Dupe guide

Cleaning up your Mac Applications folder

The Applications folder is where bloat hides in plain sight. Here's how to audit it and reclaim several GB.

4 min read

The Applications folder doesn’t seem like a big disk-space target until you sort it by size and see that you’ve got a 4 GB app you used twice in 2022. Most people have at least 10–20 GB of apps they don’t actually use. Here’s how to do an honest cleanup.

Step 1: Sort by size

Open Finder, go to Applications, then View > as List. Click the “Size” column to sort.

If size is empty for most apps, click the column header gear icon and add “Size.” Wait a few seconds — Finder calculates app sizes lazily.

Step 2: Audit the biggest

The biggest apps are usually:

  1. Xcode (10–40 GB) — if you're not actively developing iOS apps, this is your single biggest win.
  2. GarageBand (1–2 GB plus optional sound library content of 20+ GB).
  3. Adobe Creative Cloud apps (1–5 GB each).
  4. Microsoft Office (3+ GB).
  5. Logic Pro / Final Cut Pro (1–5 GB each, plus content libraries).
  6. Old game installs.

Step 3: Remove apps properly

Just dragging to the Trash misses the support files in ~/Library.

  1. Quit the app.
  2. Drag the .app from Applications to the Trash.
  3. Search ~/Library for related files: find ~/Library -iname "*appname*" 2>/dev/null
  4. Move those folders to the Trash too.
  5. Empty the Trash.

Or, simpler: open System Settings > General > Storage > Applications, click the app, and “Delete.” macOS does a bit more cleanup than a drag-to-Trash.

Step 4: Don’t delete these

A few apps that look optional but aren’t:

Step 5: GarageBand and the sound library

If you don’t make music, the GarageBand sound library can be 20+ GB even if GarageBand itself is small. Delete it via GarageBand > Sound Library > Download Available Sounds… > then click each and remove. Or just remove the contents of:

/Library/Application Support/GarageBand/
/Library/Application Support/Logic/

Step 6: Mac App Store auto-updates

If apps you don’t use are eating space because they keep updating, turn off auto-update: App Store > Settings > untick “Automatic Updates.”

Where duplicates fit

Apps themselves don’t usually duplicate, but they do create duplicate exports — DMG installers for apps you’ve already installed, multiple versions of the same app downloaded over the years (Microsoft Word 2019, 2021, 2024 all installed), older app bundles in /Applications/Old/ folders.

Download Dupe to catch the orphaned installers and duplicate app content. SHA-256 hashed for accurate matching, $14.99 once, moves to Trash never permanent delete, won’t touch app bundles by design.

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