The Mac cleaner and Activity Monitor alternative that asks first.
TidyByte for Mac finds caches, developer files, duplicates, old downloads, and app leftovers. You see each item and why it matched. Nothing moves until you approve it.
Free · macOS 26 or later · Apple silicon · Version 1.0.0
What it checks
Every area is a list you can review. Each item shows its size, why it matched, and how sure the match is.
Clean
- System Junk
- Caches, logs, and browser data that apps rebuild.
- Developer
node_modules, build folders, Xcode DerivedData, old Device Support, and unused simulators. Homebrew, npm, pip, pnpm, and Docker are cleaned with each tool’s own command.- Large & Old Files
- Large files, old downloads, and installers (
.dmg,.pkg,.xip,.iso) older than 30 days. - Duplicates
- Exact copies, checked with SHA-256. Merge them into APFS clones to save space with no delete, or move the extras to the Trash.
- Photos & Media
- Similar shots, blurry photos, bursts, screenshots, and large videos in your folders and your Photos library. Review them one at a time with Swipe Review. Compress photos and videos — the originals stay.
Apps
- Applications
- Remove an app with its settings, caches, containers, launch agents, and helpers.
- Leftovers
- Data from apps you already deleted. An item counts only if no installed app from the same developer owns it and nothing in it changed for 30 days.
- Login Items
- Agents and daemons that start with your Mac. Items whose program is missing are marked.
Insights
- Space Explorer
- Nine views of your files: list, folders, sunburst, flame, bubbles, mind map, top sizes, age map, and treemap.
- Changes
- A storage forecast, a comparison of two scans, and the Photos & Media trend.
- History
- Every change, with Restore where the operation supports it.
Seven rules it never breaks
- Approval is its own step.
- Selecting a row does not approve it. Every run goes through one confirmation sheet that lists the count for each area.
- The Trash comes first.
- Files go to the Trash, and Photos items go to Recently Deleted. Empty Trash is the only permanent command, and it asks first.
- Each file is checked twice.
- Just before a file changes, TidyByte checks its device, inode, size, and modification time again.
- Some paths are never touched.
- Keychains, certificates and keys, provisioning profiles,
.ssh,.gnupg, source code, system paths, Xcode UserData, and simulator devices. - Sizes are honest.
- A hard link or an APFS clone that shares its blocks frees nothing alone, and the estimate says so.
- Tool cleanups say they are final.
- Package-manager and simulator cleanups run the tool’s own command and cannot be undone. Simulator cleanup waits until Simulator and Xcode quit.
- Unattended runs never delete.
- Automatic maintenance only merges exact duplicates into clones.
What it asks for
Every permission is optional. Without one, TidyByte skips that area and says so.
| Permission | Why | Without it |
|---|---|---|
| Full Disk Access | Read Mail, Safari, and other apps’ caches and containers. | Those areas are skipped, and their sizes show as Unknown. |
| Photos | Find similar, blurry, and large items in the Photos library. | Photos & Media covers your folders only. |
| Notifications | Scan reminders, and an offer to clean up after you delete an app. | No notifications. |
It also watches, not just cleans.
TidyByte Monitor is a full system monitor inside the same app. It shows apps instead of processes, and it records what it sees — locally, for up to a year.
Apps, not processes
Helpers group under the app that started them, so hundreds of rows become a list you can read. CPU, memory, disk, network, and energy for each app.
History and alerts
Every metric, per app, stored on your Mac in SQLite, with live menu bar items and notifications when something stays wrong.
Made for development Macs
Dev servers and ports grouped by project, coding agents with locally-known plan usage, and Docker containers as first-class rows.
Questions
Is TidyByte for Mac free?
Yes. It is free and open source under the MIT license, with no ads, accounts, or subscriptions.
Is anything sent over the network?
No, unless you turn on an AI provider in Settings, under AI & Privacy. The default is local only. Update checks contact the update feed.
Why is there no button to free up RAM?
macOS manages memory better than an app can. TidyByte shows memory use and pressure in the menu bar, and it does not purge memory.
Why do some sizes say Unknown?
TidyByte could not read that location, usually because Full Disk Access is off. It does not guess.
How do I install and update it?
Open the disk image and drag TidyByte to Applications. The app is signed and notarized by Apple. It updates itself, and Check for Updates in the app menu checks now.
Also on iPhone and iPad.
Swipe through your photo library to keep or delete. Same rule: nothing goes until you say so. The source for both apps is on GitHub.