See what's taking up space on your Mac

1. Run your first scan

File Stacker is sandboxed: it can only read folders you hand it, and it remembers them.

1. Open File Stacker. On the welcome screen, click Scan Home Folder… to see everything, or Scan Downloads… for a quick start.
2. In the folder picker that opens, keep the suggested folder selected and click Grant Access.
3. The scan starts at once and shows its progress. Large home folders take a minute or two.
4. To add another folder or an external disk later, click Grant Access to a Folder… at the top of the sidebar.

Tip: granting your Home folder covers Library, Downloads, Documents and everything inside them. Some places, such as Photos library internals and Mail, stay protected by macOS and are marked with a lock.

2. Read the treemap

Every rectangle is a file or folder. The bigger the rectangle, the more disk space it uses.

1. Colors show the kind of file. The legend above the map names them; click a kind to highlight only that kind.
2. Click a folder to open it. Use the arrow in the toolbar or ⌘↑ to go back up, and the house button to return to the top.
3. Tiny items are combined into an Other block. Drag the Group below slider to show more or less detail.
4. Sizes are what each item actually occupies on disk, which is what fills your drive.

3. Switch views

1. Use the view buttons in the toolbar, or press ⌘1 Treemap, ⌘2 Sunburst, ⌘3 Table, ⌘4 Overview.
2. Sunburst shows nested folders as rings. Table is a sortable outline you can expand. Overview breaks the scan down by category and lists the largest items.

4. Search and filter

1. Press ⌘F or click the search field and type part of a name. Type an extension like .dmg to find every disk image.
2. Click Filter to show only items Larger than a size or Not opened in a few months or years.
3. Click Clear Filters to see everything again.

5. Inspect a file

1. Click any item. The inspector on the right shows its size on disk, item count, dates, kind and the largest things inside it.
2. Press Space to preview it with Quick Look, or right-click for Open, Quick Look, Show in Finder and Copy Path.
3. Show or hide the inspector with ⌥⌘I.

6. Free up space safely

1. Right-click an item and choose Move to Trash.
2. Check the confirmation, then confirm to move the item.
3. When you're sure, empty the Trash in Finder. Until then, the space is still in use.

Good to know: the free version moves one file or folder per action. To move several in one go, gather them in the Collector (Pro).

7. Remove several items at once Pro

1. Right-click items anywhere in File Stacker and choose Add to Collector, or press ⇧⌘C.
2. The Collector bar at the bottom shows how many items and how much space you've gathered. Click Review… to check the list.
3. Click Move All to Trash (⇧⌘⌫) and confirm once.

8. Put something back

1. Open Recent Removals in the sidebar.
2. Find the item and click Put Back. It returns to where it was, as long as it's still in the Trash.

9. Clean up caches and leftovers

Cleanup measures well-known places that grow over time and explains what each one is.

1. Grant your Home folder first (guide 1), then open Cleanup in the sidebar.
2. It measures categories such as Application Caches, Xcode DerivedData, Simulator Devices & Caches, Swift Package Caches, npm / Yarn / pnpm, pip / uv / Hugging Face and Homebrew caches, and more.
3. Read each explanation, tick what you want to remove, and click Move Selected to Trash. The free version moves one item at a time; Pro moves several at once.

In-depth guide: clean up Xcode storage →

Good to know: caches are rebuilt when apps need them, so clearing them is safe but may make an app slower the first time it starts. Some categories carry a warning: removing Docker Disk Image removes all containers and images, so the app suggests docker system prune inside Docker Desktop instead.

10. Find duplicate files

1. Scan a folder, then open Duplicates in the sidebar.
2. Set Ignore files under to skip small files, then run the search.
3. Each set lists identical copies with their size and dates. With Pro, choose the copy to keep and move the others to the Trash. The free version shows how many sets there are and the first three in full.

Good to know: the space shown is an upper bound. APFS clones, hard links and compression can mean less space is recovered.

In-depth guide: find duplicate files on a Mac →

11. Find large, old files

1. Scan a folder, then open Large & Old Files.
2. Set Larger than and Not opened in. The list updates instantly, biggest first.
3. Preview with Quick Look, then move what you don't need to the Trash.

In-depth guide: find large files on a Mac →

12. Uninstall an app completely Pro

1. Quit the app, then open Uninstall Apps and pick it.
2. File Stacker lists the app and leftover files it can find by the app's bundle identifier and name, such as caches and preferences.
3. Matching is a heuristic, so review each item, then move what you want to remove to the Trash.

Good to know: leftovers live in your Library, so this works best with your Home folder granted.

13. Track what grew Pro

1. Every scan is saved as a summary. Open History & Trends to see a folder's size over time.
2. Pick any two scans to compare; What changed lists the folders that grew or shrank the most.
3. To keep history current automatically, turn on scheduled scans in Settings (⌘,). They run while File Stacker is open.

14. Skip or protect a folder

1. Right-click a folder, choose Exclusions, then pick a rule. You can also manage the list in Settings → Exclusions.
2. Skip in scans: the folder is listed but not measured, and tools ignore it. Good for huge folders you don't care about.
3. Protect from removal: the folder is measured and shown, but tools never suggest it and Move to Trash is refused inside it. Good for anything precious.

15. Menu bar and scheduled scans

1. Open Settings (⌘,).
2. Turn on the menu bar item and, if you like, launch at login. Both are free and optional, and need macOS 13 or later.
3. With Pro, also turn on scheduled scans and notifications for growth and low space.

Good to know: scheduled scans run while File Stacker is open, including when only its menu bar item keeps it running. They stop when you quit the app.

16. Export a report Pro

1. Click Export in the toolbar.
2. Choose the current folder or the whole scan, as CSV (for spreadsheets) or JSON.
3. Pick where to save it. File Stacker tells you how many rows were written.

17. Free space from iCloud files

1. Right-click a file in iCloud Drive and choose Remove Download.
2. File Stacker asks macOS to remove only the downloaded local copy; the file stays in iCloud. Availability depends on your iCloud setup and the item you chose.

18. Unlock Pro on another Mac

1. On the other Mac, download File Stacker free from the Mac App Store, signed in with the Apple Account you bought Pro with.
2. Open File Stacker, then Settings (⌘,), and click Restore Purchase.

Good to know: File Stacker Pro is tied to your Apple Account, so you don't pay again on your other Macs. If you bought File Stacker before it became free, Pro unlocks by itself on macOS 13 or later; on macOS 12, email help@littlemacapps.com.

19. Remove a folder's access

1. Right-click the folder under Granted Folders in the sidebar and choose Remove Access.
2. File Stacker forgets the folder. Nothing on disk changes.