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Although the market is crammed with many well-known Mac optimization software (some of which we have reviewed thoroughly already), there are still plenty of optimizers out there to choose from if you’re ready to accept a few compromises or risks. Sometimes it’s possible to come across hidden gems, while other times you might find a solution that is not that spectacular, but manages to do the job anyway. Hailing from India, Advanced Mac Cleaner is the latter, offering a basic cleaning solution despite a name that literally has the word “advanced” in it. If you purchase this software – which actually becomes cheaper the more you use it – you will get access to a decent client with the most important cleanup options, ranging from a voice-aided full scan and cleanup to such rarities as a rogue app remover. Not only that but you’ll also get access to an uninstaller, internet history wiper and a file manager, with which you can keep other parts of your Mac clean as well.
The first time you open Advanced Mac Cleaner’s client and every time you launch the program without license key, the software performs a quick scan and a voice warns you that the cleanup is starting. Once you activate your software, the automated scanning goes away but the vocal warning remains every time you choose the ‘all-in’ (manual) scans. This is a nice touch, especially for the visually impaired, but for regular users it might become irritating after a while.
The client itself is nothing special: the functions are self-explanatory and are divided into three logical categories, namely cleanup features, utilities and the file manager. The client also gives you the option to download (and additionally pay for) Mac Ads Cleaner, another app developed by the same company that surprisingly includes some system optimizing features that Advanced Mac Cleaner doesn’t, such as iTunes and iOS junk cleanup.
Whether we performed scans using the One Touch feature or picked an individual scan, the process never took longer than seconds on our MacBook Air and could be repeated without limits. If you use the One Touch cleanup, which searches for junk in every location on your computer, you will always get that aforementioned vocal warning. Here you will be able to see how serious the issues are and what files will be deleted – though you cannot select files you want to be spared. In order to do so, you’ll have to pick one of the individual cleanup options, ranging from cache, log, trash, extra language removal, and, the most interesting, the option to get rid of rogue or harmful apps. But no matter which scan you perform, you can always check the amount of junk on the left panel of the client.
Unfortunately, the free features stop here, because the cleanup itself can only be performed if you buy a license key. However, the process itself is pretty fast: it took only seconds for Advanced Mac Cleaner to deal with approximately 600MB of cache junk, but even the One Touch cleanup was done at an impressive speed. It’s too bad, then, that even after all the junk files are removed, the program still constantly insists that you start the cleanup again.
Although the other, non-cleaning features are lackluster too, they do their job in a fast and thorough manner, providing you with various additional optimization options a customer would expect from software named ‘advanced’. You have the self-explanatory uninstaller, the internet history manager (for clearing out your browsers’ history, cookies and temporary files) and the startup manager with which you can block certain programs from launching during the booting up process. With the two file managers, one for duplicate files and one for large items, you have the option to select a path where Advanced Mac Cleaner can search for unwanted files, speeding up the scanning and removal process. In fact, the manager for large files even allows you to take a peek inside your photo, music, movie, document and archive library, and decide what you want to delete for good and what you’d like to keep.
As we said before, if you only download Advanced Mac Cleaner without buying a license, you’ll be limited to only performing scans – though admittedly you can do so as many times as you want. But if you wish to perform cleanups as well and therefore purchase a license then you should prepare for a weird pricing policy that doesn’t quite work the same way as with many other products available. Instead of offering you a discount upon making your purchase, you’ll instead receive it after an initial period. In numbers this means that you have to pay $39.95 for the first six months of use (with Visa, MasterCard, AmEx, Discover credit/debit card or PayPal), and then the price significantly drops to $19.97 for every six months (approximately $3.33 per month). However, your subscription comes with a 60-day money back guarantee, and alongside that you also have the option to acquire a Mac memory optimizer for free and the special Sticky Password password management tool for an extra $9.99 per six months ($4.99 for every six months thereafter). Unfortunately you cannot save on the purchase price if you want to acquire more than one license: the price of each license stays consistent no matter what option you choose to pick.
Although the use of Advanced Mac Cleaner is pretty self-explanatory and likely won’t malfunction, if something does go wrong you shouldn’t count on the weak customer service of this company. Even though it promises 24/7 support (that even has live chat), this is only true if you turn to the staff via email or a support ticket. The phone support is very dubious, too, because the phone number on the main page rings to India and there is no evidence as to whether the provided toll-free U.S. number is live or not. As for the other support options available, there is an inexhaustive FAQ, a knowledge base where you can learn about everything except what you really need to know, and the news and troubleshooter sections where there is nothing of relevance.
Despite having the word ‘advanced’ in its name, Advanced Mac Cleaner is anything but. Granted, it does contain the most essential cleanup features and some additional optimizing options, but compared to the competition it is just not enough, especially if we take into consideration the scan-only free version, the expensive initial cost and the virtually non-existent customer service.
However, there are some pros. The user-friendly software does its job quite well and provides fast, thorough scans and cleaning. The combined cleanup even features vocal instructions, while individual cleanings can remove malicious apps as well as other programs, files, and all sorts of unwanted data. And last but not least, the more you use this program, the less you have to pay.
Overall, if you are ready to make some compromises, Advanced Mac Cleaner will serve your needs for a long time.
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I may have inadvertanly clicked on their site, because they daily annoy me multiple times with pop-ups on my computer telling me that my Mac has issues, and of course, they want me to pay for their service. They are driving me nuts!!!