Question: I have several apps from the Mac App Store and I noticed that installing updates doesn’t work normally. The store doesn’t consider the app updated. I repeated the updates and it didn’t solve the problem.
Answer: This is the kind of odd behavior that often is fixed by deleting associated files. In this case, two .plist files are concerned.
Please note that in order to get this done, you first need to access your Library. If you are running OS X 10.7 Lion, you need to make it appear first.
With your library available, follow this path:
Startup Disk > username > Library > Preferences
Then, you need to find two files:
com.apple.storeagent.plist
com.apple.storeagent.plist.lockfile
Move them to the Trash and restart. Your apps should update for good.
Description
CleanGenius Pro is a utility that handles several routine tasks such as cleaning caches, removing junk files and uninstalling applications. It requires Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or later.
Price: US$12.99 at www.easemac.com
US$2.99 for a more limited version at the Mac App Store
Disclosure
We got the full-featured product for free from the developer in exchange of a review and a giveaway of 15 pro licences.
Giveaway
Want to get a free license? You have 5 days to enter the giveaway here. I will draw winners after the giveaway period is over.
Key features
It was the right moment to review this kind of utility since my Mac needed a bit of a sweep. Odd behavior started to creep in lately in the Finder. It never hurts to fine tune Mac OS X in such circumstances.
Installation wasn’t complicated. It was just a matter of copying the app to the Applications folder and launching it.
The first step was to scan for files that should be deleted. Obviously, I decided to check all the boxes but the user trash and downloads. Those are files I prefer to manage manually. The scan took only a few seconds, and it came up with the promise to clean 219 files for 4.24 GB of space.
At that point, my first reaction was to look at the path to files, in order to inspect them a little. What did CleanGenius want to delete, and did it seem necessary? It seemed logical to get rid of plenty of logs for apps that seem to accumulate them, and apps that are gone from my computer.
Reviewing is the kind of step that I believe you have to take beforehand. Who knows if a utility won’t delete a precious file or two, making your life difficult? I read reviews from frustrated users at the App Store. I bet they worked with a blindfold.
After clicking on the Clean button, CleanGenius took a couple of minutes minutes to get the work done. It sounds reasonable since we are talking about moving more than 4 GB of files. Meanwhile, however, it was not giving clear signs of progress for me to realize how long it would take, and how things were going. A progress bar would have been welcome. On the other hand, all apps concerned by file deletions continued working properly when later launched. Sounds good to me.
Speaking of the interface, I have mixed feelings. It is rather pretty with gradients, but it does not feel Mac-like. It feels more like Windows software than anything else. I would recommend better integration with the look and feel of Mac OS X.
Then, I decided to uninstall a couple of unused applications. Unlike AppCleaner, CleanGenius responds to manual commands, rather than reacting to what you do in the Finder. This is so much better because it prevents deletion of app files when moving an alias to the Trash.
After giving CleanGenius my admin password, it deleted the five apps I wanted to get rid of. That means instant delete, without going through the Trash.
Finally, both in the app and my menu bar, the free space monitor was there to show me what I have left on my drives. I had the option to get warnings when free space would be below a selected level. After duplicating a folder filled with films and TV shows, my clean space bar turned from green to orange. Nice and subtle if you are about to run out of elbow room. It may be too subtle for some users, though.
I find the menu bar item a bit irritating because it takes so much space in there. I believe my bar already is too cluttered…
Another weakness is that if you want the menu bar item, you cannot quit CleanGenius. You either have to make it launch at login or to activate it yourself. The best thing to do would be the option to have a menu bar item available at all times, separately from the full app.
Summary
Overall, this is a nice piece of software, given that it is fairly young. It works nicely and fast. How does it compare to Onyx, which is free? Well, the price point makes Onyx a winner but development may change that over time.
I feel that the interface needs to be more Mac-like and responsive.
There should be more customization options, such as when to display the free space monitor menu bar item.
Rating
Three stars out of five. See the review guidelines to understand the ratings.
Giveaway
Want to get a free license? You have 5 days to enter the giveaway here. I will draw winners after the giveaway period is over.
Question: I do not use the default Mail.app from Apple. I prefer Mozilla Thunderbird. Can I uninstall it to save space and reduce clutter on my Mac?
Answer: I personally agree with the principle. Mail.app is a decent default option, but there are other email solutions out there and I believe that many are superior. That doesn’t mean you should remove it from your Mac, however.
It may be a bit of a paradox but the very reason why you want Mail.app to stay around is to preserve your ability to control easily which application is your default for email.
As you can see above, preferences in Mail.app help you to choose the “default email reader”. There are other ways, such as modifying a preference file, but doing it from Mail.app is the easier, graphical, safe choice.
Question: I installed Mac OS X Lion and I cannot see the Library folder anymore in my Home directory. What can I do to make it appear again?
Answer: It is no surprise to see Apple taking someone away from your eyes, with the fear that you could mess with it. However, anybody who likes to tinker with their Mac will despite the habit.
Here is how to fix the problem.
Go the Applications > Utilities folder. Launch Terminal.app.
Copy and paste the following command:
chflags nohidden ~/Library/
Then press the Return key. Close the Terminal and go back to your Home folder. The Library folder should appear immediately.
Here we are. It's back!
Attaching plans to a presentation is easily done with this method.
Question: Can I merge the content of PDF files?
Answer: Sure. As a first step, you need to open all the PDFs you want to merge. Select and open them together, at the same time, so they can be in the same window of the Preview application.
Also, you should make sure that the sidebar is visible for each. To do that, pull down the View menu and select Sidebar.
The process is extremely simple. Select the thumbnails of pages that you want to put together in one of the document and drag them around. Change their positions, and then release the mouse button. Do it repeatedly if you have several pages and documents to put together.
During this process, you may have to duplicate files, or unlock them under Mac OS X Lion.
Once done, save the final product.
(Answer provided by David Gillam)
