Bytesweep Which file do I need?
On macOS 14 Sonoma or later there is one download: Bytesweep 3.0, a single disk image that runs natively on Apple silicon and on Intel Macs. There is no build to choose.
Universal app for Apple silicon and Intel. macOS 14 Sonoma or later. Version 3.0.0.
Install 2.0 exactly as below. If Finder says an item named Bytesweep already exists in Applications, choose Replace. The licence key you already have activates 2.0 too.
Apple menu → About This Mac. The macOS name and version number are shown there. macOS 14 Sonoma and anything newer takes Bytesweep 3.0. On macOS 13 Ventura, 12 Monterey or 11 Big Sur, use Bytesweep 1.x below.
macOS 11 to 13: Bytesweep 1.x
Bytesweep 3.0 needs macOS 14. On an older Mac, install the previous generation instead: Bytesweep 1.x has the storage analyzer, the cleanup with its seven-day undo and the duplicate finder, but not the modules added in 2.0. Unlike 2.0, it comes as separate builds for Apple silicon and Intel.
Apple menu → About This Mac. If the Chip line says Apple M1, M2, M3 or M4, take the Apple silicon build. If it says Processor · Intel, take the Intel build. Downloading the wrong one is not dangerous, it just runs slower or not at all.
For macOS 11 Big Sur to 13 Ventura. Version 1.2.3.
For macOS 11 Big Sur to 13 Ventura. Version 1.2.3.
Bytesweep for Windows comes from the Microsoft Store. One licence covers one Mac or one Windows PC. Get it from the Microsoft Store
Every macOS build is code-signed with a Developer ID certificate and notarised by Apple. Bytesweep is distributed here rather than through the Mac App Store because a sandboxed app cannot scan the whole disk, which is the entire point of the product.
macOS: installing from the DMG
The familiar way. Double-click the disk image and drag one icon onto another.
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Open the downloaded .dmg
Double-click
ByteSweep-3.0.0.dmgin your Downloads folder. macOS mounts it and opens this window. -
Drag Bytesweep onto the Applications folder
Drag the Bytesweep icon on the left and drop it onto the Applications shortcut on the right. That copies the app into
/Applications.If the window shows only the Bytesweep icon, open a Finder window, press ⇧⌘A to jump to Applications, and drag Bytesweep in there instead.
The disk image window you get after double-clicking the .dmg. -
Eject the disk image, then open the app from Applications
Click the eject arrow next to Bytesweep in the Finder sidebar, then open Bytesweep from your Applications folder — not from the mounted image. You can delete the .dmg afterwards.
macOS: installing from the ZIP
Only Bytesweep 1.x, for macOS 11 to 13, comes as a ZIP. Bytesweep 3.0 is a disk image only.
A ZIP has no installer window — it just gives you the application, and you move it yourself. Three steps.
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Unzip it
Safari unzips downloads automatically, so you may already see Bytesweep.app in your Downloads folder. In Chrome, Firefox or Arc, double-click the
.ziponce and macOS expands it next to the archive. -
Move Bytesweep.app into Applications
Open a Finder window, press ⇧⌘A to jump to Applications, and drag Bytesweep.app in from Downloads. Or select the app and press ⌘C, then ⌥⌘V inside Applications to move it.
If you prefer the terminal:
mv ~/Downloads/Bytesweep.app /Applications/ -
Open it from Applications
Double-click Bytesweep in your Applications folder. You will see the first-launch dialog below once, and never again.
macOS runs quarantined apps from a randomised read-only location (Gatekeeper's App Translocation), and that path changes on every launch. Because macOS grants Full Disk Access per path, permission granted to a translocated app silently stops applying the next time you open it — so scans keep coming back empty or partial. Moving the app into /Applications first is what makes the permission stick.
The first launch
Because the app is notarised, macOS asks a single confirmation question the first time — not the "unidentified developer" block that unsigned apps get.
Give Bytesweep Full Disk Access
macOS keeps Mail, Messages, Safari data, Time Machine snapshots and other apps' containers behind a permission gate. Without it, Bytesweep can still scan — it will just report those folders as zero bytes and quietly miss a large part of what is using your disk.
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Open the setting
Apple menu → System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access. On macOS 12 and earlier it is System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Privacy tab.
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Turn Bytesweep on
Bytesweep appears in the list after its first launch. Flip the switch on. If it is not listed, click +, then pick Bytesweep from Applications.
Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access, with the Bytesweep switch on. -
Quit and reopen Bytesweep
macOS only applies the new permission to a fresh launch. Press ⌘Q, then open the app again and run your scan.
Full Disk Access lets Bytesweep measure those folders. Scanning, visualising, deduplicating and cleanup all run locally; the only network request the app ever makes is the licence check. See the privacy policy.
Linux
Two builds: a portable AppImage that runs anywhere, and a .deb for Debian, Ubuntu and their derivatives.
Any distribution. No install, no root.
chmod +x Bytesweep-1.2.3.AppImage
./Bytesweep-1.2.3.AppImageOn Ubuntu 22.04 and later that stops with dlopen(): error loading libfuse.so.2 — AppImages need FUSE 2 and Ubuntu now ships only FUSE 3. Either install it once, or run without it:
sudo apt install libfuse2t64 # libfuse2 before Ubuntu 24.04
# or, with nothing to install:
./Bytesweep-1.2.3.AppImage --appimage-extract-and-runOn Ubuntu 24.04 and later it then stops on chrome-sandbox … mode 4755. Add --no-sandbox, or see the troubleshooting entry below to keep the sandbox. To get a menu entry, install AppImageLauncher.
On Ubuntu, the .deb is the smoother route — it installs to /opt, where the sandbox helper works without any of this.
Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Pop!_OS.
sudo apt install ./bytesweep_1.2.3_amd64.debInstalls to /opt/Bytesweep and adds a launcher under Utilities.
Linux has no Full Disk Access prompt — it uses ordinary file permissions. Running as your own user, Bytesweep sees everything you can see. Folders belonging to root or other users are reported as unreadable rather than skipped silently, so the totals stay honest. System Tools that need root ask for your password through pkexec when you run them.
If something goes wrong
“Bytesweep is damaged and can’t be opened. You should move it to the Trash.”
This almost always means the download was altered in transit — a corporate proxy, an antivirus scanner or a file-sharing service that re-compressed the archive — which breaks the code signature. Delete it and download again from this site. If it persists, clear the quarantine flag and reopen:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Bytesweep.appYou should never need that command for a file downloaded directly from bytesweep.app.
“Bytesweep can’t be opened because the developer cannot be verified.”
You should not see this — the app is notarised. If you do, the copy did not come from this site, or the download was incomplete. Re-download it. As a one-off you can right-click the app → Open → Open, or go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway under the message about Bytesweep.
My scan finishes instantly, or whole folders show as 0 bytes
Two causes, in this order. First, the app is not in /Applications — move it there and reopen. Second, Full Disk Access is off; turn it on and then quit and reopen the app, because macOS only applies the permission to a fresh launch.
Nothing happens when I double-click the app
Check your macOS version first. Bytesweep 3.0 needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later, and an older macOS will not open it; take Bytesweep 1.x instead. With 1.x, check you took the right architecture: the Apple silicon build will not launch on an Intel Mac at all, and the Intel build needs Rosetta on Apple silicon. Apple menu → About This Mac shows both.
It keeps asking for my administrator password
Only System Tools ask — thinning Time Machine local snapshots, purging inactive memory, and a few package-manager caches genuinely need root. macOS shows its own authentication prompt; Bytesweep never sees or stores your password, and ordinary scanning and cleanup never require it.
Linux: “dlopen(): error loading libfuse.so.2”
AppImages are mounted through FUSE 2, and Ubuntu 22.04 and later ship only FUSE 3, so the library is missing on a stock system. Install it once with sudo apt install libfuse2t64 (the package is called libfuse2 before Ubuntu 24.04 — the rename came with the 64-bit time_t transition). It sits alongside FUSE 3 and breaks nothing.
If you would rather install nothing, run the AppImage with --appimage-extract-and-run, which unpacks it to a temporary folder instead of mounting it. Slower to start, no dependencies.
Linux: “The SUID sandbox helper binary … is not configured correctly”
Ubuntu 24.04 and later block unprivileged user namespaces through AppArmor. Chromium, which Bytesweep is built on, prefers that sandbox and falls back to a helper binary that has to be owned by root with mode 4755 — impossible inside an AppImage, because FUSE mounts it nosuid. Three ways out, best first.
Install the .deb instead. It unpacks to /opt on a normal filesystem, where the helper gets the permissions it needs, and the problem does not arise.
Or re-allow user namespaces and keep the sandbox: sudo sysctl -w kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=0, made permanent by writing kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=0 into /etc/sysctl.d/60-apparmor-userns.conf. This relaxes a system-wide hardening setting, so decide with that in mind.
Or run with --no-sandbox. Simplest, and it starts immediately, but it turns off Chromium’s renderer sandbox for the app.
Where does Bytesweep keep its own data?
Snapshots, settings and restore points live in ~/Library/Application Support/Bytesweep on macOS and ~/.config/Bytesweep on Linux, plus a small trial marker at ~/.bytesweep-trial. Nothing is uploaded.
Can I install it on more than one machine?
Yes, with one licence per computer. Buy as many as you need in the pricing section; each comes with its own key. To move a licence to a new machine, deactivate it on the old one from the Licence screen inside the app.
Uninstalling
Bytesweep is a self-contained app bundle. Drag Bytesweep from your Applications folder to the Trash — that is the whole removal.
To also clear the settings, snapshots and any restore points it kept:
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Bytesweep ~/.bytesweep-trialOn Linux, sudo apt remove bytesweep for the .deb, or just delete the AppImage, then rm -rf ~/.config/Bytesweep ~/.bytesweep-trial.
Undo & Restore keeps swept files on the same volume for seven days so you can undo. Removing the app does not delete them. Open Bytesweep → Restore → Purge now before uninstalling, or delete the restore folder shown on that screen.