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Spaceific beta: read this before you install

Thank you for testing Spaceific. It reads your whole Mac and can move folders to the Trash, so it needs care on a Mac you work on. This page takes about five minutes.

To keep a copy, print this page and choose Save as PDF.

1. Before you start

• Back up your Mac first, with Time Machine or any backup you trust.
• Do not test on a Mac whose important files you cannot back up.
• You need an Apple-silicon or Intel Mac on macOS 14 or later. The beta has only been run on macOS 26 so far. If you are on macOS 14 or 15, you are especially useful to us; tell us your version.

2. What Spaceific does, and what it never does

It does:

• map what is using your disk and explain each developer folder it has a rule for: what it is, what made it, what removing it does and how it comes back;
• show three figures for an item: Size, Frees at least (the least you get back when you empty the Trash) and Up to;
• move only what you pick to the Trash, after one confirmation that lists every item.

It never:

• deletes anything itself, or empties your Trash;
• moves anything you did not pick and confirm;
• runs in the background, or cleans on a schedule;
• needs an account.

3. Install

1. Open the .dmg and drag Spaceific to Applications. Then open Spaceific from Applications.
2. This beta is not notarised by Apple yet, so macOS stops it the first time with:

   "Spaceific" Not Opened
   Apple could not verify "Spaceific" is free of malware that may harm your Mac or compromise your privacy.

3. Choose Done. Do not choose Move to Bin (or Move to Trash).
4. On macOS 15 or later: open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down to Security, where macOS says Spaceific was blocked, choose Open Anyway, enter your password, and choose Open Anyway again when Spaceific is named. If Open Anyway is not there, open Spaceific again first.
5. On macOS 14 you can also Control-click Spaceific in Applications, choose Open, then Open.
6. You do this once for each build you download.

Full Disk Access

Spaceific asks for it when it first opens, so it can read the whole disk.

• Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access, turn on Spaceific (if it is not listed, press + and choose Spaceific in Applications), and choose Quit & Reopen when macOS asks.
• You can choose Continue without access and give it later. Without it, Spaceific does not open the places macOS protects, and those categories say "Not read" or "Partly read".
• After a beta update, access can stop working even though the switch still looks on. Spaceific then says "Not read". Fix it: select Spaceific in the Full Disk Access list, press −, press +, choose Spaceific in Applications, and reopen it.

Then let the first scan finish. On the developer's Mac it took 78 seconds for about two million files.

4. Your first week, in this order

During the beta, never move anything marked Protected or No rule yet. The app lets you, with an extra tick, but this beta does not stop you, so we ask.

Try Clearance too: type how much space you need and read the plan. It only fills the Review Cart; nothing moves until you confirm.

5. The golden rule

Do not empty the Trash for 48 hours after a cleanup. Put Back works only while the items are still in the Trash. Once you are sure everything still works, empty it; that is when the space comes back.

6. If something breaks

1. Open Cleanup History or Rescue Center and use Put Back on what you moved.
2. Rescue Center shows each item's state now, the rule's own "Get it back" steps, and four ways in by symptom.
3. Still stuck? Help → Send Feedback… builds an email you read line by line before you send it. Or write to spaceific.support@gmail.com. The developer answers personally.
4. If Spaceific's Dock icon ever shows a TEST badge, tell us. A beta build must never show it.

7. What to tell us

• What did you expect a folder to be, before you read Spaceific's explanation?
• Did you trust the explanation? Why or why not?
• What stopped you from moving something?
• How much space did you get back?
• Did Spaceific say anything you did not understand?
• Which tools do you use: Ollama, LM Studio, Docker, Xcode, npm or pnpm, Cursor, Gemini, Codex, Claude Code?
• Roughly how much free space did you have before? A range is enough. Never send screenshots of your disk.
• Which top folders showed "No rule yet" for you? (Names only, as Spaceific shows them.)

8. Privacy

• Spaceific itself makes no network request. There is no account, no analytics, no crash reporting.
• Only when you act: Clearance's Clear for a macOS update… and Ask macOS again ask macOS for updates, and macOS asks Apple; a link you click opens in your browser; Send Feedback opens a draft in your mail app, which you send or not.
• What you scan stays on your Mac. If you send feedback, the lines you keep in that email are what leaves, and only when you send it.

9. The end date

This build ends on 1 Jan 2027. That day is counted in UTC, so in some time zones (India, for one) the app shows 2 Jan; moves stop at the same moment either way. After that, Spaceific stops moving things to the Trash. Scanning, Rescue Center and Put Back keep working. The newest build is at github.com/GauravYadav-19/spaceific-beta/releases/latest.

10. Uninstall

Quit Spaceific and drag it from Applications to the Trash. Remove Spaceific from Full Disk Access in System Settings too.

Last updated 3 Nov 2026, for 0.9.0 beta 1 (built 2 Nov 2026).

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