Every quick coding experiment comes with a small promise: I will clean this up later.
Eventually, later arrived. My Mac had accumulated Android devices that did not physically exist, several generations of build files, and downloaded installers for things that were already installed. I asked Codex to help work out what could go.
We started with Disk Inventory X and a read-only audit. Then we checked individual folders, running processes, project configurations, and dependency files before deleting anything. Adobe and Office still have actual work to do on this machine.
The largest win was Android. I now test on my phone through adb, so two virtual devices and their system images were taking up space without doing much for me. Removing them accounted for about 20.6 GB of files. The SDK components needed to build apps and connect the phone stayed.
The rest was less dramatic but added up:
- 3.0 GB of Arduino installation archives. The installed ESP32, nRF52, and AVR tools stayed.
- 2.2 GB of rebuildable project dependencies and build output, with source code and lockfiles preserved.
- 9.7 GB of selected browser caches, IDE indexes, build caches, and downloaded app updates, cleared while the relevant apps were closed.
There were a few surprises. Docker’s disk file reported a logical size of almost 494 GB, but occupied only about 13 MB of allocated space. It was innocent this time.
More interestingly, some Arduino caches contained copies of sketches whose originals could no longer be located or confirmed. We kept nineteen of those. Android Studio’s Local History also stayed. A folder called “cache” can still contain something worth keeping.
The audited removals covered roughly 35 GB of files. At the final check, the Mac showed about 99 GB free. Filesystem accounting and background activity mean those figures are not a perfect before-and-after equation.
No new cleaner app was needed. Just an inventory, small batches, and checks after each step.
My SSD has room again. The next “quick experiment” will appreciate it.