5 Steps to Clean Up Your Mac

Overtime, the performance and reliability of all computers – even that of a Mac® – slowly degrade as their hard drives get cluttered with crash logs or temporary files.

Luckily, AVG Cleaner™ for Mac will clean out any leftover data and make space for more of your photos, songs, apps or movies.

Sandro Villinger, rounded image, 80 x 80px

Sandro Villinger
AVG's Resident Tech Expert

STEP 1

Download AVG Cleaner for Mac

Download the app from the App Store and get it running!

Click here to download AVG Cleaner and install it. Once done, launch the app.

You’ll be greeted by our dashboard with the two main features of the app: Disk Cleaner and Duplicate Finder.

We’ll start with the Disk Cleaner.

Mac Cleaner Dashboard

STEP 2

Scan for hidden cache files on your Mac

True fact: almost every time you use your applications, play a game or browse the web, your Mac collects data “junk”. This “cache” data stores temporary files and collects information from errors and other system activities in countless log files.

Click on the Scan Mac button in the Disk Cleaner tile.

AVG Cleaner will then scan for leftover files and data trash in hidden caches and log files, in your Downloads folder and your Trash.

Mac Cleaner - Disk Cleaner scan in progress

STEP 3

Clean them up!

AVG Cleaner can give you a detailed look at the files it has found. For first-timers, we recommend going through the list in the Downloads and Trash folders to see what you want to keep. There’s rarely any need to review cache or log files from your other programs – you can delete them safely.

To see the results of the scan, hit the View & Clean button.

The little grey arrows will reveal the details of the files you’re about to delete. Make sure to uncheck files you need and leave the checks on unnecessary ones you want deleted

Ready? Hit the Clean button!

Mac Cleaner - Disk Cleaner scan results

STEP 4

Scan for duplicate files on your Mac

Like it or not, computer hard drives get messy. On a daily basis you open, save, copy, download and move files… Over time, this unavoidably leads to duplicate files scattered around your Mac. Thankfully, AVG Cleaner for Mac will find and rid you of them.

First, click on the Scan Now button in the Duplicate Finder category.

AVG Cleaner for Mac will then ask you which folders to scan. For first-timers, we recommend just scanning the main user folder.

Mac Cleaner - Duplicate Finder scan in progress

STEP 5

Reclaim your storage space

Once the scan is finished, you’ll be able to quickly and easily go through all the duplicates to find out when they were created and where they sit on your Mac. From there, it should be easy to decide which ones you want to keep, or if you want to delete them all.

To see the results of the scan, hit the View & Clean button.

Then, you can use the little grey arrow to dig deeper into each pair (or more) of duplicates to decide which to keep and which to delete. Check the ones you don’t want anymore.

Then, when you’re ready, just hit Clean to reclaim the storage space.

Mac Cleaner Duplicate Finder scan results

Done! It’s that simple.

Your Mac should have more free space for the things you love.

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AVG Cleaner™ for Mac®

Clean out hidden clutter

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