The Reclaim Cycle seeks out files you no longer use or need and quickly cleans them from your machine, freeing up space and boosting your Mac's performance. When you click the Reclaim button in the top left corner of the window, you are presented with a list of categories to Scan and Clean:
You can scan any of the following categories:
Caches - Cache files are created by applications to save reusable information. Removing an application's cache files can improve performance and free up disk space.
Downloads - Files downloaded from the Internet are often found in this folder including installer (.DMG) files. These files are temporary files that are only needed to install, but not run, an application. If you have other types of files in this folder such as MP3's or image files, you should consider moving them to another location on your computer such as your home directory's Pictures and Music folders.
Languages - Applications sometimes include support files to translate the text into other languages. If you do not speak these languages, consider removing these unnecessary files.
Logs - Log files track an application's interactions with your computer. This information is often used to track down errors the application may encounter.
Trash - Deleted files are sent to the Trash but not removed until you explicitly empty it out. After a couple of months, your Trash can resemble a landfill of wasted disk space. Washing Machine can help you empty it out.
There are three 'Deletion Criteria' options you can choose from by using the slider on the bottom right side of the window. The Safe option will delete less information, while the Aggressive option will delete more files and clear up more space on your Mac. More detailed information about exactly what will be deleted for each category is visible directly below the slider.
You can double-click any of the colored sections in the graph to get more detailed information about the files that have been found by the scan. This can help you visualize how much free space you can reclaim, and what applications and folders they are being deleted from. You can also use the list view on the left side of the window to see the size of each item. The list view can be sorted by any column. For example, you can use this to easily sort by 'Size' to see which sections are using up the most disk space on your Mac.
Once you have selected the categories of files you would like to delete, and Reclaim the space these files are occupying, click the Clean button. Please note that once you Clean these files, they cannot be recovered.
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