Do Macs have something similar to Disk Cleanup?

I know in Microsoft you can do a disk cleanup to delete unwanted files and save space

Do Macs have something similar?

there are a ton.. I could sit here and list them all off but I think my best suggestion would be to visit www.macupdate.com or www.versiontracker.com and just search "file clean" or "clean" and a bunch of free options will come up.. those two sites are great for mac apps!

Try Onyx

I had thought none of this clean-up stuff was needed with Mac. What have I overlooked?

it isnt really as your mac does it for you over night. but if your mac is off over night when these scripts take place then they obviously wont run.

i use onyx to run cleanup scripts and maintaince. i like onyx becuase you dont have to you any code etc just select which option you want e.g. maintainance or cleaning etc and it goes and does it.

recommned it. i clean most weeks.

Sorry to be dumb, but when you refer to the Mac being off what do exactly do you mean? When the white light is flashing (i.e. the Mac is asleep and the HD has stopped spinning) does this count as "off" for the purposes of the disk maintenance scripts? If so, what are the best energy settings to use? Thanks.

Pigchops said:

Sorry to be dumb, but when you refer to the Mac being off what do exactly do you mean? When the white light is flashing (i.e. the Mac is asleep and the HD has stopped spinning) does this count as "off" for the purposes of the disk maintenance scripts? If so, what are the best energy settings to use? Thanks.

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Sleeping or off, for the purpose of disk maintenance that is correct. I think the daemons eventually get around to doing it though, or you can leave it on and awake a couple of nights.

Generally the best energy settings are whatever you like, and put it to sleep whenever you want.

Software update will eventually get around to forcing you to restart

oh wow, i always shut down my macbook pro at night ..

Never knew about keeping it on sleep and that's when it ran all the cleaning up!

thanks alot guys, i don't think there is anything wrong with turning my macbook pro off every night after usage is there?

thanks for the sites kodorsean, and will check out onyx guys! thanks !

SpliCer261 said:

oh wow, i always shut down my macbook pro at night ..

Never knew about keeping it on sleep and that's when it ran all the cleaning up!

thanks alot guys, i don't think there is anything wrong with turning my macbook pro off every night after usage is there?

thanks for the sites kodorsean, and will check out onyx guys! thanks !

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take a look at this thread.. it has some good information on sleeping vs shutdown.

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52684&highlight=SLEEP+SHUTDOWN

I generally put mine to sleep. You can use a tool such as Onyx periodically to run the nightly, weekly and monthly jobs.

BTW, these cleanup scripts are not the same as what you get with Windows' disk cleanup routine. That just automates tasks that you could be running yourself, such as emptying your trash (erm, Recycle Bin) and deleting temporary installer files (of which the Mac doesn't usually have anyway), clearing your browser cache, and deleting "downloaded program files" which is something specific to Internet Explorer (ActiveX stuff, which for security reasons should never be used anyway).

The equivalent on the Mac would mostly involve emptying the trash, clearing your Safari/Firefox cache, and cleaning out /tmp (which should be done automatically at each reboot). Beyond that, a tool such as Spring Cleaning can remove orphaned files such as no-longer needed plist files.

The issue with this solution is you need 10.11.1 to run it according to the website. I want to do this because there is some debate why El Capitan runs like a snail on my Macbook Pro. Some say it should run on a 4GB system. Other say it need more RAM. I have installed 16 GB RAM so need to be sure the hard drive is not fragmented and unused stuff that has crept in since 2011 is not taking up space.

It's a 9 year old thread. Maybe you should post a new thread with whatever problems you are having?

You need 10.11.1 to run what? A few different things were talked about in this thread. I agree with MacInWin, start a new thread and provide a lot more information about your machine, and the issue(s) you are experiencing.

I would hazard a guess Alex you have done upgrade after upgrade. Depending when it was released, your MBP came with either OS X.6 or X.7 and has it been upgraded through to OS X.11?

If so time for a backup, erase and format and a nice new clean install.

Actually no. It came with 7.5, I tried El Capitan in one step and when it didn't run well dumped it, did a restore from my back up which I did immediately before I loaded El Capitan and when 7.5 ran ok upgraded it to 8.5 and that is where I am today.
I tend not to jump onto the newest and latest with Apple (didn't with my PCs either). I like the bugs well worked out before.

ONYX was suggested but their web page says requirements are OS 11.1

Seems others are able to understand the question.

There are next to no bugs in Apple Software, unlike Microsoft Software. If any, when they are reported to Apple they tend to be sorted out within day's. Iv'e been running my Mac since 2009 and never had any problems with new Operating Systems. HTH.

Re: Onyx. Make sure you get the version for your particular Operating System. One does not do all Operating Systems, there are different OS Versions.

Can you tell us what "didn't run well" on El Cap? For me, EC is fast and stable, and since they are now up to 10.11.5, most of the bugs are worked out now.

Alex 3 said:

ONYX was suggested but their web page says requirements are OS 11.1

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Onyx is available for a lot of versions of OS X, not just 1 version.

http://www.titanium.free.fr/onyx.html