How often to run BleachBit

[Executioner]

Just curious how often should you run BleachBit? There is an option to run as Root, but I've never selected that version. I currently run it about once a month. I'm able to recover couple of gigs of space, then I run a TRIM command to finish the job. I typically don't delete cache files from FireFox and Chromium unless I have an issue. I pretty much stay with the default settings.

[chrisuk]

I'm afraid you're unlikely to get any useful replies in this forum... you'll get the usual "Danger Will Robinson! It's a software wrecking ball!". And you'll get the "It's perfectly safe, select everything". You'll not get too many that are between the two that give reasonable advice of how to use it safely.

You'll get more meaningful responses in a forum dedicated to Bleachbit, but you'll have to filter out the fanboy responses from the rest

I'd advise not running it as root unless you careful research each option (which is what I did years ago when I first started using the program... *ducks as a wrecking ball just misses my head*)

[Faust]

NEVER !

That's the response you are most likely to get .... but not from me .

I second what was written by chrisuk .
It has the potential to be a " wrecking ball " , just as a hammer is potentially a murder weapon ,
but that is no fault of the hammer .

I've used it for years , mainly as a secure file shredder and never had the slightest problem ,
but I have this old-fashioned habit of reading everything .

If there is an item checked in the GUI that the user doesn't understand then uncheck it , before running .

[chrisuk]

I will say one thing, as it doesn't seem to get picked up on often:

There's one option that seems to confuse people when running Bleachbit as root - the Package lists option under Apt. Many people check this box and reclaim anything from a few MB to 100s of MBs, but it's actually pretty pointless. As soon as you check for updates, the package lists are re-downloaded, so you don't save the space for long, and you keep downloading the same thing over and over again - so wasting time and bandwidth.

[JoeFootball]

Just curious how often should you run BleachBit?

Speaking for myself, I don't use BleachBit after seeing the havoc it's caused with some people. I clean my system this way.

Joe

[catweazel]

Just curious how often should you run BleachBit? There is an option to run as Root, but I've never selected that version. I currently run it about once a month. I'm able to recover couple of gigs of space, then I run a TRIM command to finish the job. I typically don't delete cache files from FireFox and Chromium unless I have an issue. I pretty much stay with the default settings.

You run it as often as you like, but in the hands of the inexperienced it can be quite dangerous. If you do run it, be aware that you take the risk. Instead of complaining on the forum that BleachBit clobbered your system, restore from a backup because nobody will know what damage it's done.

I use it regularly but the settings are judicious.

[Pierre]

some folks do seem to think that BleachBit for Linux,,
& is the same / similar to CCleaner for Windows.

Yes it is, but it should be used with fairly conservative settings,
& which is somewhat similar to what that CCleaner does achieve,
as if you don't do that, then you can indeed smash your Linux System.

[Executioner]

Just curious how often should you run BleachBit?

Speaking for myself, I don't use BleachBit after seeing the havoc it's caused with some people. I clean my system this way.

Joe

Thanks for the link, and thanks for all the replies. My current setup on a spare laptop that is non critical. I'm still on windows 7 and in the process of learning Linux. Like others have said, there are positive and negative comments about using it. Like I said, I looked at each selection and un-selected a few of them. Once I have Linux setup on a desktop that I want to keep and use, I will have plenty of information going forward, which is why I may ask dumb questions. Just want to get an idea what most are doing for removing old temporary files etc.

[jimallyn]

I have never used BleachBit. That is based mostly on all the posts in these forums that say, "I used BleachBit and now my computer is totally trashed" or other comments along that line. (And there are plenty of them!) I go through my computer now and then and remove things I no longer need, and that works fine for me. I wouldn't trust some program to decide what I need and what I don't need.

But, to answer your question: NEVER.

[AZgl1800]

I have never used it, or installed it.

too many posts crying in their beer.
for me, fstrim does the job...

[sdibaja]

One more reason to have a separate root password...so the common user can't install potentially destructive apps... Saves me some grief

Seriously, it is not a tool for the beginner.
Personally I don't think it helps anything, Linux systems are usually pretty clean

[whm1974]

One more reason to have a separate root password...so the common user can't install potentially destructive apps... Saves me some grief

Seriously, it is not a tool for the beginner.
Personally I don't think it helps anything, Linux systems are usually pretty clean

I've used it like once or twice and I didn't have any issues. But again I read the documentation and was mindful about using it. I did save quite a bit of space on / and /home.

[DAMIEN1307]

i do admit that i do use bleachbit, (sorry pjotr) but i never recommend it to others or even install it on other peoples computers, (74 of them at last count)...the reason is that in inexperienced hands it is truly a "wrecking ball"...ive been running various types of computers since the early 1970s and trying not to break my arm patting myself on the back, ive been quite successful in doing so, and also know how to recover from a major boo-boo...yes i know it is touted as a great system cleaner for linux systems but if you are just an average user of a linux based computer system, it is not necessary for the greater number of linux users to even think of using it...there is way too many settings to click on and the inexperienced user just clicks on all of them and of course just reeks havoc on their previous, well running OS on their computers...please leave things like bleachbit to those who know what they are doing...it will of course stop needless pain and re-install of a previously well running OS...DAMIEN

[Schultz]

One thing that seems to cause a lot of grief is the "Free disk space" option under System. Make sure that is UNchecked.

I run it about once a month. In my Windows days I'd use a cleaner (a different one) once a week, but cleaning that often is not necessary in Linux.

[borg101]

I'm afraid you're unlikely to get any useful replies in this forum... you'll get the usual "Danger Will Robinson! It's a software wrecking ball!". And you'll get the "It's perfectly safe, select everything". You'll not get too many that are between the two that give reasonable advice of how to use it safely.

You'll get more meaningful responses in a forum dedicated to Bleachbit, but you'll have to filter out the fanboy responses from the rest

I'd advise not running it as root unless you careful research each option (which is what I did years ago when I first started using the program... *ducks as a wrecking ball just misses my head*)

I have to concur with this. Bleachbit is a great cleaning tool. However, running it as root will most likely break a lot of things. I also ran it root when I first started using it and yeah....I basically had to reinstall everything from scratch. lol. As far as what's safe to check, that depends on your goal(s) and system. In general, the browser stuff is safe to check as are, clearing caches, logs, and emptying the trash. I would recommend visiting a bleachbit forum for better, more detailed instructions though.

[smurphos]

I'm someone who doesn't recommend Bleachbit. It's defaults for what is 'useless' or not are not great and it's deleted stuff I later found I needed in the past.

A relatively safe system cleaner (nothing is checked by default) should you feel the need to run one is Stacer, also has lots of other useful functions. - https://github.com/oguzhaninan/Stacer

[majpooper]

I posted the below response previously - I will just add "cleaning" has never netted me any significant space other than cleaning out old kernels from time to time. The other thing I will add is that most of the PCs being "trashed" episodes I have encountered concerning BB are when the wipe facility was used.

Prior post:

Yep - here we go again.

Someone, somewhere posted some very good guidelines for Bleachbit that I found useful and have used several times with no ill effects. Like most things Bleachbit can be dangerous if you have no idea what you are doing (not that that has stopped me in my illustrious Linux wannabe expert past). On the other hand Bleachbit can be a useful tool if used wisely. None of the recommendations below are dangerous.

Anyway here are the guidelines. Again I use these every so often and have had no issues whatever - wish I could give credit where credit is due but I cannot recall now exactly where these came from but definitely a trusted source.

1.) APT - Don't check anything here. I prefer to use "sudo apt-get autoclean" and "sudo apt-get autoremove" so I can observe what's going on inside the Terminal when I run these commands.

2.) Bash - Check this to clear your history of Terminal commands.

3.) Chromium - Check everything here except passwords.

4.) Deep Scan - Don't check anything here.

5.) Firefox - Check everything here except crash reports and passwords.

6.) Flash - Check everything here.

7.) Libre Office - Check everything here.

8.) System - Don't check anything here when running as User; instead, I enable some of these when running as Administrator; see below***

9.) VLC Media Player - Check everything here.

10.) X11 Debug Logs - Don't check anything here.

***Running Bleachbit as Administrator:

1.) APT - Again, do not check anything here.

2.) Deep Scan - Again, do not check anything here.

3.) System - Here I'm very conservative. I only check broken desktop files, clipboard, recent documents list, temporary files, and trash. Leave everything else unchecked.

[lsemmens]

Since everyone else has ventured an opinion from "Yes.. but" to "Never.. ever" I'm in the camp of "Why bother"? Yes, you can save a few Gb of disk space, but, given the cost of storage these days, why bother? If you are that tight on space, I suspect that you'll soon run out of space again, anyway. Back in my previous life, I used to swear by cCleaner, MalwareBytes et.al. but here, it is not a real issue.

[catweazel]

"Why bother"?

Privacy.

[lsemmens]

"Why bother"?

Privacy.

Surely the "privacy" bit is only relevant if someone has physical access to your computer?