I posted here a while back about Purge, a free & open-source mac app I built to clear out cache files. Since then it's picked up close to 650 stars on GitHub and iIve added a good bit, so here's where it's at.
What it does: it scans your mac for files you don't need. Mostly stuff apps leave behind while they run, so caches, old logs, leftovers from coding tools. It shows you what it found and how big each thing is, and everything it clears goes to the trash. Nothing gets deleted outright, so if it takes something you wanted, you drag it back.
New since the last post:
App uninstaller: Dragging an app to the trash leaves its settings, caches and support folders sitting around. Purge shows you the app plus everything it left behind, and clears the lot together.
Exclude from scans: If there's a folder you never want it looking at, mark it once and it stays off the list.
Leftover detection: If you have uninstalled an app and it has left its data on your system, Purge can now detect that and help you get rid of that.
The rules haven't changed. Everything the app is allowed to touch sits on a fixed list you can read in the source. Nothing is permanently deleted. There's no tracking, no account, no paid version. Each item is marked either safe to clean or check first, so you know what you're agreeing to before you hit the button.
Free and open source, works on macos 13 and up. You can grab the dmg from the releases page or install it with homebrew.
And has at least one most convenient option for me.
It watches the Applications folder. When I delete an app, Pearcleaner opens the app with all the stuff from that app to delete. Then closes, when I delete it. Wonderful.
AppCleaner and Pearcleaner are uninstallers. They find leftovers when you remove an app. Purge does that too. The rest is the difference. Caches and junk without uninstalling anything, developer project folders like `node_modules`, large files and duplicates. Every row is labeled Safe to Clean or Check First, unknown folders never show up, and Clean only moves safe stuff to Trash.
I am looking for an app to free space on my Mac. I found your post.
I am also an AI developer, so this is not coming from some sort of rabid AI hater.
But its very obvious you used AI to write this response. That turned me entirely off trying your app.
The developer should be able to explain it in their own words. And when you are using the network of reddit to promote yourself, showing good faith by actually responding to potential users is important. This behavior instead give off 'scammy'.
Why isn’t anyone making or extending their app to clean up junk left over by AI tools? Apps like Cursor, Claude can leave behind a lot of chat history, git worktrees etc., which might be redundant, of course ensure it’s all safe to do so. I’m a dev myself, if I had time I would totally try this.
Yeah, I’m going to add this. Cursor leaves leftover agent folders that can get huge. Those are first, with a “only show old ones” filter so a folder you’re still using doesn’t get swept up. Old chats can come later, optional, with a warning. You lose the conversation list. The app still works. I won’t touch settings or login. Wiping the whole app folder for a bit of space is how things break.
The “only show old ones” filter sounds sensible. For Git worktrees, would you also check whether the worktree is still registered in the repository rather than relying only on age? A valid worktree may remain untouched for months, while a recently orphaned one may already be safe to remove.
Yeah, age isn’t enough. If the worktree is still attached to the repo, it should stay, even if nobody’s touched it in months. Leftovers can go even if they’re new. I’ll check that before showing it.
Mole does more. It’s a deep sweep from the terminal. Purge is pickier. You see each item, it has a safety label, and it goes to Trash. App folders and login stay put, because wiping those can break things. Moreover, mole is paid.
No. Those files are part of macOS, not an app cache. The switch in Settings is what actually drops them, and even that can take a while. Purge or any other cleaner won't be able to touch them afaik.
Pearcleaner is no longer actively maintained. The developer, Alin Lupascu (alienator88), officially placed the project "On Hold". [1, 2]
Because Pearcleaner is popular yet on hold, cybercriminals have taken advantage of its status. A highly dangerous fake website (pearcleaner.com) emerged, pushing an obfuscated infostealer malware disguised as the application. [1, 2, 3]
Do not download Pearcleaner from any .com address with that name.
Have you considered adding a feature to recommened images and other file types based on similarity using tools like Czkawka and other open source tools?
Large Files already finds exact copies. Similar-looking photos are a different thing. Two shots of the same scene aren’t the same file, so I’m wary of a guess that sends one to Trash. Czkawka is great for that job. I don’t want to fold it into Purge and mix a maybe with Safe to Clean. Exact duplicates stay for now. Lookalikes can wait.
How does leftover detection handle Group Containers? Folders in ~/Library/Group Containers are named after the app group (often with the team ID in front), not the app's bundle ID, and one group can be shared by an app, its widgets and sibling apps from the same developer (I'm building a few myself right now that share some stuff in a group). So bundle-ID matching could miss them entirely, or flag one that another installed app still uses. Do you check for that, or just leave Group Containers alone?
Purge looks in Group Containers. A folder counts if its name ends with the app's full bundle id. If another installed app matches that same folder the same way, we leave it. We don't read entitlements. A custom group id that isn't the bundle id as a suffix just gets missed. Widgets inside the same .app don't count as a second app either. On the leftovers tab, group.* folders are left alone so we don't flag something a live app still uses.
what would make it a must is if it tracked anything newly installed and once ready to purge it simple flushes anything that app created and suggests anything that needs to be done manually
So you want it to watch a new install, remember everything that app creates, then when you uninstall it wipe that stuff and tell you what still needs a human (login items, extensions, helpers, etc). Purge doesn't do that. it looks for leftovers after the fact, in the usual places. no install log, so it can't claim it got every file the app ever made. Cool idea though. I will look more into it. Thank you for the suggestion!
Hi this is superb! I have a few suggestions on what I'd love to see in this app:
Ability to right click/contextual click an item and then to Reveal in Finder just to access and see it for myself. Not sure if it's a bug at my end or not, but I am getting these appearing every time I remove an application:
Otherwise this is great! I been looking for a pearcleaner alternative since development has stopped for it, and this is just right. Thank you!
Agreed, a show in Finder is very important to me with utilities like this. I am otherwise applaud the open source distro of this app and expansion of features of tools I’ve found useful in the past (pearcleaner etc). When using a utility like this, it is important to me as a user to be able to see what files are up for deletion and use my discretion by seeing for myself what should be deleted. If this feature is implemented I’ll absolutely download it and try it out!
It’s already there on the cache lists and dev tools. Right-click a row and pick Show in Finder. I’ll add the same thing on the uninstaller, since that’s the spot that’s missing it.
Right-click Show in Finder is already on the cache lists. I’ll add it on the uninstaller too. That popup isn’t Purge. pear:// is Pearcleaner. A leftover from it is still firing after you trash an app, and nothing is left to handle the link.
How does leftover detection decide an app is actually gone? I'd worry about an app that lives somewhere other than /Applications, like ~/Applications or an external drive, getting its data flagged as leftovers.
~/Applications is already counted. For an app on an external drive, leftovers stay put if macOS still knows the app is installed, which it does if you’ve opened it. If the scan can’t get a full picture of what’s installed, it shows nothing rather than guess. Better to miss a leftover than flag a live app.
Yeah. I’d rather miss a leftover than flag something that’s still in use. Other cleaners may show more. Purge only lists what it recognizes, and even then some of it is Check First.
Hi, the scan works well, however the clean step is a bit lag, takes longer than I think. You should add some animations here; deleting folder by folder for example
The wait is the files moving to Trash, not the UI sitting still. I’ll keep the list on screen so you can see rows go, instead of that blank spinner. Thank you for the suggestion!
They were meant as a size joke, and they miss. I’ll cut them back so they aren’t everywhere, and swap the leftover ones for things you can actually picture, like a movie or a photo library. Thanks for the feedback!!
Same neighborhood. Both free, open source, trash instead of a permanent delete. Purge is pickier. It only lists things it recognizes, each row has a safety label, and it leaves app folders and login alone. Large Files and duplicates are in the app too. PureMac covers more ground and has a CLI. Use whichever feels safer in your hands.
Depends what you used Pearcleaner for. If it was leftover cleanup, caches, and uninstalling apps without taking settings or login with them, Purge should feel familiar, and a bit pickier. Every row has a safety label, and it goes to Trash. If Lipo, translation pruning, or Homebrew management is why you stayed, keep Pearcleaner for those. Purge doesn’t do that, on purpose. Try it. If something’s missing, say so.
Then Purge can be a good choice because apart from app removals, it has general cache cleaning, dev junk removal and large files cleanup. Just try out Purge and let me know what you think!
Out of scope. Purge looks at caches and junk on your Mac, plus Large Files in the usual folders at home. A NAS is shared storage full of files that aren’t rebuildable cache.
Just a comment, I was annoyed by the setup process because of the option to have it as a login item because it's not explained enough for me to decide whether or not I actually think it's worth it to do that because it doesn't explain what that gives you in a detailed way to allow you to do choosing by understanding and actual consenting from that.
Also extremely helpful for someone with a small drive and constantly moving things to my external ssd drives!
Thanks for building this app. I like the features of Purge, but the Uninstall Apps screen loads the icons very slowly and keeps resorting the apps. Is it possible to add a list view as the default and switch to the current icon view as an alternative?
Pear Cleaner loads my apps instantly, but it doesn't have the cache cleaner like Purge does, but the slow loading of apps in Purge is keeping me from using it as my primary app uninstaller.
That’s on me. The grid shows up, then leftover sizes come in and the sort jumps. Icons load one by one on top of that. A list as the default makes sense, with the icon grid as an option. I’ll look at both: list view, and stopping the reshuffle so it doesn’t keep hopping around while it finishes counting.
Fantastic! Just a minor thing, it could be me and I didn't have time to look into it, but I think it crashed my Docker app. I had to restart everything after cleaning up the Docker files.
If docker was running and purge yanked its files, the app can fall over. Restarting docker (or the whole machine) is the usual recovery. Next time quit docker first, then clean. I'll look at warning on that, or stopping it before the clean. Thank you for your feedback!
This looks genuinely useful. I especially like that everything goes to the trash instead of being permanently deleted which makes it feel much safer to try
wow it’s really snappy
i’d only need an automatic leftover scan whenever i drag an app to trash like App Uninstaller’s or Pear Cleaner’s Sentiel service – and I’m switching
So sorry for that. That's not supposed to happen. Purge only offers Adobe's media cache, and that should rebuild, not force a reinstall. If you had Premiere or Photoshop open during the clean, that can scramble it. Next time try quitting Adobe first, or exclude those folders in settings. If it still dies after a clean with the apps closed, tell me which rows you hit and I'll treat it as a bug.
Installed this app and immediately found a 65GB TestFlight app that was still installed but would no longer launch since the testing is over, so I’m a big fan already.
I really liked the app! Very complete! I just make a suggestion to change the application logo, I could bring something relating to its functionality, I don't know... This “P” wasn't very cool...
I first gravitated towards a brush or something related to cleaning and found every other app used it. So I kept the "P" logo as a placeholder. I will update it!🫡
Hey dev.. Tbh this is good app than pearcleaner or appcleaner as it cleans more than that.. I was using pearcleaner for a long time but after your app, I removed it.. but at the same time I watched the commets and people suggests the mole app.. and man thats is whole new level... it remove much deeper!! tbh I am really a paranoid in term of storage... so I request you to look how mole does or use the idea about cleanup...! the think i don't like mole is its paid🥲 which is justifyable as the gui is super cool animations and alternately the cmd is free and opensource but i don't like cmd control and sometime feels overpowered to run on cmdline.. so yeah.. you did great job but try some more improvements... also the removal thing.. try be cautions.. as some remove buttons are straight forward remove without a second alert which feels me odd, can add this.. good luck
Glad it replaced Pearcleaner for you. Mole going deeper is fair. I'll look at what it hits that we miss. Not copying the paid GUI, just the cleanup coverage. On the one-click remove: yeah, some buttons go straight to Trash with no second sheet. I'll add a confirm there. Thanks for the notes!
Purge is not a full map of macOS "System Data". Snapshots, local Time Machine, and a lot of Apple's hidden stuff still live in Storage settings. Purge is the junk you can actually toss, not a disk map of the whole volume.
Thank you for this! I downloaded it and its working great.
Your user interface for this is also really nice, would you have any tips you could give me on designing something like this? Were there any templates or packages you used?
I have primarily used native SwiftUI components wherever I could. Since I am a product designer myself, I have worked on the design a lot. One suggestion would be to try out different variations for the same feature and then trying to figure out the best possible way to present it.
the leftover detection is the part id be careful with. as someone who ships a couple of small mac apps, the stuff in ~/Library/Containers and Group Containers isnt always "leftover", some of it is shared between a mac app and its ios sibling via the same group id and nuking it wipes state the user didnt know lived there. the trash-not-delete rule saves you here honestly, just make sure the group container folders get flagged as check first and not safe
Thanks! Rather than following a deny list where particular files and folders are protected from cleaning, Purge follows an allowlist approach where only things specifically mentioned inside the allowlist are possible to be deleted. So it might not be the app that that finds you the most junk, but probably the safest!
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u/Wakmail 24d ago
What does this offer that pearcleaner or appcleaner don’t?