Get rid of MacKeeper if you have it, and some useful maintenance tips. «12...Next Go

BluebellFlora

MacKeeper is an application from a company called ZeoBIT. You may have had pop ups whilst web browsing or seen ads for it on some Mac sites. Please DO NOT install it. It is a nasty piece of software that causes more problems than it solves, especially in Lion. It supposedly cleans up your Mac and frees up space etc. In reality it can cause instability of the operating system and can potentially delete important system files. It ISN'T a virus or malware, it's just a poorly written application.

I have lost count of the amount of operating system reinstalls I have had to do for people who have installed it under the misguided impression that it is from Apple. The reason I'm posting this is because it's just dawned on me that maybe MacKeeper or other similar programs could be the cause of so many issues for Mac Simmers. You don't need any 3rd party utilities to clean up your Mac, just restarting it helps to clear out clutter.

If you have any doubts, just Google "MacKeeper". I would suggest not clicking on the MacKeeper website but instead look at forums.

So here are a few tips to keep your Mac running properly and hopefully help your game run a bit better:

- If you're a bit lazy like me and very rarely shut your Mac down, instead just leaving it to sleep or closing the screen, restart it. This makes the OS clear out junk and can help speed it up.

- Don't keep a million files and folders on the desktop. It slows down Finder and can increase the spinning beach ball. Keep your desktop as file and folder free as possible.

- Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility select your hard drive and then Verify Disk. If it needs repairing click on Repair Disk. Don't be alarmed if it needs repairing. We have a 9 year old G4 PowerBook which is still running beautifully but within a week of getting it we had to repair the disk, it's worked fine ever since using the original drive and never lost or corrupted any data.

- Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility select the Macintosh HD and Repair Permissions. This is especially relevant to those of you who have had to do a hard shut down of your Mac because your game is locking up your system.

- Make sure you have enough RAM. You should really have a minimum of 4Gb nowadays to keep up to speed. It's relatively cheap and very easy to install in any Mac. TS3 is a 32 bit application so it will only recognise a maximum of 4Gb RAM. If you have 8Gb or more installed on your Mac you will be giving TS3 the maximum it can use.

- Empty Trash. You'll probably find gigabytes of stuff in there using up hard drive space.

- Check your hard drive to make sure you have enough free space. Open a Finder window, click on the Macintosh HD (or whatever your partition is called), hold down CMD and press 'i' (without the speech marks). Have a look at how much space is available under the General tab. There needs to be at least 5Gb free in order for your Mac to work at it's bare minimum. The more space free the better.

- Reinstall your OS from the Recovery HD or disc if your Mac came with one. Make sure you have backed up before doing this. This normally just reinstalls the OS over top of your existing installation, replacing any important system files that may have been inadvertently deleted but not touching any other software or data. There is always the chance, although very slim, of something going wrong though, hence the need to back up before you do this.

And remember to BACK UP people, use Time Machine! Like most people I learnt the hard way about not backing up and lost everything a few years ago. If you're unlucky enough to have to reinstall your OS cleanly (after reformatting the drive), for whatever reason, and it's due to a software problem, you shouldn't restore from a Time Machine backup as you may be reinstalling the problem. Instead you can go into the backup and pull all your data (photos, documents etc.) from the User folder.

I've been using Macs for just over 20 years now. The first one I ever used was the Macintosh SE/30 (I think!) when I was at school. And whilst I'm no expert I have never had to install any clean up programs or antivirus to keep my Macs safe and fast

If anyone has any other tips please share them

Bella_Catalina

All great points. A couple I'll add:

After uninstalling, triple check your Users>Library>Cache and Library>Preferences folders for remaining files or folders, particularly if you've done a manual uninstall. Leftover files can prevent the game from loading once reinstalled.

If you like to play for more than a couple of hours in a session, save, quit, restart your mac, and continue. The game is known for its memory leaks, so the longer you play, the more risk you have of running into an error 12 because your mac is running out of useable memory. This is especially important if you have less than 4GB RAM.

BluebellFlora

Thank you Bella

I have a web page explaining how to completely uninstall the game:

http://bluebellflora.com/ts3-on-a-mac/how-to-do-a-clean-uninstall-and-reinstall-on-a-mac-2

And that's fab advice about the memory leaks - thank you!

Sugarmew

Emptying Trash is a good thing, although it's best if you do it when you pass the 100 file mark - deleting one file at a time isn't the best idea. But don't put it off either, once I got landed with over 5818 files to delete. Whoops.

Don't open anything while the game is saving. It slows the machine quite a lot if it's even just Finder. And if you slam the arrow keys, it can freeze the entire computer - in my case, it overheated, the saving wouldn't progress, Finder wouldn't load what I'd told it to, and I had some crazy colors on the top toolbar. I think it inflicted damage on the machine because I get quite a lot of artifacts, so this is not the best idea if the computer needs to be used a lot.

BluebellFlora

Little bump because there are quite a few new faces on here

MairiHM

I have MacKeeper and I think its great. I paid £30 or something for it too and it really helps my mac (It speeds it up, makes it non-laggy etc). May be different in some cases... just saying

MairiHM

oh man I just looked up on the internet some stories about it. I never released it was third party and a malware. My bad!! :oops:

Guess thats a waste of money :P

jirlucfan

I've heard about this before, and some people said that CleanMyMac does this too. Or is that one safe? Is there a program that doesn't remove needed files?

BluebellFlora

You really, really don't need any kind of applications to clean up your Mac - what's the reason behind wanting to install something?

- don't clutter up your desktop
- stick more RAM in it if your Mac is ageing and needs a boost. 4Gb is really the minimum you should be looking at nowadays, especially if you're running Lion or Mountain Lion.
- open Disk Utility and Repair Permissions on your hard drive
- empty trash
- don't move application icons to the desktop, put them in the dock or create a shortcut on the desktop if that's where you prefer them to be
- if you're on a MacBook of some sort restart it once a week

Seriously, I'm not kidding when I say I've been using them for donkeys years and never had to install any kind of clean up application. Just a little housework on your Mac every few months will be enough to keep it fast and stable.

sunshineandsimoleons

This is really helpful, thanks. I actually did dl Mackeeper at one point, but quickly realized it wasn't very "legit" so I tried uninstalling...but it stuck itself in every folder on my computer :O I went ahead and bought Norton Antivirus/Firewall/Identity and it got rid of it for me, saying it was a bad file...dodged that bullet, thank god lol :roll:

BluebellFlora

Just a reminder about this because people still seem to think it's a good idea to install on their Macs - trust me, it's not

Evanescent

didn't know about the repair disk thing at all! and mine ended up being corrupted, so thanks a lot for this!

420Sim

BluebellFlora wrote:

You really, really don't need any kind of applications to clean up your Mac - what's the reason behind wanting to install something?

- don't clutter up your desktop
- stick more RAM in it if your Mac is ageing and needs a boost. 4Gb is really the minimum you should be looking at nowadays, especially if you're running Lion or Mountain Lion.
- open Disk Utility and Repair Permissions on your hard drive
- empty trash
- don't move application icons to the desktop, put them in the dock or create a shortcut on the desktop if that's where you prefer them to be
- if you're on a MacBook of some sort restart it once a week

Seriously, I'm not kidding when I say I've been using them for donkeys years and never had to install any kind of clean up application. Just a little housework on your Mac every few months will be enough to keep it fast and stable.

BluebellFlora, what are your thoughts on DiscWarrior? Helpful or not helpful at all?

Also I have just gotten a new error message GAME PROCESS CAN NOT BE STARTED. I just updated to 10.8.2 Friday sometime. I had been playing the game up to that point just fine. Now I get that message everytime I try to start the game. I was ready to uninstall and reinstall to see if that would solve the issue. I just don't want to spend the day doing it if that won't fix the issue.
Any thoughts, have you run into this issue with anyone yet?

BluebellFlora

DiskWarrior is brilliant, great for repairing drives and recovering files

And I haven't had the Game Process error that suddenly seems to have cropped up. It seems to be a problem with Supernatural doesn't it? I don't have that EP.

Edit - scrap that last paragraph :evil:

mattdude411

I always get confused of this with MacSweeper, which I believe was the first rogue malware application for Mac OS X (I used to fix malware for my brother and parents a lot on Windows) and for some reason always wanted to look up malware because it was interesting how it worked, although all it did was lock up the computer usually and remove some files that may have been important. When I see ads for MacKeeper I thought it was the same thing so I never thought twice of it. But pretty much, MacKeeper is junk and should be avoided, you can manually remove junk on your own or look for another software for that.

SimNow

Oh beep. I have MacKeeper and I've just upgraded it, bangs head on hard object. I think at one point I had DiskWarrior but it seemed to take up a lot of space and slowed the machine down massively.

I only got them for any issues I may have while on the internet, I download a lot of files from customers which is a touch worrying at times. That said the macs haven't had any issues. It's unfortunate when I first got MacKeeper you could get a free download of it from Apple which makes it look legitimate.

Fortunately I've never installed it on the iMac I use for the Sims.

lil_vicky61

Hi BluebellFlora,

I did one of your steps (the Verify Disk step) and it told me it needs repairing, like you said. However, the computer told me it needs my Installing CD in order to repair it, does that sound right to you? Will it restart everything on my computer if I do that?

Thanks for making a great thread for people like me

BluebellFlora

lil_vicky61 wrote:

Hi BluebellFlora,

I did one of your steps (the Verify Disk step) and it told me it needs repairing, like you said. However, the computer told me it needs my Installing CD in order to repair it, does that sound right to you? Will it restart everything on my computer if I do that?

Thanks for making a great thread for people like me

First thing you need to do is back up! There's a chance you may need to reinstall if your drive is damaged.

You need to put the OS X disc that came with your Mac into the disc drive, turn off the Mac, hold down C and turn it back on, keeping C held down. After you've got to the grey screen and the little icon is spinning let go of C. Your Mac will boot from the disc. Click Continue on the screen that comes up then go to Utilities > Disk Utility and from there you can Repair the disk

lil_vicky61

BluebellFlora wrote:

First thing you need to do is back up! There's a chance you may need to reinstall if your drive is damaged.

You need to put the OS X disc that came with your Mac into the disc drive, turn off the Mac, hold down C and turn it back on, keeping C held down. After you've got to the grey screen and the little icon is spinning let go of C. Your Mac will boot from the disc. Click Continue on the screen that comes up then go to Utilities > Disk Utility and from there you can Repair the disk

Hi again,

By backing up, do you mean to just copy my Saves file onto a usb?

BluebellFlora

No, I mean backing up your whole Mac. I'm sure you must have documents and data which are far more important than the Sims

BluebellFlora

SimNow wrote:

Oh beep. I have MacKeeper and I've just upgraded it, bangs head on hard object. I think at one point I had DiskWarrior but it seemed to take up a lot of space and slowed the machine down massively.

I only got them for any issues I may have while on the internet, I download a lot of files from customers which is a touch worrying at times. That said the macs haven't had any issues. It's unfortunate when I first got MacKeeper you could get a free download of it from Apple which makes it look legitimate.

Fortunately I've never installed it on the iMac I use for the Sims.

I'd get rid of it as quickly as possible if I was you. Unfortunately a lot of people think it's some kind of Apple software. What were you using Disk Warrior for?

lil_vicky61

BluebellFlora wrote:

No, I mean backing up your whole Mac. I'm sure you must have documents and data which are far more important than the Sims

Alright, I'm backing up my sims as we speak, so once I repair my disk, will there be any noticeable changes once I start playing my game?

BluebellFlora

Just a reminder.

If you've used Windows for any length of time before switching to Macs, you are the perfect target audience for these 'cleanup' Apps. They really are not necessary AT ALL

SimNow

BluebellFlora wrote:

SimNow wrote:

Oh beep. I have MacKeeper and I've just upgraded it, bangs head on hard object. I think at one point I had DiskWarrior but it seemed to take up a lot of space and slowed the machine down massively.

I only got them for any issues I may have while on the internet, I download a lot of files from customers which is a touch worrying at times. That said the macs haven't had any issues. It's unfortunate when I first got MacKeeper you could get a free download of it from Apple which makes it look legitimate.

Fortunately I've never installed it on the iMac I use for the Sims.

I'd get rid of it as quickly as possible if I was you. Unfortunately a lot of people think it's some kind of Apple software. What were you using Disk Warrior for?

Sorry this vanished before I could respond. I used it for the same things as Mac Keeper really, it's more customers files and emails that give me some concern. At the moment it keeps coming up with issues regarding spam email, which probably wouldn't cause a problem still worrying though.

I've got to reinstall everything on my laptop anyway so I just won't re-download it on that.

The one good thing for me to come from having issues with the sims is that while trying to fix that I've more clue what I'm doing mac wise than before. I just with the "Mac Qualified" company that replaced my laptop hard drive knew as much, they installed two programs with their own password so now I can't upgrade them or really use them since technically they belong to someone else!!

BluebellFlora

That wasn't very professional of them! Go into the Keychain and see if you can access the password. All your saved passwords are stored there, you'll just need to have Admin rights and know the password for your Mac

Stinalina

Hi, I just want to warn about the look-a-like Mac programs as well!

A friend of mine also made the mistake that it was a real Mac program, and installed it. Her online bank account was hacked after installing it. - We still don't know if it was a Trojan horse that followed the program or what, but it took a mac expert to remove it all from her Mac again.

I will strongly advice anyone against installing any of those programs that pretend to be from Apple!

- If you have them, get them removed ASAP!