Disk Clean Pro. Disk clean pro is a collection of powerful features to improve the overall performance of your Mac machine. These collective features in one tool are exclusively to keep your Mac fast and smooth. Clean disk space on mac with a great optimization kit. You will never find yourself waiting if you have decided to clean hard disk mac with this tool. CleanMyMac X replaces dozens of optimization tools for Mac. It can be anything you tell it to be: a macOS cleaner, performance monitor, malware remover, and well, life saver. Read our CleanMyMac 3 Review to learn about the best macOS app that will help you clean your Mac by getting rid of unwanted files, completely uninstalling apps, identify large and duplicate files, and much, much more than this.
Last update: Apr. 17, 2018
Is your Mac machine running a little slowly? Does it hand up more often? MacBook, iMac, it doesn't matter. Over time hard drives accumulate all kinds of things that slow down macOS, especially latest 10.13 High Sierra which requires more available storage and memory.
Reasons behind a slow Mac vary, so are the ways to tune it up. Just do a quick search in Apple Support Community, you'll find tons of optimization tips â though many of which turned out to be a little unhelpful.
In general, there are two ways to speed up a Mac: upgrade hardware, optimize macOS system. If your Mac machine is struggling to meet the basic requirements for High Sierra or apps, you'll benefit from the addition of RAM or solid state drive (see the best SSDs for MacBook Pro).
If the slowdown is software or macOS system related, a Mac optimizer app can really help. Although we'd be realistic that it is unlikely that you'll be able to tune up your Mac with rocket speed.
In this review, we'll show you the best Mac optimizer apps to clean, tune-up, and improve your Mac's performance. Depending on the conditions of your computer e.g. new or old, storage space enough to not, your mileage may vary.
Quick Summary
Want to save time exploring? We understand. Here's a recap of our recommendations:
Below, you'll find our detailed reviews, but you can also click the links above to get your desired app and start optimizing your Mac.
Optimization Software for Mac: What to Look for?
There is an extensive list of Mac apps that claim to be able to speed up or make a Mac run faster, and usually, each of them has its own unique features. It's really challenging to put them in comparison, so we review each Mac clean/speed app based on the following factors.
Security
The app should be free of malware or bundled apps. Although macOS is less prone to be infected with viruses or malware compared to Windows OS, it's still worth paying attention to as this breaking news reported by WIRED:
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'..while Apple has earned a strong reputation for security, a string of significant vulnerabilities in macOS and iOS have strained Apple's safety net.'
Therefore, many people say macOS isn't safe anymore (in our opinion, we'd add 'that' before 'safe'). We test this by running Mac security software to test whether the app contains malicious procedures. To be honest, we knocked out quite a few programs such as MacKeeper, which was reported by many Mac users for being hard to uninstall. Offensive software like that also hurt user experience.
App Quality
The app must deliver what it claims to offer, simple and fair! In our opinion, if a piece of software or app turns out to be different from what it claims to be â for example, fails to free up a decent amount of disk space, or improve the performance of our Macs (which show a bit age), then the value of getting such an app becomes little if not none at all.
Also, we prefer Mac apps that are light-weighted. That means even if a Mac tuneup app does a great job in helping reclaim tons of storage by clearing system junks, but at the cost of consuming a big portion of system resources while running in the background, we'd rather not to feature it in our best list.
Free Cleaning Tool For Mac
macOS Compatibility
This is very straightforward. Apple pushes out a main yet new version of macOS once a year and to date, it's High Sierra 10.13.3. If an app is unable to run smoothly under High Sierra, it's definitely a problem. Because most Mac users will upgrade to the latest macOS sooner or later. According to ComputerWorld, 25% of all Mac users upgraded to 10.11 El Capitan in the first month, not to mention those who chose to upgrade on and from day 31.
If the developer of a Mac app fails to update the software in time, chances are the app has compatibility issues with the latest macOS version. Those who download and install it would have a hard time running it smoothly, let alone fixing potential Mac issues and optimizing your Mac's performance.
Tech Support
Not all Mac users are tech-savvy. Those who just joined the Apple Mac family or switched from the PCs will take much time getting familiarized with Apple's macOS operating system. When it comes to handling technical tasks such as diagnosing Mac system issues, removing junks, cleaning caches, uninstalling third-party apps, etc., novice users definitely need help along the way so it's ideal that the app developer can offer prompt tech support.
For example, we value developers that provide various channels for customers (and potential customers) to reach out to, those could include emails, online chat, social media, or even phone calls. We have therefore decided not to include several programs written by individual developers who are unable to provide a decent level of support.
Ease of Use
All software programs are designed for human beings, not machines. It's important that the best Mac performance tuneup software should be fairly easy and simple to use. From user interfaces, interactive buttons, to explanatory text instructions, they must be clear and to the point.
Speaking of this, one main reason why our AnySoftwareTools team love Macs more than PCs is that macOS is much friendlier than Windows. We all are used to the awesome feeling of smooth navigation on our MacBooks, right? If a third-party Mac optimization software can't live up to this principle, we'll hesitate to recommend it unless it shows merits over other aspects.
Cost
Well, pricing used to be the primary factor when we make decisions and it's reasonable. Who wants to pay for a commercial software given that a free option is available in the market. However, the truth is these days freeware or open source are becoming rare. Plus, many times free apps just don't cut it.
What do we mean? Well, we've tested a number of free Mac cleaner and optimizer apps, only to find that some aren't compatible with High Sierra due to lack of update, while others are either confusing to use or very limited in terms of features. We'd rather not to say this, but it's often tedious and frustrating to install a free app and remove it later on.
The Best Mac Performance Optimization Software in 2018
Please note: all the apps we recommend below are safe to download and use (in other words, they are free of virus or malware). They are also moderately easy to use with sleek interfaces and clear instructions. And we tested them on a High Sierra based MacBook Pro and they all turned out to be fully compatible with the latest macOS. Last but not least, we chose them because they have a dedicated support team taking customer queries.
1. Best Mac Clean up Software: CleanMyMac 3
(Free to try, starting from $39.95 to buy)
Most newer Mac machines (especially MacBooks) are now with small-volume flash storage starting from 256GB, that means your Mac will fill up quick and run slowly after some time. What can you do? The answer seems oddly simple: clean up Mac drive. But the process isn't as easy as it may sound. Often it takes hours if not days to find out what files taking up the major disk space.
That's where CleanMyMac 3 excels. It's an intelligent app designed and developed by MacPaw, aiming to make your life easier. You can use the app to easily reclaim gigabytes of free storage space in just a few clicks. For example, scan and remove system/iTunes/Photo junk, identify large old files that are safe to delete, uninstall useless third-party apps in batch, etc.
(A quick scan took only 30 seconds and the app found 4.16 GB files ready for safe cleanup)
One particular section we like about CleanMyMac is the 'Maintenance' module, which is packed with 7 useful utilities that help fix various common Mac issues, such as speed up Mail, verify startup disk, repair disk permissions, flush DNS cache, etc. These maintenance tasks are usually for power users, but CleanMyMac makes it easy for us basic users to use as well.
There are also a handful of other super helpful utilities within the app, and it's up to you to choose to use them or not. We believe CleanMyMac is the best Mac cleanup app out there and we highly recommend it to most of Mac users.
2. Best Mac Maintenance Software: IObit MacBooster
What separates MacBooster from other Mac optimization software is its all-in-one concept. You'll rarely see how one piece of software can achieve so much â protecting your Mac from virus and malware, cleaning Mac disk drive, optimizing Mac startup times, and others. Obviously, IObit wants to position the app as a one-stop maintenance tool for a Mac.
Once you install and run the app, the main interface shows 'System Status: Unknown'. All you need to do is clicking the 'Scan' button, within seconds or minutes you'll see an overview report detailing the issues with your Mac system. Well, we have to point out though, that the software over exaggerates the seriousness of certain issues. For example, it detected 5751 issues under Privacy Protection but turned out those 'issues' are actually browsing histories we feel okay to keep.
Nevertheless, we still think the app is valuable for many users. In particular, we like the Duplicate Finder feature â which can help you spot out tons of duplicate and similar items (especially pictures) that are safe for removal. And by doing so, you could free up much storage on your Mac. There are also several other great features like Photo Sweeper, Uninstaller, etc. The bottom line: MacBooster is probably the only yet most comprehensive Mac maintenance app you'll need to keep your Mac secure and fast.
3. Easiest Mac Tuneup Software: Stellar SpeedUp Mac
(Free trial available, $39.99 to buy)
Bill itself to be able to 'increase the speed of your Mac by up to 25%', Stellar SpeedUp Mac is another Mac performance app that strives to take a share in the crowded market. The app is well designed with clean interfaces and text instructions. To get started, all you have to do is clicking the 'SpeedUp Now' located in the center, and select 'Recommended Scan' to continue.
The app then shows you a list of files that are supposed to be deleted, though within the program this action is called 'SpeedUp Now'. We found this a bit confusing as cleaning Mac junk files is one thing and speeding up the computer is another, not sure why Stellar Phoenix uses the words interchangeably.
That being said, it's one of the easiest-to-use programs we've tested and some of you may actually like it even though it's not the fully-packed or powerful optimization apps.
4. Best Cross-Platform Cleaning Tool: CCleaner Pro
(Free version is available, Pro version costs $24.95)
For those of you who just switched to Mac, you probably have used CCleaner back in the PC days. CCleaner was so popular and Piriform claimed it had achieved millions of downloads. But its popularity perhaps has decreased a bit due to the malware hack happened in September 2017 (read more from this Time report). Still, it's a tool loved by many and CCleaner is definitely the number-one tool for cleaning a Windows PC.
Few Mac users actually know that the app is also now available for macOS. Clearly, Avast (who acquired Piriform) wants to replicate the success of CCleaner in the Mac market. CCleaner Free allows you to scan and clean your computer, while the Pro version offers additional real-time monitoring, automatic updates, and premium support.
Influenced by the startup culture in the Silicon Valley, Jessica loves building things from zero to one and is keen on following news related to the Big Five tech giants and many SaaS startups.
Updated on August 30, 2018
Note: Objective of this article is to share closely related queries and topics that affect the performance of a Mac hard disk drive. Furthermore, the article deals with various tips and solutions that will assist the user to free clean up a Mac hard drive, tackle serious drive issues such as monitoring bad sectors and look into defaults methods to overcome a Mac disk problem.
Hard disk queries that matters?
1. Why my Mac is running out of spaces?
There could be many reasons for Mac running out of free spaces. To check the available spaces on your Mac hard drive, right-click the âMacintosh HDâ icon and click âGet-Infoâ. A small window will appear that will help you examine the capacity of the disk and available free spaces. If you have less than 10% of the available hard drive spaces on your hard drive, then your Mac could possibly become a slow responding computer.
From Apple logo and About this Mac, you can get Storage space information of your respective hard drive. You need to identify the files that have occupied your hard drive by its designated colour.
Yellow â Infamously, yellow colour denotes the Other storage spaces on your Mac hard drive. More than 50% of the Mac users arenât aware of the files that constitute the Other. If you segregate the startup disk from the rest of your hard drive, then you will notice that the boot volume reflects the storage spaces only in Yellow colour. This is because yellow is kept reserved for the system files that occupies your hard disk drive.
Other storage spaces usually consists of:
In your first attempt, try to get rid of duplicate files, trash contained folders and unwanted applications. Remember, you need to get at-least 10% of free spaces w.r.t to your hard drive size. Try to achieve this small figure by cleaning up the junk files which you can easily locate on your Mac. You might also take the help of a free Mac cleaner application as a second attempt which will perform a deep clean of hard drive sectors.
2. Why my Mac is running slow?
To answer this, it is necessary to analyze several factors to determine the cause of slow running OS X
3. Will restoring Mac to factory settings will help speed it up?
Factory reset does help you eliminate disk errors, file-system cryptic errors, leftovers and other junks that reduce the performance of the Mac instantly. If you have properly backed up the Mac to an external hard drive, then go to Mac OS X Utilities and erase your Apple hard drive. Once erased, restore your OS X with default settings through Mac OS X Utilities itself.
Restoring a Mac is a safe and cost-free technique to improve the speed and performance of the Mac. All it needs to have is a well-maintained backup of your files.
4. How should I manage file storage on my limited space disk?
Now, there could be more than a dozens of methods for managing files on Mac hard drive. Letâs list some basics method initially: -
5. Does earlier OS X have the facility to manage storage just like in macOS Sierra?
macOS Sierra is a genius operating system because this time it provides a default feature to manage the storage spaces. You can avail this feature by going to Apple logo << About this Mac << Storage << Manage. This place mainly helps you manage Applications, Documents, Trash, System, iCloud and reduce clutter. Unfortunately, this feature isnât available to OS launched before macOS Sierra 10.12.
You can free download this free Mac cleaner to manage storage spaces on Mac OS X 10.6 to OS X El Capitan 10.11. The utility helps manage large documents, applications, widgets, duplicate etc. in a similar fashion to macOS Sierra Manage support.
6. How to clean malware from Mac hard disk?
You can download Add-ons and free anti-virus applications such as Sophos for Mac or AVG for Mac to remove malware from Mac hard drive. If you are running Windows through BootCamp Assistant, then install a Windows-based anti-virus software to avoid malware intrusion into the Mac system. Note: Viruses and Trojans are a rare occurrence on Appleâs file system but still you can be proactive and safeguard your Mac with applications mentioned above.
7. Should I speed up my Mac using Terminal command lines?
Definitely, but before proceeding, it is advised to arrange proper backup of your Mac hard drive through Time Machine or 3rd party clone applications.
8) How to repair bad sectors on Mac hard drive
You cannot fix bad sectors on a hard disk drive but you can skip the sectors during disk imaging process. Free download this utility and run its module called the Drive Monitor. In this tool, select the Apple hard drive and click the âScanâ button to run the surface scan. During the surface scan, the utility will find and display bad sectors present on your hard drive and further will prompt you to backup the data. After the data backup is done through skipping bad blocks, you can erase/replace the hard drive.
9) How to secure clean your Mac disk
Secure clean or wipe is the process of destroying the file-system and the contained files once you decide to lay off the media. Go to Mac OS X Utilities and launch Disk Utility << Select your hard drive for erase and click on the security options to slide through data destruction through 0s, 1s, 3 and 7 Passes.
Note: Secure cleaning of Mac is so powerful that data once erased becomes impossible to recover. Hence, proceed with caution.
10) My Mac hard drive failed after a long time of service. How can I recover my files?
File recovery attempts on a failed Mac hard drive is based completely on a hit and try the method, and of course some luck. First gently take out the failed Mac hard disk from your Mac hardware.
Cleaning Tool For Mac
Now, purchase a drive enclosure and place your failed media into it. Connect the enclosure to another Mac system and go to Disk Utility. There are possibilities that your media shows up in the utility panel, though not guaranteed. You can also try coupling two Macs (failed-healthy systems) with a Thunderbolt cable and run target disk mode for data recovery. If your Mac HD has still some life left to mount itself on another Mac through target disk mode, then you possess a fair chance of file recovery. Alternatively, register this free Mac data recovery software and recover 1 GB of deleted data for free. Bootable media support for the same is available from the Tech support department.
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