Understand maintenance tasks

Your Mac performs better with regular optimizations and diagnostic checkups. Running these tasks manually can get tiresome, but CleanMyMac handles it all for you. It provides essential Mac care through general and specific tasks that help maintain your software and hardware.

Run your maintenance activities in one place:

1. In CleanMyMac, click Performance in the sidebar.

2. Click Scan to begin and wait for the results.

   

   To repeat the scan, click Start Over in the upper-left corner, confirm, then click Scan again.

3. Review and run maintenance tasks:

   • CleanMyMac may suggest tasks like Free Up RAM or Thin Time Machine Snapshots in tiles—you can run them right there.

     

   • CleanMyMac may offer the weekly maintenance cocktail—a bundle of recommended tasks. To review them, click Review in the respective tile; to run them immediately, click Run Tasks.

     

   • To view and run all available maintenance tasks, click the button above the tiles—View All Tasks—then select Maintenance Tasks. Review your selections, then click Run.

     

Read the recommendations below to avoid system lag during heavy workloads. You don't need to run every task at once.

macOS stores a local cache of resolved DNS requests for a period defined by your DNS server. Reset the cache whenever you need fresh DNS records, for example after DNS changes.

Run this task if you experience:

• Inability to connect to certain websites
• Random or persistent network slowdowns

macOS marks some data as purgeable—cached and temporary files that can be safely removed when you need space. Deleting purgeable files won't affect essential apps or your personal files.

Reindexing Spotlight restores search speed and accuracy after heavy file activity. Because reindexing is resource-intensive, your Mac may slow down during the process, but it'll work more efficiently afterward.

Run this task if you experience:

• Slow search performance
• Spotlight failing to find items you know exist

Every file and folder on your Mac has permissions that can become corrupted after improper shutdowns or software installs. Restoring correct permissions fixes access issues and broken apps.

Run this task if you encounter:

• Access errors (for example, inability to move or delete files)
• App failures (for example, Dock icons appearing as question marks or apps failing to open)

macOS runs daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance scripts to keep your system in shape. CleanMyMac bundles these into one quick task, which:

• Deletes temporary files
• Rotates and compresses logs
• Rebuilds system databases

This task reindexes the Mail database to fix issues and speed up searches. Before you run it, clean out Junk and Trash folders and delete unneeded messages.

Run this task if you experience:

• Slow Mail search or missed messages
• Errors deleting, moving or receiving mail
• Problems displaying message content

RAM holds data for active apps and system processes. When it fills, performance suffers. Run this task if your Mac or its apps feel sluggish.

Time Machine keeps local snapshots that can consume significant space. Running this task occasionally shrinks those snapshots without affecting your backups.