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KALLT

macrumors 603
Sep 23, 2008
5,380
3,415
doesn't really speed anything up but does make it seem faster!!!

o_O

On a side note, OCD is a serious mental disorder. I am surprised that so many people claim to have this. Don’t mistake your quirk for cleanliness, tidiness and perfectionism with this, it detracts from the seriousness of the actual disorder.
 
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bopajuice

Suspended
Mar 22, 2016
1,571
4,348
Dark side of the moon
I do love windows 10 and use it for gaming and work but man the one thing I've learned about apple is a fresh install
doesn't really speed anything up but does make it seem faster!!!

I'd like to see some benchmarks. Run some benchmarks with your OS X or MacOS system in it's current state, do a clean install and run them again. My guess is there will be very little if no difference at all.

I guess the moral of this story is people who have OCD (Suffer a bit myself and have worked through many issues) are more susceptible to the placebo effect.
 

StayPuft

Suspended
Mar 22, 2016
264
355
I do love windows 10 and use it for gaming and work but man the one thing I've learned about apple is a fresh install
doesn't really speed anything up but does make it seem faster!!!
With an SSD I don't really feel the need to do a fresh install of anything because it just stays fast. I never notice any slowdown over time like I used to with craptastic spinning disks. I usually do a fresh install once a year just get rid of useless crap that's been eating up space over the year ... on both Mac and Windows. And sometimes I do it for peace of mind.


On a side note, OCD is a serious mental disorder. I am surprised that so many people claim to have this. Don’t mistake your quirk for cleanliness, tidiness and perfectionism with this, it detracts from the seriousness of the actual disorder.
Nobody is claiming to have a mental disorder ... it's used as a joke. I think "perfectionism" would be a more accurate way to describe that, but even that is a bit much. There's just a good feeling about a fresh install.
 

triplekg

Suspended
Original poster
Nov 21, 2016
8
9
With an SSD I don't really feel the need to do a fresh install of anything because it just stays fast. I never notice any slowdown over time like I used to with craptastic spinning disks. I usually do a fresh install once a year just get rid of useless crap that's been eating up space over the year ... on both Mac and Windows. And sometimes I do it for peace of mind.

i as well!
 

pastrychef

macrumors 601
Sep 15, 2006
4,754
1,453
New York City, NY
I haven't done a fresh install since I migrated from PowerPC to Intel about 10 years ago.

Ever since then, I just update to the latest versions of OS X once they are made available.
 

supermars

macrumors member
Dec 1, 2015
58
30
2010 Snow Leopard --> Mavericks --> Yosemite --> El Capitan
Never done "fresh/clean install" and everything is totally OK :)
Just one thing: I always upgrade to the new version of macOS after .2 or .3 ;)
 

MacUser2525

Suspended
Mar 17, 2007
2,097
377
Canada
2010 Snow Leopard --> Mavericks --> Yosemite --> El Capitan
Never done "fresh/clean install" and everything is totally OK :)
Just one thing: I always upgrade to the new version of macOS after .2 or .3 ;)

I go with entire OS versions after fresh install with Leopard on Intel machine went to the SL at the time it came out I waited until Mavericks and again until no support for it with El Capitan just a couple of months ago. If I hold to my normal pattern then it will be 10.13 when 10.14 comes out.
 

Zandery

macrumors member
Jul 25, 2016
51
15
UK
I do a fresh install on each major release such as El Captain to macOS Sierra. I would rather get rid of any remaining too left overs from various installs and deinstalls over the time period before upgrading. Most of my stuff is on iCloud anyway, so it is easy to put back documents and photos.
 

makinao

macrumors 6502
Dec 27, 2009
296
116
Hmmmm. I think once since Tiger, when a technician was tracking down an issue.
 

Cycling Asia

macrumors 6502
Mar 19, 2016
273
217
Never. Clean installs – file under mumbo jumbo, along with 'repair permissions' and defrag. Just say no!

I just performed a clean install of Sierra. My disk usage went from about 90GB to 19GB. Was it because the operating system? No. Was it because I had a lot of crap I didn't transfer back? Yes. But in not restoring my data, I was able to keep all those old application settings and "Application Support" crap off my Mac until I reinstall the app. Dragging an app to the trash does not clean it up, over time this can lead to a lot of crap on your drive.
 

newlifer

macrumors member
Jun 7, 2014
87
26
clean installs make sense only when illegal or untrusted source of code or warez have been installed and who knows what that code might contain, just taking the risk.

for a casual app store only user it makes no sense
 

MacUser2525

Suspended
Mar 17, 2007
2,097
377
Canada
Dragging an app to the trash does not clean it up, over time this can lead to a lot of crap on your drive.

Cleans the largest majority of it including the biggest part the actual executable files. The files in the Application Support most times tiny little text files and they take next to no space at all. Your example used to illustrate your point is useless as you were just to lazy to clean out actual applications that were installed in effort to gain back the space. Something like AppCleaner will delete the applications and the support files of the apps selected for deletion.
 

Cycling Asia

macrumors 6502
Mar 19, 2016
273
217
Cleans the largest majority of it including the biggest part the actual executable files. The files in the Application Support most times tiny little text files and they take next to no space at all. Your example used to illustrate your point is useless as you were just to lazy to clean out actual applications that were installed in effort to gain back the space. Something like AppCleaner will delete the applications and the support files of the apps selected for deletion.

That could be said for many small apps, but if you've used Xcode for a while, you will know that it likes to place a lot of files under ~/Library. Dragging the Xcode app to the trash is not going to clean this up. With iOS and Apple Watch development, I had about 30GB of data under ~/Library/Developer/

Also there could be situations where the system will not operate correctly if there are incompatible settings remaining after the update. There have been reports of high CPU and rapid battery drain when upgrading Macs.

And if it isn't a problem, why do apps like the one you've described, and "clean my mac" are very popular? It is because the can uninstall the application and clean up the leftovers. It is the leftovers that can eventually fill your drive (and with 128GB, space is not a commodity).

Finally there's nothing quite like the smell of a fresh system.
 

MacUser2525

Suspended
Mar 17, 2007
2,097
377
Canada
That could be said for many small apps, but if you've used Xcode for a while, you will know that it likes to place a lot of files under ~/Library. Dragging the Xcode app to the trash is not going to clean this up. With iOS and Apple Watch development, I had about 30GB of data under ~/Library/Developer/

That is why it took long walk off short pier here had enough of that bloated piece of... My install lives nicely in 60gb partition (29gb used ATM) but then again I don't let crud build up and any files I use/need live on another partition(s)/drive(s). A *nix system is not like Windows the config files and the libraries are never loaded if the Application loading does not request them who knows by now perhaps MS has got clue on dynamic loading. Doubt it somehow, they certainly have not got clue on security yet. Them apps like AppCleaner are so popular because Windows refugees are so used to having an uninstall program they feel naked without them just like anti-virus.
 

MacGizmo

macrumors 68040
Apr 27, 2003
3,200
2,504
Arizona
I used to do it with every major OS update, but Apple has made it increasingly difficult to do that.

I actually prefer to continue doing this, as I tend to install a LOT of software for testing, so the junk builds up. Full drive wipe and fresh install of all software is something I like to do every other year or so.
 
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