DaisyDisk overview: A sublime and enjoyable solution to liberate cupboard space

Worth When Reviewed

£9.99

Finest Costs Immediately: Daisy Disk

There’s one thing to be mentioned for self-discipline and writing a utility that focuses on one set of duties, does this very properly, and doesn’t attempt to operate as each utility below the solar in your Mac. Living proof, DaisyDisk (model 4.30 on the time this overview was written) from Software program Atmosphere Corp and builders Teras Brizitsky (who got here up with the unique concept) and Oleg Krupnov (who at present handles the code and technical assist). DaisyDisk units out that will help you visualize the information in your Mac and its native, community, and cloud-based volumes, map it out, see which recordsdata are taking on essentially the most house, and provide help to readily delete them to liberate gigabytes of drive house.

This isn’t a brand new concept, and there have been a number of utilities in recent times that provide help to hunt down giant recordsdata and delete them, however with DaisyDisk it’s solely as much as your personal discretion as to which recordsdata and folders to shortly delete with nothing greater than an animated five-second countdown clock and time interval through which to cancel the choice.

Like its earlier variations, DaisyDisk incorporates a clear, enjoyable, fascinating consumer interface that nearly appears to have spawned out of an episode of Star Trek: The Subsequent Era. Merely obtain the software program, set up it, assign it full entry to your exhausting drive, and also you’re able to go.

See how DaisyDisk compares to the competitors in our roundup of the Finest Mac Cleaners.

DaisyDisk at present helps Apple’s HFS, HFS+, and APFS file codecs in addition to Microsoft’s FAT, exFAT, and NTFS file techniques in addition to community volumes through NAS, AFS, Samba, NFS, WebDAV, Novell, Home windows, FTP through FUSE, and digital components through FUSE and disk photographs, and may mount and scan absolutely anything so long as the quantity itself is operational. Like its earlier variations, DaisyDisk also can mount numerous cloud-based companies similar to Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, and Field. See our round-up of the finest cloud backups for Mac.

Foundry

Foundry

Foundry

Along with with the ability to scan whole volumes without delay, it’s straightforward to hit the “Choose Folder…” button to navigate to a customized folder, and Apple’s Disk Utility app may be readily accessed from the Manu bar to carry out disk repairs on the fly. The app itself retails for $9.99/£9.99 and requires macOS 10.13 Excessive Sierra or later to put in and run.

DaisyDisk presents a genuinely enjoyable, fascinating method to mapping out, visualizing, and deleting giant recordsdata out of your Mac. The appliance is simple to navigate by way of, proper click on or management click on on an merchandise to carry up a useful preview as to what you’re contemplating deleting, and drag the merchandise to the decrease left hand nook to get able to take away it out of your system.

The app additionally presents a gamification ingredient in that you simply’re nonetheless in a position to tweet that you simply’ve deleted recordsdata and freed up exhausting drive house, and it’s straightforward sufficient to show this selection off should you discover it annoying.

DaisyDisk’s cloud-based features proceed to show helpful, and it was easy so as to add my Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, and Field accounts, after which join and sift by way of them to see which historic recordsdata could possibly be readily put out to pasture to clear up house as wanted. The recordsdata you suppose you’ll want endlessly are hardly ever ever important in the long term, and I used to be in a position to clear up dozens of gigabytes of house within the course of.

Nonetheless, there are some bugs to iron out, and it’s not all DaisyDisk’s fault. Whereas it was straightforward to arrange entry for almost all of the cloud-based accounts, Google Drive refused to permit DaisyDisk entry, stating that the app was blocked and “This app tried to entry delicate data in your Google Account. To maintain your account secure, Google blocked this entry.” This seems to be a battle between DaisyDisk’s builders and Google that has but to be sorted out, and whereas some workarounds have been proposed on-line, there appears to be no fast resolution to the battle.

Developer Oleg Krupnov replied to an inquiry and acknowledged that this situation is being addressed, and that Google has not too long ago modified their Google Drive API entry coverage for third-party apps, and now they require a proper certification by a third-party safety authority. Consequently, they’ve briefly revoked DaisyDisk’s earlier ‘verified’ standing, and the ‘unverified’ standing solely permits as much as 100 customers, which restrict has been in fact already exceeded. Consequently, new customers are at present unable to attach their Google Drive account to DaisyDisk (present customers nonetheless can).” Krupnov acknowledged that he’s working with Google’s advisable certification accomplice to cross the required process, but it surely’s exhausting to offer an estimate as to when this can be accomplished.

Foundry

Foundry

Foundry

DaisyDisk customers are additionally at present unable so as to add and type by way of Apple’s iCloud Drive accounts given Apple’s sandboxing of the surroundings. Sure, you possibly can scan a neighborhood copy of your iCloud Drive contents utilizing the “Scan Folder…” button however not the Internet-based information, which is irritating, and comes all the way down to competition between builders and their wants. DaisyDisk’s builders have posted a information to the difficulty, however till sure concessions are reached between the 2 sides, the difficulty will stay for the foreseeable future.

Must you purchase Daisy Disk?

Regardless of the cloud-based bug, DaisyDisk nonetheless presents a superb worth for its $9.99 worth level, runs properly below macOS 15 Sequoia, and is a enjoyable method to clearing out recordsdata which might be chewing up house and have overstayed their welcome. The one different draw back is that there hasn’t been a big quantity of growth with the app this 12 months, the model quantity solely jumped from model 4.20.3 to model 4.30 between 2021 and 2024, though Krupnov did state that model 5.0 is in growth. “DaisyDisk goes by way of a significant overhaul of its codebase to be able to accommodate new options, this is the reason it’s taking longer than ordinary, however we’re heading to our objective.” There’s a superb app available right here, it is aware of its focus, it doesn’t attempt to package deal a dozen completely different instruments in without delay (together with one which’ll paint your own home as you sleep this weekend), and it’s value wanting into.