Review Insights · App Store
CCleaner - Phone Cleaner
Piriform · 2,831 ratings · ★ 4.6
4.6
★★★★★
2,831 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 44 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"photos"
11 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Pointless. Pointless app that only cleans up photos and contacts. Does not optimize anything else. Waste of money." - Ninety5eclipz
2
"contacts"
11 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Pointless. Pointless app that only cleans up photos and contacts. Does not optimize anything else. Waste of money." - Ninety5eclipz
3
"version"
11 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ew Yuk. This thing won't even allow you to run the cleaner. I downloaded it and all it wants you to do is spend money. It never did a single scrub of any data like it does on the desktop version. This is a complete and utter waste of time. I would …" - No1Known
4
"ccleaner"
10 negative reviews mention this · 23% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Long time Ccleaner user. I was genuinely excited to download CCleaner for my iPhone and even paid for the premium service. Unfortunately, the app freezes almost every time I open it. The screen becomes unresponsive, and I’m unable to select or use any features. Wh…" - Phoenix of Conasauga
5
"nothing"
9 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "no longer works. They "upgraded" a product that worked well. Now, it does nothing.. no way to input paid-for license key... just a black screen with no working options. No one to help. Chat says maybe someone will get back to me in 30 minutes or so, but…" - blocking my non 5 star review
6
"other"
9 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Long time Ccleaner user. I was genuinely excited to download CCleaner for my iPhone and even paid for the premium service. Unfortunately, the app freezes almost every time I open it. The screen becomes unresponsive, and I’m unable to select or use any features. Wh…" - Phoenix of Conasauga
7
"does"
8 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Pointless. Pointless app that only cleans up photos and contacts. Does not optimize anything else. Waste of money." - Ninety5eclipz
8
"iphone"
8 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Long time Ccleaner user. I was genuinely excited to download CCleaner for my iPhone and even paid for the premium service. Unfortunately, the app freezes almost every time I open it. The screen becomes unresponsive, and I’m unable to select or use any features. Wh…" - Phoenix of Conasauga
9
"subscription"
8 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Everything is paid. All the useful feature that a cleaning app should have is paid so it’s useless until you buy the subscription didn’t expect much but still disappointed" - The lazy 1
10
"free"
8 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Long time Ccleaner user. I was genuinely excited to download CCleaner for my iPhone and even paid for the premium service. Unfortunately, the app freezes almost every time I open it. The screen becomes unresponsive, and I’m unable to select or use any features. Wh…" - Phoenix of Conasauga
11
"paid"
7 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "no longer works. They "upgraded" a product that worked well. Now, it does nothing.. no way to input paid-for license key... just a black screen with no working options. No one to help. Chat says maybe someone will get back to me in 30 minutes or so, but…" - blocking my non 5 star review
12
"clean"
7 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Pointless. Pointless app that only cleans up photos and contacts. Does not optimize anything else. Waste of money." - Ninety5eclipz
📋 All 44 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
No sirve
Es una basura esta aplicación
no longer works
They "upgraded" a product that worked well. Now, it does nothing.. no way to input paid-for license key... just a black screen with no working options. No one to help. Chat says maybe someone will get back to me in 30 minutes or so, but no one does... they just close out the dialog box... seems as though they are now simply scammers, trying to force/trick the customer into buying the product for a second/third time. Useless...
Ew Yuk
This thing won't even allow you to run the cleaner. I downloaded it and all it wants you to do is spend money. It never did a single scrub of any data like it does on the desktop version. This is a complete and utter waste of time. I would not pay them one single penny for anything related to this worst ever app. Bunch of moneygrubbing jerks!
stay away from this app
Absolutely ruined my contacts after running the cleanup
Long time Ccleaner user
I was genuinely excited to download CCleaner for my iPhone and even paid for the premium service. Unfortunately, the app freezes almost every time I open it. The screen becomes unresponsive, and I’m unable to select or use any features.
When I try to clean my photos, I can select one or two images before the app freezes again. I have to force close it and reopen it, only for the same issue to repeat. I also attempted to scan my contacts, but now I’m met with a blank screen. When I first installed the app yesterday, my contacts did appear, but the app froze before I could take any action.
I’ve had to close the app repeatedly due to these freezes, making it essentially unusable. I’ve also seen that other users are experiencing the same problem. Is there an update planned to address this issue? I can’t express how disappointed I am, especially after paying for the premium version. I am additionally disappointed. That this problem has been ongoing for many months and nothing has been done about it.
Update for developers:
I have since unsubscribed from the service. Before I posted this review, I had my phone fully updated to the most current iOS. The app was fully updated to the latest version. I hard reset my phone and I have plenty of space in memory, but the app still did not work.
When I try to clean my photos, I can select one or two images before the app freezes again. I have to force close it and reopen it, only for the same issue to repeat. I also attempted to scan my contacts, but now I’m met with a blank screen. When I first installed the app yesterday, my contacts did appear, but the app froze before I could take any action.
I’ve had to close the app repeatedly due to these freezes, making it essentially unusable. I’ve also seen that other users are experiencing the same problem. Is there an update planned to address this issue? I can’t express how disappointed I am, especially after paying for the premium version. I am additionally disappointed. That this problem has been ongoing for many months and nothing has been done about it.
Update for developers:
I have since unsubscribed from the service. Before I posted this review, I had my phone fully updated to the most current iOS. The app was fully updated to the latest version. I hard reset my phone and I have plenty of space in memory, but the app still did not work.
Everything is paid
All the useful feature that a cleaning app should have is paid so it’s useless until you buy the subscription didn’t expect much but still disappointed
Turned into a scam
Wasted literally an hour selecting photos I wanted to to delete and as I click recycle I get a pop up asking for money or I can’t go any further how scummy your not getting a single cent from me.
Just a fancy photo cleaner
Unlike its pc counterpart, all this app is a glorified media cleaner.
Paywall
This was my go to cleaning app for a long time and it used to be completely free. I got a new phone and after a while, I realized that I needed to download the app again and suddenly features that were always free are behind a pay wall. I understand the need to make money, but you can just use ads, not lock previously free features behind a paywall
Cleaner professional
Very difficult to cancel service
BEWARE Scam Charges
Cancelled the free trial immediately after downloading and this app charged me for a year anyways. There was no way I was outside of the window it was cancelled within 15 minutes of downloading this app. Beware bait and switch subscription tactics to wrongful charge your card.
NOT HELPFUL
His app constantly goes blank as you are trying to select photos or contacts to eliminate or merge. When you go back in the app you have to start all over. NOT WORTH THE $!
Horrible App
I would give this app a negative 100 stars. All this app does is clean your wallet and freezes all the time.
DO NOT DOWNLOAD
Very inaccurate and inefficient. Does nothing as promised!
Crashes while scanning
Crashes while scanning and kicks me out, have the paid version on my PC and seems to work ok.
Worthless!
Don’t call something free, if you can’t use it without paying an expensive (and worthless!) subscription fee! Plus, this is nothing like the CCleaner used on my Mac, which IS free! I am not going to pay anything for something that claims to “clean up” my contacts, photos, etc. and nothing else (which I can do myself for free) and this app doesn’t even do this anyway!
Utter trash
Trial states 3 days but then charges you day one for one year. DO NOT USE THIS APP. Scam
Paywall is killing this app
Paywall to use anything 50 image deletes per day?!? Come on!
App crashing
Anyone having issues with the app crashing during scanning?
Useless for iPhone
I remember this app being great for android and still is wonderful on PC. However, iPhones are locked down tight enough that it does essentially nothing. No cookies, no logs, no junk files, nothing interesting at all. I can actually delete more manually than with CCleaner for iOS. It’s pathetic.
edit: Piriform replied to this review. They asked what to improve. My answer is (and always was) in the above review.
edit: Piriform replied to this review. They asked what to improve. My answer is (and always was) in the above review.
Want refund
Rip off Just got it an hr ago. Just cleans photos and contacts
Lacking cleaning.
Lacking cleaning.
Worthless on iPhone
Does nothing on iOS
Buyer beware
Be very weary of getting the trial to this - I’m not sure what happened, but I canceled this thing as it really didn’t bring value to what I wanted to do. I saw a charge on my card that went through found out it was CC and now I’m trying to get Apple to refund me… not very fun, would keep away
Disappointed
I am a windows member of CCleaner.
I should have tried to trial version. Although I thought this app would be as good as my windows program.
I could have deleted photos myself, and organized my contacts?
Warning there are NO REFUNDS. they have your money and all of your personal data. So it’s a buyer beware
I should have tried to trial version. Although I thought this app would be as good as my windows program.
I could have deleted photos myself, and organized my contacts?
Warning there are NO REFUNDS. they have your money and all of your personal data. So it’s a buyer beware
Free version appears to do nothing but advertise for paid version
I hit Quick Clean and it cleaned nothing. Simply scanned for old/duplicate files/photos. When I clicked to review the results of the scan, I got an ad for upgrading for a fee. No other features were available that I found. Sad. I used CCleaner on my PC years ago and loved it. Deleting.
what they dont tell u
If you paid for this in windows so you can have it on multiple devices and you have an iPhone instead of an Android like most intelligent people.. guess what. You’re screwed and you paid thats extra cash for nothing. For some unknown reason Piriform decided to make things harder than they should be by not allowing your license key to be universal. There is no log in for their iPhone app to be-able to access your account and actually be able to use the software that you paid for… why? Pure laziness or pure stupidity. This is the only app on the planet that has this problem. Any other company in existence who give you the option to pay extra to use multiple devices use this little thing called. Device Authorization.where it allows you to activate the number of devices you paid for. thats it… that simple… In the mean time here is Piriform.. just standing around scratching their head ,picking their nose and starring off into space .. If you are a pc user dont give them a dime for this. I know i wont renew my license thats for sure. and will be moving to Revo on my pc from now on
Not cleaning - eradicating
This app deleted everything in my Notes app and rewrote several of my contacts with new names. Very disconcerting. I don’t know what other damage it inflicted but I canceled my paid subscription.
No place to put activation code
I purchased a license directly from piriform for 5 devices. Now I can’t input my activation code. I’m getting annoying adds.
Useless!
This CClean is different from the desktop version. With this one, you can only manage media files and contacts. I don't need a program for this! I was looking to delete caches from websites, browsers, iPhones, and other installed apps. This is pretty useless! I'm canceling my subscription!
Can’t enter License Key purchased
I purchased a 2 year subscription for 3 devices. I was able to download and start CC on one device but when I went to Apple Store to download iPhone app for CC, I was only given the option to purchase another License.
Messed up contacts, removed key info
I was so disappointed. I really like the Windows version. This product however should not have been released. I tried, one at a time being cautious, to merge contacts. It has some major shortcomings. Looks for matches on phone number and at times presents multiple “duplicates” but won’t let you choose which to merge, it’s all or none. It identified one legitimate dupe which I already knew about for a friend. Also listed her husband, having matched their common landline. So I tried merging to see what would happen. It didn’t merge much, and frustratingly removed what it did not merge. I had them identified as each other’s spouse. Incidentally, her name is earlier in the alphabet than his. It kept his contact, and removed both of hers. Listed her as spouse. Did not include her in the contact name. Kept her mobile number (identified originally as Mobile) and just listed it as Phone. Deleted her birthday and address!!! That information was not included with the husband. I had a separate contact for him because I need his number in case of emergency. (I’ve had group messages choose seemingly random numbers for someone, even though the correct number was already in the group). Grateful that I noticed the data loss, I had to scrounge multiple places to recover it. (Birthday entries in the calendar were deleted, even historical ones…) And to make the process so much more irritating, for EVERY SINGLE action I was shown an ad. The largest, longest, loudest, most intrusive ads I have ever encountered. I get ad supported ads, but this was too much. Needless to say, I won’t be using this app any more. Kept it long enough to provide a laundry list for the devs for at least improving the contact cleaning. This app in its current state is just not ready for prime time.
Not as good as other versions
This app is by far one, the slowest and buggy apps I have had for iPhone ever it crashes all the time it freezes all the time you can barely get past the main screen before it locks up not impressed disappointed in piriform
Very little
It’s nothing like the PC version it does very little
Doesn’t work on iPhone
I bought a year subscription.I’ve tried for 3 months to use it to clean my phone, but didn’t work. Emailed them 3 times no response.
Pointless
Pointless app that only cleans up photos and contacts. Does not optimize anything else. Waste of money.
Not what I expected
Very disappointed. I thought this would scan my phone and emails. What a waste
Useless for photos
Have used CCleaner on windows for years, flawlessly. Saw that they had an IOS version. A definite buy. Couldn’t find one duplicate though I know there are many and not every image is display many have some kind of icon instead . Guess what ? The icons are identified as duplicates . What a waste of $25
Don’t waste your money
I have used CCleaner for windows for years but this one for iPhones is a joke amd there’s not a free version! Don’t waste your money!!
CCleaner free
It's basically a waste. First time I used it, it combined a bunch of contacts that weren't connected at all. The photo scan feature is useless. Most of the time it's just going by the size of the file not image itself. Very disappointing.
Help!
I was trying to get a free trial, but ended up buying a week by mistake. I don’t like the app and is it possible to get a refund?
Force you to provide all access
It will force you to give full access to the app. It will pop up an annoying message to give access.
Mediocre
I use to use CCleaner (free version) years ago when developers actually would let you use a productive software product for free. As a matter of fact, it did such a good job I couldn’t wait to download their cleaner and install on my phone. Well, I’ve downloaded it and am actually ashamed of what I got. It erases duplicate photos/videos…oooh weee, what a powerful tool! Are you kidding me? That’s an idiot tool. The app took up more bites than the free space it created. What ever happened to junk files and the files left behind after downloading, etc.? Oh yea, you want me to pay you to do an honest clean-up job so I can get rid of the files you leave behind when I delete your ad riddled app that is a mockery of what y’all originally created. I hadn’t realized that advertising pay had gotten so low that you now need to tax your customers just to stay alive. For a good product that has gone bad, I have some FYI for your business directors; I can delete my own photos
Subpar to other versions.
In both android and pc you can clear cookies and do so much more than file management. I'm depressed by the shabby quality on i phone
Disappointing on multiple fronts
I'm a long time subscriber to CCleaner for Windows. In the 10+ years, that I used CCleaner it's been very reliable and well worth the purchase price. So when I saw CCleaner was available for the iPhone, I was ecstatic, especially since I have tons of photos and have been looking for a way to clean them up. On the App Center description, it shows that CCleaner can identify duplicates. So I was surprised to find that It found no duplicates among my many photos, even though I kniw there are plenty to find. To fully see the photo, you have to open it -- there doesn't seem to be a way to see the grid display with anything other than 3 photos across. When I tried to go to the support page, it doesn't even give CCleaner for iOS as an option for feedback. Suffice it to say, I've already cancelled my subscription, and the only reason I'm giving 2 stars instead of 1 is that I still have positive feelings about CCleaner due to my other positive experiences over the years with it.
Sentiment summary
91%
Positive (4-5★)
5%
Neutral (3★)
4%
Negative (1-2★)