Cleaning and safety
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SpaceUp Mac never deletes anything without your approval. Every clean ends at a review screen where each item shows its size and a plain reason, and nothing is removed until you confirm it. Your own files go to the Trash so you can undo, rebuildable junk is cleared directly because your Mac recreates it, and the few permanent actions are labeled as permanent before you approve them.
That is the whole safety model. The rest of this page walks through each part.
The review screen
Every scan ends in a list, not an action. Each item on the review screen shows what it is, how much space it takes, and why it is safe (or not) to remove.
In the Clean section, green means safe: junk your Mac can rebuild on its own. Safe items come pre-ticked. Anything that needs more thought is left for you to tick yourself, and Deep Scan adds a plain-English risk note to every big item it finds. Untick anything and it stays.
SpaceUp Mac also never runs elevated to scan or clean, and never asks for an admin password to do it. If you revoke Full Disk Access it keeps working with whatever access remains.
Three ways things get removed
Not everything should go to the Trash, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. Here is exactly what happens to each kind of item:
| What | Example | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Your own files | Big files you pick in Deep Scan, apps you uninstall | Moved to the Trash. Undo anytime with Put Back. |
| Rebuildable junk | Caches, logs, temporary files | Cleared directly. Your Mac rebuilds it as it needs it. |
| Permanent items, clearly labeled | Old iPhone and iPad backups, Empty Trash, Xcode Archives, Advisor cleanups like removing Simulator runtimes | Permanent. In the Clean tab they’re marked “Can’t undo”, never ticked by the All button, and named in a confirmation before anything is removed. Advisor asks before every cleanup it runs. |
The middle row is the one most cleaners gloss over. Trashing 40 GB of caches would not free 40 GB, it would just move the problem into your Trash. So rebuildable junk is cleared directly, and your apps recreate what they need the next time they run. There is more on that reasoning in why the app trashes your files but clears caches.
What SpaceUp Mac never touches
The cleanup catalog is a fixed, hand-curated list of caches, derived files and a few clearly labeled permanent items. Beyond it, the app only looks for well-known build folders inside your projects, like node_modules, or a build folder next to a package.json, and lists each one by project on the review screen. Off the table entirely:
- Your code and your git history. Dev Mode clears build output and package caches, and even node_modules and build folders go through the same review as everything else.
- Sign-ins, credentials and signing keys. Clearing a package manager’s cache leaves its auth tokens where they are.
- AI chats and models. Clearing an AI desktop app’s cache leaves your conversations alone. Large local models from tools like Ollama and LM Studio are listed with their sizes and never deleted. Re-downloadable model caches the app lists by name, like the Hugging Face hub and Chrome’s on-device model, stay unticked until you choose them, and other known model folders in
~/.cacheare left out of the cache sweep. - Documents, photos, and anything else you made. If a file of yours is ever removed, it went to the Trash first, because you picked it in Deep Scan or uninstalled the app it belonged to.
Undoing a clean
Anything SpaceUp Mac trashed sits in the regular macOS Trash. Open the Trash, right-click the item, choose Put Back, and it returns to where it came from.
Two kinds of removal cannot be undone, and both are by design:
- Rebuildable junk that was cleared directly. There is nothing to restore. Your Mac rebuilds it as you use it.
- Permanent items you approved, like old iPhone backups. In the Clean tab and Dev Mode they were marked “Can’t undo”, you ticked them yourself, and the app named them in a confirmation first. Advisor asks before each of its cleanups.
And an emptied Trash is gone the way any emptied Trash is gone. That is why Empty Trash is a deliberate, clearly labeled action you tick yourself, never something the All button can bundle into a clean.
Keep backups anyway
This has nothing to do with cleaner apps and everything to do with owning a computer: keep a backup. Time Machine with any external drive is enough, and Apple’s guide covers setup in a few minutes: Back up your Mac with Time Machine.
A cleaner that works correctly never makes you reach for that backup. But disks fail and laptops get stolen, so the honest advice is the same whether you use SpaceUp Mac or clean by hand. Back up first, always.
Stuck on something? Email [email protected] and you will get a fast, human answer.