still be left on your system or not. 

One of the features I like the best is the Space Lens under the Files menu. What this feature does is give the user a visual size comparison of folders and files for quick cleanup. When you select scan, the utility builds a visual map of your files/folders. The report shows you the folders in order of largest to smallest size-wise. In this utility option, you can select entire folders and remove them. When disk space becomes an issue, this is an easy way to spot where you can filter out some files or even entire folders if necessary. 

CONCLUSION

CleanMyMac X works really well to help you keep your system working like new. While the application has a lot going for it, I do feel that there are other maintenance utilities that don’t require such a hefty fee to unlock all the features. The app is easy to use, but you do run the risk of deleting important files, which is something that can happen with other apps, too. One feature I do wish was built-in is a duplicate file finder (especially for the price you are charged). That said, there are a lot of tools that you do get within the software package and it does help the overall performance of your system. I do recommend it as a utility app since there are multiple options for premium features and a very full-featured free trial option. 

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