Bytesweep

Bytesweep is a disk space analyzer and cleaner for macOS and Linux that scans any mounted volume or folder, shows where the bytes went in eight clickable visualizations, and sweeps package caches, journal logs, old kernels, snap revisions and Docker junk with one-click undo.

What is Bytesweep?

Bytesweep is a graphical storage analyzer and cleanup tool for macOS 11 Big Sur or later and for Linux (AppImage and Debian/Ubuntu .deb), sold as a one-time licence rather than a subscription. You point it at an internal disk, external drive, USB stick, NAS share or a single folder; it measures every file to produce size, age, type and duplicate breakdowns, then stages cleanup candidates together with the exact shell command it will run. A 100 GB scan across 2 million files takes roughly 10 seconds on Apple silicon. A Windows build is in progress but is not available yet.

What makes Bytesweep stand out?

• Eight visualization views — Treemap, Folders cards, Sunburst, Flame, Bubbles, Mind Map, Top Sizes and Age Map, each clickable down to a single file, with an inspector, file types, duplicates and app footprints alongside.
• Risk-sorted cleanup instead of one junk pile — findings are grouped into Refused (the OS, home folder, volume roots, Bytesweep's own restore points), Irreplaceable (SSH and GPG keys, certificates, crypto wallets, unpushed git history, VM disks, photo libraries, open databases), Yours, and Rebuilt automatically; a private key inside node_modules is still reported as a private key.
• Undo on every sweep — cleaned items move to a restore point on the same volume, so undo is a rename; restore points last 7 days by default (configurable), after which the space is genuinely reclaimed and permanent deletion asks for confirmation twice.
• Developer and AI cache coverage — Ollama, LM Studio, Hugging Face, torch, GPT4All and Whisper model stores, caches from Cursor, Claude, Copilot, Codeium, Continue and Zed, plus Xcode DerivedData, iOS simulators, Android SDK and AVD images, Docker.raw, node_modules, pip, uv, cargo, go-build, Maven, CocoaPods, and Playwright or Puppeteer browsers. Model weights are marked for review, never filed as disposable.
• Linux maintenance commands per distribution — apt, dnf, pacman and zypper caches with orphaned packages including old kernels, journalctl vacuum, /var/crash core dumps, disabled snap revisions, unused Flatpak runtimes and Docker prune, each run through the operating system's own admin prompt.
• Duplicates and similar photos — byte-for-byte duplicates plus perceptual near-duplicates such as burst shots, re-saves, resized exports and HEIC/JPEG pairs.
• Offline by design — no account, no analytics, no telemetry and no crash reporting; the only network requests are licence activation and a periodic validity check, and everything else works offline for 14 days without a key.
• Multi-machine summaries and reports — one licence covers three computers in any mix of macOS and Linux, scheduled background scans produce weekly PDF and HTML reports, and summaries sync through any shared folder.

Who should use Bytesweep?

• Mac developers: clear Xcode DerivedData (commonly 20 to 60 GB), old simulators, device support files and iPhone backups in MobileSync, and see what "System Data" actually contains including Time Machine local snapshots.
• AI and ML engineers: locate local model stores from Ollama, LM Studio, Hugging Face, torch, GPT4All and Whisper, plus editor caches, and decide per folder rather than deleting weights blindly.
• Linux users: vacuum journal logs, drop old kernels and orphaned packages, clear apt, dnf, pacman and zypper caches, snap revisions and Flatpak runtimes, and prune unused Docker images.
• Photo and video workers: find byte-identical duplicates and perceptual near-duplicates, find forgotten bytes via the Age Map, and evict iCloud, OneDrive, Dropbox or Google Drive files to the cloud instead of deleting them.

What can you do with Bytesweep?

• Mac owners with a full drive: scan the internal disk, see Time Machine snapshots, app containers, Mail attachments, Docker.raw and leftovers from deleted apps separated out, then run Safe Sweep on caches alone and undo it if anything looks wrong.
• Data scientists: spot a 40 GB model store that no mainstream cleaner detects, mark it for review rather than sweeping, and reclaim space from pip, uv and cargo caches instead.
• Linux administrators: reclaim disk on a server or workstation by vacuuming journal logs, clearing package caches and removing old kernels, with the exact command shown before approval and its output shown afterwards.
• Anyone with multiple machines: keep a summary table of free space across three computers, compare saved scans folder by folder, and get a forecast of how many days until the disk is full.

How does Bytesweep work?

Bytesweep follows a scan, see, sweep sequence. You pick a volume or folder and it walks millions of files entirely on your machine, then presents the result in eight switchable visualizations plus an inspector, age map, file types, duplicates and similar photos. Safe Sweep moves only provably safe items — caches, logs, build outputs, trash, installers older than 30 days and dependency folders untouched for a month — to a restore point before removing anything, and the overview screen guesses how the machine is used (development, media work, gaming, office, research, machine learning) and shows the evidence behind that guess.

Pricing

The model is a free 14-day trial followed by a one-time payment of $15 for Bytesweep Pro, charged in your local currency through Dodo Payments; there is no subscription and no renewal. The trial includes all eight views, the inspector, cleanup categories, duplicates, file types, empty folders, snapshots, the live monitor and up to 10 manual sweeps a day, while Pro removes that daily cap and adds Safe Sweep, Undo and Restore, permanent delete, the full uninstaller, Similar Photos, Projects, Cloud Files, System Tools, scheduled reports, PDF export and cross-machine sync. One licence activates three computers in any mix of macOS and Linux, every 1.x update is free, and refunds are available within 14 days.

FAQ

Is there a Windows version of Bytesweep?

Not yet. macOS and Linux are available today, and the Windows build is in progress with planned cleanups for the Windows Update cache, WinSxS, Windows.old, the hibernation file, Delivery Optimization, WSL and Docker vhdx compaction. A licence bought now covers the Windows release at no extra cost.

Can Bytesweep delete something important?

It refuses the operating system, your home folder, volume roots and its own restore points outright, and names SSH keys, certificates, crypto wallets, unpushed git history, VM disks, photo libraries and open databases before removal, keeping the button disabled until you confirm. Sweeps go to a restore point on the same disk and can be undone for 7 days by default.

Does Bytesweep work on external drives and network shares?

Yes. Any mounted volume or folder can be scanned the same way, including external drives, USB sticks, NAS shares and Time Machine disks. Administrator rights are requested only for the specific maintenance task that needs them, through the operating system's own prompt, and are never stored.

What is the difference between logical size and size on disk?

Logical size is what a file contains, while size on disk is what it actually occupies, which is smaller for compressed files on APFS or NTFS and zero for online-only cloud files. Bytesweep shows both so that the totals add up and iCloud files that are not really local are separated out.

How many computers can I use Bytesweep on, and does it need an account?

Three computers at a time in any mix of macOS and Linux, with a deactivate option in the License screen to free a slot. No account or sign-in is required — you receive a licence key by email and paste it into the app. The interface is translated into fourteen languages as of version 1.1.0.