Bytesweep
Installation

Installing Bytesweep

Bytesweep is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarised by Apple, so macOS opens it without a warning about an unidentified developer. Pick your download below — the whole thing takes about a minute.

Which file do I need?

On macOS the DMG and the ZIP contain exactly the same application. The DMG gives you the drag-to-Applications window; the ZIP is smaller and faster if you would rather move the app yourself.

Apple silicon or 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.

Apple silicon (M1 – M4)

Native arm64 build. Version 1.0.0.

Download .dmg Download .zip
Intel Mac

x86-64 build. macOS 12 Monterey or later.

Download .dmg Download .zip

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.

  1. Open the downloaded .dmg

    Double-click Bytesweep-1.0.0-AppleSilicon.dmg in your Downloads folder. macOS mounts it and opens this window.

  2. 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.

    The Bytesweep disk image window: the app icon on the left, an arrow, and the Applications folder shortcut on the right. Bytesweep Bytesweep drag Applications Drag the app onto the folder to install it
    The disk image window you get after double-clicking the .dmg.

  3. 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

A ZIP has no installer window — it just gives you the application, and you move it yourself. Three steps.

Three stages: the downloaded ZIP file, the unzipped Bytesweep application, and the Applications folder it is dragged into. Bytesweep…mac.zip in Downloads unzip Bytesweep.app still in Downloads drag Applications where it belongs
ZIP → application → Applications folder. The last arrow is the one people skip.

  1. 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 .zip once and macOS expands it next to the archive.

  2. 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/

  3. Open it from Applications

    Double-click Bytesweep in your Applications folder. You will see the first-launch dialog below once, and never again.

Do not run Bytesweep from your Downloads folder.

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.

The macOS confirmation dialog: Bytesweep is an app downloaded from the Internet, are you sure you want to open it, with Cancel and Open buttons. “Bytesweep” is an app downloaded from the Internet. Are you sure you want to open it? Apple checked it for malicious software and none was detected. Cancel Open
Click Open. The line about Apple finding no malicious software is the notarisation check passing.

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.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

    System Settings showing Privacy and Security selected in the sidebar and the Full Disk Access list with the Bytesweep switch turned on. General Appearance Privacy & Security Desktop & Dock Displays Full Disk Access Allow the applications below to access data such as Mail, Messages, Safari, Home and Time Machine backups. Bytesweep Terminal + − Quit and reopen Bytesweep for the change to take effect.
    Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access, with the Bytesweep switch on.

  3. 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.

Nothing leaves your machine.

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.

AppImage

Any distribution. No install, no root.

Download AppImage
chmod +x Bytesweep-1.0.0.AppImage
./Bytesweep-1.0.0.AppImage

On 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-1.0.0.AppImage --appimage-extract-and-run

On 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.

.deb package

Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Pop!_OS.

Download .deb
sudo apt install ./bytesweep_1.0.0_amd64.deb

Installs to /opt/Bytesweep and adds a launcher under Utilities.

Reading other users' files

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.app

You 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 you took the right architecture. An Intel-only build will not launch on Apple silicon without Rosetta, and the Apple silicon build will not launch on an Intel Mac at all. Apple menu → About This Mac tells you which you have; the native build needs no Rosetta.

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 — a Pro key activates on three devices. Manage the activations from the Licence screen inside the app, where you can deactivate a machine you no longer use and free the slot.

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-trial

On Linux, sudo apt remove bytesweep for the .deb, or just delete the AppImage, then rm -rf ~/.config/Bytesweep ~/.bytesweep-trial.

Empty the restore point first if you want the space back.

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.

Still stuck?

Send us the exact message you are seeing and your macOS version — we answer installation questions the same day.

support@bytesweep.app Back to downloads