How to clean a MacBook Pro like a pro

If you're reading this article, you've probably already noticed some tell-tale signs that it's time to clean your MacBook Pro. From slow loading time to sluggish performance, there are plenty of good reasons why you should clean your MacBook Pro regularly. Although Macs don't require a huge amount of maintenance, there are a few things you can do to clean MacBook Pros and reduce the strain on your central processor. 

We're going to show you how to clean MacBook Pros using built-in features, removing duplicate files, and boosting your start-up time too. 

How to clean MacBook Pros using built-in features

There are a few different ways that you can clean your MacBook Pro, either using built-in features and software or with third-party software (mostly free apps too, win). 

First, let's look at the built-in cleaning features on your MacBook Pro, which will make recommendations for you on the following: 

1. Store in iCloud
2. Optimize Storage
3. Empty Trash Automatically
4. Reduce Clutter

To get to these special features on your MacBook Pro, follow these simple steps:

1. Go to the apple icon in the top left
2. Select 'About this Mac', then go to the 'Storage' tab
3. From here you can see how much storage you have and a brief description of what is using the most space 

4. Click 'Manage' and by default, your Mac will automatically provide you with four options:

   • Store in iCloud
   • Optimize Storage
   • Empty Trash Automatically
   • Reduce Clutter

5. Review the recommendations on your screen and make the necessary changes to use your Mac's space more efficiently

Not using iCloud or cloud-based storage yet?

One of the fastest ways to keep your Mac clean and your storage optimized is using a cloud-based storage solution. This way, you can move any gigantic files that are slowing your machine down. 

For convenience, you cannot look past iCloud, which can sync storage between devices (iPhone, iPad), plus you can share storage between family members. At the time of writing, when you set up an iCloud account, you automatically get 5GB of storage, and then you can buy more storage at any time. With affordable monthly options, iCloud is the most convenient way for Mac users to remove clutter and keep unused files stored safely for when you need to access them. 

Remove duplicate files to clean MacBook Pros

One of the easiest ways to clean up space on your MacBook Pro is to remove duplicate files, as these files often take up unnecessary space on your hard drive. When done manually, it can be a tedious process to locate and delete duplicates. However, there are plenty of free third-party apps available that take the pain out of locating and removing duplicate files. 

That's why we created CCleaner for Mac which finds duplicate files so you can delete them quickly. 

How to clean MacBook Pro start-up process

Finally, let's look at ways to improve your start-up or boot time. This is how long it takes for your MacBook Pro to boot up from off to being functional and ready to use. As a benchmark, it should take around 30 seconds for a MacBook Pro, using an SSD (Solid State Drive) to fully boot. If it is taking longer it may be worth cleaning up your Mac and removing login item permissions for some applications. 

Let's look at how to do this.

Remove login items on MacBook Pro

If you notice that a bunch of apps immediately start or open every time you restart or log in to your computer, you're probably flooded with login items. When apps are installed they often try to become as prominent as they can by becoming login items on your MacBook Pro. 

These apps are easy to remove from the login items list and this will free up some valuable login boot space. 

1. Open 'System Preferences' and select 'Users & Groups'
2. Select the 'Login Items' tab
3. Delete any apps you don't want to have login preference by clicking the "-" button below.

We're sure that once you've run these simple tasks you'll have a clean MacBook Pro again. Don't forget to make the most of our free cleaning app, CCleaner for Mac,  which will help you locate unused files, duplicate files, and cached files so you can remove them.