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Oct 23, 08 - 11:48 am Comment from: Wandering joe

Onyx works well too

Is this really necessary. I've never noticed my Mac slow down over time like Windows does.

MDNW: Call, as in I call BS.

Just get Applejack, it's opensource, available thru versiontracker, and a lifesaver for more than cache cleaning. That and Diskwarrior are the two essential tools for any Mac user.

rm -r ~/Library/Cache/*

...and they're charging $20 for that?

AFAIK, if you regularly leave your Mac on all night (a couple of times a month) and also regularly turn it off for the night ( a couple of times a month) the built in utilities will take care of this.

That is to say your only in trouble if you *always* leave the Mac on 24/7, or if you *always* turn it off when you are finished using it. In regular use this is not a problem IMO.

The slow-down you get from installing MS Office, or Adobe CS suite is much more noticeable and problematic than cache bloat.

It's better to just keep a close eye on what's consuming resources in Activity Monitor. This will allow you to identify problem apps and processes, and notice if your system is using too much.

It's also important to quit your browser regularly. Logging out regularly also seems to help prevent problems. I've always found restarting solves any and all performance problems that build up. Repair permissions also tends to help with other minor glitches (which usually result from programs not being able to access what they want/need to). I don't see the point in cleaning your cache unless you're really strapped for RAM or hard drive space (and frankly, if you're that strapped for either, it would be a far better solution to upgrade your RAM or buy an external HD).

Oct 23, 08 - 12:06 pm Comment from: HMCIV

Note to perspective users. Palmolive is not a recommended alternative.

Oct 23, 08 - 12:11 pm Comment from: Jamie

just download OnyX. It's free.

How can you clear the contents of the Console?

Oct 23, 08 - 12:20 pm Comment from: Mr. Reeee

Cocktail.

Onyx is okay, but Cocktail is much better. It will automatically restart.

AppleJack? It uses Terminal. NO thanks!

@Jacob
"if you're really strapped for ....... hard drive space "

The hard drive space can be freed up by getting rid of the languages that you don't and never will use. I regained several gigs worth of room when I took everything that didn't say "English" out by using Monolingual 1.3.9, and it is a freebee!! A word of caution though, just clean out "Languages" and "Input Menu", don't touch "Architectures" unless you are absolutely sure you won't need one of them for some obscure program (i.e.PPC) you run once a year. You'll be reloading if you do!

Oct 23, 08 - 12:25 pm Comment from: ken1w

I wouldn't spend even $20 for a utility that does what Mac OS X does automatically. That's why the other "such cache cleaning utilities" are free.

Typical of the rubbish coming out of Mac360 these days.

It is rarely if ever REALLY necessary to delete the caches. This is Mac OS X we're talking about not Windows.

Though you'd never know it from Mac360...

@Jeremy

Why is it necessary or helpful to shut down your Mac a few times a month? My Mac is on 24/7, and I occasionally reboot to solve random weirdness issues, but I never "shut down" unless I'm moving the machine to a different room. I assume that the daily/weekly/monthly UNIX housekeeping tasks deal with all the cleanup I need. Why would it help to shut down?

Oct 23, 08 - 12:58 pm Comment from: Lurker_PC

I've read in the recent issue of Mac Life that if you are using Leopard and your computer is off during the time OS X's scripts normally run, then the next time you turn on your computer the scripts will run automatically. Anyone know if this is true? I haven't noticed.

@Mr Reee - I like Onyx but haven't tried Cocktail I'll have to give it a test. Thanks.

Peace.

doesnt unix do this by itself ???

like sat night @ 3am

This is all myth. You don't need to do ANYTHING... sleep, wake, shut down, boot up... it doesn't matter. Want proof? Download the widget "Maintidget", and it will show you last time that the daily, weekly, and monthly tasks were run. You will se that these maintenance tasks, which are nominally scheduled to run at night, will actually run the next time your Mac wakes up, if it was asleep at the scheduled times.

Since when are caches a bad thing? A properly maintained cache can help speeding up your work, with using resources that otherwise are not used. (You can try it yourself: Clean out all your caches with one of those useless tools, and watch performance take a hit, because now those caches have to be rebuilt. If you end up with the same HD space after the rebuilt, the cleaned out caches were already on the state they should be, automatically maintained by Leopard.)

The problem is that most people use a crappy OS (*cough**cough*Win*cough*) that does not maintain caches properly and keeps a lot of crud that wastes tremendous amount of resources without being actually useful. Like the last *fresh* install of Win XP I did, that used up twice as much HD space as necessary. With copies I needed to clean *myself* -- Win would have happily kept those crud 'till Judgment Day.

Oct 23, 08 - 01:23 pm Comment from: oh no my shorts

Cocktail is great and does much more than just cache cleaning. It's hugely useful for checking and repairing disk and file permissions, turning on "hidden" options, customizing interface features, etc.

http://www.maintain.se/cocktail/index.php

I use Leopard Cache Cleaner (LCC) and it does the job beautifully. From a great developer in Alaska - Northern Softworks.

http://www.northernsoftworks.com/leopardcachecleaner.html

LCC and Renicer for under $20 for both programs!

The article is usually not worth reading.

Oct 23, 08 - 02:08 pm Comment from: whoitis

hilarious...

Oct 23, 08 - 02:11 pm Comment from: John Gee

MDN: "keep YOU Mac running well" should be your.

You guys can hire me for 5 cents per grammar fix. That's cheap.

Of course, that would be cheap if had only a couple mistakes a week, ON THE CONTRARY...

Oct 23, 08 - 02:12 pm Comment from: John Gee

correction: "if YOU had" I should say.

Looks like the plank is in my eye on this one.

Oct 23, 08 - 02:51 pm Comment from: Jamie

@Lurker_PC,

This is true in Leopard - launchd will perform missed tasks. In Tiger it wasn't the case, but you could download a free utility called Anacron, that would run any tasks that were missed due to your Mac being asleep or off.

http://members.cox.net/18james/anacron-tiger.html

OnyX is a great customization & maintenance utility for OS X. It's difficult to imagine a better solution for modern Macs.

I use CCleaner, Defraggler, Recuva, and Eraser for M$ Windows. For users of KDE in Linux, there's a utility called Kleansweep (not GNOME friendly).

I tried Spring Cleaning once, and regretted it. Some of the things it can clean out are there for I reason, as I discovered when I got a little overzealous in my cleaning. As far as I'm concerned, IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT!

MDN= tax, as in don't tax your brain with this crap. Snappy day!

Oct 23, 08 - 03:49 pm Comment from: TowerTone

Be careful. The Onyx/Cocktail combo can leave your hard drive wanting more porn....

Oct 23, 08 - 04:07 pm Comment from: Jim - TIV

Also... I would be careful of Monolingual... I used it in the past, removing only caches, and it also took some printer files and system printer files. Had to reinstall OSX.

I like to enjoy a cocktail while running Cocktail.

Oct 23, 08 - 06:01 pm Comment from: Krioni

"If there is a blaring typo in the title.."

...then you must be a synaesthete who "hears" typewritten errors as sounds. Perhaps you meant "glaring."

Oct 23, 08 - 06:23 pm Comment from: MacSmiley

@Mr. Reeee,

Applejack does NOT use the Terminal. If you try using it in the Terminal, you're looking for trouble.

Applejack is quite the wonder, because it works in SINGLE USER MODE.

GUI-based cache cleaners are fine. I prefer MainMenu, for that, by the way.

But when your Mac won't boot, or if it freezes when you launch any application... I know... rare, but possible... then Applejack bypasses that whole mess and gets right down to work for you. And it does that without an Install Disk.

Applejack is not for the faint of heart. But it's indispensible to have in your maintenance arsenal when you need it. You've gotta restart anyway, one way or another.

MainMenu is all you'll ever need, imo. Great little utility, and free.

Oct 23, 08 - 09:36 pm Comment from: Lurker_PC

Hi Jamie,

Thanks for the confirmation. We're all using Leopard here so I think we're set. I didn't know that the scripts were running automatically when we turn on the computer. Good to know as we typically shut down the computer each night before going to bed.

Thanks again Jamie.

Peace.

@Mr. Reeee

Onyx can automatically shut down or restart when finished. They added this a while ago.

Onyx is free, does a great job and has other useful utilities. I highly recommend it.

@MacSmiley-- have to agree with you on AppleJack. The one thing Applejack does that NO OTHER utility or app named above can do is to repair its own startup disk.
Don't believe? Fire up Disk Utility and notice the greyed out "Repair Disk" option. The only alternative is to fire up from an alternate startup disk or a second Mac connected via firewire target disk mode.
This feature alone makes it worthwhile, and it's free.
"Faint of heart?" Naahh! No GUI, but other than that, easy.

Checkout Machelp mate -- free unless you want the remote control features....

http://www.macworkshops.com/machelpmate/


200 diagnostic, troubleshooting, and performance optimization items all in an application...

I normally use MacJanitor occaisionally,

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/10491

... but I've heard a lot of good things about Onyx and Cocktail too.

Ooops! I've read where MacJanitor doesn't work on Intel-based Macs.

This Applejack thing did not work for me. I cannot seem to boot my macMini into Single User Mode using Command S. It no worky. Therefore, no Applejack. But i seem to be the only one is this comment list who has had trouble .
NEED: I need it to work, or do i?

Mac360 has all the credence of Rob Enderle. Read it at your own peril.

Last time I checked, Applejack wouldn't work with Intel machines. I evenutally stopped checking.

Oct 24, 08 - 05:56 pm Comment from: MacSmiley

@John C,

Applejack Version 1.5 is Leopard compatible (see MacUpdate)

(By the way, Applejack does not perform MacJanitor's CRON maintenance scripts, but other free utilities will run those for you.)

If you can not boot into Single User Mode with Command-S, however, that is not the fault of Applejack, no matter which OSX version you're running.

You may be having some hardware problems, which Applejack does not diagnose or repair anyway. This may be a situation in which you need a hardcore disk utility, like DiskWarrior or TechTool Pro to find out what's going on here, that is if you can Command-C or Command-T.

Just to recap, for those who can boot into SUM, this is what Applejack does:

[1] Repair disk (fsck)
[2] Repair permissions
[3] Cleanup cache files
[4] Validate preference files (and quarantine corrupted files)
[5] Remove swap files

Applejack does give you the option of doing these tasks automatically, but I prefer doing them manually so that I can clean out specific user accounts. The developer has made this easier to do by assigning "account numbers" to each user account. You just type in the 3-digit number and press Enter.

Applejack also gives you the ability to do a "deep clean". Someone else will have to explain that for me.

Oct 24, 08 - 06:00 pm Comment from: MacSmiley

@Mac Yoozer,

"Mac360 has all the credence of Rob Enderle."

Admittedly, Mac360 has not been the same since the untimely loss of our dear Tera Patricks to cancer... but equating it with Enderle? C'mon... That's just hitting below the belt.