👨‍💻 MacOSCleaner 2.3.0 is in development

[AlexTkDev]

👨‍💻 MacOSCleaner 2.3.0 Roadmap: Safety, Precision & macOS 27 Overhaul

MacOSCleaner 2.3.0 focuses on engineering quality, predictability, and safety. Instead of adding background helpers or superficial bloat, we are tightening the cleanup engine: strict safety boundaries, reliable uninstaller scoring, honest APFS disk metrics, native macOS 27 integration, and on-device AI that behaves predictably.

Our core principle: MacOSCleaner must be transparent, verifiable, and safe with zero guesswork.

Many of these changes come directly from discussions and issues reported here — thank you for testing and sharing edge cases.

Here is the updated status of what has landed, what is in progress, and what we are tackling next.

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🛡️ Safety Engine & Default Cleanup Boundaries

A cleaner must never touch personal configurations or cross into paths it has no business scanning. We completed a major overhaul of SafetyManager and the filesystem isolation layer to close critical edge cases:

Hard isolation & protected user roots (✅ Implemented & tested)

• Personal data protected: Added strict protections for iCloud Drive (~/Library/Mobile Documents) and Messages (~/Library/Messages, including chat.db* and attachments).
• System group containers: Apple group containers (~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.*, com.apple.*) are locked from modification.
• Mail safety: Apple Mail data (~/Library/Mail) is fully protected during cleanup; uninstaller operations are restricted strictly to mail bundle plug-ins (~/Library/Mail/Bundles).
• Developer & IDE configurations preserved: Project configs (.vscode, .idea, .zed, settings.json, launch.json, tasks.json, keybindings.json) are preserved. Disposable build caches (build, .build, DerivedData, node_modules, workspaceStorage) remain cleanable only when nested inside user projects at depth >= 2.
• Browser sessions untouched: Web sessions and credentials are safe across all browsers: Safari (Cookies.binarycookies), Firefox (cookies.sqlite, logins.json, key4.db, cert9.db), and Chromium profiles.

Filesystem isolation & multi-user safety (✅ Implemented & tested)

• Strict root whitelist: FileSystemContext.production.enforceAllowedRoots covers only $HOME, /Library, /tmp, /private/tmp, /usr/local, /opt/homebrew, and the active user temporary directory.
• No cross-user traversal: Removed broad /Users traversal. Glob expanders block /Users/* from touching other local user accounts.
• Per-item validation: Every file operation in recursive and targeted cleanups now validates permissions, symlink targets, and safety policies before any disk modification occurs.

Predictable Trash handling (✅ Implemented & tested)

• Explicit setting toggle: Added "Empty Trash during cleanup" (emptyTrashDuringCleanup) in Settings.
• When enabled: ~/.Trash contents are displayed in the scan review and emptied safely via permanentlyDelete(urls:) as the final step. The ~/.Trash directory itself is strictly protected.
• When disabled (default): Trash is neither scanned nor altered. Wholesale unconfirmed sweeps throw an error immediately.

Accurate cache measurements & cancellation (✅ Implemented & tested)

• DirectorySizeCache clears prior to cleanup and stops storing partial numbers when a scan is canceled.
• Removed artificial minimum size floors (max(1, sizeMB)), ensuring displayed figures match reality.

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🎨 Native macOS 27 UI & Usability Upgrades

Redesigned Cleanup Screen (✅ Implemented)

• Base Cleanup row: Compact cards for System Cache, App Logs, Browser Cache, and Trash. The Trash label explicitly indicates settings dependency in every language ("Trash (if enabled in settings)").
• Additional Options grid: Symmetrical 2-column layout for optional tasks (.DS_Store, Time Machine snapshots, creative suites, voice memos) with a dedicated full-width row for Font Cache.
• Unclipped descriptions: Removed truncation limits (lineLimit(nil)) so safety notes, password prompts, and reboot warnings are fully legible.
• Balanced geometry: Main container widened to 880 pt to eliminate dead space on large screens.

Duplicate Finder: Master-Detail Architecture (✅ Implemented)

• Split View (HSplitView): Left master panel (280–380 pt) groups duplicates with copy counts, size, checkboxes, and right-click Smart Select / Deselect. Right detail panel inspects selected files.
• High-res previews & Quick Look: Photos display full-resolution previews; all items support spacebar inspection via native QLPreviewPanel.
• Middle path truncation: Long paths show both filename and immediate parent directory without clipping.

Recent Operations & History Window (✅ Implemented)

• Dashboard Recent block: Shows the 3 most recent operations with timestamps and recovered space badges.
• Dedicated History Window (⌘Y): Separate 480x600 window with search filtering, sorting (date/size, asc/desc), and transaction logs.

System-Wide UI Consistency (✅ Implemented)

• Dark backdrop contrast: Tuned VisualEffectView (0.85 opacity + 0.20 dark tint + ambient glows) for consistent contrast across light and dark wallpapers.
• Button hierarchy: Unified around ProminentGlassButtonStyle for primary/destructive actions and SecondaryGlassButtonStyle for utility actions.
• Menu Bar & Navigation: Standard top bar with divider lines, native Settings scene (⌘,), and direct keyboard shortcuts (⌘1–⌘8).
• Responsive Lists: Added chunked lazy pagination to the Processes monitor, eliminating UI stutter with large process tables.

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🚀 Upcoming Features & Active Tasks

1. Startup Services: Reveal in Finder & Direct Removal (In Progress)

• Show in Finder: Right-click or click an action button on any daemon or agent to reveal the underlying .plist file in Finder via NSWorkspace.
• Remove from App: Safely delete unneeded or broken background services directly:
  • The service is unloaded first via launchctl bootout / unload.
  • The path is validated against SafetyManager (system services in /System/Library remain protected).
  • The .plist is moved to Trash (with privileged fallback for root-owned files in /Library/LaunchDaemons).
  • The list refreshes automatically.

2. Apple Intelligence: System Language Detection (Fix & Refinement)

• The Issue: Previously, the UI checked whether the app's selected language was supported. If macOS was running in Russian (or another unsupported language) while the app was set to English, the UI erroneously showed a persistent "Preparing Model..." badge, waiting for assets that macOS will never download.
• The Fix: Availability now checks the actual system language configured in macOS (Locale.preferredLanguages.first). If the OS language is unsupported by Apple Intelligence, the UI clearly shows "Unsupported System Language" with an explanation and a direct button to macOS System Settings, eliminating false loading loops.

3. Expanded Language Support (Up to 14 Languages)

We are adding full translations and test coverage for 4 new languages:

• Arabic (ar): Full interface localization with native RTL (Right-to-Left) layout support.
• Traditional Chinese (zh-Hant): Dedicated localization for Taiwan and Hong Kong alongside the existing Simplified Chinese (zh-Hans).
• Korean (ko): Full native localization.
• Polish (pl): Full native localization.

Automated tests (LocalizationCompletenessTests) ensure zero missing keys across all 14 languages.

4. Uninstaller Precision & Root Orphan Cleanup

• Expanded catalog (✅ 304 apps, 92 toolchains, 2,343 paths): Added bundle ID aliases and leftover definitions for modern dev tools (Google Updater, Playwright, Codex, Firebase, OpenCode/OpenTUI, Context7, Flutter devtools, LemMinX, HawtJNI).
• Word-boundary matching: Replacing loose substring matches with wordBoundaryMatch (min length 2) so short names like VLC, Arc, Go, or Zed never match unrelated files.
• Root orphan deletion: Root-owned files in /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools and /Library/LaunchDaemons that fail standard deletion are no longer silently dropped from the UI. Failures report clearly, and launchctl bootout runs before .plist removal.
• Intel (x86_64) app badges: Mach-O inspection badges Intel-only apps and audio/printer plugins before macOS 28 drops Rosetta 2.

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💬 We’d love your feedback!

1. Background services & daemons:

   • Are there specific background agents or launch daemons that cause issues on your Mac?
   • Any edge cases when disabling or removing startup items?

2. Localization & RTL:

   • If you are a native Arabic, Traditional Chinese, Korean, or Polish speaker, we would appreciate help reviewing terminology and layout fit once the new locale builds drop.

3. Leftover paths & developer caches:

   • Notice an application or CLI tool leaving large residual files that we didn't pick up? Let us know the tool name, bundle ID, and paths so we can add them to our test suite.

Drop your thoughts, bug reports, and suggestions below. Every comment helps us build a cleaner you can trust.