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Easy Find Leftovers
#51772 05/25/19 08:06 PM
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I talked about this before, but I can't find the post. I removed CleanMyMac today with EasyFind. There are three files left over that I can't remove. I forgot what someone said to do to take care of those stubborn files. They are not in the trash either.

Thanks.

Rita


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Re: Easy Find Leftovers
plantsower #51773 05/25/19 08:23 PM
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There are several sets of instructions on the web for removing CleanMyMac, but this one seems reasonably complete.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Easy Find Leftovers
joemikeb #51774 05/25/19 10:49 PM
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Thanks Joe: I followed all the manual instructions before you wrote this and did again on the linked page you sent me. Nothing showed up in the Library. I didn't download the app, because I wasn't sure how safe it was. Do you know? If it is safe, then I will try it. Maybe it can get rid of the three files EasyFind can't seem to. Otherwise, I'm stumped.

Thanks.

Rita



Originally Posted By: joemikeb
There are several sets of instructions on the web for removing CleanMyMac, but this one seems reasonably complete.


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Re: Easy Find Leftovers
plantsower #51775 05/26/19 08:11 AM
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AppCleaner might do the trick.

AppCleaner - FreeMacSoft
https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/

AppCleaner is a small application which allows you to thoroughly uninstall unwanted apps. Installing an application distributes many files throughout your System using space of your Hard Drive unnecessarily. AppCleaner finds all these small files and safely deletes them.

Re: Easy Find Leftovers
plantsower #51776 05/26/19 10:01 AM
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Originally Posted By: plantsower
Nothing showed up in the Library.

Hi, Rita,

If that literally means that files you expect to be in /Library (or, as the case may be, ~/Library) don't appear to be there, it may be because they're invisible.

ShowHiddenFiles 2.0.6 or HideSwitch 1.6.0 may be helpful. (There's also a Terminal command to toggle visibility if you want to get involved.)


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Easy Find Leftovers
artie505 #51777 05/26/19 06:04 PM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
Hi, Rita,

If that literally means that files you expect to be in /Library (or, as the case may be, ~/Library) don't appear to be there, it may be because they're invisible.

ShowHiddenFiles 2.0.6 or HideSwitch 1.6.0 may be helpful. (There's also a Terminal command to toggle visibility if you want to get involved.)

Files can be invisible as Artie suggests, or they can be tagged as System files which will also hide them. The easy way to find those is:
  1. click ⌘F on the desktop which brings up a Finder search window.
  2. enter the name of a file you are searching for in the search bar at the top of the window.
  3. At the top of this window be sure "Search: This Mac" is selected,
  4. then click on the + sign at the far right end of the "kind" line to bring up another condition and add "File Visibility — Visible or Invisible".
  5. Click on the + again and add "System Files — Are included".
  6. If you are unsure of the file name leave the filename at the top empty and add another condition "Name — matches/contains/begins with/ends with/is/is not — and a name or name fragment".
This is an often overlooked and very powerful capability of Finder that requires no third party app to do its thing.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Easy Find Leftovers
grelber #51778 05/26/19 06:10 PM
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Hi:

Thank you. I already have AppCleaner but find it leaves stuff behind, and then I go to EasyFind and get rid of the rest. This time EasyFind left 3 files. I am going to take Artie's and JoeMike's advice and look for the invisible files, etc. as my next step.

Thanks again.

Rita



Originally Posted By: grelber
AppCleaner might do the trick.

AppCleaner - FreeMacSoft
https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/

AppCleaner is a small application which allows you to thoroughly uninstall unwanted apps. Installing an application distributes many files throughout your System using space of your Hard Drive unnecessarily. AppCleaner finds all these small files and safely deletes them.


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Re: Easy Find Leftovers
joemikeb #51779 05/26/19 09:12 PM
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I went to follow your instructions one by one. I clicked Command+F but finder didn't come up. Darn. I pulled finder up my usual way to look for the files that were still in EasyFind. There were two. I went to see if I could delete them before I put them into the search in Finder. They then were deleted just fine! I can't explain why it worked all of a sudden but I am glad to know how to find invisible files now. Thank you.

Rita



Originally Posted By: joemikeb
Originally Posted By: artie505
Hi, Rita,

If that literally means that files you expect to be in /Library (or, as the case may be, ~/Library) don't appear to be there, it may be because they're invisible.

ShowHiddenFiles 2.0.6 or HideSwitch 1.6.0 may be helpful. (There's also a Terminal command to toggle visibility if you want to get involved.)

Files can be invisible as Artie suggests, or they can be tagged as System files which will also hide them. The easy way to find those is:
  1. click ⌘F on the desktop which brings up a Finder search window.
  2. enter the name of a file you are searching for in the search bar at the top of the window.
  3. At the top of this window be sure "Search: This Mac" is selected,
  4. then click on the + sign at the far right end of the "kind" line to bring up another condition and add "File Visibility — Visible or Invisible".
  5. Click on the + again and add "System Files — Are included".
  6. If you are unsure of the file name leave the filename at the top empty and add another condition "Name — matches/contains/begins with/ends with/is/is not — and a name or name fragment".
This is an often overlooked and very powerful capability of Finder that requires no third party app to do its thing.


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Re: Easy Find Leftovers
plantsower #51781 05/26/19 10:38 PM
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Originally Posted By: plantsower
I went to follow your instructions one by one. I clicked Command+F but finder didn't come up. Darn. I pulled finder up my usual way to look for the files that were still in EasyFind. There were two. I went to see if I could delete them before I put them into the search in Finder. They then were deleted just fine! I can't explain why it worked all of a sudden but I am glad to know how to find invisible files now. Thank you.

Rita

You first have to click on the desktop, then ⌘F will open the finder window. Alternatively you can open a Finder window anyway you so desire and when you enter a search term in the search bar the options will then appear in the window.

Any way I am glad you got rid of the stray files. laugh


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Easy Find Leftovers
joemikeb #51782 05/27/19 12:49 AM
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
Originally Posted By: plantsower
I went to follow your instructions one by one. I clicked Command+F but finder didn't come up. Darn. I pulled finder up my usual way to look for the files that were still in EasyFind. There were two. I went to see if I could delete them before I put them into the search in Finder. They then were deleted just fine! I can't explain why it worked all of a sudden but I am glad to know how to find invisible files now. Thank you.

Rita

You first have to click on the desktop, then ⌘F will open the finder window. Alternatively you can open a Finder window anyway you so desire and when you enter a search term in the search bar the options will then appear in the window.

Any way I am glad you got rid of the stray files. laugh


OK, it worked when I clicked on the desktop. Thanks. EasyFind does show invisibles and I had it checked, so not sure why it took so long to delete but all is well. Thanks again.

Rita


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Re: Easy Find Leftovers
plantsower #51783 05/27/19 03:34 PM
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Originally Posted By: plantsower
OK, it worked when I clicked on the desktop. Thanks. EasyFind does show invisibles and I had it checked, so not sure why it took so long to delete but all is well. Thanks again.

Rita

I can posit a number possible reasons it took so long, but they would all just be guesses. If you encounter a similar situation in the future try rebooting in "Safe Mode",...

Originally Posted By: macOS Users Guide
Start up your Mac in safe mode
Starting up your Mac in safe mode may help you diagnose problems with your Mac.


  1. On your Mac, choose Apple menu > Shut Down.
  2. [After your Mac shuts down, wait 10 seconds, then press the power button.
  3. Immediately after your Mac starts (some Mac computers play a startup sound), press and hold the Shift key.
  4. Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple logo and progress indicator.
——————————————————————————————————--

To leave safe mode, restart your Mac again, but donʼt press and hold any keys during startup.

...then try deleting the "stuck" file(s).

FWIW I used to have EasyFind and found it useful because of Spotlight's early limitations, but in the last few releases of MacOS, I find that by tweaking the options in the Finder window, I can find anything I want in milliseconds as compared to a several minute search required by EasyWord. When searching for file content the speed difference is huge. As a test, I just downloaded the latest EasyFind from the App Store and ran a few tests. To my great surprise, Finder/Spotlight found files that were apparently invisible to EasyFind with all its options turned on. 😳

Last edited by joemikeb; 05/27/19 04:15 PM. Reason: EasyFind comment

If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Easy Find Leftovers
joemikeb #51784 05/27/19 04:08 PM
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Thank you. I always forget about safe mode, but I do reboot to make things work again. Thanks for helping.

Rita



Originally Posted By: joemikeb
Originally Posted By: plantsower
OK, it worked when I clicked on the desktop. Thanks. EasyFind does show invisibles and I had it checked, so not sure why it took so long to delete but all is well. Thanks again.

Rita

I can posit a number possible reasons it took so long, but they would all just be guesses. If you encounter a similar situation in the future try rebooting in "Safe Mode",...

Originally Posted By: macOS Users Guide
Start up your Mac in safe mode
Starting up your Mac in safe mode may help you diagnose problems with your Mac.
  1. On your Mac, choose Apple menu > Shut Down.
  2. [After your Mac shuts down, wait 10 seconds, then press the power button.
  3. Immediately after your Mac starts (some Mac computers play a startup sound), press and hold the Shift key.
  4. Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple logo and progress indicator.
——————————————————————————————————--

To leave safe mode, restart your Mac again, but donʼt press and hold any keys during startup.

...then try deleting the "stuck" file(s).


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Re: Easy Find Leftovers
joemikeb #51962 07/03/19 03:36 AM
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JoeMike: I would like to revisit this topic. You said you tweek Finder to find files to delete them? Could you walk me through that. I have over 200 Facebook files that EasyFind won't delete. I don't even have a Facebook account. But I read where Facebook inserts files into our computers from certain webpages. It's sneaky and I want to get rid of those files.


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Re: Easy Find Leftovers
plantsower #51963 07/03/19 03:53 AM
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Hi, Rita.

I've no longer got EasyFind, so I'm working from memory.

Per Devon Technologies, they deliberately made it difficult to delete items that require verification as your Facebook files apparently do.

But... You can hit command-R to get to their locations and delete them, after verification, from there. Chances are that all your Facebook files are in no more than a couple of locations and that deleting them in bulk will be easy.

Last edited by artie505; 07/03/19 03:18 PM. Reason: Positivity

The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Easy Find Leftovers
plantsower #51972 07/03/19 02:36 PM
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Originally Posted By: plantsower
JoeMike: I would like to revisit this topic. You said you tweek Finder to find files to delete them? Could you walk me through that. I have over 200 Facebook files that EasyFind won't delete. I don't even have a Facebook account. But I read where Facebook inserts files into our computers from certain webpages. It's sneaky and I want to get rid of those files.
  1. Click on the desktop
  2. Press Command+F (⌘F)
  3. Enter a name of part of a name in the suspect files
  4. Expand or narrow the search by click on the plus sign at the rigth side of the search window and adding additional conditions or arguments
  5. Select the desired file(s) that appear in the window
  6. Click on the trash can icon on the Window's tool bar
  7. If prompted, enter the password for your administrative user account


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Easy Find Leftovers
joemikeb #51973 07/03/19 04:01 PM
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
Originally Posted By: plantsower
JoeMike: I would like to revisit this topic. You said you tweek Finder to find files to delete them? Could you walk me through that. I have over 200 Facebook files that EasyFind won't delete. I don't even have a Facebook account. But I read where Facebook inserts files into our computers from certain webpages. It's sneaky and I want to get rid of those files.
  1. Click on the desktop
  2. Press Command+F (⌘F)
  3. Enter a name of part of a name in the suspect files
  4. Expand or narrow the search by click on the plus sign at the rigth side of the search window and adding additional conditions or arguments
  5. Select the desired file(s) that appear in the window
  6. Click on the trash can icon on the Window's tool bar
  7. If prompted, enter the password for your administrative user account



Hi: I tried what you said. I tried it before you said to. LOL! When I put in Facebook into Finder, all I get is a bunch of recipes I've downloaded and NOT from Facebook. I also got random pictures (after I clicked on them) of other stuff including a page I had looked at a long time ago on eBay). I hit the plus sign and tried entering Facebook and nothing happened. I added a little bit of what I found on one entry of EasyFind that included Facebook and nothing happened. So....


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Re: Easy Find Leftovers
plantsower #51974 07/03/19 04:11 PM
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Originally Posted By: plantsower
...So....

So do it from EasyFind as I suggested.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Easy Find Leftovers
artie505 #51975 07/03/19 04:16 PM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
Hi, Rita.

I've no longer got EasyFind, so I'm working from memory.

Per Devon Technologies, they deliberately made it difficult to delete items that require verification as your Facebook files apparently do.

But... You can hit command-R to get to their locations and delete them, after verification, from there. Chances are that all your Facebook files are in no more than a couple of locations and that deleting them in bulk will be easy.


*******

Hi Artie: I tried what you said and found a lot of files that included "Facebook Strings, Facebook Contact Updater, F/B plugin Bundle, F/B Video, etc., all of which could not be "modified or deleted because it's required by MacOS)!! That makes me angry. I don't really want them in my computer. I don't know if they can see my contacts or anything else but it feels invasive. Out of over 500 files, I got rid of about 300 with OnyX. It couldn't remove the rest and I guess I can't do it manually thanks to Apple.

Update: I just tried the same thing with Google and got the same "string" message. Can't get rid of about 60 Google files or strings or whatever.

Last edited by plantsower; 07/03/19 04:19 PM.

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Re: Easy Find Leftovers
artie505 #51976 07/03/19 04:21 PM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
Originally Posted By: plantsower
...So....

So do it from EasyFind as I suggested.


***

I did. I just tried JoeMike's way first.

Last edited by plantsower; 07/03/19 04:21 PM.

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Re: Easy Find Leftovers
plantsower #51977 07/03/19 04:48 PM
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Sorry for jumping in, Rita; I should have waited for you to respond.

joemike's solution is a good one if you know precisely what you're looking for, but it's more or less useless in your situation, while EasyFind's results tell you.

I never mess with files in locations that begin with /System, and neither should you or anyone else who's not an EXPERT; that part of the OS is "sacred."

You've got to judge which items can be safely deleted and which you should just grit your teeth and ignore, and if you'd like a little help in that respect, just post a screenshot of EasyFind's results.

I think I can say, though, that as a general rule, anything in /System is functional rather than invasive, i.e. not to be worried about.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Easy Find Leftovers
artie505 #51979 07/03/19 06:33 PM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
Sorry for jumping in, Rita; I should have waited for you to respond.

joemike's solution is a good one if you know precisely what you're looking for, but it's more or less useless in your situation, while EasyFind's results tell you.

I never mess with files in locations that begin with /System, and neither should you or anyone else who's not an EXPERT; that part of the OS is "sacred."

You've got to judge which items can be safely deleted and which you should just grit your teeth and ignore, and if you'd like a little help in that respect, just post a screenshot of EasyFind's results.

I think I can say, though, that as a general rule, anything in /System is functional rather than invasive, i.e. not to be worried about.


*****
Artie: I was going to send you a screenshot but after looking at the files, they all say "system" and/or some say "strings" which I know the MacOS won't let me get rid of. But I learned something so thanks. Glad to know it's not peeping Tom kind of stuff.


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Re: Easy Find Leftovers
plantsower #51982 07/04/19 04:25 AM
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To set your mind further at ease: I ran a Find Any File search for "strings," and it found upwards of 1/4 MILLION of them, all of which - the ones I looked at, anyhow, because scrolling through the entire list would have taken all day - are associated with .lproj folders, which support languages in macOS.

You can actually delete all but the en.lproj folders (unless you need more than one language on your MBP), and there's an app that purports to do it, but it doesn't necessarily do a good job, and doing it by hand would take the rest of your life, but if you're reeeally stuck for space on your drive, running the app is a viable way to regain some (but I don't suggest it...buy a bigger drive).


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Easy Find Leftovers
artie505 #51984 07/04/19 04:47 PM
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A brief point.

I used Easy Find for years, then about a month ago started using Find Any File, which also free. It might be better. I haven't found any negatives yet, so interested readers might want to give Find Any File a try.

Re: Easy Find Leftovers
artie505 #51986 07/04/19 05:35 PM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
To set your mind further at ease: I ran a Find Any File search for "strings," and it found upwards of 1/4 MILLION of them, all of which - the ones I looked at, anyhow, because scrolling through the entire list would have taken all day - are associated with .lproj folders, which support languages in macOS.

You can actually delete all but the en.lproj folders (unless you need more than one language on your MBP), and there's an app that purports to do it, but it doesn't necessarily do a good job, and doing it by hand would take the rest of your life, but if you're reeeally stuck for space on your drive, running the app is a viable way to regain some (but I don't suggest it...buy a bigger drive).


****
Thanks, Artie. It does ease my mind. I don't need more space at the moment. I just worried about intrusiveness. Even if I don't have anything to hide, it's just the idea of it. Do you think there is any danger of it removing strings that I need? Or any system files that I need? I never worried about deleting system files by an app until you mentioned it.


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Re: Easy Find Leftovers
deniro #51987 07/04/19 05:38 PM
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Originally Posted By: deniro
A brief point.

I used Easy Find for years, then about a month ago started using Find Any File, which also free. It might be better. I haven't found any negatives yet, so interested readers might want to give Find Any File a try.


****

I am considering using Find any File. If you read what I said to Artie, I am just concerned that it might get rid of something it shouldn't. I don't always know what is safe to delete and what isn't, and I always trusted the apps to make the right decision. Now I'm concerned.


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