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Purge is a free Mac app that can reclaim 10 GB of Apple Intelligence models
The open source app shows what fills your drive, offers specific ways to clear it, and has no ads, upsells or subscription.
A free cleaner that can remove over 10 GB
Purge can delete Apple Intelligence's offline models from macOS 27, which could free up over 10 GB on a Mac. [1] The app is totally free and open source, and it gives a quick breakdown of what is taking up space on a hard drive while offering specific ways to free it up. [1]
Purge has no ads or upsells. [1] Many other space-freeing apps charge a subscription. [1]
How Purge works
To start, you download and install Purge and open it. It then shows what is taking up space on your Mac. [1]
The app is built around lists of files known to be safe to purge. It also keeps a list of things it will never touch, including crucial system files and your own documents. [1] Purge sends files to the Trash instead of deleting them outright, so they can be recovered. [1]
A Clean Safe Items button cleans automatically. The author recommends paying closer attention rather than using it blindly. [1]
What it finds
Caches are files downloaded and saved to speed things up, and they can stick around longer than necessary and take up space. [1] Caches and settings left behind by apps you uninstalled long ago can also still take up space. [1]
Apple's Aerial screen savers are large video files, and Purge lists them as taking up a lot of space. [1] A separate tool shows only the largest files on the computer, which are likely videos or other large media. [1]
The Dev Tools section lets Homebrew users delete cached installation files they no longer need. The section is not relevant for most people. [1]
Uninstalling and leftover data
Purge's uninstall tool removes an app along with every file associated with it, including settings, caches, and downloaded content. Deleting apps in Finder can leave files behind. [1]
Another tool shows leftover data from apps you have already deleted. In the author's case it amounted to several gigabytes. [1]
The Apple Intelligence models
Apple's recent operating systems come preloaded with offline AI models. They power notification summaries, writing suggestions, and the new AI-powered Siri. [1] In macOS 27, Apple removed the toggle that lets users disable Apple Intelligence altogether. [1]
Purge's final tool lists installed Apple Intelligence models. When you click the button, it deletes them and prevents macOS from reinstalling them. [1]
What it means for you
If you want space back on a Mac, you can open the macOS Storage view through the Apple menu, About This Mac, then Storage. In newer macOS versions, it is under System Settings > General > Storage. [2] Local iPhone and iPad backups on a Mac can occupy huge amounts of space. [2] When the external Time Machine backup drive is not connected, local snapshots may be stored temporarily on the Mac. [2]
Moving a file to the Trash does not free disk space until the Trash is emptied. [2] If you forget to empty it, you can enable the option to automatically remove items from the Trash after a set period, such as 30 days. [2]
Because Purge sends files to the Trash, anything it removes can be recovered. [1] The author plans to keep Purge installed. [1]
Sources
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