How Unclutter cleans up your Mac and finds lost files

A walkthrough of the cleanup flow and the Unclutter Pro Recover Files workflow. Cleanup usually takes about two minutes; lost-file searches vary by date range and source.

  1. 1

    Open Unclutter and run a Smart Scan

    Launch Unclutter and click 'Smart Scan'. Unclutter walks the directories macOS uses for caches, logs, temporary files, and orphaned application data. The scan is read-only — nothing is modified on disk until you approve it. Typical scans complete in 10–30 seconds on Apple Silicon Macs.

  2. 2

    Review what was found

    Findings are grouped into four categories — Disk Cleanup, Cache Management, App Leftovers, and Smart Suggestions — and sorted by size descending. Expand any category to see the exact files involved, with paths and sizes. You can deselect any item before cleanup.

  3. 3

    Pick what to clean

    By default, Unclutter pre-selects only the items macOS itself treats as safe to remove: cache files, log files, temporary files, and orphaned support files from uninstalled apps. You can deselect anything you want to keep, or expand the 'Advanced' section to opt into more aggressive cleanup.

  4. 4

    Click Clean

    Unclutter moves selected items to the Trash by default (configurable to remove directly). You stay in control: a 14-day Time Machine snapshot, your Trash, and Unclutter's own undo log give you three ways to recover anything you didn't mean to remove.

  5. 5

    Review the report

    After cleanup, Unclutter shows a summary: total space reclaimed, items removed by category, and an estimate of how much will be reclaimed again next month at the current rate of cache growth. Most users see 20–100 GB recovered on a first run.

How Recover Files works in Pro

  1. 1

    Choose a date range and sources

    Open Recover Files, set the dates you remember, then choose sources such as Photo Booth, Messages, Photos Library, Trash, personal folders, or mounted volumes. The scan is read-only.

  2. 2

    Search by file type and keyword

    Filter for videos, images, audio, documents, archives, or other files. Add keywords when you remember a sender, project, place, or folder fragment.

  3. 3

    Review candidates and duplicates

    Unclutter ranks results by confidence and shows why each file matched, including created date, modified date, filename date, and keyword matches. Likely duplicates are marked before export.

  4. 4

    Copy out the files you need

    Selected files are copied into a new recovery folder. Unclutter can also write a JSON manifest, SHA-256 sums, a plain-text search summary, and optional video contact sheets without modifying the originals.

What cleanup never removes

  • Files in ~/Documents, ~/Desktop, or ~/Downloads
  • Photos library, Music library, Mail database
  • Installed applications
  • System-critical files in /System or /Library (System Integrity Protection territory)
  • iCloud Drive contents

Recover Files is part of Unclutter Pro and is separate from cleanup. It can read selected personal sources when you ask it to search, but it only copies files you choose into an export folder and does not delete or move the originals.

$25 · one-time purchase · macOS 12 or later