Frustrated with Clean My MacX issue

[Blueser100]

Hi, I regularly read the Mac Forums newsletters and posts but I haven't been active here, til now.

I have a 2013 MacBook Air, running Catalina, have an external WD Passport For Mac running Time Machine. (Also have separate WD external SSD with Carbon Copy Cloner).

I recently bought CMMX and actually love what it does. But a problem has come up and would like some feedback.

In CMMX, I tried to run "Verify and Repair My Passport For Mac" in the Maintenance program. It runs and runs, then after a long time, it says "Failed". It says view log, but there really isn't anything to look at. My Passport has been backing up my Mac for a few years, no problems. I ran Disk First Aid, says it's fine.

I have emailed with MacPaw to troubleshoot, they had me download and run a Tool to diagnose. But a bunch of files are generated from the tool, and they just said to email to them. I didn't like the idea of emailing a bunch of folders and files from my computer, so then they told me to put it all on Dropbox and send them a link. We have gone back and forth for a few weeks.

Does this sound reasonable? I'm considering dumping this program and trying something else. It's taking up a lot of my time.

 

[chscag]

Hi:

Glad to see you back on our forums.

First: We do not recommend using Clean My Mac X or any version of Clean My Mac. However, it seems that several popular magazines that you may be familiar with speak highly of the app.

I have personally seen input from users about the problems that CMM caused for them; in this forum and another.

I can't tell you what to do about whether you should keep the app or remove it. You will need to use your own judgement about that.

The only app we recommend for cleaning and maintenance is "OnyX". It's one that we trust and has been around for many years. It's also free from the author.

Titanium Software | Operating System Utilities for Mac - OnyX

OnyX is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the startup disk and the structure of its system files, perform cleaning and computer maintenance tasks, configure some hidden parameters of many Apple applications, and more.

www.titanium-software.fr

 

[Raz0rEdge]

You trusted them enough to purchase their product, so I'm not sure what you are expecting us to tell you.

As chscag said, we generally do not recommend Clean My Mac or any variant of it, though they've been pushed themselves hard with sponsoring videos and ads in popular magazines.

From a "repair" perspective, you can use Disk Utility to verify and repair your external drive by choosing First Aid, that's about all I would do and monitor the SMART status of the drive. Based on the age of the Passport and how important the data on it is to you, you might want to consider grabbing a second device and start using that as a second backup source just in case..

 

[Blueser100]

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated. To clarify, I was not asking for a recommendation for CMMX. I already bought it and am using it and for the most have liked it. To clarify, I am indeed running a second back up, Carbon Copy Cloner. I have indeed run Disk Utility Disk First Aid, and all is well. Not sure what is meant by "monitor the SMART status of the drive."

I guess what I was looking for here is whether it seems reasonable for MacPaw (or any company) to request me to send files over email or Dropbox so they can figure out what is wrong with their software? Is that typical to ask a customer to do in a case like this?

I will look into Onyx, thank you.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Assuming it's a diagnostic tool it should gather information about your system and send over. This stuff usually is pretty innocuous, the version of OS X, the amount of memory, installed applications, status of drive and any specific tests they ran, there should be nothing egregious in there.

However, once the files are generated, unless they are some sort of cryptic data, you should take a look through them to see what it does contain. A lot of them should be just plain text files.

 

[Jim40]

Hi, I regularly read the Mac Forums newsletters and posts but I haven't been active here, til now.

I have a 2013 MacBook Air, running Catalina, have an external WD Passport For Mac running Time Machine. (Also have separate WD external SSD with Carbon Copy Cloner).

I recently bought CMMX and actually love what it does. But a problem has come up and would like some feedback.

In CMMX, I tried to run "Verify and Repair My Passport For Mac" in the Maintenance program. It runs and runs, then after a long time, it says "Failed". It says view log, but there really isn't anything to look at. My Passport has been backing up my Mac for a few years, no problems. I ran Disk First Aid, says it's fine.

I have emailed with MacPaw to troubleshoot, they had me download and run a Tool to diagnose. But a bunch of files are generated from the tool, and they just said to email to them. I didn't like the idea of emailing a bunch of folders and files from my computer, so then they told me to put it all on Dropbox and send them a link. We have gone back and forth for a few weeks.

Does this sound reasonable? I'm considering dumping this program and trying something else. It's taking up a lot of my time.

Sorry I cannot answer your question but I've been using CleanMyMac since it was first launched the latest version is 4.6.10. MacPaw are really good with Tech Support. The files they're asking for will be system files, so will only give information, they need the files to help you solve your problem, Good Luck

 

[chscag]

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated. To clarify, I was not asking for a recommendation for CMMX. I already bought it and am using it and for the most have liked it.

We understand that. And we were not speaking about purchasing it since you obviously already did that. Our recommendation very clearly stated that it should not be used.

But that decision remains with you.

 

[Rod]

If I understand your question you are trying to run CMMX on the external drive you are using to make Time Machine backups on. I would not try to do that. I too have been using CMM since inception and it was my impression that CMM would not be capable of reading, much less repairing a Time Machine backup because the file structure is both complex and unique to TM.
As for sending your system file to MacPaw, I see no harm in that and I would be interested in their reply. Are they aware that it is a TM backup?
Addit:
Well, I just checked my version of CMMX > Maintainence with my TM Backup connected and am surprised to see that it lists "Verify and Repair Time Machine Backup" so I apologise for my ignorance. Personally I do not use CMMX for maintenance preferring to use OnyX so this is new to me. I will run it and report back with the outcome ASAP.

 

[Rod]

Okay, reporting back. The process took 40min for me. I then did a backup to TM which was only 68Mb out of a total of 348Gb backed up on a 1Tb HDD EHD.
To ensure all was well I entered Time Machine UI and restored a freshly deleted folder from 4 months ago.

 

[IWT]

Very useful info, Rod. I don’t use that app, but many do and your experiment with TM will be of interest to them.

Ian

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I guess what I was looking for here is whether it seems reasonable for MacPaw (or any company) to request me to send files over email or Dropbox so they can figure out what is wrong with their software? Is that typical to ask a customer to do in a case like this?

Well just exactly how else do you expect them to troubleshoot it?

 

[IWT]

Seems ok to me to send the files. Only real hope of a resolution.

Ian

 

[Rod]

Yes ditto Ian's comment. Seems okay to me. It's not an uncommon request from an app developer to view the error log.

As for your issue with the "Failed" Verify and Repair Time Machine Backup process, were you experiencing a problem with your TM backup or did you just decide to run it as maintenance check? If you had a problem it may just be that CMMX was unable to repair it.
As I stated earlier I am surprised that CMMX is able to repair Time Machine backups at all due to the unique and complicated structure of TM.

The only way I know of to repair a TM backup is to erase and reformat the external drive and create a new one. This does seem to happen from time to time, especially where TM backups span years and consecutive macOS upgrades. eg High Sierra > Mojave > Catalina.
Personally I create a new TM backup after each macOS upgrade, keeping my CCC copy for about a month in case I need to revert to the previous macOS.

 

[Jim40]

If I understand your question you are trying to run CMMX on the external drive you are using to make Time Machine backups on. I would not try to do that. I too have been using CMM since inception and it was my impression that CMM would not be capable of reading, much less repairing a Time Machine backup because the file structure is both complex and unique to TM.
As for sending your system file to MacPaw, I see no harm in that and I would be interested in their reply. Are they aware that it is a TM backup?
Addit:
Well, I just checked my version of CMMX > Maintainence with my TM Backup connected and am surprised to see that it lists "Verify and Repair Time Machine Backup" so I apologise for my ignorance. Personally I do not use CMMX for maintenance preferring to use OnyX so this is new to me. I will run it and report back with the outcome ASAP.

Well it must be satisfied that's it's "fit for purpose" as it's now sold in the App Store. Like any new software use it with caution, as you need to learn it. I copied to a an external SSD and there are some functions I would never use. It's got a good generic installer which not only removes the App but all associated. If you browse the web a lot, it's unbelievable how much junk it removes.

 

[Jim40]

Seems ok to me to send the files. Only real hope of a resolution.

Ian

I agree Apple do it all the time. The files would mean nothing to the average Mac user, in my opinion, they want them to try and trace the fault.

 

[Blueser100]

Well just exactly how else do you expect them to troubleshoot it?

Not like that but ok.

 

[Blueser100]

We understand that. And we were not speaking about purchasing it since you obviously already did that. Our recommendation very clearly stated that it should not be used.

But that decision remains with you.

I have since dumped CMMX and am using Onyx. A bit less elegant but I suppose it's doing it's job.

 

[Blueser100]

Sorry I cannot answer your question but I've been using CleanMyMac since it was first launched the latest version is 4.6.10. MacPaw are really good with Tech Support. The files they're asking for will be system files, so will only give information, they need the files to help you solve your problem, Good Luck

Thanks for your helpful reply. Yes they had been quite helpful until they could not solve the problem with one of their features. I am not using the program anymore. Will see how I like Onyx for time being and will go from there.

 

[Blueser100]

Assuming it's a diagnostic tool it should gather information about your system and send over. This stuff usually is pretty innocuous, the version of OS X, the amount of memory, installed applications, status of drive and any specific tests they ran, there should be nothing egregious in there.

However, once the files are generated, unless they are some sort of cryptic data, you should take a look through them to see what it does contain. A lot of them should be just plain text files.

Thanks. I guess I was looking for just such an informed response as this, to reassure that what they are asking is for is reasonable.

 

[chscag]

I forgot to add something that you may be interested in using rather than CMM or OnyX:

We sometimes recommend running a program named "EtreCheck.app". It has proved to be valuable in detecting problems regarding system files and other things that can cause errors or slowdowns. The program is free in its standard format and very easy to use. I'll leave it up to you, however, to try it out.

‎EtreCheck

‎EtreCheck produces a comprehensive diagnostic report on the current state of your computer. This report includes details about hardware, installed software, and performance. EtreCheck can find over 70 specific major and minor problems with your computer. EtreCheck can detect issues such as: -...

apps.apple.com