Poof Support

The Mac App Store version runs in Apple’s App Sandbox, which shows an app none of your files until you choose. Click Choose Home Folder…: the panel already shows your Home folder, so just click Allow Access. Poof keeps a bookmark to it on your Mac, so it doesn’t need to ask each time.

To find what can go, Poof looks at names, sizes and dates; to find duplicates, it also compares the contents of files of 1 MB or more, on your Mac. Nothing about your files is sent anywhere, and nothing is removed until you confirm, unless you turn on Auto clean.

It’s optional. With it, Poof can also clean the Trash, Mail downloads, device backups, other apps’ caches and what removed apps left behind: places macOS guards from every app.

On the Needs Full Disk Access card, click Open Settings, turn Poof on in the list (add it with + if it isn’t there), then click Reopen Poof: macOS applies the permission only when the app opens again. You can turn it off any time in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access.

Poof ticks for you only what apps make again or download again: caches, logs, build data and Mail downloads, except anything whose app is open or that changed recently. Those are deleted. Installers, backups, archives, apps and any of your own files you tick go to the Trash, so you can put them back; your own files are never ticked for you.

With Full Disk Access the Trash is ticked too, and it’s emptied for good. Before anything goes, a confirmation says what will happen to each kind, that included. Poof never touches your Photos and Music libraries or iCloud Drive.

Scanning is always free. Cleaning and Auto clean need Poof Pro: a weekly or yearly subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase, with prices in your own currency before you buy. If Poof offers free cleans, it shows how many are left beside the Clean button.

New Mac, or reinstalled? Poof starts free until you restore: Poof → Settings → Poof Pro → Restore Purchases (the plans page has the same button), with the same Apple Account. To cancel, click Manage Subscription in that tab, or use Apple’s subscriptions page in the App Store app: your name → Account Settings.

Open Applications in the sidebar, tick the app and clean: the app and the data it keeps go to the Trash together, so you can put them back. The Mac App Store version asks once for your Applications folder (Allow Access…). An app that is open is never removed, so quit it first.

macOS protects apps you’ve opened from changes by other apps: to remove those, click Open Settings, allow Poof under App Management, then click Reopen Poof. Apps installed for everyone on your Mac, from the App Store or an installer, can only be removed in Finder, which asks for your password. Apple’s own apps are never listed.

With Show Poof in the menu bar on (Poof → Settings → General), Poof checks your free space every minute and, with Tell me when my Mac runs low on space, warns you at most once a day when it drops under 30 GB or 8%. Closing the window keeps Poof in the menu bar, and Open Poof at login brings it back after a restart.

Auto clean, part of Poof Pro, takes only what rebuilds itself (caches, logs, Xcode’s build data) every week or when space runs low. It never takes your own files or the Trash, never runs while you’re using Poof’s window, and tells you what it freed. No warnings? Check System Settings → Notifications → Poof.