I built MacSpaceBack after noticing a gap between macOS storage warnings and the tools available to act on them. When disk space runs low, the system alerts you, but understanding what actually needs to be removed is often unclear. Many cleanup apps rely on deep folder trees, which can be powerful, but also time-consuming and overly technical. In reality, disk space is usually consumed by large files that haven’t been used in a long time—old installers, exports, archives, videos, or forgotten downloads. The core issue I was facing is how to find low hanging fruits without investing too much time and effort.
MacSpaceBack takes a different approach. Instead of giving you tools to navigate the entire file system, it focuses on two signals that matter most: file size and time since last use. By combining these, it highlights the biggest space consumers that are most likely safe to remove, without requiring deep navigation. The result is a clear, prioritized view of what’s taking space and why—so reclaiming storage is simple and deliberate.
asimovDev•1mo ago
I went into comments to ponder how the app determines "unused files". I guess seeing access time is how?
Could you elaborate on that? Are there customizeable thresholds of some kind that I could set for this? I am immediately imagining a scenario where an app I use once in a while has its files deleted from app support folder because i use it so rarely.
simasscores•1mo ago
The app determines “unused” files by inspecting the filesystem metadata, specifically the creation date and last modification date of each file. It does not rely on last access time, since that approach would be unreliable on APFS.
I was skeptical at first, but I’ve been using it constantly and it gives very useful suggestions. For example, some movie files I converted to a different format were flagged — the originals were already deleted, but the converted files were still lingering in ~/SmartConverter/Exports/Movies.
There isn’t currently a customizable threshold you speak about, but that’s a great idea! I’m just launching the app, so I haven’t collected a lot of feedback or feature requests yet — thank you for the suggestion!
The files in the app support folders you mentioned usually don’t take up much space, so they rarely appear at the top of the suggestions list. That said, occasionally MacSpaceBack may suggest a file you don’t want to delete — that’s why it includes the “Mute” feature, which lets you ignore suggestions for specific files.
I view this app as a super quick way to reclaim a few gigabytes of data without spending a lot of time and for me it proven to be super helpful
asimovDev•1mo ago
That's quite interesting, thank you for answering.
Not to put a lot on your plate, but have you considered creating a trial version that doesn't delete the files but just says how much space you can reclaim? I assume listing out the files wouldn't be very good cause then user can just go and manually delete the files without purchasing. maybe something like "87 files would be deleted to reclaims XY GB of space. Purchase now" or something along those lines.
simasscores•1mo ago
Yes, the trial mode is in my TODO list : ) Thanks again for your feedback! : )
simasscores•1mo ago
MacSpaceBack takes a different approach. Instead of giving you tools to navigate the entire file system, it focuses on two signals that matter most: file size and time since last use. By combining these, it highlights the biggest space consumers that are most likely safe to remove, without requiring deep navigation. The result is a clear, prioritized view of what’s taking space and why—so reclaiming storage is simple and deliberate.
asimovDev•1mo ago
Could you elaborate on that? Are there customizeable thresholds of some kind that I could set for this? I am immediately imagining a scenario where an app I use once in a while has its files deleted from app support folder because i use it so rarely.
simasscores•1mo ago
I was skeptical at first, but I’ve been using it constantly and it gives very useful suggestions. For example, some movie files I converted to a different format were flagged — the originals were already deleted, but the converted files were still lingering in ~/SmartConverter/Exports/Movies.
There isn’t currently a customizable threshold you speak about, but that’s a great idea! I’m just launching the app, so I haven’t collected a lot of feedback or feature requests yet — thank you for the suggestion!
The files in the app support folders you mentioned usually don’t take up much space, so they rarely appear at the top of the suggestions list. That said, occasionally MacSpaceBack may suggest a file you don’t want to delete — that’s why it includes the “Mute” feature, which lets you ignore suggestions for specific files.
I view this app as a super quick way to reclaim a few gigabytes of data without spending a lot of time and for me it proven to be super helpful
asimovDev•1mo ago
Not to put a lot on your plate, but have you considered creating a trial version that doesn't delete the files but just says how much space you can reclaim? I assume listing out the files wouldn't be very good cause then user can just go and manually delete the files without purchasing. maybe something like "87 files would be deleted to reclaims XY GB of space. Purchase now" or something along those lines.
simasscores•1mo ago