Tidy: an honest macOS cleaner
A free alternative to paid Mac “optimisers”: no scare tactics, no background processes and no telemetry.
- 14unit tests, including protected paths and deletion
- 3stages of duplicate detection
- 0background processes and telemetry
Challenge
Mac cleaners often show false alarms, run in the background all the time and delete files with no way back. One bug in such an app can wipe iCloud data, mail or a photo library.
My role
The whole project: idea, code, tests and release.
What I did
- Modules: system and app junk, duplicates, large and long-unopened files, an uninstaller that finds leftovers in the Library, and an interactive disk map.
- Duplicates in three steps: size, a hash of the first and last 8 KB, then a full SHA-256 (CryptoKit). System bundles, Photos libraries and symlinks are skipped.
- Moves files to the Trash by default instead of deleting them. A dry-run mode shows how much space would be freed without removing anything.
- A local JSON audit log records what was removed and when.
Safety
A fixed list of protected paths: system folders, iCloud Drive, Keychain, Messages, Mail, Photos libraries and the main user folders. The rules and the deletion service have their own tests.
Result
- v1.0.0 released under the MIT licence for macOS 14 or later.
Tools
Swift 6, SwiftUI, CryptoKit, FileManager, XCTest, Xcode