File Stacker

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 FREE

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 PRO

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 FREE

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 FREE

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 (macOS 14 or later), 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 PRO

1. Right-click an item and choose Move to Trash.
2. Read the confirmation: it shows exactly how much will move and how many items are inside. Confirm to move it.
3. A report lists what moved and how your free space changed.
4. When you're sure, empty the Trash in Finder. Until then, the space is still in use.

Free version: use Show in Finder and delete the item there.

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 PRO

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 PRO

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, Logs, Xcode DerivedData, simulator data, npm, pip and Homebrew caches, iPhone backups, old installers and Downloads you haven't opened in six months.
3. Read each explanation, tick what you want to remove, and click Move Selected to Trash.

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. Items marked informational, like Docker's disk image, are shown so you know they're there; manage those in their own app.

10. Find duplicate files PRO

1. Scan a folder, then open Duplicates in the sidebar.
2. Choose Ignore files under (1 MB, 10 MB or 100 MB) and click Find Duplicates.
3. Each set lists identical copies. Use the Keep menu (Newest copy, Oldest copy or a folder), or click Keep this one on a specific copy.
4. Click the set's button to keep that copy and move the others to the Trash. Every copy is re-checked right before anything moves.

Good to know: sets marked APFS clones already share storage, so removing them frees almost nothing. Files stored only in iCloud are skipped rather than downloaded.

11. Find large, old files PRO

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.

12. Uninstall an app completely PRO

1. Open Uninstall Apps and click Choose App…, then pick the app in Applications. Quit the app first if it's running.
2. File Stacker lists the app and the caches, containers, preferences and support files it left behind. Items matched by the app's identifier are pre-selected; anything matched only by name, or that may hold your own data, is left for you to decide.
3. Click Move Selected to Trash.
4. To clean up after apps you deleted long ago, click Find Leftovers From Uninstalled Apps.

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 (chart on macOS 13 or later).
2. Pick any two scans to compare; What changed lists the folders that grew or shrank the most.
3. To keep history current automatically, open Settings (⌘,) and set Scheduled Scans to Daily or Weekly. You'll get a notification when a folder grows by 500 MB or more.

14. Skip or protect a folder FREE

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 low-space alerts PRO

1. Open Settings (⌘,).
2. Turn on Show free space in the menu bar and, if you like, Launch File Stacker at login (both need macOS 13 or later).
3. Under Alerts, set the threshold and click Allow Notifications…. You'll be warned when free space drops below it.

Good to know: alerts and scheduled scans run while File Stacker is open, including when it's only in the menu bar.

16. Use System Doctor PRO

1. Click System Doctor in the sidebar. No folder access is needed.
2. The banner at the top is the verdict. Anything that needs attention, like a nearly full disk or a worn battery, appears there with a suggestion.
3. The cards show CPU, memory, network, power and disk. Readings refresh every two seconds while the screen is open; nothing is recorded.
4. The process list shows your busiest apps. Click Activity Monitor to see every process or quit one.

Good to know: macOS doesn't let sandboxed apps read system processes, so the list shows the ones that belong to you. Battery health compares today's full-charge capacity with the battery's original design capacity.

17. 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.

18. Free space from iCloud files

1. Right-click a file in iCloud Drive and choose Remove Download (Keep in iCloud).
2. The local copy is removed and the file stays safely in iCloud. It downloads again when you open it.

19. Unlock or restore Pro

1. Try any Pro feature, or choose File Stacker → Unlock File Stacker Pro… from the menu bar.
2. Click Unlock Pro and confirm with your Apple ID. Everything unlocks immediately.
3. On another Mac, or after reinstalling, click Restore Purchase in the same sheet or in Settings → File Stacker Pro.

Bought File Stacker before it became free? Pro unlocks automatically on macOS 13 or later. On macOS 12, email help@littlemacapps.com and we'll sort it out.

20. 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.