Cleaner
Find caches, logs, developer leftovers and other files your Mac can do without, review them in groups, and move what you pick to the Trash.
Open it
Type clean up mac (or clean, junk, caches, free space) and press ↵ on Clean Up Mac. Saiki looks through your Mac and shows what it found in groups, each with its size. If there's nothing, it says "Nothing to clean. Your Mac is tidy."
The groups
The list has two parts. Groups under Safe cleanup start checked. Groups under Optional, review first start unchecked and wait for you.
Safe cleanup
| Group | What's in it |
|---|---|
| Orphaned startup items | Login and background entries left by apps that no longer exist. The entry in System Settings → Login Items goes away after a restart. |
| Caches | Temporary files apps rebuild on their own. |
| Logs | Old diagnostic logs. |
| Developer junk | Xcode's DerivedData, documentation cache, simulator caches and device support folders. |
| Package manager caches | npm, pnpm, Yarn, pip, Homebrew, Gradle, Maven, Cargo, Go and CocoaPods downloads. Only while those tools are closed. |
| Browser caches | Safari, Chrome and Firefox caches. Only while the browser is closed; profiles, history and passwords stay. |
Optional, review first
| Group | What's in it |
|---|---|
| Leftovers from uninstalled apps | Files left by apps you removed. Found by analysis, so check each path before you tick it. |
| Other caches | Caches that are safe to remove but aren't ticked for you, such as Apple's own. Apps may open slower once, and downloaded content like offline music downloads again. |
| Old build folders | Dependencies and build output (like node_modules) in projects untouched for a month. The next install or build makes them again. |
| Old crash reports | Crash and hang reports older than 30 days. |
| Unused simulators | Xcode simulators no runtime can start, or not used for three months. These are deleted, not moved to the Trash. |
| iPhone backups | Old iPhone and iPad backups. Remove only the ones you no longer need. |
| Forgotten screenshots | Screenshots you haven't opened for a while that still have the name and folder macOS gave them. |
| Trash | What's already in the Trash. Emptying it is permanent. |
A group only shows when it found something.
Review and clean
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| → / ← | Opens the selected group to show its items, or closes it (from one of its items too). |
| ↵ | Ticks or unticks the selected group (all of it) or item. A click on the box does the same. |
| Type | Filters by name, path or detail, with the matching items shown. |
| ⌘↵ | Clean what's ticked: shows the confirm card. |
| ⌘R | Scan Again. |
| ⌘K | Also Expand or Collapse, Copy Path (⇧⌘C) and Show in Finder (⇧⌘O) on an item. |
The line above the list keeps count, for example "12 of 40 items selected · 3.1 GB".
The card, "Clean 3.1 GB?", says how many items go to the Trash. If you ticked simulators or the Trash group, it also says that those can't be undone. Press ⌘↵ to clean or esc to go back. When it's done, a message says how much it cleaned and names anything it kept. Press ⌘Z (Undo Clean) there to put it all back.
What it checks first
Right before each item moves, Saiki checks it again. An item is kept, with the reason, when:
- it changed since the scan, or is too recent for its rule;
- the tool or browser that owns the cache is running, or something has a file open in it;
- something is running in that project (for build folders);
- its folder can be changed by any user;
- it fails the shared removal checks described in Uninstaller.
Items only an administrator can move go through Finder, which asks for your password. Some caches never appear at all: Saiki's own data, and caches known to break things when removed (sound, System Settings, sign-ins, audio plug-in licences).
Undo Clean
Type undo clean and press ↵ on Undo Clean to put the last clean's items back where they were. The space is only freed when you empty the Trash, so Undo works until then. Deleted simulators and an emptied Trash can't come back. The command only shows while there's something to put back.
Settings
On Settings → Cleaner:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| The switch at the top | Turns the Cleaner off: Clean Up Mac, Undo Clean and the schedule leave. |
| Offer screenshots untouched for | Off, or 7, 14, 30 (the default), 60 or 90 days, for Forgotten screenshots. |
| Clean automatically | Never (the default), Daily or Weekly. Then pick On (the day, for weekly), At and Minutes past. |
| Tell me what it cleaned | A notification after each automatic cleanup, even when there was nothing to clean. Off by default. |
An automatic cleanup cleans only what a scan checks by itself (the Safe cleanup groups), to the Trash, so Undo Clean works for it too. Nothing in it asks for a password; what needs one stays. A run missed while the Mac was off or asleep happens a couple of minutes after it's back.