Apple fans love MacBooks because they’re reliable, simple to use, and last a long time. That’s all quite true but, alas, they are not magic. It may take them longer but they eventually will succumb to many of the same problems that end up slowing down PCs.
Just like a car, a house, or any other major investment, computer require regular maintenance in order to run efficiently. Your MacBook will eventually putter out, but keeping it maintained will help it to last as long as possible, and run as well as possible for that time.
Personally, I don’t know anymore about how cars work than I do about rocket science. I could try to maintain my own car, but I’d probably muck it up. Instead, I take it to the mechanic. Again, computers are similar. You can try to maintain your MacBook on your own, and you might keep up with many of the tasks, but most MacBook users will be better off using a program specifically designed to maintain a MacBook.
CleanMyMac 3 is one such app, probably the best on the market if you were to go by user reviews. In fact, it’s likely that you’ve already come across it before if you’ve spent long, frustrating hours at night Google searching, “How to clean a MacBook Pro.”
The “3” in its title is because this is the third iteration of the series, though if you have one of the previous versions you can upgrade for free. The point is that these guys have been in this market for a while.
This app helps you maintain your computer if you’ve noticed that your MacBook Pro is running slow. It does this in three critical ways. It cleans your MacBook Pro, gives you the tools you need to keep up with regular maintenance, and also gives you easy to read tools to monitor your MacBook Pro’s health and status.
Let’s take a look at how each of these work and why they’re important.
Cleaning
You may think you never put anything on your computer that’s unnecessary, but all computers automatically store tons of unnecessary files.
Remember that .PDF from work you downloaded and read through in a minute? That’s still on your computer.
Remember that system upgrade? Files from the old system version are probably still laying around.
Remember that program you uninstalled? Yeah, even uninstalled programs often leave behind some files, like a hotel in a ghost town, waiting with hopes that it finds use again someday.
You should get rid of these redundant files for a number of reasons, but there’s two big ones. First, obviously, those files take up space. When you pick up CleanMyMac 3 and get rid of them, you’ll be shocked by how much more room for storage you have. That’s room for more photos, music, or whatever else you wanted but didn’t think you had room for.
Secondly, getting rid of these files makes it easier and quicker for your computer to find items you need. Just try opening Finder and hitting option+F to search for something. See how long it takes to sift through every file on your computer? The less redundant files you have laying around, the less it has to sift through.
It may sound like a scary proposition to allow an app to search through your computer, round up files it deems as unnecessary, then delete them. But it’s not scary at all with a quality app.
MacPaw, the developers of CleanMyMac 3, have developed a smart cleaning system that primarily searches for files you’d never use, or could be easily replaced if you do end up needing them.
For example, most programs come with a universal installation that can be swapped to just about any language. But once installed, how often do you actually swap languages? Your MacBook Pro is packed with old, cached files that are never used. Apps like this are programmed to seek them out and get rid of them.
You can use CleanMyMac 3 to get rid of tons of unnecessary and unwanted files with the simple click of a button. However, if you’d like more control, the app also comes with a slew of preferences so you can tell it to not delete certain kinds of files, or even delete more than it naturally would.
Maintenance
As mentioned before, if your MacBook Pro is running slow, it’s likely due to not being properly maintained. MacBooks are made to last and should maintain their speed for years to come. CleanMyMac 3 will clean your MacBook Pro, obviously. But it goes much further than that to make it easy to maintain your MacBook Pro.
First, this app does a simple thing that should come standard on all computer. Have you ever uninstalled a game, only to later find it still has a folder full of files in your computer? Our computers use the program’s own uninstaller to get rid of the program, but most companies try to leave files behind in case you ever use the program again. Or perhaps it’s their nefarious plan to keep their name planted in your mind so you come back.
Conspiracy theories aside, if you uninstall a program with CleanMyMac 3, it’ll do it the right way. No saved files, no data, no empty folders left behind. If you want a program gone, this app will make it gone for real.
It doesn’t stop there. If you’ve got a MacBook Pro running slow, this app has a whole host of easy to use maintenance measures to help.
For example, we live in a world ruled by add-ons, both on our web browsers and in our operating systems. CleanMyMac 3 helps you keep track of all those extensions, widgets, gadgets, doo hickeys, and whatever else you’ve got going on. It’ll group them together into easy to understand menus where you can monitor their resource usage and choose to modify or remove them from there.
You’re probably starting to see a theme here. All the options in this app are designed to be extremely easy to use. That’s why I recommend this app so strongly for anyone with a MacBook Pro running slow. Whether you’re a technophobe or a technophobe, you will understand how to use this app, what it’s doing, and you will find it helpful.
As far as other methods of maintenance, this app also helps you cover your privacy as well. Anytime you go anywhere online, you’re leaving behind a breadcrumb trail of where you went due to cached files on your computer and your internet history. Furthermore, anytime you delete a file from your computer, it’s often possible to recover that file with a bit of know how.
There are many reasons to remove these traces of your history. Yes, more than the obvious reasons that I know your mind went to.
I once left my laptop at the mall. It’s a long and embarrassing story about how comically forgetful I am, but the point is that I’ve never felt so stressed out. I never thought about it until I lost it, but if someone picked up that laptop, they’d have access to an unbelievable amount of personal, business, and financial information. Everything we do these days is on computers!
Fortunately, I did find the laptop and got it back. Thanks for caring. But the first thing I did was make sure I had ways to secure my files if I ever needed to, and you should too.
Health and Monitoring
So after you’ve used CleanMyMac 3 to trim the fat off your MacBook Pro running slow and keep you up to date on the best methods of maintenance, now the app will give you the tools to easily monitor your system’s health to make sure your maintenance is doing its job.
The first measure of health and monitoring services you’ll find are the basic vital signs of your MacBook Pro. You can get these vital signs from a variety of other apps, but it’s convenient to have them all bunched together in one simple platform.
You’ll see memory use alerts, which relates to your RAM. Sometimes you might notice your MacBook Pro is running slow, only to realize it had apps running in the background, hogging all your system resources. CleanMyMac 3 will alert you when your RAM memory is being siphoned off and which programs are responsible.
You’ll also get temperature alerts, which can be critically important. If your computer randomly shuts off, it might be due to overheating. Further overheating may even cause permanent, irreparable damage to your computer. If you don’t have a way to monitor your MacBook Pro’s temperature, there’s no time like the present.
You’ll also get alerts about when your SSD storage is nearing critical failure at the end of its lifetime. Personally, I’ve never experienced an SSD failing on me, but that sounds like a horrible way to wake up on a Monday morning. If your SSD is nearing the end of its days, CleanMyMac 3 will let you know its coming so you have ample time to transfer your data and say your tearful goodbyes.
On top of those critical notices, CleanMyMac 3 also helps you out with day to day type maintenance. Much like you can find on most phones, the app will give you a detailed look at what’s taking up your SSD storage space and memory usage.
With this, you’ll be able to instantly see not only how much storage space you have left, but also what seems to be taking up the most space, whether it’s pictures, videos, apps, music, or anything else.
In case your MacBook Pro is running slow, you’ll also be able to see a history of when your RAM or processor usage spikes so you can get an idea of what’s causing the trouble.
In Short
MacBook Pros are a serious investment, so it’s important to keep up the maintenance. Even if you feel as comfortable with computers as you do in your own skin, it’s still nice to have an app that pulls it all together into one place and makes it quick as possible to deal with.
