Has anyone had a problem with their DEVONthink databases after running (what I think is a new option) in CleanMyMac to remove remnants of old applications? I ran this function, which now appears on the page to remove applications, and when I went to run DT all of the documents in my inbox (a hundred or so) were missing and DT said my software was unlicensed. I reauthorized my software and now find all those missing files were orphaned and are in an orphaned files folder in my in box.
I am going to go do some more research on this as I am writing more out of initial panic and obviously will go check some of the CleanMyMac forums out there and will now check the help sections here on what to do about orphaned files and how to recover them. Thanks.
What is the reason for using such apps? I would never allow tertiary apps to interfere and delete data of my operating system and especially not of my apps that contain important data. I believe that with MacOS you do not need such software.
It’s sometimes useful to see all the stuff associated with a specific app. The problem is deleting stuff without manually confirming that they should indeed be removed.
Unlike simpler tools like the open-source PearCleaner which inspects one app at a time, CleanMyMac presents dozens of “useless” folders at once under the promise of one-click “optimization”. That discourages the user from checking each folder carefully.
mjfthree, just my experience, I used these cleaning apps many years ago, briefly, and realized that they would cause a lot of damage by “cleaning” stuff that should not have been cleaned. Every new OS update/upgrade that would become very evident… Nowadays, I let old skeletons lie where they might, and use AppCleaner to remove applications I don’t want anymore. And I carefully review what AppCleaner is removing. Hope this helps.
CleanMyMac has long been used and recommended by Brett Terpstra. If someone as sophisticated as he is says it is a useful app, I’m inclined to believe it.
It’s an excellent app for running lots of different kinds of illuminating scans and reports; the roundup of apps with available updates is a particularly useful feature. But as with the similarly informative Gemini II, you need to go manually through a long list and know exactly what you’re doing if you’re going to trust its removal options, which I never have.
For what it’s worth, though, I think whatever the OP experienced isn’t the result of the App Leftovers feature, which is supposed just to round up leftover supporting files for apps that have been deleted. I just tried a scan in the latest version of CleanMyMac and clicked Review, and no DEVONtech apps or anything traceable to them showed up in the list – though that of course proves nothing about what may have happened on someone else’s system.
I’ve been using CleanMyMac for years, and it has never suggested doing anything with DEVONthink files apart from cache files. I just checked now, and it’s not suggesting anything untoward.
Do a search in Apple discussions forums, you’ll see how many level 10 people advise against it. Just my 2 cents. Brett is great, created some great apps. Still. Of course, everyone is entitled to do whatever they think is best for them. That said, when you start deviating a lot from a basic MacOS install, things can happen, and I think it is hard (and not entirely fair, but understandable) to expect the Devonthink team to be able to troubleshoot it. I moved back from Arc to Firefox/Safari because it was behaving in a non-Apple way (not going to explain it here, it’s in another thread). And when it stopped playing nice with Devonthink, I posted it here in this forum, and to be very honest, it was MY fault. I’ve been in the software industry for 30+ years. Schlitt happens.
And just in case anyone’s interested in a little history…
This was a situation where DEVONthink itself was registered as malware. It was rectified but another reason we recommend abstinence or caution. Take your pick
I didn’t run CleanMyMac on Devonthink data, at least in any purposeful way. There is an updated function in CleanMyMac to remove files identified as parts of old application installations. And in reviewing the file names nothing seemed to suggest any of those files were related to DEVONthink. And I’ve run CleanMyMac for many years without any problem with any software. But the running of this function in CleanMyMac and the loss of the DT inbox files (which are still there and “orphaned”) and removal of the license seemed curious because it occurred right after running the CleanMyMac software. In any case, I am going through suggested steps to recover the documents.
Thanks all. Certainly not blaming DT for anything and understand the debate over CleanMyMac. I’ve just used the latter without incident for a long time and do like some of its functions. In the latest version, it does appear to be picking up some different kinds of files it thinks is junk after running the application scan. I’ll be able to recover the documents in some form. And thanks to those who investigated recreating the problem.
For what it’s worth, I’ve used CleanMyMac in the past, and it can be a useful tool… but I would advise against letting it do automated clean-up of your Mac, as it can do more harm than good. For clearing up stuff left behind by unused apps, I use the built-in function for that in Hazel (highly recommended to anyone doing lots of repetitive file management), and would recommend using a utility dedicated solely to app clean-up. For finding data hogs on your Mac system disk, I recommend DaisyDisk or GrandPerspective. Nothing against CleanMyMac, but these days it’s probably overkill for most users.
I’ve been beta testing new CleanMyMac version and reported this on September 13, 2024 on their Discord server.
“CleanMyMac seems to be treating DEVONthink 3 Inbox database file as “leftovers”, I already tried to remove it as suggested by Applications section and it deleted it (Inbox.dtBase2).”
