Crufti Help

Getting started

Crufti has three screens, listed in the sidebar. The Cleaner removes an app together with the files it left in your Library folder. Space shows what is using your disk. History lists every cleanup so you can put files back.

The first time you scan, macOS asks you to let Crufti read your Library folder. The panel opens on the right folder, so you only need to click Grant Access. Crufti asks for other folders only when a feature needs them (see Folder access).

Everything Crufti removes goes to the Trash, so you can undo it from Crufti for as long as it’s still there.

Uninstalling apps

Remove an app and its leftovers

Drag an app onto the Cleaner screen, or click Choose an App… there (or choose File › Choose an App…, ⌘O) and pick one. Crufti checks 11 places in ~/Library (preferences, caches, logs, saved state, support files and so on) and lists what belongs to the app. Tick what you want gone and click Move to Trash. The app itself goes to the Trash too.

From Finder or the Dock

Right-click an app in Finder and choose Services › Uninstall with Crufti, or choose Open With › Crufti. You can also drop an app on Crufti’s Dock icon. Each way opens the app in the Cleaner and starts the scan. Double-clicking an app still launches it as usual.

Apps you already deleted

If you dragged apps to the Trash before you had Crufti, their files are probably still in your Library. Click Find Leftovers of Deleted Apps on the Cleaner screen, or choose File › Find Leftovers of Deleted Apps, to list files that no installed app uses.

How sure is each match?

Each file has a tag that says why Crufti matched it:

• Exact match: the name is the app’s identifier, such as com.spotify.client.
• Close match: the name starts with the app’s name or identifier.
• Name match: only a word in the name matches. These start unticked, so look them over before you tick them.

A folder that holds documents or attachments is tagged Has your files and also starts unticked.

Apple’s own apps, like Safari or Mail, are never scanned or removed, however you open them in Crufti.

Quick Look

To check a file before you tick it, right-click it and choose Quick Look, or select it and press ⌘Y (File › Quick Look). In a list you can also click the row and press the Space bar, as in Finder. Quick Look works the same way in Space’s list and map. It won’t open an iCloud item that isn’t downloaded, or a folder or package over 2 GB; your Mac beeps instead.

Space

Space measures your disk and shows the biggest things first. Under Space in the sidebar, pick Home Folder or Whole Disk. Whole Disk measures everything on your startup disk. That takes minutes, so it only starts when you click Measure Whole Disk or Scan Again.

You can move things inside your Home folder to the Trash. Outside it, Crufti only measures. Apps in /Applications are the exception: choosing one opens it in the Cleaner, which removes it with its leftovers.

List or Map

See items as a list sorted by size, or as a map where each block is as big as the space it takes. Flip between them with the List and Map switch, or with View › as List and View › as Map.

Worth a look

Space points out things that are often safe to clear: old installers in Downloads, caches, leftovers of deleted apps and developer files that rebuild themselves.

Find Items and Ask Space

Find Items opens filters for kind, size, age and folder, for questions like “caches over 1 GB I haven’t touched in six months”. On a Mac with Apple silicon, macOS 26 or later and Apple Intelligence turned on, you can type that question instead and Ask Space fills in the filters for you. The question is handled on your Mac.

What Is This?

Right-click an item and choose What Is This? to see what it is and what removing it would do. On a Mac with Apple Intelligence, the on-device model can name items Crufti doesn’t recognize; nothing is sent anywhere.

History

Every cleanup is listed in History, newest first, under Today, This Week, This Month and Earlier. Type in the search field to find a cleanup by app name or bundle ID, such as com.spotify.client.

Apps that are no longer installed are marked Deleted app, with their bundle ID shown when the name alone doesn’t identify them. Open a cleanup to see each file it moved to the Trash, and click Restore to put them back.

Folder access

Crufti runs in the Mac App Store sandbox, so it can only read a folder after you allow it in a macOS panel. It never asks for Full Disk Access. Each panel opens on the folder Crufti needs, so you just click Grant Access. Keep the folder the panel opens on; picking a different one won’t work.

• Library folder: to find the files apps leave behind. Asked the first time you scan.
• Home folder: so Space can measure your Home folder and move things in it to the Trash.
• Whole disk: so Space can measure everything on your startup disk. Outside your Home folder it only reads.
• Applications: asked only when you remove an app itself, so it can go to the Trash.
• Trash: so Crufti can show how big the Trash is and empty it.

Undo and restore

After a cleanup, click Undo on the finished screen. Later, open the cleanup in History and click Restore. Either way, files go back where they were.

This works while the files are still in the Trash. Once the Trash is emptied they’re gone for good, and Restore tells you so. If an app itself can’t be moved back, open the Trash in Finder, right-click the app and choose Put Back.

AI Review and Apple Intelligence

If you’re not sure about something in Space, tick it and click AI Review. Copy Prompt puts a description of each item on your clipboard to paste into the AI assistant you already use. Crufti sends nothing itself.

On a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 27 or later, you can press Ask Apple Intelligence instead, after a one-time notice. If you press Ask Apple Intelligence in Space, the items you ticked are sent to Apple's Private Cloud Compute to be rated, and Apple says it doesn't keep them.

Each item comes back rated Safe, Careful or Keep. Treat the ratings as advice: Crufti can make a rating more careful but never less, and nothing is removed until you tick it and confirm.

Empty Trash

Choose File › Empty Trash…, or click the free-space figure at the bottom of the window and use Empty Trash there. The first time, Crufti asks once for access to your Trash folder.

Emptying the Trash deletes the files permanently. There’s no Undo, and earlier cleanups can’t be restored after it. Crufti asks before emptying unless you turn off “Ask before emptying the Trash” in Settings.

Unlock and Restore Purchases

Scanning, Space, History, AI Review and Undo are free. Moving things to the Trash needs a one-time purchase of $9.99. You pay once; there’s no subscription.

Already bought it and using another Mac? Choose Crufti › Restore Purchases. If you bought Crufti before it became free, everything stays unlocked and there’s nothing to do.

Troubleshooting

“Crufti couldn’t read …” after a scan

macOS kept Crufti out of some places in your Library, so it skipped them. The results may be missing files from there, and nothing in those places was touched. If the banner shows Grant Containers Access or Grant Group Containers Access, click it and confirm the folder in the panel to include them.

You clicked Don’t Allow or picked the wrong folder

No harm done; you can grant access again. For the Library folder, click Grant Access on the Cleaner screen. For Space, open Home Folder or Whole Disk in the sidebar and click the Allow Access button.

Crufti won’t open after an update

Restart your Mac. If it still won’t open, delete it and install it again from the App Store. Your purchase comes back with Restore Purchases.

The Dock shows the old icon

macOS caches app icons. Open Terminal and run killall Dock; the Dock restarts with the new icon.

Keyboard shortcuts

Contact

Email [email protected]. If something isn’t working, choose Crufti › Copy Diagnostics (⇧⌘D) and paste the result into your email. It holds the app version, the unlock status and recent log lines; have a look before you send it.

In the app, Help › Crufti Help opens this page.

See also the Privacy Policy.