Crumb shows what is filling your Mac and clears only what you approve. This guide covers installing it, finding your way around, and your first cleanup. Each screen has its own guide after that.
Install Crumb
Crumb has two downloads, one for each kind of Mac. Both need macOS 12 or later.
- Open the Apple menu and choose About This Mac. If it lists a Chip such as Apple M1 or M4, you need the Apple silicon download. If it lists an Intel Processor, you need the Intel one.
- Get it from the download buttons on the home page, then open the file you downloaded.
- Follow the installer. It puts Crumb in your Applications folder and opens it for you when it finishes.
The Crumb window
The sidebar on the left has six screens. You can also jump to each one from the keyboard.
| Screen | Keys | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ⌘1 | How much space you have, what Crumb found, and your recent cleanups. |
| Free Space | ⌘2 | Scan for caches, logs, developer files and the Trash, then clear what you tick. |
| Organize | ⌘3 | Sort a messy folder, like Downloads, into folders by file type. |
| Visualize | ⌘4 | See which folders take the most space, and open them to look deeper. |
| Uninstall | ⌘5 | Remove an app together with the files it leaves behind. |
| Duplicates | ⌘6 | Find files you have more than one copy of. |
At the bottom of the sidebar is your plan, which reads Crumb Pro or shows how many free cleanups you have left. Under it, Help & feedback opens an email to us.
Crumb in the menu bar
Crumb also lives in your menu bar, next to the clock, where it shows how much space is free. Closing the window doesn't quit Crumb. It keeps running up there so it can keep an eye on your disk and, if you turn it on, clean every week.
- Click the Crumb icon to open the window.
- Right-click it, or Control-click, for the menu: Open Crumb, Analyze Disk... (starts a Free Space scan), Empty Trash, Help & Support and Quit Crumb.
Empty Trash in this menu empties the Trash straight away, without asking first.
Crumb doesn't open by itself when your Mac starts. To make it, see Open Crumb at login.
Your first cleanup
- On Overview, click Find space to free. Crumb switches to Free Space and scans. Scanning only reads your disk.
- Look through the list. Only the Trash and things that rebuild themselves start ticked. Untick anything you want to keep.
- Click Get back and the amount, then Clean to confirm.
Crumb deletes what you clean for good. It doesn't go to the Trash first, so read the list before you confirm. The Free Space guide explains every part of it.
Free and Pro
Scanning is always free, and the free version includes one full cleanup. Crumb Pro unlocks unlimited cleanups, removing apps and duplicates, deleting from Visualize, and the weekly clean. Crumb Pro and your license key has the details, including where to paste your key.
Updates
A few seconds after it opens, Crumb checks for a newer version. If there is one, it asks "Crumb X is available. Update now?" Say yes, and it downloads the update and reopens itself. Your settings, license and history stay as they were.
