Reclaim

Free up disk space on your Mac without deleting anything.

A free, open-source macOS app and CLI that recovers space with two built-in APFS features. Every file keeps its name, location, contents and metadata. Nothing is trashed, uploaded or removed.

• Duplicate cloning: identical files become APFS clones that share blocks on disk but stay independent.
• Transparent compression: files are stored compressed, like macOS system files. Apps read them as before.
• Storage analysis: see what uses space by folder, file kind and size. Read-only.

Warning

Use at your own risk. Reclaim changes how files are stored on disk. It is provided as is, without warranty of any kind. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the authors and contributors are not liable for any data loss, corruption or other damage arising from its use (MIT License). Have a current backup before running it and try a small folder first.

Safety

• Copy, verify, swap. Each result is built in a temp file, metadata copied, SHA-256 checked against the original, then swapped atomically. Any failure leaves the original untouched.
• Conservative scope. Only regular, owned, fully downloaded, single-link files. Skips ~/Library, the Trash, system folders, VMs, app bundles and Photos/Music libraries by default.
• Reversible. reclaim decompress or Decompress Files… in the app.

Changed files get a new inode, so backups copy them once more. Clones only work within one APFS volume.

Install

brew install --cask pantersoft/reclaim/reclaim   # app + `reclaim` CLI

Or download Reclaim-x.y.z.zip from Releases, unzip and move Reclaim.app to Applications. Builds are ad-hoc signed: right-click → Open the first time.

Or build from source (macOS 13+, Xcode 15+):

git clone https://github.com/PanterSoft/Reclaim.git && cd Reclaim
make install   # app → /Applications, `reclaim` → /usr/local/bin

Grant Full Disk Access when asked (System Settings → Privacy & Security).

Usage

Pick folders in Overview, then review Storage, Duplicates and Compression. Every action is logged under Activity and in ~/Library/Logs/Reclaim/activity.log.

Optional background mode (Settings) runs from the menu bar and compresses unchanged files once a day, on power only unless you enable "Also run on battery power". Manual scans and compression always work.

reclaim analyze ~                      # what is using space
reclaim duplicates ~/Documents         # dry run
reclaim duplicates --apply ~/Documents # convert to clones
reclaim compress --apply ~/Projects
reclaim decompress ~/Projects          # undo compression

Nothing changes without --apply.

How it works

• Duplicates: grouped by size, then partial and full SHA-256, then replaced via clonefile(2). Existing clones are detected and not counted twice.
• Compression: LZFSE in 64 KiB chunks, stored in the resource fork with a decmpfs header, the same format macOS uses. Kept only if it saves ≥10%.
• Core logic lives in Sources/ReclaimCore, shared by app and CLI.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Not affiliated with Apple Inc.

License

MIT