Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Is a declutter app a necessary tool?
- Thread starter Alfilde
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
"Do you delete leftover files after deleting an app?" https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/do-you-delete-leftover-files-after-deleting-an-app.2411796/
"Want to clean my Mac" https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/want-to-clean-my-mac.2378254/
"Want to clean my Mac" https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/want-to-clean-my-mac.2378254/
Actually, I don't aim to uninstall applications. What I'm referring to by decluttering application caches, is the process of clearing out the data buildup from using the applications, such as the cache produced by the Pages app and Preview after creating and/or editing documents.
well, you could always go a hunting for cache files to delete and hope you don't delete something essential by accident.
depends on how much time you have.
if you explore Onyx you'll find some options to select that'll do the job for you … safely.
it's up to you …
There's no need for a third party application to do anything with caches. Caches exist to speed up apps, and deleting them counteracts that. Sure, on a rare occasion, it might be necessary to reset/delete a cache to resolve an issue but it's not something necessary to do on a regular basis.
Throughout the years, I have used severeral third-party applications for this task, but I would prefer to forego the necessity of installing different apps for various functions, that might already be built-in Mac itself and could potentially be automated.
There is not a specific tool within the Mac OS to delete all cache, and temporary files. Restarting your Mac will clear (delete) some of the cached files but not all. So you can manually delete the files, or get a 3rd party app (as others have indicate Onxy is a good one). You can use automator, (part of the OS) to automate the manually task of clearing your cache and temporary file as well.
This is a link to an article that discusses how to clear purgeable spaces on your Mac.
This is a link to an article that discusses how to clear purgeable spaces on your Mac.
In general, it's just placebo. macOS will rotate logs and such but caches are intended to be managed by apps themselves. System related caches will typically be managed by the process which creates them. And again, this is just in normal operation and troubleshooting might require some manual intervention. For most people there is no value in paying any attention at all to what is happening with the things that apps like Onyx do.
Maybe not exactly on topic, but whenever i try to figure what could possibly eat up my Mac's disk space, Daisy Disk it my tool of choice.
The quick browsing & graphical display of what stuff uses what amount of space – sometimes unexpected amounts – is more helpful than anything built into macOS and it's somehow also more satisfying to delete stuff with Daisy Disk
The quick browsing & graphical display of what stuff uses what amount of space – sometimes unexpected amounts – is more helpful than anything built into macOS and it's somehow also more satisfying to delete stuff with Daisy Disk
If you're just looking to completely uninstall an app (all associated files, not just the .app file) AppCleaner is a great tool:
basically everything the already mentioned Onyx allows to do via a GUI can be done directly via the terminal on your Mac, e.g. content caching etc. Is doing so “essential”? IMHO in rare occasions.
Have been using Macs since 1985 and never felt the need for such an app, but I suppose it has a lot to do with personal usage patterns and disk size/free space. I've been working on a complex web app for several years, so I frequently use the "empty caches" item in the Safari Developer menu as I test new code. But that isn't for the purpose of creating more disk space, just getting the browser to "forget" the old version of my code.
One thing I have done a few times is deleting time machine snapshots that can get rather large in some cases. I use Carbon Copy Cloner for that, but believe it can also be done with the built-in disk utility app.
One thing I have done a few times is deleting time machine snapshots that can get rather large in some cases. I use Carbon Copy Cloner for that, but believe it can also be done with the built-in disk utility app.
In my view; there are none, except for perhaps the fuzzy feeling you might get thinking; that feels good, my mac will probably work just a little better now. Which is BS. As mentioned, caches are there to make things work better, and chances are that you risk cleaning up something that is needed, and screw up stuff. I'd never trust these "CleanMy-" apps to delete files from my computer.
I'm sure I have lots of redundant files from old apps lying around, but I'm also sure that they take up a miniscule amount of disk space, and that they don't affect functionality in any way.
The only thing you might call an exception to this approach is that I have some things excluded from backup, including the Caches folder in /Library. It will rebuild after a restore from backup.