After canceling SetApp, I went looking for a replacement for CleanMyMac. I’d used OnyX years ago and remember it being fine, so I installed it and started testing it by running the application uninstaller on a few apps I no longer needed around.

The first few apps were deleted nicely. Then, one took much longer than the others had, which was weird. When it finally finished, I found that every single non-default macOS app was gone from my computer. I restarted and it came up as if it were brand new. Like, “Welcome to Mac” new. My files were all there, but none of the apps. Plus, all my settings, Safari extensions, etc…gone.

Well that’s no fun.

I have no idea what went wrong. Did I fumble-finger something? Is there a bug in OnyX? I’ve written support and will know more once I hear something from them, I suppose.

In the meantime, I had to rebuild/reinstall everything. Just for fun, here’s the list:

  • Installed Homebrew
  • Installed Signal
  • Installed Raycast
  • Installed Emacs (brew install emacs-plus@30 –with-savchenkovaleriy-big-sur-curvy-3d-icon)
    • Got same compiler error as before. Uninstalled.
  • Installed Emacs For OS X, which works.
  • Installed Keyboard Maestro and set up Sync (icloud/Sync/macros (paraphrasing))
  • Installed Carbon Copy Cloner
    • Had to rebuild backup tasks from memory
  • Installed Capture One
    • None of my export recipes, etc are there
  • Installed SilverFast 9
  • Installed ProtonVPN
  • Installed FolderPreview (not necessary, but I’ve grown fond of it)
  • Installed Find Any File
  • Installed Brother P-Touch Editor (for printing labels)
  • Installed Kagi for Safari
  • Installed SingleFile for Safari
  • Installed MarkDownload for Safari
  • Installed Tailscale
  • Installed Forklift (purchased)
  • Installed Wipr
  • Installed Epson Print Layout (all settings gone)
  • Installed PopClip (brew install popclip)
  • Installed ImageOptim
  • Installed Ghostty (why? I don’t need it but it’s cool)
  • Installed BBEdit
  • Installed Zed (I was testing this when things went awry)
  • Installed Claude Desktop

I’m sure there will be more, but I think I’ve done a good job of keeping it clean so far.

Part of me feels good about the fresh start. I could use the weekend back, though.