Help · Mac apps

What Pangalin Space Manager cleans, and what it never touches

By Grant and Brad, who make Pangalin's apps · Updated 16 October 2026

Free Up Space sorts what it finds into two groups. Safe to clean is files that come back on their own: the app that made them rebuilds them, or they download again when needed. Review and decide is everything only you can judge. Nothing is removed until you've seen the list and confirmed it. Here's exactly what goes where, and what Pangalin Space Manager never offers at all.

Where removed files go

• Cache folders are cleared, not moved to the Trash. Pangalin Space Manager empties the folder in place, because the app rebuilds it. The confirmation marks these rows “cleared, rebuilds”.
• Everything else goes to the Trash first. While Pangalin Space Manager is open, Edit › Undo puts back your last removal. After that, drag items back out of the Trash yourself; History shows where they came from.
• A few actions are permanent, and say so first: emptying the Trash, deleting Time Machine local snapshots, ticking Skip the Trash in the confirmation, and Janitors, which run another tool's own clean-up command (such as Homebrew's) and let that tool delete its own files.
• Caches of open apps are skipped. If an app is running, its cache is left alone and the report tells you which app to quit.

Safe to clean

These are caches and copies that come back by themselves. Because they rebuild as you use your apps, some of the space returns over time. Pangalin Space Manager says how much of it is caches that rebuild.

• App caches, only for apps installed on your Mac, which will remake them: ~/Library/Caches/ folders named after the app or its bundle ID, the caches inside sandboxed apps (~/Library/Containers/…/Data/Library/Caches), and the web caches some apps keep in Application Support (Cache, Code Cache and Service Worker/CacheStorage). Slack, Discord and Zoom caches are listed by name.
• Browser caches for Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Brave in ~/Library/Caches, plus each Chrome, Edge and Brave profile's script and offline caches. Sign-ins aren't affected.
• App updater caches: installer files an app's updater downloaded (~/Library/Caches/…updater). They're fetched again at the next update.
• Log files in ~/Library/Logs and inside sandboxed apps. Apps create new ones.
• Developer caches: Xcode DerivedData, iOS and watchOS device support, SwiftUI Previews, the Swift Package Manager cache, iOS Simulator caches, Puppeteer's browsers (~/.cache/puppeteer) and the pnpm store (~/Library/pnpm).
• Package caches (npm, Homebrew, pip, uv, Yarn, Gradle, Maven, CocoaPods, Cargo, Go, node-gyp, pipx), but only where Pangalin Space Manager checks on your Mac that the folder holds no package manifests. Where it does, the row moves to review and points you to that tool's own clean-up instead.
• Adobe media caches (~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Media Cache Files and Media Cache) and ~/Library/Caches/Adobe. Premiere and After Effects rebuild them. Quit Adobe apps first.
• Mail attachments you opened (~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Mail Downloads). These are copies; the messages keep their own.
• Old iOS update files in ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates.
• The Trash, and the Trash on each external drive. Emptying it is permanent, and the button says so.

Apple's own caches are never listed as Safe to clean. Folders starting com.apple. stay out on purpose: some, like Photos' analysis, take hours to rebuild, and Safari's safe-browsing data protects you.

Review and decide

Nothing here is ticked for you. Each shelf explains what it found, and you choose item by item.

• Installers. Disk images and packages (.dmg, .pkg, .iso, .xip) in Downloads, on the Desktop and in Applications, plus leftover “Install macOS” apps. They're usually dead weight once the app is installed, but you check each one. Installers elsewhere in your home folder may be ones you made or keep, so they're flagged for a closer look.
• Temp files. Your own temporary and cache files in /var/folders, and screenshots and screen recordings. An open app may still be using some temp files, so it's safest right after a restart.
• Projects. The rebuildable parts of code projects: node_modules (next to a package.json), Rust target folders, Python virtual environments, CocoaPods Pods, Swift .build folders and old Node versions installed with nvm. A project you worked on in the last 30 days is marked so you think twice. Your source files are never part of this.
• Creative apps. Caches that rebuild only inside their app, such as DaVinci Resolve's render cache. Regenerating them can take hours, so the row tells you how to clear it from inside the app.
• Downloads. Files of 5 MB or more, and folders, in your Downloads folder. Often safe to delete or move, but they're yours, so you decide.
• Large & old. Files over 50 MB that you haven't opened in more than six months. Good candidates to move to an external drive, not junk.
• Largest. The biggest single files on your Mac. A measurement, not a list of things to delete.
• Duplicates. Files that are identical, byte for byte. Pangalin Space Manager merges them instead of deleting: every copy keeps its place and name. How merging works.
• Similar. Photos that look alike, and files whose names differ only by “copy” or a version number. They aren't identical, so you compare them and pick.
• Snapshots. Time Machine's local restore points. macOS removes them by itself, usually within a day. Deleting them is permanent, and affects only the copies on your Mac, never your backup drive.

Some big folders get guidance rather than a delete button, because only their own app can change them safely. Mail Data shows each mail app's store and opens the app that owns it; Apple Mail's own store is never offered for removal. Apple Apps covers Messages, Photos, Podcasts and iPhone and iPad backups, each with the route its own app provides. Backups can be moved to an external drive.

Never touched

• Your Never Clean list. Anything you protect is never deleted, cleared or moved. How to protect a file, folder or app.
• macOS's own files. Files outside your home folder and your other drives are shown as “Protected — macOS owns this” and can't be ticked. The only exception is sound and loop libraries whose makers let you move them. Top-level folders such as /System, /Library, /usr and /Applications, your home folder itself and the top of a drive are always refused.
• Your source code. A folder that holds a code project is refused, wherever the request comes from. Only the rebuildable parts listed under Projects are offered.
• Anything reached through a shortcut. If a path leads through a link, the real data lives somewhere else, usually an external drive, so removing it is refused.
• Folders an open app is using. A shared app folder (a Group Container) stays locked while its app is open.
• Your Photos library. It's never offered for deletion. Pangalin Space Manager shows Apple's way to move it instead.
• Key folders. ~/.ssh, ~/.aws, ~/.gnupg and similar credential folders are never offered as an app's leftovers.

Pangalin Space Manager also has a built-in list it never ticks for you: AI tool sessions (Claude, Codex, Cursor and Gemini), browser extension data, licence and sign-in stores, and music plug-in and sample caches. When you clear a folder that contains one of these, it's kept. You can still choose one on purpose.

Read more

• How to free up space safely
• How to see what Pangalin Space Manager did, and undo it
• How to look around without changing anything
• Never Clean: protect files and apps
• Janitors: other tools' own clean-up commands