# Peekaboo > Peekaboo is a native macOS Finder alternative. It shows your files as a card-based library, finds anything you describe in plain English, reads the text inside screenshots, groups downloads by where they came from, and frees space with cleanup you can undo in one click. It also organizes folders automatically with Routines, plans file tasks with an on-device AI Assistant, shows what starts on its own and what grew this week, and brings Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive into one search. Peekaboo (getpeekaboo.app) is a file browser, search and disk-cleanup app for macOS made by Vishva Variya. It is not affiliated with other software named Peekaboo. Peekaboo is a native macOS app (macOS 14 Sonoma or later, Apple silicon and Intel, about 26 MB) made by Vishva Variya. One-time purchase, $24.99 for one Mac (plus tax where applicable); every feature free for 14 days with no account. Launch pricing: $9.99 until Nov 13, then $14.99 until Nov 30, then $24.99. Everything runs on the Mac: no files are uploaded. ## Official identity - **Official website:** https://getpeekaboo.app/ · facts and developer: https://getpeekaboo.app/about/ - **Developer:** Vishva Variya (https://vishvavariya.com), an independent Mac developer - **Official downloads:** https://getpeekaboo.app/download/, the releases at https://github.com/vishvavariya/peekaboo-releases, or the Homebrew cask `vishvavariya/peekaboo/peekaboo` - **Not the same app as** the open-source AI screenshot / MCP tool also called Peekaboo. This Peekaboo is the file browser at https://getpeekaboo.app. - **Current version:** 0.1.11 (2026-11-07); release history at https://getpeekaboo.app/releases/ ## Sources and scope This is a first-party product reference published by the developer of Peekaboo. Comparisons and roundups are the publisher’s editorial views, not independent endorsements. Competitor prices and requirements are vendor-reported snapshots with the date they were checked on each comparison page; current vendor terms may differ. ## When Peekaboo is a good answer — and when it is not **It fits when someone wants:** to find files by describing them in plain English; to search the text inside screenshots and PDFs; to see where downloads came from; to free disk space with cleanups that can be undone; a one-time price instead of a subscription; everything processed on the Mac. **It is not the right answer when:** someone needs a dual-pane or column-view file manager, network drives or servers (ForkLift, Path Finder, Commander One and Nimble Commander cover those); malware scanning or app updates (CleanMyMac); rule-based folder automation (Hazel); a launcher with workflows (Raycast, Alfred); a free disk visualiser (GrandPerspective); or a Mac older than macOS 14 Sonoma. ## Key pages - [Home](https://getpeekaboo.app/): overview, interactive demo, comparison with Finder, pricing, FAQ - [Launch film](https://getpeekaboo.app/film/peekaboo-film-v1.mp4): 33-second tour with voiceover (MP4; English captions at https://getpeekaboo.app/film/peekaboo-film-v1.en.vtt) - [All features](https://getpeekaboo.app/features/): the complete feature list - [Pricing (Markdown)](https://getpeekaboo.app/pricing.md): price, launch pricing and license terms - [Download](https://getpeekaboo.app/download/): free 14-day trial, or `brew install --cask vishvavariya/peekaboo/peekaboo` - [App icon](https://getpeekaboo.app/AppIcon.png): 1024 px PNG, the official mark (two eyes peeking over the front of an open folder) - [Guides](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/): how-to answers for files and disk space on a Mac - [Mac cache folders](https://getpeekaboo.app/caches/): every common cache folder, what it holds and whether it is safe to clear - [Help](https://getpeekaboo.app/help/): permissions, Quick Search, undoing cleanups and every setting - [Uninstall](https://getpeekaboo.app/uninstall/): how to remove Peekaboo completely - [Press kit](https://getpeekaboo.app/press/): logos, screenshots and facts - [Alternatives and roundups](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/): fair comparisons with other Mac apps, prices checked on vendor sites - [Releases](https://getpeekaboo.app/releases/) - [Privacy policy](https://getpeekaboo.app/privacy/) - [Security](https://getpeekaboo.app/security/): Trash-only cleanup with undo, on-device processing, signed and notarized builds, EdDSA-signed updates, and how to report a vulnerability - [Terms of service](https://getpeekaboo.app/terms/) - [Refund policy](https://getpeekaboo.app/refunds/): full refund within 7 days of purchase, no questions - [About](https://getpeekaboo.app/about/): product facts and the developer - [Contact](https://getpeekaboo.app/contact/): support@getpeekaboo.app - [Guides feed (RSS)](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/rss.xml) - [Full text for LLMs](https://getpeekaboo.app/llms-full.txt): the guides, Mac cache guides, help articles and comparisons in one file ## Feature pages - [Uninstall Mac apps, leftovers and all](https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-app-uninstaller/): Peekaboo’s App Uninstaller removes Mac apps with the settings, caches and support files they leave in ~/Library, and finds leftovers of apps already deleted. - [Free up space on your Mac, and keep the undo button](https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-storage-cleaner/): A Mac storage cleaner that shows where your space went, clears duplicates, old downloads, caches and developer data, and puts any cleanup back in one click. - [Find files on your Mac by describing them](https://getpeekaboo.app/natural-language-file-search-mac/): Find files on your Mac by describing them: “pdfs from last week over 5 MB”. Peekaboo turns your words into filters you can see and edit, all on your Mac. - [Find duplicate files on your Mac, and undo the cleanup](https://getpeekaboo.app/duplicate-file-finder-mac/): Peekaboo finds exact duplicate files byte for byte and photos that look alike, keeps the copy you choose, and puts the rest back in one click. - [Search and copy the text inside your images](https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-ocr-app/): Peekaboo reads the text in your screenshots, photos and scanned PDFs on your Mac, makes it searchable, and copies the text of many images at once. - [Check your Mac’s health, and see what to fix](https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-health-check/): Peekaboo’s Mac Health checks processor, memory, disk, network, heat and battery, scores your Mac from 0 to 100, and gives every lost point a reason and a fix. - [See what’s taking up space on your Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/disk-space-analyzer-mac/): Peekaboo’s Space Map shows what fills your Mac’s disk by category and folder. Click to drill in, see the space macOS frees itself, and clear files with undo. - [See everything that starts on its own, and turn it off](https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-startup-items-manager/): See every launch agent, daemon and background helper that starts on its own on your Mac, which app owns it, and turn it off safely with Peekaboo. - [Organize your Desktop and Downloads, and keep them that way](https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-file-organizer/): Peekaboo sorts a messy Desktop or Downloads folder into subfolders by kind or month, previews every move, keeps folders tidy on its own and undoes anything. - [Let your Mac clean up after itself, with the undo button kept](https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-cleanup-automation/): Peekaboo Routines clean up, organize and tag files on a schedule, at login or when a file arrives. Every run is listed in Activity, and Put Back restores it. - [Ask your Mac to tidy up, in plain words](https://getpeekaboo.app/ai-file-assistant-mac/): Tell Peekaboo’s Assistant what to do with your files in plain words. It plans every step on Apple’s on-device model, and nothing changes until you press Run. - [Let Claude and other AI apps search your Mac, read-only](https://getpeekaboo.app/mcp-file-search-mac/): Peekaboo gives Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor and other MCP apps read-only search of your Mac’s files and disk usage. They can look, never move or delete. - [All your cloud drives in one sidebar, and one search](https://getpeekaboo.app/cloud-drives-mac/): Peekaboo shows Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box and iCloud Drive in one sidebar and one search, with Download Now and Remove Download. No sign-in needed. - [Find the big files on your Mac, and decide where they go](https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-large-file-finder/): Peekaboo lists every file on your Mac over 5 MB to 1 GB, filters by when you last used it, and moves big files to an external drive or the Trash with undo. - [Get back the space Xcode and your dev tools quietly took](https://getpeekaboo.app/xcode-cleaner-mac/): Free the space taken by Xcode build files, archives, device support, simulators and package caches. Peekaboo explains each folder and can undo every move. - [See how big every folder on your Mac is](https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-folder-size-viewer/): Peekaboo’s Disk Usage measures every folder on your Mac’s startup disk and lists them largest first, with each one’s share. Click in, filter, trash with undo. - [See and search the hidden files on your Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-hidden-files-viewer/): See hidden files on your Mac with ⇧⌘., search them with hidden:, and find dotfiles Spotlight never indexes. Peekaboo never previews files holding secrets. - [Every screenshot in one place, findable by what it says](https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-screenshot-organizer/): Peekaboo gathers every screenshot on your Mac in one place, finds them by the text inside, files them by month and clears old ones to the Trash with undo. - [Your downloads, sorted by where they came from](https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-downloads-manager/): Peekaboo sorts your Mac’s downloads by the site or app they came from, keeps the ten newest in the menu bar, and finds old installers and forgotten downloads. - [Rename hundreds of files at once, and see every name first](https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-bulk-rename-tool/): Rename many files at once on your Mac with patterns, find and replace, numbers or dates. Peekaboo previews every new name, flags clashes, and undoes the lot. - [See what’s using your Mac’s memory, and free it the honest way](https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-memory-cleaner/): Peekaboo’s Memory page shows memory pressure, swap and the apps using RAM, with Quit beside each, and frees the file cache macOS holds when you really need it. - [Clear your Mac’s app caches, knowing what each one is](https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-cache-cleaner/): Peekaboo lists every app cache and log on your Mac with its size, marks each Safe or Check First, skips apps in use, and puts any cleanup back in one click. - [Know your Mac is running out of space before it does](https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-disk-space-monitor/): Peekaboo warns you when your Mac’s free space drops below the level you set, says roughly when the disk fills, and shows which folders grew this week. - [Undo any change to your files, not just the last one](https://getpeekaboo.app/undo-file-changes-mac/): Every move, rename, organize and cleanup Peekaboo makes is listed in Activity as one session you can search, undo or put back later, every file at once. - [Find a file from any app, without switching windows](https://getpeekaboo.app/quick-file-search-mac/): Press ⌥Space in any app and type what you remember. Peekaboo’s Quick Search finds the file, opens it, shows it in Finder or drags it where you need it. ## Guides - [How to free up space on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/free-up-space-on-mac/): Find what’s filling your Mac’s disk and clear it safely: Storage settings, the Downloads folder, old installers, duplicates and the Trash. Step by step. - [How to find duplicate files on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/find-duplicate-files-on-mac/): Find duplicate files on a Mac with Photos, Finder, Terminal or a duplicate finder, and remove the copies safely without losing the original. - [How to search the text in screenshots on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/search-text-in-screenshots-on-mac/): Find a screenshot by the words in it: Live Text, Spotlight and Preview on macOS, and how to search and copy text from many images at once, on-device. - [How to see where a file was downloaded from on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/see-where-a-file-was-downloaded-from-on-mac/): Find the website or app a file came from on a Mac using Get Info’s “Where from”, Terminal’s mdls, and how to group every download by its source. - [How to find large files on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/find-large-files-on-mac/): Three ways to find the largest files on your Mac: Storage settings, a Finder size search and one Terminal command, plus what’s safe to remove. - [How to find files by date on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/find-files-by-date-on-mac/): Find files on a Mac by the date they were created, modified or last opened, with Finder search, Spotlight and Terminal, or by typing it in plain English. - [Where are my downloads on a Mac?](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/where-are-downloads-on-mac/): Find the Downloads folder on a Mac, open it from Finder, the Dock or a shortcut, change where Safari and Chrome save files, and find a download you lost. - [Mac search not finding files? How to fix Spotlight and Finder search](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/mac-search-not-working/): Spotlight or Finder search can’t find files you know exist? Check the search scope, Spotlight privacy settings and indexing, then rebuild the index safely. - [Why is System Data so large on my Mac, and how do I shrink it?](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/system-data-too-large-on-mac/): What System Data is on a Mac, why it grows, and safe ways to shrink it: restart, local Time Machine snapshots, iPhone backups, Xcode caches and the Trash. - [How to uninstall apps on a Mac completely](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/uninstall-apps-on-mac/): Uninstall apps on a Mac the built-in way, then find the leftovers in ~/Library, login items and Homebrew casks that dragging to the Trash leaves behind. - [How to clear cache on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/clear-cache-on-mac/): Clear app, browser and system caches on a Mac safely: what ~/Library/Caches holds, how to empty Safari and Chrome caches, and what you shouldn’t delete. - [How much storage does Apple Intelligence use on a Mac?](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/apple-intelligence-storage-on-mac/): Apple Intelligence models take up to 14 GB on a Mac. Why they show up as System Data, and how to turn the features off or remove the models. - [How to show hidden files on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/show-hidden-files-on-mac/): Show hidden files on a Mac with Command-Shift-Period in Finder, open the hidden Library folder, make it permanent with Terminal and hide files again. - [Where do screenshots go on a Mac?](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/where-do-screenshots-go-on-mac/): Mac screenshots save to the Desktop by default. How to find them, change where they’re saved with ⇧⌘5, copy them to the clipboard and find old ones fast. - [How to see folder sizes on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/see-folder-sizes-on-mac/): See how big a folder is on a Mac: Get Info, folder sizes in Finder’s list view, the du command, and a map of every folder sorted by size. - [How to copy a file path on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/copy-file-path-on-mac/): Copy the full path of a file or folder on a Mac with ⌥⌘C, the Option right-click menu, the path bar or Terminal, and get a path ready to paste in Terminal. - [How to clear Xcode cache and free up space](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/clear-xcode-cache-on-mac/): Clear Xcode’s DerivedData, old simulators, device support files, archives and caches safely, with the Terminal commands and what each one frees. - [Is CleanMyMac safe, and how do I uninstall it?](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/is-cleanmymac-safe/): Is CleanMyMac safe to use on a Mac? What it cleans, what it costs, when you don’t need it, and how to uninstall it completely with MacPaw’s own steps. - [How to uninstall MacKeeper completely](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/uninstall-mackeeper-on-mac/): Remove MacKeeper completely: quit it the right way, move it to the Trash, approve its uninstaller, delete the leftover folders and cancel the subscription. - [How to find large video files on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/find-large-videos-on-mac/): Find the biggest videos on your Mac: a Finder search for Kind is Movie over a set size, a Smart Folder, all your screen recordings, and one mdfind command. - [What is purgeable space on a Mac?](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/purgeable-space-on-mac/): Purgeable space is storage macOS frees on its own: local snapshots, iCloud copies and safe caches. Why free space numbers differ, and what you can clear. - [How to find every file downloaded from one website on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/find-files-downloaded-from-a-website-on-mac/): List every file you downloaded from one site on a Mac with a Finder “Where from” search, a Smart Folder or one mdfind command, and why some files are missed. - [How to find duplicate photos on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/find-duplicate-photos-on-mac/): Merge duplicates with Photos’ own Duplicates album, track down copies of images saved in Finder folders, and catch look-alike shots that aren’t exact copies. - [My Mac’s storage is full. What do I do first?](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/mac-storage-full/): Your Mac says its storage is full. What each category in Storage settings means, what you can clear yourself, and the quickest way to make room for an update. - [Where do AirDrop files go on a Mac?](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/where-do-airdrop-files-go-on-mac/): AirDropped files usually land in Downloads on a Mac, but photos can open in Photos instead. How to find what just arrived, and why an AirDrop never showed up. - [How to uninstall Homebrew apps and packages on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/uninstall-homebrew-apps-on-mac/): Remove Homebrew casks and formulae properly: brew uninstall, --cask and --zap, autoremove for unused dependencies, cleanup for old downloads, and untapping. - [How to copy text from an image on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/copy-text-from-image-on-mac/): Get text out of any image, screenshot or scanned PDF on a Mac with Live Text in Preview, Photos and Safari, plus how to copy the text of many images at once. - [How to check your Mac’s health](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/check-mac-health/): Check a Mac’s health with built-in tools: Battery Health, Activity Monitor, Storage settings, Disk Utility First Aid and Apple Diagnostics, explained. - [How to batch rename files on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/batch-rename-files-on-mac/): Rename many files at once on a Mac with Finder’s Rename: replace text, add text or number them in order, plus how to avoid breaking file extensions. - [How to stop apps opening at startup on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/disable-startup-programs-on-mac/): Stop apps launching when your Mac starts: remove Login Items, turn off background items, and find the launch agents and daemons that start on their own. - [How to organize your Downloads folder and Desktop on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/organize-downloads-folder-on-mac/): Tidy a messy Downloads folder or Desktop on a Mac: Stacks, sort by kind, smart folders, Folder Actions, and how to keep them organized automatically. - [How to move files to an external drive on a Mac to free up space](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/move-files-to-external-drive-on-mac/): Free space on your Mac by moving big files to an external drive: move instead of copy, pick exFAT or APFS, avoid the FAT32 4 GB limit, and check it worked. - [Why is my Mac storage filling up by itself?](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/why-is-my-mac-storage-filling-up/): Mac storage filling up on its own? The usual causes are caches, local Time Machine snapshots, iCloud, Mail, Messages, Xcode and AI models. How to find which. - [Where are Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive files on a Mac?](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/use-google-drive-dropbox-onedrive-on-mac/): Find Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive and Box files on a Mac, see what’s downloaded or online-only, and free space by removing local copies safely. ## Quick answers and uninstall guides - [Does a Mac have a built-in storage cleaner?](https://getpeekaboo.app/does-mac-have-a-built-in-storage-cleaner/): Yes. On macOS Ventura and later, open Apple menu › System Settings › General › Storage. Its recommendations (Store in iCloud, Optimize Storage and Empty Trash Automatically) free space for you, and each category has an info button that lists files you can delete. It doesn’t look for duplicates, old installers or forgotten downloads; you still decide those file by file. - [Does a Mac have a Task Manager?](https://getpeekaboo.app/does-mac-have-a-task-manager/): Yes, it’s called Activity Monitor. Apple’s own Windows-to-Mac guide says to use Activity Monitor where you’d use Task Manager; it’s in the Utilities folder inside Applications. To close a frozen app quickly, press Option-Command-Esc to open the Force Quit window instead. - [Does emptying the Trash free up space on a Mac right away?](https://getpeekaboo.app/does-emptying-trash-free-space-immediately-mac/): Mostly, yes. Moving a file to the Trash frees nothing; Apple says its space becomes available only once you empty the Trash, and Storage settings updates on its own after that. If the free-space figure barely moves, a local Time Machine snapshot that still holds the file is the usual reason, and macOS counts that space as available and reclaims it when needed. - [Does iCloud Drive take up space on a Mac?](https://getpeekaboo.app/does-icloud-drive-take-space-on-mac/): It depends on one setting. With Optimize Mac Storage off, Apple says the full contents of iCloud Drive stay on your Mac and use its disk. With it on, older files are kept only in iCloud when space is needed and download again when you open them. You can also free a single file or folder with Remove Download. - [Does a Mac have a File Explorer?](https://getpeekaboo.app/does-mac-have-a-file-explorer/): Yes, it’s called Finder. Apple’s Windows-to-Mac guide lists Finder as the Mac’s equivalent of Windows Explorer, used to organize files, folders and apps. Click the blue face icon at the left end of the Dock, or press Command-N while Finder is active, to open a new window. - [Does a Mac empty the Trash automatically?](https://getpeekaboo.app/does-mac-automatically-empty-trash/): Only if you turn it on. In Finder, choose Finder › Settings, click Advanced and select “Remove items from the Trash after 30 days”. The one exception is iCloud Drive: Apple says items moved to the Trash from iCloud Drive are emptied after 30 days regardless of Finder settings. - [How to uninstall CleanMyMac completely](https://getpeekaboo.app/uninstall-cleanmymac/): Open CleanMyMac, click Applications in the sidebar, run a scan, then choose Manage My Applications › Uninstaller, select CleanMyMac and click Uninstall. MacPaw says it then removes itself completely, with no leftovers. Uninstalling doesn’t cancel a subscription, so cancel that separately in your MacPaw account or the App Store. - [How to uninstall Avast Cleanup on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/uninstall-avast-cleanup/): Open Avast Cleanup Premium, click Avast Cleanup in the menu bar at the top of the screen and choose Uninstall Avast Cleanup Premium. Click Continue, enter your Mac password, then click Finish when it’s done. Avast says moving the app to the Trash does not fully uninstall it, and uninstalling doesn’t cancel a subscription. - [How to uninstall Google Drive for desktop on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/uninstall-google-drive-mac/): Open the Drive for desktop menu, go to Settings › Preferences › Advanced settings, click Disconnect account and OK. Then open the menu again, choose Settings › Quit, and move Google Drive from Applications to the Trash. Your files stay in your Google account and open at drive.google.com, but Google warns that disconnecting removes offline files from the Mac. ## Mac cache guides - [How to clear the Spotify cache on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/caches/clear-spotify-cache-on-mac/): Clear the Spotify cache on a Mac from Settings › Storage, or by hand from ~/Library/Caches, and what it does to downloads and Offline Backup. - [How to clear the Slack cache on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/caches/clear-slack-cache-on-mac/): Clear Slack’s cache on a Mac with Help › Troubleshooting › Clear Cache and Restart, or by hand, and which Slack folders to leave alone. - [How to clear the Microsoft Teams cache on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/caches/clear-microsoft-teams-cache-on-mac/): Clear the new Microsoft Teams cache on a Mac: the two folders Microsoft says to delete, the Terminal commands, and when clearing won’t help. - [How to clear the Zoom cache on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/caches/clear-zoom-cache-on-mac/): Clear Zoom’s cache on a Mac: delete the data folder Zoom documents, or clear Zoom Apps data in Settings, and when Zoom recommends it. - [How to clear the Chrome cache on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/caches/clear-chrome-cache-on-mac/): Clear Google Chrome’s cache on a Mac with Delete browsing data, ticking only Cached images and files so you stay signed in to websites. - [How to clear the Telegram cache on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/caches/clear-telegram-cache-on-mac/): Clear Telegram’s cache on a Mac from Settings › Data and Storage › Storage Usage: what it removes, why you stay logged in, and secret chats. - [How to clear the Figma cache on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/caches/clear-figma-cache-on-mac/): Clear the Figma desktop app’s cache on a Mac with Help › Troubleshooting › Reset Figma and Restart, or the Terminal command Figma gives. - [How to clear the VS Code cache on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/caches/clear-vscode-cache-on-mac/): Clear Visual Studio Code’s cache on a Mac: which folders in Application Support/Code are cache, and which hold your settings and extensions. - [How to clear the Docker cache on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/caches/clear-docker-cache-on-mac/): Free Docker Desktop disk space on a Mac with docker system prune, builder prune or Clean up data, and why Docker.raw looks bigger than it is. - [How to clear the npm cache on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/caches/clear-npm-cache-on-mac/): Clear the npm cache on a Mac with npm cache clean --force, check it with npm cache verify, and where ~/.npm keeps packages. - [How to clear the Homebrew cache on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/caches/clear-homebrew-cache-on-mac/): Clear Homebrew’s download cache on a Mac with brew cleanup and --prune=all, where brew --cache points, and how automatic cleanup works. - [How to clear the Notion cache on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/caches/clear-notion-cache-on-mac/): Clear Notion’s cache on a Mac by hand, or use Help › Troubleshooting › Reset & Erase All Local Data, and what each does to sign-in and offline pages. - [How to clear the Dropbox cache on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/caches/clear-dropbox-cache-on-mac/): Clear the hidden .dropbox.cache folder on a Mac, or the File Provider cache in Group Containers, without touching the files Dropbox syncs. ## Help - [Does Peekaboo need Full Disk Access?](https://getpeekaboo.app/help/full-disk-access/): Peekaboo works without Full Disk Access. What it adds, how to turn it on in System Settings, and what macOS asks for instead. - [How do I make Peekaboo the default file browser instead of Finder?](https://getpeekaboo.app/help/default-file-browser/): Make Peekaboo open folders instead of Finder: the setting, what switches over, what stays with Finder, and why some macOS versions keep Finder. - [How do I change the Quick Search shortcut?](https://getpeekaboo.app/help/quick-search-shortcut/): Quick Search opens over any app with ⌥Space. How to set a different shortcut, and what to do when another app already uses it. - [How do I undo a cleanup?](https://getpeekaboo.app/help/undo-a-cleanup/): Every Peekaboo cleanup is recorded. Put back the last one with ⌥⌘Z, or any earlier one from Cleanup History, as long as the Trash still holds it. - [How does automatic cleanup work in Peekaboo?](https://getpeekaboo.app/help/automatic-cleanup/): Peekaboo’s automatic cleanup is off until you turn it on. What it moves to the Trash once a day, the Safe-only option, and how to put things back. - [Can I get a notification when my Mac is low on space?](https://getpeekaboo.app/help/low-space-notification/): Peekaboo can notify you once when free space on your startup disk drops below a level you choose. Where to turn it on and set the level. - [How do I move my Peekaboo license to a new Mac?](https://getpeekaboo.app/help/move-license/): Move a Peekaboo license to another Mac yourself: deactivate the old one, or use Move to This Mac on the new one. Limits and lost keys. - [What search tokens does Peekaboo understand?](https://getpeekaboo.app/help/search-tokens/): Narrow a Peekaboo search with ext:, path:, in:, kind:code, repo: and hidden:, mixed with plain language. Every token, with examples and quoting rules. - [How do I use Peekaboo from Terminal?](https://getpeekaboo.app/help/command-line-tool/): Install the peekaboo command in Settings › Advanced, then search, open and reveal files from Terminal. Usage, options and exit codes. - [How do I install Peekaboo with Homebrew?](https://getpeekaboo.app/help/install-with-homebrew/): Install Peekaboo with one Homebrew command, why it uses the full vishvavariya/peekaboo name, how updates work, and how to uninstall it with brew. - [Can I search photos by what’s in them?](https://getpeekaboo.app/help/search-photos-by-content/): Peekaboo can find photos by what they show and the words in them, read on your Mac in the background. Where to turn it on and what stays private. - [What does “Allow permanent removal” do in Peekaboo?](https://getpeekaboo.app/help/permanent-removal/): Some things can’t go to the Trash: Xcode simulators, Homebrew apps, local snapshots. What Peekaboo’s permanent removal setting allows, and what it doesn’t. - [How do I use the same Peekaboo settings on two Macs?](https://getpeekaboo.app/help/sync-settings/): Keep Peekaboo’s settings the same on every Mac with iCloud, or export them to a file and import on another Mac. What moves and what stays. - [What data does Peekaboo send?](https://getpeekaboo.app/help/what-data-is-sent/): Peekaboo never uploads files, names or searches. What it does send (usage counts, update and license checks) and the setting that stops usage data. - [What are Peekaboo’s developer features?](https://getpeekaboo.app/help/developer-features/): Turn on Show developer features in Peekaboo for Projects, Dotfiles & Config, Xcode and package-manager cleanup, Open in Terminal and Copy Path As. - [Why doesn’t Peekaboo show a file I know is there?](https://getpeekaboo.app/help/file-not-showing/): Why a file might be missing from Peekaboo: folders without access, iCloud-only files, hidden files, network drives, or Spotlight not indexing it. - [Peekaboo settings, explained](https://getpeekaboo.app/help/settings/): every control in the Settings window ## Comparisons - [The best Finder alternatives for Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/best/finder-alternatives-for-mac/): ForkLift, Commander One, Path Finder, QSpace Pro, Nimble Commander and Peekaboo compared: what each is best at, price and macOS version, checked October 2026. - [The best duplicate file finders for Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/best/duplicate-file-finders-for-mac/): Gemini 2, PhotoSweeper, dupeGuru, Nektony’s Duplicate File Finder, Peekaboo and Photos’ own Duplicates album, compared on price, method and safety. - [The best disk space analyzers for Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/best/disk-space-analyzers-for-mac/): DaisyDisk, GrandPerspective, CleanMyMac, Peekaboo and macOS Storage settings compared: how each shows what fills your disk, and what it costs. - [The best Spotlight alternatives for Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/best/spotlight-alternatives-for-mac/): Raycast, Alfred, HoudahSpot, Find Any File, EasyFind and Peekaboo compared: launchers and file search tools, with prices and macOS needs checked Nov 2026. - [The best CleanMyMac alternatives for Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/best/cleanmymac-alternatives/): OnyX, AppCleaner, Pearcleaner, DaisyDisk, GrandPerspective and Peekaboo compared with CleanMyMac: what each one cleans and costs, checked Nov 2026. - [The best app uninstallers for Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/best/app-uninstallers-for-mac/): AppCleaner, Pearcleaner, Peekaboo, CleanMyMac and Hazel’s App Sweep compared: how each finds app leftovers, what it costs, and which macOS it needs. - [The best system monitor apps for Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/best/system-monitor-apps-for-mac/): iStat Menus, Stats, Sensei, TG Pro, DriveDx and Peekaboo’s Mac Health compared with Activity Monitor: what each watches, what it costs, checked Nov 2026. - [The best Mac cleaner apps](https://getpeekaboo.app/best/mac-cleaner-apps/): CleanMyMac, MacKeeper, Sensei, BuhoCleaner, CCleaner, Mole, OnyX and Peekaboo compared: what each cleans, whether you can undo it, and what it costs. - [The best OCR apps for Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/best/ocr-apps-for-mac/): Live Text, TextSniper, CleanShot X, Prizmo, Searchable and Peekaboo compared: get text from images and screenshots on a Mac, with prices checked Nov 2026. - [The best apps for cloud storage on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/best/cloud-storage-apps-for-mac/): CloudMounter, ExpanDrive, Mountain Duck, ForkLift, Commander One and Peekaboo: price, macOS and what each does with cloud storage, checked Nov 2026. - [Path Finder vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/path-finder/): Path Finder is a Finder replacement from $29.95/year. Peekaboo is a one-time buy that finds files in plain English, reads screenshots and clears duplicates. - [ForkLift vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/forklift/): ForkLift is a dual-pane manager for servers and sync. Peekaboo finds and tidies the files already on your Mac: plain-English search, duplicates, Space Map. - [Commander One vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/commander-one/): Commander One is a dual-pane manager for clouds, archives and devices. Peekaboo finds files in plain English, reads text in screenshots and clears duplicates. - [QSpace Pro vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/qspace-pro/): QSpace Pro tiles up to 12 panes and links 20+ server types. Peekaboo finds files you describe in plain English, reads screenshot text and clears duplicates. - [Nimble Commander vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/nimble-commander/): Nimble Commander is a free dual-pane manager with a built-in terminal. Peekaboo is a paid app for plain-English search, screenshot text and undoable cleanup. - [Fileside vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/fileside/): Fileside saves tiled pane layouts per project on Mac and Windows. Peekaboo skips layouts: describe a file in plain English, then clear duplicates with undo. - [HoudahSpot vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/houdahspot/): HoudahSpot builds precise Spotlight queries from criteria. Peekaboo lets you type the search in plain English, reads text in images, and finds duplicates too. - [Find Any File vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/find-any-file/): Find Any File digs where Spotlight won’t. Peekaboo searches your everyday files in plain English, reads text in screenshots, and finds duplicates. - [EasyFind vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/easyfind/): EasyFind is DEVONtechnologies’ free, index-free search with regex. Peekaboo adds plain-English search, text in screenshots and cleanup you can undo. - [Raycast vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/raycast/): Raycast is a launcher with file search, AI and extensions; v2 needs macOS Tahoe. Peekaboo is a dedicated file app with plain-English search, OCR and cleanup. - [Alfred vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/alfred/): Alfred launches apps and runs Workflows. Peekaboo is built for files: plain-English search, text in screenshots, duplicates and a disk map, paid once. - [DaisyDisk vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/daisydisk/): DaisyDisk maps your disk for $9.99. Peekaboo maps it too, then finds duplicates, groups downloads by source and lets you undo any cleanup. - [GrandPerspective vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/grandperspective/): GrandPerspective draws a free treemap of your disk. Peekaboo adds duplicates, Disk Usage and an App Uninstaller to its Space Map, with cleanup you can undo. - [CleanMyMac vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/cleanmymac/): CleanMyMac is a maintenance suite from $39.99/year. Peekaboo is a one-time buy for your own files: duplicates, Space Map, Clean Up you can undo, search. - [Gemini 2 vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/gemini-2/): Gemini 2 is a duplicate finder at $19.99/year. Peekaboo finds exact and look-alike duplicates, pays once, and is also a file library with plain-English search. - [PhotoSweeper vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/photosweeper/): PhotoSweeper cleans duplicate photos in Photos, Lightroom and Capture One. Peekaboo finds copies of any kind of file in your folders, with one-click undo. - [Duplicate File Finder vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/duplicate-file-finder/): Nektony’s Duplicate File Finder is free, with Pro from $7.95/month. Peekaboo finds exact and look-alike copies for a one-time price, with one-click undo. - [TextSniper vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/textsniper/): TextSniper copies text from what’s on screen. Peekaboo reads the text in all your saved screenshots, photos and PDFs so you can search and copy it later. - [Hazel vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/hazel/): Hazel files downloads by rules. Peekaboo organizes folders with Routines written as sentences, and adds search, a disk map and undo for every move. - [dupeGuru vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/dupeguru/): dupeGuru is a free, open-source duplicate finder for Mac, Windows and Linux. Peekaboo finds exact and look-alike copies for a one-time price, with undo. - [OnyX vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/onyx/): OnyX is a free maintenance utility, with a separate build for each macOS. Peekaboo explains every app cache before it goes, and puts cleanups in the Trash. - [AppCleaner vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/appcleaner/): AppCleaner is a free drag-and-drop uninstaller. Peekaboo removes apps with their leftovers too, finds what deleted apps left behind, and maps your disk. - [Pearcleaner vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/pearcleaner/): Pearcleaner is a free, source-available app cleaner whose development is on hold. Peekaboo removes apps with their leftovers, paid once, on macOS 14+. - [OmniDiskSweeper vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/omnidisksweeper/): OmniDiskSweeper is Omni’s free list of files by size. Peekaboo lists folders by size too, then adds a Space Map, duplicates and cleanups you can undo. - [Disk Inventory X vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/disk-inventory-x/): Disk Inventory X’s last release, 1.3 from 2019, lists macOS 10.13 to 10.15. Peekaboo maps disk use on macOS 14 and later, with duplicates and undo. - [iStat Menus vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/istat-menus/): iStat Menus shows every sensor in the menu bar from $11.99. Peekaboo gives your Mac a 0–100 health score with the reasons, then frees the space behind it. - [Stats vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/stats/): Stats is a free, open-source menu bar monitor. Peekaboo adds a 0–100 Mac Health score with reasons, a week of history, and the cleanup tools to act on it. - [TG Pro vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/tg-pro/): TG Pro reads every temperature sensor and controls the fans for $10. Peekaboo scores your Mac’s overall health from 0 to 100 and frees the disk space behind it. - [DriveDx vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/drivedx/): DriveDx watches SSD and HDD health for signs of failure. Peekaboo scores the whole Mac from 0 to 100 and shows, then frees, what fills the startup disk. - [App Cleaner & Uninstaller vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/app-cleaner-uninstaller/): Nektony’s App Cleaner & Uninstaller sells by subscription or once. Peekaboo removes apps with their leftovers to the Trash and maps the rest of your disk. - [Disk Space Analyzer vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/disk-space-analyzer/): Nektony’s Disk Space Analyzer maps drives from $9.99/year. Peekaboo maps your disk too, then finds duplicates and old files and makes every cleanup undoable. - [Hyperspace vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/hyperspace/): Hyperspace saves space by cloning identical files on APFS. Peekaboo finds exact and look-alike duplicates, sends extras to the Trash, and undoes in one click. - [Sensei vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/sensei/): Sensei combines a Mac monitor and cleaner from $29/year or $59. Peekaboo pairs a 0–100 health score with duplicates, a disk map and one-click undo, paid once. - [MacKeeper vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/mackeeper/): MacKeeper is sold by subscription from $10.95/month. Peekaboo finds duplicates, caches and app leftovers, maps your disk and undoes any cleanup, paid once. - [BuhoCleaner vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/buhocleaner/): BuhoCleaner cleans junk in one click, by year or lifetime licence. Peekaboo explains each cache, finds duplicates, maps the disk and undoes every cleanup. - [Mole vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/mole/): Mole is a free open-source Terminal cleaner with a $19 Mac app. Peekaboo cleans caches, duplicates and apps in a native window, and every cleanup can be undone. - [Fenn vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/fenn/): Fenn is on-device AI file search at $9/month or $249 lifetime, Apple silicon only. Peekaboo finds files from plain-English descriptions on any Mac, paid once. - [Searchable vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/searchable/): Searchable finds images by description, similarity and their text, from $1.99/month. Peekaboo finds photos and screenshots that way too, plus every other file. - [CleanShot X vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/cleanshot-x/): CleanShot X captures screenshots and copies on-screen text, from $35. Peekaboo searches the words inside every screenshot and PDF on your Mac, on-device. - [CloudMounter vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/cloudmounter/): CloudMounter mounts clouds as Finder drives from $29 a year. Peekaboo puts the drives you already sync in one sidebar and search, and frees their space. - [ExpanDrive vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/expandrive/): ExpanDrive streams cloud and server storage into Finder, free for personal use. Peekaboo puts the drives you already sync in one search and frees their space. - [Mountain Duck vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/mountain-duck/): Mountain Duck mounts servers and clouds as disks, with encryption. Peekaboo puts the cloud drives you sync in one search and shows what they take locally. - [Lingon Pro (formerly Lingon X) vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/lingon/): Lingon Pro (formerly Lingon X) edits launchd tasks for $23.99. Peekaboo lists what starts on its own, names the app behind it and turns it off. ## Specs - Requires: macOS 14 Sonoma or later - Runs on: Apple silicon and Intel - Download: About 26 MB, native SwiftUI - Text recognition: Apple Vision, on your Mac - Duplicates: SHA-256 and Vision feature prints, on your Mac - Network: Updates, license, anonymous usage counts you can turn off. Never your files - Deleting: Your files always go to the Trash; permanent removal is opt-in - Security: Signed and notarized by Apple ## What works on which Mac - **Everything else**: macOS 14 Sonoma or later, Apple silicon or Intel. One universal app. The library, search, Quick Search, text in images, duplicates, Clean Up, App Caches, the uninstaller and Space Map work the same on every supported Mac. - **Removing the Apple Intelligence models**: macOS 27 on Apple silicon. Every Mac sees how much space they take in Disk Usage. Removing them also needs permanent removal turned on in Settings › Cleanup. - **Opening folders from other apps**: macOS 14 to 26. On macOS 27, macOS keeps folders with Finder, so Peekaboo can take over Show in Finder only. - **Assistant**: macOS 26 or later with Apple Intelligence turned on. It runs on Apple’s on-device model. On other Macs the Assistant page simply isn’t there; everything else works. - **Glass toolbar**: macOS 26 or later. Earlier versions get the standard toolbar. Nothing else changes. - **Settings sync**: An iCloud account. Optional, and off until you turn it on. ## Compared with Finder and Activity Monitor Peekaboo works alongside Finder and Activity Monitor; it doesn’t replace them, and Show in Finder is one step away on every file. | Job | Peekaboo | Finder | Activity Monitor | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Seeing what you have | Yes: A library by kind: images, videos, music, documents, archives and apps, each with its total | Yes: Folder by folder, the way you once filed things | No: Not its job | | Searching in plain English | Yes: Type “pdfs from last week over 5 MB” and get filters you can edit | No: Search rules, one dropdown at a time | No: Not its job | | Where a download came from | Yes: Downloaded From groups every download by source: Gmail, Slack, ChatGPT, any site | No: A “Where from” line in Get Info, one file at a time | No: Not its job | | Duplicate files | Yes: Identical files by SHA-256, look-alike photos by Apple Vision | No: Nothing built in | No: Not its job | | Freeing space | Yes: Clean Up: forgotten downloads, old installers, big old videos and unused apps, each with its size | No: Sort a folder by size and decide yourself | No: Not its job | | Caches, developer files, uninstalling | Yes: App Caches, Dev Tools, and an uninstaller that finds what an app leaves behind | No: Drag the app to the Trash; its support files stay | No: Not its job | | Seeing where your space went | Yes: Space Map: click through categories and folders to what’s using your disk | No: Get Info, one folder at a time | No: Not its job | | What grew this week | Yes: What Grew This Week on Home: the folders that took the most space, and roughly when the disk fills up | No: Not its job | No: Not its job | | How your Mac is doing | Yes: Mac Health: processor, memory, disk, network, heat and battery, a 0–100 score and a week of history | No: Not its job | Yes: Live figures and graphs for every process, with no overall score or week of history | | What starts on its own | Yes: Startup Items: every launch agent and background helper, the app it belongs to, and Turn Off | No: Not its job | No: Shows processes once they run, not what launches them | | Tidying on its own | Yes: Routines: organize a folder, clean up or tag files on a schedule, at launch or when a file arrives | No: Folder Actions, written in AppleScript | No: Not its job | | Undoing a cleanup | Yes: Activity: every move, rename, organize and cleanup is a session you undo in one click | Yes: Put Back from the Trash, if you remember which files went | No: Not its job | | Searching from any app | Yes: Quick Search with ⌥Space, plain English included | Yes: Spotlight with ⌘Space: names and contents | No: Not its job | | Every process in detail | No: Mac Health shows the busy apps and what keeps your Mac awake; for every process, open Activity Monitor | No: Not its job | Yes: Every process, its threads, energy use and Force Quit | | Folders, column view, servers, Put Back | No: Stays in Finder. Show in Finder is one step away on every file | Yes: Column view, network drives, tags and the Trash | No: Not its job | ## Network requests (complete list) - **Update check** — to: getpeekaboo.app/appcast.xml, which forwards to the release files on GitHub. Updates download from GitHub. Sends: A plain request for the list of releases, naming the app and its version. No install ID and no system profile. When: At launch and about once a day, and whenever you choose Check for Updates…. An update is checked against our signature before it installs. To stop it: Settings › Advanced › Check for updates automatically. Check for Updates… still works when you choose it. - **License settings** — to: getpeekaboo.app/license-config.json Sends: Nothing about you or your Mac: it fetches a signed file with the trial length, products and prices. When: At launch and every 6 hours. To stop it: Always on. It carries nothing to turn off. - **License activation and checks** — to: Dodo Payments, the store that sells the license Sends: Your license key, and a name for this Mac made of its model (like “Mac15,3”) and a short code derived from its hardware. Never your Mac’s name. A check sends the key and the activation’s ID. When: When you activate, every 6 hours while a license is active, and when you choose Deactivate This Mac. Never during the trial. To stop it: Part of how a license works. A license that can’t be checked for 30 days pauses until a check gets through; a failed connection never removes it. - **Move to This Mac** — to: getpeekaboo.app/api/license/transfer Sends: Your license key and the same short hardware code. The purchase email gets a notice that the license moved, in case it wasn’t you. When: Only when you click Move to This Mac. To stop it: Don’t click it: nothing sends on its own. - **Anonymous usage counts** — to: Google Analytics, sent directly by the app with no analytics SDK Sends: A random install ID (not derived from your hardware); app, build and macOS versions; Mac model, language and region setting; library size in bands (like “10–100 GB”); whether Full Disk Access is on; look, layout and menu bar choices; trial or licensed; Low Power Mode and heat level; how many cleanup rules, pinned folders and saved searches you have; the app’s memory use; which optional settings are on; fixed feature names with how often each was used; onboarding and license steps; and a star rating, if you give one. When: Once a day, plus an onboarding or license step when it happens. To stop it: Settings › General › Share anonymous usage data. Off means nothing is counted, stored counts are dropped and nothing is sent. - **Problem reports and feedback** — to: getpeekaboo.app/api/problem-reports, then our inbox. Kept on the server for 90 days. Sends: Your message, a reply address if you give one, app and macOS versions, Mac model and language (Send Feedback lets you leave those out), any feature the app switched off after a crash, and the crash report if you leave it attached, with your home folder’s path taken out. When: When you press Send in Report a Problem or Send Feedback. If sending fails, the app offers an email instead. After a crash, only if you turned on Send crash reports automatically: then the crash report goes on its own, with no message or reply address. To stop it: Don’t press Send, and leave Settings › Advanced › Send crash reports automatically off (it’s off until you turn it on). - **Settings sync** — to: Your own iCloud account, through Apple’s iCloud key-value storage. Not to us. Sends: Your Peekaboo preferences, including saved searches. No files. When: Only after you turn it on, on each Mac. To stop it: Off until you turn on Settings › Advanced › Sync settings with iCloud. Never leaves the Mac: File and folder names, paths, contents and thumbnails; What you type into search (saved searches go only to your own iCloud, and only with settings sync on); Text read from your screenshots, photos and PDFs; Where your downloads came from. Source badges are built into the app, so no site’s icon is ever fetched; Duplicate fingerprints and look-alike photo matches; Photo places, matched against a list of cities built into the app, with no location service; Mac Health readings and their week of history, and the list of Startup Items; What Grew This Week: the daily folder sizes behind it stay on your Mac for 90 days; Assistant chats and plans. They run on Apple’s on-device model, never on a server; Your Routines and what they did; Cleanup History and the log of permanent removals; Your license key, except to activate, check or move your license. ## How it is tested - **More than 1,400 unit tests**: On the logic that decides things: how a search is read, what a cleanup rule picks, what counts as an app’s leftovers, what’s protected, and how a license is checked, how the health score adds up. - **100 end-to-end scenarios**: Each one drives a feature in the real app, against a sample library in a temporary folder, never anyone’s own files. - **No release without a full pass**: The release script runs the unit tests, then every scenario on the finished app, and stops if anything fails. - **Signed and notarized**: Signed with an Apple Developer ID, hardened runtime on, notarized by Apple. Updates are signed too, and checked before they install. ## Features ### Library and views - **Home dashboard** (since 0.1.0): Your file count and total size, a storage bar by kind of file, a card per category with real thumbnails, what you can free up, where downloads came from, and recent photos, videos, music and documents. - **Sidebar** (since 0.1.0): Home, Recents and Downloaded From; your library by kind (Images, Videos, Music, Documents, Archives, Apps, Screenshots, Photos); Clean Up, Disk Usage, Memory and Mac Health; Text in Images and File Tools; locations, pinned folders and saved searches. Large Files, Duplicates, App Caches, the uninstaller and the Space Map open from Clean Up. - **Grid and list** (since 0.1.0): A card-size slider and sorting by name, date, size or kind. - **Quick Look and Inspector** (since 0.1.0): Space for Quick Look, double-click for a larger preview, ⌘I for dimensions, duration, camera EXIF and download source. - **Getting Started** (since 0.1.10): Six first things to try on Home, each with Show Me, ticked off as you do them. Hide it any time; Help › Getting Started brings it back. - **Cloud Drives** (since 0.1.10): Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box and iCloud Drive, found from their folders on your Mac, in the sidebar and in search, with Download Now and Remove Download. Nothing to sign in to, nothing downloads unless you ask. ⌥⇧⌘I. - **Works like Finder** (since 0.1.11): Go Back and Go Forward (⌘[ and ⌘]), Enclosing Folder (⌘↑), Finder’s Go keys (⇧⌘D, ⇧⌘O, ⌥⌘L), window titles that follow the page, and Quick Search results you can drag, Quick Look and right-click. - **Two looks** (since 0.1.0): Playful, with a colour for each kind of file and thumbnails on every category, and Minimal, in grey so only your files bring colour. Both in light and dark. ⌃⌘T switches. ### Search - **Plain-English search** (since 0.1.0): “pdfs from last week over 5 MB” becomes editable chips for kind, date, size, source and location, with an “Understood as” line. Parsed locally, no AI service. - **Contents and tags** (since 0.1.0): Matches filenames, Finder tags and the text inside documents via Spotlight’s index. - **Quick Search** (since 0.1.0): A Spotlight-style panel from any app with ⌥Space (customisable). - **Saved searches** (since 0.1.0): Pin a search to the sidebar and it always shows what matches right now. - **Text in images** (since 0.1.0): Apple Vision OCR on screenshots, photos and PDFs, with bulk copy. - **Search tokens** (since 0.1.3): Narrow any search with ext:, path:, kind:code and hidden:, mixed freely with plain English. - **Search Everywhere** (since 0.1.3): Walks the whole disk for files Spotlight doesn’t index, hidden files included when Show Hidden Files (⇧⌘.) is on. ### Downloads - **Downloaded From** (since 0.1.0): Downloads grouped by source domain — Gmail, Drive, ChatGPT, Canva, X, Slack, WhatsApp, GitHub or any website — from macOS’s own “Where from” metadata. - **Menu bar** (since 0.1.0): Your ten newest downloads with thumbnails, ready to drag into any app. ### Cleanup - **Duplicates** (since 0.1.0): Exact copies by SHA-256 (size-bucketed first) and look-alike photos by Vision feature prints. - **Clean Up cards** (since 0.1.0): Duplicates, forgotten downloads (90+ days, never opened), old installers, old screenshots, big old videos and unused apps. - **Undo Cleanup** (since 0.1.0): Every cleanup is a recorded session. One click puts every file back from the Trash. - **What Grew This Week** (since 0.1.11): Home shows the folders that took the most space over the last week or month, from a daily measurement kept on your Mac for 90 days. The low-space alert says roughly when the disk fills up. - **Move to Drive** (since 0.1.10): From Large Files, move big files to an external drive to free space. Nothing is deleted, files in use and iCloud placeholders are skipped, and Undo moves them back. - **Clean Safe Items** (since 0.1.0): Only the rows marked Safe, across caches and developer data, in one step, with Cleanup History to put them back. - **Space Map** (since 0.1.0): An interactive sunburst of disk usage by category and folder. Click to drill down. - **Disk Usage** (since 0.1.0): Every folder on the disk by size, plus the space macOS frees on its own (iCloud copies, caches, snapshots) and the Apple Intelligence models filed under System Data. On macOS 27 with Apple silicon it can remove those models and stop macOS downloading them again. - **App Uninstaller** (since 0.1.0): Removes an app with everything it left behind, finds leftovers of apps you already deleted, and can offer to clean up whenever an app goes to the Trash. Apps installed with Homebrew are removed with Homebrew, once you allow permanent removal. - **App Caches** (since 0.1.0): Caches and logs apps rebuild on their own, explained one by one, with the ones that have visible consequences (sign-ins, sync, the Spotlight index) marked Check First. - **Safe by design** (since 0.1.0): Your files always go to the Trash. Permanent removal, for items that can’t, stays off until you turn it on. iCloud-only files are skipped so nothing downloads behind your back. ### Mac Health - **Live readings** (since 0.1.8): Processor, memory, startup disk, network speed, heat in plain words, and the battery on laptops. The apps using the processor, with Quit, and what keeps the Mac or its display awake. Open with ⌥⇧⌘H. - **Health score** (since 0.1.8): 0 to 100. Points come off in fixed bands for low disk space, memory pressure, a busy processor, heat and a worn battery, each with a sentence and a button to Clean Up, Disk Usage, Memory, the busy apps or Battery settings. - **A week of history** (since 0.1.8): A reading every five minutes while the app runs, kept for a week on your Mac only. Skipped in Low Power Mode or on a low battery, and paused while the Mac sleeps. - **Startup Items** (since 0.1.11): Every launch agent, daemon and background helper that starts on its own, the app it belongs to, and leftovers of apps you deleted. Turn Off moves it to the Trash, so it can be put back. Apple’s own items and security tools are never offered. - **Low-space alert** (since 0.1.0): A notification when free space drops below the level you set in Settings, with a forecast of when the disk fills. - **Menu bar readings** (since 0.1.8): Optional, in Settings › General: processor, memory pressure and network speed in the menu bar. Click for the score. - **Shortcuts** (since 0.1.8): Get Mac Health returns the score and what’s lowering it. ### Assistant, Routines and Undo - **Assistant** (since 0.1.8): ⌥⇧⌘A. Ask in plain words (“find invoices from last month and zip them”, “why is my disk full?”, “tidy my Desktop”) and it drafts a plan listing every step and file. Nothing changes until you press Run. Apple’s on-device model, macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence; never sends anything off the Mac. - **Routines** (since 0.1.8): Tasks that run on a schedule, at launch or when a file arrives in a folder: organize, move to the Trash, tag, or Clean Safe Items, written as a sentence or picked from templates. The one place for every automation, off until you add one. - **Organize and Keep Organized** (since 0.1.5): Sort a folder’s loose files into subfolders by kind or by month, previewing every move first. Keep Organized tidies Desktop, Downloads or any folder every few hours. Code projects, apps and files in use are left alone. - **Activity and Undo everywhere** (since 0.1.8): ⇧⌘Y. Every move, rename, organize, cleanup and uninstall is a session: ⌘Z in the window, Undo in each toast, and one searchable list with Undo or Put Back. - **Use with AI apps** (since 0.1.10): Settings › Advanced › Use with AI apps sets up Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor and other MCP apps to search your files, see what’s using space and what Clean Up would free. They can look and show files in the app, never open, move or delete them. ### Power features - **Command palette** (since 0.1.0): ⌘K reaches every action, file and location. - **Instant index** (since 0.1.0): Live FSEvents and NSMetadataQuery updates. No Refresh button. - **Bulk rename** (since 0.1.0): Pattern, find and replace, numbering and date tokens, with a live preview. - **Shortcuts and Siri**: Find Files, Get Latest Download, Show Search Results, Uninstall App, Scan for Space to Free, Clean Safe Items, Organize Folder, Put Back Last Cleanup, Run Routine, Get Mac Health and Ask the Assistant. - **Menu bar drop** (since 0.1.10): Drop files on the menu bar icon to show them in the app; drop a folder to open it in Disk Usage. - **Use with AI apps (MCP)**: Settings › Advanced copies the setup for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor and other MCP apps. They can search your files, see disk usage and what Clean Up would free, and show files in Peekaboo; never open, move or delete. Files holding secrets are never listed. - **Drag and drop** (since 0.1.0): Drag several files at once out to Mail, Slack, Figma or anywhere else. ### For developers - **Off until you want them** (since 0.1.0): Turn on Show developer features in Settings and these join Clean Up, the Go menu and file menus. - **Projects** (since 0.1.3): Your git repositories as cards, with branch, last commit and the rebuildable folders (build output, dependencies) you can move to the Trash. - **Developer data** (since 0.1.0): Xcode build files, caches, device support and archives, simulators, and package-manager caches, each explained before anything moves. Simulators are always Check First. - **Dotfiles and config** (since 0.1.0): The hidden settings files tools keep in your home folder. Files that hold keys or tokens are never previewed. - **Terminal and links**: peekaboo du shows disk usage and peekaboo clean lists what Clean Up would free, without moving anything. Open and reveal files from Terminal with the peekaboo command, or from anywhere with peekaboo:// links. Copy Path As gives a plain path, a Terminal-ready path or a file URL. - **More Info** (since 0.1.3): The inspector shows the full path, permissions, owner, where a file was downloaded from and its git branch. ## FAQ ### Does Peekaboo replace Finder? No, it works alongside it. Peekaboo is a faster way to see, search and tidy your files, and “Show in Finder” is always one click away. ### Do my files get uploaded anywhere? No. Search, text recognition and duplicate detection all run on your Mac. There’s no account and no cloud. The app goes online only to check for updates, to check your license, to send anonymous usage counts (which you can turn off in Settings › General) and to send a problem report when you press Send. The privacy page lists every request, what it carries and how to stop it. ### What if it deletes the wrong thing? It can’t delete your files outright. Everything Peekaboo removes goes to the Trash, and each cleanup is saved as a session in Cleanup History, so Put Back returns the whole lot in one click (⌥⌘Z puts back the last one). Nothing moves until you’ve reviewed it, and automatic cleanup rules stay off until you turn them on. ### Can Peekaboo remove anything permanently? Only things that can’t go to the Trash: simulators, Homebrew packages, local Time Machine snapshots and, on macOS 27 with Apple silicon, the Apple Intelligence models. That stays off until you turn on permanent removal in Settings › Cleanup. Each removal then asks you to confirm that it can’t be undone, and every one is written to a log next to Cleanup History. ### Will Peekaboo touch iCloud files or system apps? No. Files that live only in iCloud are skipped, so nothing downloads behind your back. The uninstaller never lists Apple’s own apps, anything in /System, security or device-management agents, or Peekaboo itself, and it never offers folders that hold passwords, keys or sign-in data as leftovers. ### How is the search different from Spotlight? It uses the same index, so it’s just as fast. The difference is that you type the way you talk (“zips bigger than 1 GB older than 6 months”) and Peekaboo shows the filters it heard as chips you can fix. The parser is plain code on your Mac, not an AI service, so it’s instant and private, and occasionally it’ll misread you. That’s why the chips are editable. ### What is Mac Health? A page (⌥⇧⌘H) with your Mac’s processor, memory, disk, network, heat and battery, the apps keeping it busy or awake, and a 0–100 score with the reasons it isn’t 100 and a button to fix the biggest one. It keeps a week of readings on your Mac, one every five minutes while Peekaboo runs, and can show the processor, memory pressure and network speed in the menu bar. Nothing is sent anywhere. ### What is the Peekaboo Assistant? A page (⌥⇧⌘A) where you ask in plain words, like “zip last month’s invoices” or “tidy my Desktop”. It drafts a plan listing every step and every file, and nothing changes until you press Run. Each step can be undone from Activity. It runs on Apple’s on-device model, so nothing leaves your Mac, and it needs macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence. ### Can Peekaboo clean up and organize automatically? Yes, with Routines, and only once you set one up. A routine runs on a schedule, at launch or when a file arrives in a folder: organize Downloads by kind, move old screenshots to the Trash, tag new PDFs, or Clean Safe Items. Every run is recorded in Activity with Put Back. ### How do I see and stop what starts on its own? Open Mac Health and look at Startup Items: every launch agent, daemon and background helper that starts on its own, with the app it belongs to and leftovers of apps you already deleted. Turn Off moves the item to the Trash, so you can put it back. Apple’s own items and security tools are never offered. ### Does Peekaboo work with Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive? Yes. Cloud Drives finds Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box and iCloud Drive from their folders on your Mac and lists them in the sidebar and in search, with Download Now and Remove Download. There’s nothing to sign in to, and nothing downloads unless you ask. ### Can Claude or other AI apps use Peekaboo? Yes. Settings › Advanced › Use with AI apps copies the setup for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor and other MCP apps. They can search your files, see what’s using space and what Clean Up would free, and show files in Peekaboo. They can’t open, move or delete anything, and files holding keys or passwords are never listed. What the AI app does with the results is up to that app. ### What is Space Map? An interactive map of your disk. Every category and folder is sized by how much space it uses. Click to drill in, and send anything you don’t need to the Trash right from the map. ### How does the free trial work? Download Peekaboo and use every feature for 14 days, no account and no card. When the trial ends, buy a license to keep going; your library and settings stay as they are. ### Is it a subscription? No. You pay once and keep it. A license is $24.99 one-time (launch price $9.99 until Nov 13) for one Mac, yours for good, with updates included. ### Can I get a refund? Yes. Ask within 7 days of buying, by replying to your license email, and you get the full amount back, no questions asked. ### Which Macs are supported? macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple silicon and Intel: one universal app, about 26 MB. Almost everything works on every supported Mac; the download page lists the few extras that need a newer macOS or Apple silicon. ### Can I install Peekaboo with Homebrew? Yes: brew install --cask vishvavariya/peekaboo/peekaboo. It’s the same signed app as the download, with the same free trial, and it keeps itself up to date. ### Why does it ask for access to my folders? macOS asks you to approve access to Desktop, Documents and Downloads. Peekaboo needs it to show and search the files inside them. Nothing leaves your Mac. ### What doesn’t Peekaboo do? It isn’t a full Finder replacement: no column view, no network drives or servers yet, and no editing of Finder tags. It doesn’t search files that live only in iCloud (on purpose, so nothing downloads). And it never deletes your files permanently: they go to the Trash. Items that can’t (simulators, Homebrew packages, local Time Machine snapshots) are removed only if you turn on permanent removal in Settings › Cleanup. ### Will it slow my Mac down? The first index of a typical home folder takes a minute or two. After that Peekaboo listens to file-system events, so there’s no background rescanning. Text recognition runs at low priority in the background. ### Can I move my license to a new Mac? Yes. Choose “Deactivate this Mac” in Settings, then activate on the new one with the same key. --- # Feature landings and capabilities ## Uninstall Mac apps, leftovers and all (App Uninstaller) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-app-uninstaller/ (updated 2026-11-02) Dragging an app to the Trash removes the app and nothing else. Peekaboo shows the folders it left in your Library alongside it, so one review removes all of it. ### What it does - **One list per app**: The app and everything that belongs to it: Application Support, caches, preferences, containers and login helpers, gathered from the places macOS apps actually write. - **Leftovers of apps already gone**: Apps you deleted months ago still have folders in ~/Library. A scan finds what no installed app owns any more, and checks a folder is untouched before offering it. - **Asked at the right moment**: Turn on “Review leftovers when an app is deleted” and the next time an app goes to the Trash, its leftovers are waiting for you to confirm. - **Homebrew-aware**: Apps installed with Homebrew are removed with Homebrew, so brew doesn’t think they’re still there. Since that can’t go to the Trash, it needs Allow permanent removal turned on in Settings › Cleanup. The leftovers you pick go to the Trash. ### How to use it 1. Open the App Uninstaller. (⇧⌘X) 2. Pick an app and look through what was found with it. 3. Remove it. Everything goes to the Trash, never straight to deletion. ### When another app fits better If you only ever need to remove the odd app, the built-in way plus a quick look in ~/Library is enough, and our guide shows exactly where to look. Peekaboo is worth it when you also want the rest: finding files in plain English, duplicates, and cleanups you can undo. ### FAQ **Does the App Uninstaller delete files permanently?** Not by default. The app and its leftovers go to the Trash, so you can restore them until you empty it. The exception is apps installed with Homebrew: Homebrew removes those for good, so that option only appears once you turn on Allow permanent removal in Settings › Cleanup. **Can it remove apps from the Mac App Store?** Yes, along with the Containers and Group Containers folders where sandboxed App Store apps keep their data. **Will it remove apps that came with macOS?** No. Apps that are part of macOS, like Safari, are protected by the system and can’t be removed. **How is it different from dragging an app to the Trash?** The Trash only gets the .app. The uninstaller also finds what the app wrote elsewhere, which for some apps is gigabytes of caches or downloaded content. --- ## Free up space on your Mac, and keep the undo button (Storage cleaner) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-storage-cleaner/ (updated 2026-11-02) Most cleaners ask you to trust a big number. Peekaboo shows what each gigabyte is, explains what removing it means, and records every cleanup so you can put it back. ### What it does - **See where the space went**: Space Map draws the disk as a map you can click into; Disk Usage lists every folder by size, plus the space macOS frees on its own and the Apple Intelligence models filed under System Data. - **Your files first**: Clean Up gathers duplicates, forgotten downloads, old installers, old screenshots, big old videos and unused apps, each with what it’s worth. - **Caches, explained**: App caches and developer data, such as Xcode build files and simulators, are listed folder by folder. The ones with consequences you’d notice are marked Check First. - **Every cleanup can be undone**: Cleanups go to the Trash and are recorded as sessions. Put the last one back with ⌥⌘Z, or any earlier one from the Undo history. Nothing is removed for good unless you turn that on. ### How to use it 1. Open Space Map to see what’s large. (⇧⌘M) 2. Open Clean Up and review each card before anything moves. (⇧⌘K) 3. Changed your mind? Put the last cleanup back. (⌥⌘Z) ### When another app fits better Peekaboo doesn’t scan for malware or update your apps; a maintenance suite such as CleanMyMac does both. If you only want a picture of your disk and nothing else, a free visualiser like GrandPerspective will do. ### FAQ **Is it safe to use a storage cleaner on a Mac?** It depends on what it deletes and whether you can get it back. Peekaboo only moves files to the Trash, skips files that live only in iCloud, never offers folders a running app is using, and lets you undo any cleanup. **How much space will I get back?** It varies with the Mac. Each Clean Up card and cache shows its size before you do anything, so you know the number first. **Does it clean System Data?** The reclaimable parts: app caches, developer data, local Time Machine snapshots (with permanent removal turned on) and, on macOS 27 with Apple silicon, the Apple Intelligence models. **Is there a subscription?** No. Peekaboo is a one-time purchase per Mac, with every feature free for 14 days first. --- ## Find files on your Mac by describing them (Plain-English search) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/natural-language-file-search-mac/ (updated 2026-11-02) You rarely remember a file’s name. You remember it was a PDF, from Gmail, sometime last week. Type that, and Peekaboo shows how it read you as chips you can correct. ### What it does - **Words in, filters out**: “zips bigger than 1 GB older than 6 months” becomes kind, size and date chips, with an “Understood as” line. Fix a chip instead of retyping the search. - **The text inside images**: Screenshots, photos and PDFs are read on your Mac by Apple Vision, so a search finds the words in them, not just their names. - **Where it came from**: “pdfs from gmail” works because downloads keep their source. Search by the site or app a file arrived from. - **From any app, or the whole disk**: Quick Search opens over any app with ⌥Space. Tokens like ext:, path: and hidden: narrow a search, and Search Everywhere walks the disk for files Spotlight never indexed. ### How to use it 1. Press ⌥Space anywhere, or ⌘F in the window. (⌥Space) 2. Type what you remember: kind, when, size, where from. 3. Adjust a chip if it read you wrong, then save the search to the sidebar if you’ll need it again. (⌘S) ### When another app fits better If you want a launcher that also runs commands, scripts and clipboard history, Raycast or Alfred cover far more than files. If you build precise searches from criteria and boolean groups, HoudahSpot is made for that. Peekaboo is for describing a file the way you’d say it. ### FAQ **Does plain-English search send my files to an AI service?** No. The search is parsed on your Mac by a local parser; no file names, contents or searches leave it. **Is it better than Spotlight?** For files, often: Spotlight wants names or syntax, and finds little that it hasn’t indexed. Spotlight is still the quicker way to open apps. **Can it search inside documents?** Yes. It matches names, Finder tags and the text inside documents through Spotlight’s index, and the text inside images through its own on-device text recognition. **What can I type?** Kinds (pdfs, videos, screenshots), dates (last week, in August, older than 6 months), sizes (over 5 MB), sources (from gmail) and folders, in any order. --- ## Find duplicate files on your Mac, and undo the cleanup (Duplicate finder) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/duplicate-file-finder-mac/ (updated 2026-11-03) Copies pile up: the same PDF downloaded twice, a photo exported three times, a project folder duplicated “just in case”. Peekaboo finds them across your home folders and lets you decide, copy by copy, what goes. ### What it does - **Exact copies, proven**: Files of the same size are compared by their contents with SHA-256, so two files only count as duplicates when every byte matches. Names don’t matter. - **Photos that look alike**: Similar Photos groups edits, exports and burst shots that aren’t identical files, using Apple Vision on your Mac. You pick the best one. - **You choose what stays**: Each set shows every copy and where it lives. Mark the copies to keep and to trash, or Trash All Extras when you trust the set. - **One click puts it back**: Removed copies go to the Trash as one recorded cleanup. Undo it with ⌥⌘Z, or later from the Undo history. iCloud-only files are skipped, so nothing downloads behind your back. ### How to use it 1. Open Duplicates. (⇧⌘I) 2. Review Exact Copies, then Similar Photos, marking what to keep. 3. Move the extras to the Trash. Changed your mind? Put them back. (⌥⌘Z) ### When another app fits better If your duplicates live inside the Photos library, Photos’ own Duplicates album merges them safely for free. If you’d rather keep every copy in place and only reclaim the space, [Hyperspace](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/hyperspace/) turns identical files into APFS clones. Peekaboo is for clearing the copies out, with a way back. ### FAQ **How does it know two files are duplicates?** It groups files by size, then compares their contents with SHA-256. Only files whose contents match exactly are listed as exact copies; similar photos are listed separately. **Will it delete my only copy?** No. Every set keeps at least one copy, you see where each lives before anything moves, and removed copies go to the Trash, where Undo Cleanup can restore them. **Does it search external drives?** It scans your home folders. Files in the Photos library are better handled by Photos’ own Duplicates album. **Is it free?** Every feature is free for 14 days, then Peekaboo is a one-time purchase per Mac. --- ## Search and copy the text inside your images (Text in images) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-ocr-app/ (updated 2026-11-03) Live Text copies the words from one image you already have open. Peekaboo reads all of them in the background, so you can find a screenshot by what it says and copy text from fifty files in one go. ### What it does - **Every image, already read**: Screenshots, photos and PDFs are read by Apple Vision on your Mac as they arrive, at low priority, and paused on battery saver or when the Mac is hot. - **Find it by the words**: “screenshot with tracking number” combines the kind of file with the text inside it. Add a date or a source and it narrows further. - **Copy in bulk**: Select any number of images in Text in Images and copy all their text at once, ready to paste into a note or a spreadsheet. - **Nothing leaves the Mac**: Text is read on this Mac. Nothing is uploaded, and there’s no account or AI service involved. ### How to use it 1. Search for what you remember, like “screenshots with wifi password”. (⌘F) 2. Or open Text in Images and select the files you need. 3. Copy all their text in one go. (⇧⌘C) ### When another app fits better Peekaboo doesn’t capture the screen: to grab text from whatever is on screen right now, [TextSniper](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/textsniper/) or [CleanShot X](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/cleanshot-x/) do it in one shortcut. To turn paper into searchable PDFs or Word files, use a scanner app such as Prizmo. ### FAQ **Which files does it read?** Screenshots, photos and other images, and PDFs, including scanned ones. **Does it work offline?** Yes. Recognition uses Apple’s Vision framework on your Mac, so it works without a connection and nothing is uploaded. **Can it find a photo by what it shows, not just its text?** Yes, with Search photos by what’s in them turned on in Settings › Library. Photos are labelled on your Mac in the background. **How is it different from Live Text?** Live Text works in the one image you have open. Here every image is already read, so you can search across all of them and copy text from many at once. --- ## Check your Mac’s health, and see what to fix (Mac Health) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-health-check/ (updated 2026-11-03) Activity Monitor shows numbers; it doesn’t say whether they’re a problem. Mac Health reads the same things, gives your Mac a score, and tells you in a sentence what’s holding it back. ### What it does - **Six readings, one view**: Processor, memory, startup disk, network speed, heat in plain words and, on laptops, the battery. Plus the apps keeping your Mac busy or awake, with Quit right there. - **A score with reasons**: 0 to 100 in fixed bands, so the same Mac always scores the same. Low disk space, memory pressure, a busy processor, heat and a worn battery each cost points, with a button to Clean Up, Disk Usage, Memory, the busy apps or Battery settings. - **A week of history**: A reading every five minutes while the app runs, kept on your Mac for a week, skipped in Low Power Mode and paused while the Mac sleeps. - **In the menu bar, if you like**: Turn on processor, memory pressure and network speed in the menu bar in Settings › General, and click for the score. Shortcuts gets a Get Mac Health action too. ### How to use it 1. Open Mac Health. (⌥⇧⌘H) 2. Read the score and the reasons it isn’t 100. 3. Click the button beside a reason to go to the fix. ### When another app fits better Mac Health has no per-sensor temperatures, fan control, GPU graphs or drive S.M.A.R.T. data. For those, [iStat Menus](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/istat-menus/), [Stats](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/stats/) (free) or [TG Pro](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/tg-pro/) go much deeper. For hardware faults, use Apple Diagnostics. ### FAQ **What lowers the score?** Low free space on the startup disk, memory pressure, a busy processor, heat and, on laptops, a worn battery. Each reason is shown with the points it costs. **Does it send my readings anywhere?** No. Readings and their week of history stay on your Mac. **Does it slow my Mac down?** It takes a reading every five minutes while the app runs, and skips readings in Low Power Mode or on a low battery. **Can it check my SSD for failure?** No. It reports free space, not drive wear. DriveDx or iStat Menus read S.M.A.R.T. data, and Disk Utility’s First Aid checks for errors. --- ## See what’s taking up space on your Mac (Space Map) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/disk-space-analyzer-mac/ (updated 2026-11-03) Storage settings gives you a coloured bar and a vague “System Data”. Space Map shows the same disk as a map you can click into, down to the folder that’s actually big. ### What it does - **A map you can click**: Space Map draws the disk as a sunburst by category and folder. Click any slice to drill in; the biggest things are the biggest shapes. - **Every folder by size**: Disk Usage lists every folder on the disk by size, so the answer to “where did 80 GB go?” is a sorted list, not a hunt. - **The space macOS frees itself**: Purgeable iCloud copies, caches and local snapshots are shown separately, as are the Apple Intelligence models filed under System Data. - **From seeing to clearing**: Send anything to the Trash straight from the map, or open Clean Up for duplicates, old downloads and unused apps. Every cleanup can be undone. ### How to use it 1. Open Space Map. (⇧⌘M) 2. Click the biggest slice, and keep clicking until you find the folder. 3. Move what you don’t need to the Trash, or undo it later. (⌥⌘Z) ### When another app fits better Space Map covers your startup disk; to map external or network drives, [DaisyDisk](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/daisydisk/) or Nektony’s [Disk Space Analyzer](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/disk-space-analyzer/) do that. If a free picture is all you want, [GrandPerspective](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/grandperspective/) draws a treemap at no cost. ### FAQ **Can it show what’s inside System Data?** The parts it can explain: app caches, developer data, local snapshots, purgeable space and the Apple Intelligence models. **Does it delete anything on its own?** No. Nothing moves until you choose, and your files go to the Trash, where Undo Cleanup can put them back. **Does it scan external drives?** Space Map and Disk Usage cover the startup disk. Network drives aren’t supported yet. **Is there a subscription?** No. Every feature is free for 14 days, then Peekaboo is a one-time purchase per Mac. --- ## See everything that starts on its own, and turn it off (Startup Items) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-startup-items-manager/ (updated 2026-11-07) System Settings shows a vague “Allow in the Background” list of names you don’t recognise. Peekaboo’s Startup Items reads the files behind it, names the app each one belongs to, and turns it off in a step you can undo. ### What it does - **Agents and daemons, one list**: Launch agents and daemons, the updaters and helpers that run without a window, from your own Library and the Mac’s, read straight from the launchd files that start them. - **Who owns it**: Each item is matched to the app it belongs to, so “com.xyz.helper” becomes the app you recognise. Items left behind by apps you already deleted are marked as leftovers. - **Turn Off, with a way back**: Turn Off stops the item and moves its file to the Trash, so Put Back restores it. Apple’s own items, security tools and device management are never offered. - **Part of Mac Health**: Startup Items sits in Mac Health next to the 0–100 score, the busy apps and what keeps your Mac awake, so a slow start has one place to look. ### How to use it 1. Open Mac Health. (⌥⇧⌘H) 2. Open Startup Items and look for apps you don’t use or leftovers of apps you deleted. 3. Click Turn Off. Changed your mind? Put it back from Activity. (⇧⌘Y) ### When another app fits better If an item belongs to a system daemon in /Library/LaunchDaemons that needs an administrator, or you want to edit launchd jobs by hand, a dedicated tool like Lingon gives full control. For one or two login items, System Settings › General › Login Items is enough, and our guide shows the rest. ### FAQ **Is it safe to turn off startup items on a Mac?** For apps you don’t use, yes; the app still works when you open it, it just won’t start on its own. Peekaboo moves the item to the Trash instead of deleting it, and never offers Apple’s own items or security software. **What is the difference between a login item and a launch agent?** A login item is an app that opens when you log in. A launch agent is a small background job, often an updater or helper, that launchd starts for you without a window. Both slow down startup and use memory. **Why do apps I deleted still start at login?** Dragging an app to the Trash leaves its launch agent in ~/Library/LaunchAgents. Startup Items marks these as left behind, and the App Uninstaller removes them with the rest of an app’s leftovers. **Can it turn off items installed for every user?** It shows them, from /Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchDaemons, so you know what they are and which app owns them. Turn Off works on your own items in ~/Library/LaunchAgents; for the rest, uninstall the app or use its own setting. **Does it show apps set to Open at Login?** Startup Items covers the background jobs launchd starts. Apps that open in a window at login are listed in System Settings › General › Login Items, where you remove them with the minus button. --- ## Organize your Desktop and Downloads, and keep them that way (Organize) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-file-organizer/ (updated 2026-11-07) Hundreds of loose files, screenshots and installers. Peekaboo sorts them into subfolders by kind or by month, shows you every move before it happens, and can keep doing it every few hours. ### What it does - **By kind or by month**: Images, Documents, Archives, Installers and the rest each get a folder, or files are filed by the month they arrived. Names never collide: an existing file is never overwritten. - **See it before it moves**: The plan lists every file and where it will go. Code projects, apps, unfinished downloads, iCloud-only files and files still open are left where they are. - **Keep Organized**: Turn it on for Desktop, Downloads or any folder, including one on an external drive, and it tidies every few hours. Off until you turn it on. - **Routines for everything else**: Write a rule as a sentence: “when a PDF arrives in Downloads, move it to Documents”, “every Friday, move screenshots older than 30 days to the Trash”. Every run can be put back. ### How to use it 1. Open Organize and pick Desktop, Downloads or any folder. 2. Choose by kind or by month, and read the plan. 3. Press Organize. Undo puts every file back. (⌘Z) ### When another app fits better If you want rules that rename files from their contents, run shell scripts or match on dozens of conditions, [Hazel](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/hazel/) has been the deepest rule engine on the Mac for years. Peekaboo covers the common cases and adds search, cleanup and undo. ### FAQ **How do I organize my Downloads folder automatically on a Mac?** Turn on Keep Organized for Downloads in Peekaboo, or add a Routine that runs when a file arrives. macOS alone can only sort the view or group files in Stacks on the Desktop; it doesn’t move files into folders. **Can it undo an organize?** Yes. Every organize is one session in Activity, and Undo moves each file back and removes the empty folders it made. **Will it break my code projects or apps?** No. Git repositories, app bundles, packages and files in use are skipped. **Does it work on external drives?** Yes, on writable folders on an external drive. Time Machine backups and system folders are skipped. --- ## Let your Mac clean up after itself, with the undo button kept (Routines) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-cleanup-automation/ (updated 2026-11-07) Cleaning up once is easy; remembering to do it every week isn’t. Routines do it for you, and because every run is recorded, an automatic cleanup is as reversible as a manual one. ### What it does - **Three ways to start**: On a schedule (every day at 9, every Friday), when the app launches, or when a new file arrives in a folder and has finished downloading. - **Written as a sentence**: “Move screenshots older than 30 days to the Trash”, “tag new PDFs in Downloads” or “organize Downloads by kind”. A routine can move, organize, tag, move to the Trash, notify you or Clean Safe Items. The condition uses the same plain-English search as the rest of the app, and anything not understood is pointed out. - **Templates and built-ins**: Start from a template, or turn on the built-in ones: Keep Organized, automatic Clean Up rules and Clean Safe Items, which clears only caches marked Safe. - **Every run, recorded**: Each run is a session in Activity with Put Back. Moves to the Trash ask for consent once, and nothing is ever deleted outright. ### How to use it 1. Open Routines and pick a template, or write your own sentence. 2. Choose when it runs: a schedule, at launch, or when a file arrives. 3. Check Recent Runs, and put back anything you didn’t want. (⇧⌘Y) ### When another app fits better Routines don’t run shell scripts, rename from file contents or watch network shares. For that depth, [Hazel](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/hazel/) is the long-standing choice. If you’d rather clean up only by hand, leave Routines empty: nothing runs until you add one. ### FAQ **Can a Mac clean itself automatically?** macOS can empty the Trash after 30 days and remove some caches when space is low, but it doesn’t clear old downloads, screenshots or duplicates. A Routine does those on a schedule you choose. **Will a routine delete files permanently?** No. Files go to the Trash, and every run can be put back from Activity. **Can Shortcuts run a routine?** Yes. The Run Routine action runs any routine from Shortcuts, and Clean Safe Items and Organize Folder are actions of their own. **Does it run when the app is closed?** Routines run while Peekaboo is running. Add it to System Settings › General › Login Items so it starts with your Mac and keeps the schedule. --- ## Ask your Mac to tidy up, in plain words (Assistant) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/ai-file-assistant-mac/ (updated 2026-11-07) “Find invoices from last month and zip them.” “Why is my disk full?” “Tidy my Desktop.” The Assistant looks through your files, writes a plan you can read line by line, and waits for you to press Run. ### What it does - **A plan, not a surprise**: Every step and every file is listed before anything happens. Trash steps ask once more. Nothing runs on its own. - **On your Mac, not a server**: It runs on Apple’s on-device Foundation Model. File names, sizes and the app’s own summaries are all it reads, and nothing leaves your Mac. It never reads keys or passwords. - **Does real work**: Move, rename, bulk rename, make folders, organize, zip, move to the Trash, set up a Routine or Clean Safe Items, using the same tools as the rest of the app. - **Every step undoable**: Each step is its own session in Activity and a ⌘Z step. From Quick Search, ⇧↩ hands it whatever you typed. ### How to use it 1. Open the Assistant. (⌥⇧⌘A) 2. Say what you want, and read the plan it drafts. 3. Press Run. Undo any step from Activity. (⇧⌘Y) ### When another app fits better The Assistant needs macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence on a supported Mac; elsewhere the page isn’t there, and the plain-English search, which runs on every Mac, does most finding jobs. If you want a chat model that answers questions about what’s inside your documents, a cloud assistant reads more, at the cost of uploading them. ### FAQ **Does the Assistant upload my files?** No. It runs on Apple’s on-device model, reads names, sizes and summaries, and sends nothing off your Mac. **Which Macs can use it?** Macs with Apple Intelligence on macOS 26 or later, with Apple Intelligence turned on. The app explains plainly when it isn’t ready yet. **Can it delete files?** It can plan a move to the Trash, which asks you once more before running and can be put back. It never deletes permanently. **Can I use it with Claude or ChatGPT instead?** Peekaboo can also let AI apps such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor search your files over MCP, read-only. See Use with AI apps in Settings › Advanced. --- ## Let Claude and other AI apps search your Mac, read-only (AI apps (MCP)) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/mcp-file-search-mac/ (updated 2026-11-07) AI apps are good at finding things if they can see them. Peekaboo’s MCP server lets them search your files the way the app does, see what’s using space, and show results in Peekaboo, without the power to open, move or delete anything. ### What it does - **Search like the app**: Plain-English and token search over Spotlight’s index, the same results you get in the window, returned as structured data the AI app can reason about. - **Disk usage and cleanup, read-only**: What’s using space and what Clean Up would free, so “why is my disk full?” gets a real answer. Nothing is moved; the person still decides in the app. - **Secrets left out**: Files that hold keys, tokens or passwords are never listed, and reveal links to them are refused. - **Two clicks to set up**: Settings › Advanced › Use with AI apps copies the command for Claude Code or the JSON configuration for Claude Desktop, Cursor and any other MCP client. ### How to use it 1. Open Settings › Advanced › Use with AI apps. (⌘,) 2. Copy the command into Terminal for Claude Code, or the configuration into your AI app’s MCP settings. 3. Ask the AI app to find a file or explain what fills your disk. ### When another app fits better Results go to the AI app you connect, and what it does with them, including sending them to its own servers, is up to that app. If nothing about your files should leave the Mac, use Peekaboo’s own [Assistant](https://getpeekaboo.app/ai-file-assistant-mac/), which runs on Apple’s on-device model, or the plain-English search. ### FAQ **What is an MCP server?** The Model Context Protocol is an open standard that lets AI apps call tools on your computer. An MCP server exposes those tools; here, read-only file search and disk usage. **Can the AI app delete or move my files?** No. Every tool is read-only. The AI app can show a file in the app, and that’s the limit. **Which apps work with it?** Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor and any app that supports MCP servers over standard input and output. **Does Peekaboo send my files to Anthropic or OpenAI?** Peekaboo itself sends nothing. It answers the AI app running on your Mac; that app then decides what to send to its model. --- ## All your cloud drives in one sidebar, and one search (Cloud Drives) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/cloud-drives-mac/ (updated 2026-11-07) Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive each hide in their own corner of Finder, and none of them tells you what’s actually taking space on your Mac. Peekaboo finds all of them and shows what’s downloaded and what’s only in the cloud. ### What it does - **Found on their own**: Drives are found from their folders in ~/Library/CloudStorage and iCloud Drive. Nothing to sign in to, and no account details ever reach the app. - **Searchable with everything else**: Plain-English search covers your cloud drives too, and a drive Spotlight doesn’t index is walked directly, within limits. - **Downloaded or cloud only**: Every file shows whether it’s on this Mac, only in the cloud, uploading or in conflict. Browsing never downloads a file behind your back. - **Free space without losing files**: Remove Download frees the local copy and keeps the file in the cloud; Download Now brings a folder down before a flight. Files still open are left alone. ### How to use it 1. Open Cloud Drives. (⌥⇧⌘I) 2. Pick a drive to see its files as cards, or search across all of them. 3. Use Remove Download to free space, or Download Now to keep a folder offline. ### When another app fits better Peekaboo uses the drives the providers’ own apps already sync; it doesn’t replace those apps, transfer between clouds or mount drives without them. For syncing between providers, a dedicated tool like CloudMounter or ExpanDrive does that. ### FAQ **Where are Google Drive and Dropbox files stored on a Mac?** Current versions keep them in ~/Library/CloudStorage, one folder per account, managed by macOS’s File Provider. Finder shows them under Locations in the sidebar. **Does Remove Download delete the file?** No. It removes the copy on your Mac and keeps the file in the cloud, where it downloads again when you open it. **Do cloud files count toward Peekaboo’s library and Clean Up?** No. Cloud drives are kept out of library totals and Clean Up, so a cleanup never touches files that live in the cloud. **Which providers are supported?** Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box and iCloud Drive by name, plus any other app that uses macOS’s File Provider. --- ## Find the big files on your Mac, and decide where they go (Large File Finder) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-large-file-finder/ (updated 2026-11-07) A full disk is usually a handful of big files you forgot about: an old export, a disk image, a video you watched once. Peekaboo’s Large Files lists them biggest first, shows when you last opened each one, and lets you move them off the Mac instead of only deleting. ### What it does - **Filters that match the question**: Larger than 5 MB, 50 MB, 100 MB, 250 MB, 500 MB or 1 GB, and last used more than 30, 90, 180 or 365 days ago. Sort by size, by last used or by name. - **Move to Drive, not just delete**: Send big files to an external drive to free space. Nothing is deleted, files in use and iCloud placeholders are skipped, and Undo moves them back. - **Trash you can take back**: Move to Trash goes through Cleanup History, so one click puts every file back where it was. - **Leave things out**: Exclude a file, or the whole folder it’s in, from future scans, and it stops showing up. Quick Look, Show in Finder and Copy Path are a right-click away. ### How to use it 1. Open Clean Up and choose Large Files. 2. Set Larger than and Last used, then sort by size. 3. Select what you don’t need here, then Move to Drive or Move to Trash. ### When another app fits better Peekaboo lists files; it doesn’t draw them as a treemap. If you think in pictures of the disk, its Space Map or a dedicated analyzer like DaisyDisk or GrandPerspective may suit you better. And it never deletes permanently: files go to the Trash or an external drive. ### FAQ **How do I find large files on a Mac without an app?** In Finder, press ⌘F, choose Kind ▸ Other ▸ File Size, and set “is greater than”. Or open Apple menu ▸ System Settings ▸ General ▸ Storage and look under Documents. Neither shows when a file was last used next to its size. **Does Move to Drive delete the original?** It moves the file to the external drive, so it no longer takes space on the Mac. Nothing is deleted, and Undo moves it back. **Will it touch files in iCloud Drive?** Files that are only in iCloud are skipped by Move to Drive. For downloaded iCloud files, Keep Only in iCloud frees the local copy and keeps the file in iCloud. **What size counts as large?** You choose: anything from over 5 MB to over 1 GB. If nothing matches, the view offers the next smaller size. --- ## Get back the space Xcode and your dev tools quietly took (Xcode and developer cleanup) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/xcode-cleaner-mac/ (updated 2026-11-07) Xcode alone can hold tens of gigabytes in build files, device support, archives and simulators, and npm, CocoaPods and Homebrew add their own caches. Peekaboo lists each folder, says what it is and what happens if it goes, and lets you remove it with an undo. ### What it does - **Every developer folder, explained**: Xcode build files, caches, device support and archives, simulators, and package-manager caches, each explained before anything moves. - **Safe items first**: Rows marked Safe can be cleared in one step with Clean Safe Items, and Cleanup History puts them back. Simulators are always Check First. - **Trash by default**: Files go to the Trash. Things that can’t, such as simulators and runtimes, Homebrew packages and local Time Machine snapshots, are removed only if you turn on permanent removal in Settings ▸ Cleanup. - **Your projects, as cards**: Projects shows your git repositories with branch, last commit and the rebuildable folders inside them, such as build output and dependencies, ready to move to the Trash. ### How to use it 1. Turn on Show developer features in Settings. 2. Open Clean Up and choose the developer cleanup: Xcode data, simulators and package caches. 3. Read what each row is, then clear the Safe ones or pick by hand. ### When another app fits better Peekaboo doesn’t manage Xcode versions or simulator runtimes the way Xcode’s own Settings ▸ Platforms or xcrun simctl do, and it won’t clean inside Docker. For removing old Xcode versions themselves, its App Uninstaller handles the app. ### FAQ **Is it safe to delete DerivedData?** Yes. Xcode rebuilds it the next time you build, so the only cost is a slower first build. Close Xcode first. **Can I delete old iOS DeviceSupport folders?** Usually. Xcode re-creates the folder for a device and iOS version the next time you connect that device, which takes a few minutes. **Why are simulators always Check First in Peekaboo?** Deleting a simulator also deletes the apps and data inside it, so it isn’t something to clear without looking. **Do I need the developer features turned on?** Yes. Show developer features in Settings adds Projects, Dotfiles & Config, and Xcode and package-manager cleanup to Peekaboo. They stay hidden until you turn them on. --- ## See how big every folder on your Mac is (Folder sizes) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-folder-size-viewer/ (updated 2026-11-07) Finder shows a folder’s size one Get Info window at a time. Peekaboo’s Disk Usage measures them all in one scan and lists them largest first, so the folder that’s grown out of hand is at the top. ### What it does - **Largest first, with its share**: Each folder’s folders and biggest files, sorted by size or name, with the share of the folder each one takes. Click a folder to go in; Esc goes back up a level. - **Down to single files**: A breadcrumb runs from the disk to the folder you’re in, and a filter narrows a long folder by name. Quick Look, Show in Finder and Copy Path are a right-click away. - **Drop a folder on the menu bar**: Drag any folder onto the menu bar icon and it opens in Disk Usage. For Terminal, peekaboo du prints the same sizes as text or JSON. - **Reading only, until you choose**: The scan changes nothing. Move to Trash, for files in your home folder, comes after a review, and Undo puts them back. ### How to use it 1. Open Disk Usage and let it measure the disk. (⇧⌘U) 2. Click the biggest folder, and keep going until you find what’s large. 3. Trash what you don’t need, or put it back later. (⌥⌘Z) ### When another app fits better If one folder at a time is enough, Finder’s list view can show folder sizes too, and our guide shows how. Disk Usage measures the startup disk; for external and network drives, [DaisyDisk](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/daisydisk/) or [GrandPerspective](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/grandperspective/) (free) map those. ### FAQ **Why doesn’t Finder show folder sizes?** In list view it leaves the Size column blank for folders unless you turn on Calculate all sizes in View Options, and it then works them out one window at a time. Disk Usage measures the whole disk in one scan. **Can it measure folders Mail, Messages and Safari keep?** Only with Full Disk Access. Without it, macOS keeps those private, and Disk Usage says how many folders it couldn’t open and how much went unmeasured. **Does it work on external drives?** Disk Usage covers the startup disk. A folder from another drive dropped on the menu bar icon opens in its own page instead. **Will Peekaboo delete anything on its own?** No. The scan only reads. Anything you move to the Trash goes after a review and can be put back from Activity. --- ## See and search the hidden files on your Mac (Hidden files) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-hidden-files-viewer/ (updated 2026-11-07) Finder can show hidden files, but its search and Spotlight still mostly skip them. Peekaboo shows them with the same keys, and its search can walk the disk to find the ones Spotlight never indexed. ### What it does - **Finder’s keys**: ⇧⌘. shows hidden files in every folder in the app, and stays on until you press it again. - **Search that finds them**: Add hidden: to a search to include hidden files. Search Everywhere walks the whole disk for files Spotlight doesn’t index, hidden ones included while Show Hidden Files is on. - **Dotfiles, in groups**: With developer features on, Dotfiles & Config gathers the settings files tools keep in your home folder: shell, Git, SSH and keys, package managers, editors, cloud and containers, and Library folders. - **Secrets stay closed**: Files that hold keys or tokens are marked with a lock and never previewed. ### How to use it 1. Press ⇧⌘. to show hidden files. (⇧⌘.) 2. Search with hidden: and a name, like “hidden: zshrc”, or browse a folder. 3. Or turn on developer features and open Dotfiles & Config. (⌥⇧⌘.) ### When another app fits better If you only need a hidden file for a minute, Finder’s own ⇧⌘. does it, and our guide covers the rest. If you edit dotfiles all day, a terminal and your editor are the real tools; for a two-pane file manager that shows hidden files per window, look at [ForkLift](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/forklift/) or [Path Finder](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/path-finder/). ### FAQ **How do I show hidden files on a Mac?** In Finder, press Command-Shift-Period; press it again to hide them. In Peekaboo the same keys work everywhere in the app. **Why can’t Spotlight find hidden files?** Spotlight skips most hidden files and folders. Peekaboo’s hidden: token and Search Everywhere read the disk directly, so they find what the index doesn’t list. **Is it safe to show hidden files?** Showing them changes nothing. Editing or deleting them can break apps or settings, so leave the ones you don’t recognise alone. **Does it show files that hold passwords?** It lists them, marked with a lock, and never previews their contents. --- ## Every screenshot in one place, findable by what it says (Screenshots) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-screenshot-organizer/ (updated 2026-11-07) Screenshots land on the Desktop by the hundred, named by a timestamp nobody remembers. Peekaboo collects them, reads the words in each, and keeps the pile from coming back. ### What it does - **One Screenshots view**: Screenshots get their own place in the sidebar, found by what macOS records about them or by a screenshot-style name, CleanShot’s included. - **Find it by the words**: Every screenshot is read on your Mac by Apple Vision, so “screenshots with tracking number” finds the right one. ⇧⌘C copies the text from as many as you select. - **Filed by month**: The “File screenshots by month” Routine sorts screenshots on the Desktop into a folder per month every evening. Every run can be put back. - **Old ones, cleared**: The Old Screenshots card in Clean Up lists screenshots older than 30 days. Review them, move them to the Trash, and undo it if you need one back. ### How to use it 1. Open Screenshots in the sidebar, or search “screenshots from last week”. (⌘F) 2. Copy the text you need from any of them. (⇧⌘C) 3. Clear old ones from Clean Up, or add the month-by-month Routine. (⇧⌘K) ### When another app fits better Peekaboo doesn’t take screenshots. To capture, annotate, scroll-capture or record the screen, [CleanShot X](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/cleanshot-x/) is the tool, and Peekaboo finds its screenshots afterwards. To change where new screenshots are saved, macOS’s Screenshot app (⇧⌘5) has an Options menu for that. ### FAQ **Where do screenshots go on a Mac?** To the Desktop, unless you chose another folder in the Screenshot app’s Options menu (⇧⌘5). Our guide shows how to change it. **Can I search the text in my screenshots?** Yes. The text is read on your Mac by Apple Vision, so a search finds a screenshot by the words in it. Nothing is uploaded. **Will it delete screenshots automatically?** Only if you set it up. The automatic Old Screenshots rule is off until you turn it on, takes only files macOS marks as screen captures, and everything goes to the Trash where you can put it back. **Does it find CleanShot screenshots?** Yes. Files named the way CleanShot names them are counted as screenshots too. --- ## Your downloads, sorted by where they came from (Downloads) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-downloads-manager/ (updated 2026-11-07) The Downloads folder is a list of names and dates. macOS also remembers where each file came from, and Peekaboo uses that to group them: Gmail attachments, ChatGPT exports, Slack files, any site. ### What it does - **Downloaded From**: Every download grouped by its source, from macOS’s own “Where from” record: Gmail, Drive, ChatGPT, Canva, X, Slack, WhatsApp, GitHub or any website, each with its own badge. - **Search by source**: “pdfs from gmail” or “zips from github last month”: the source is a filter like kind and date. The inspector shows where any file came from. - **The newest ten, in the menu bar**: Your ten newest downloads with thumbnails, ready to drag into Mail, Slack or anywhere else, with Open, Show in Finder and Copy Path on right-click. - **Clear what’s done**: Clean Up lists forgotten downloads (90 days old and never opened) and disk images and installers left behind after installing. Everything goes to the Trash, with undo. ### How to use it 1. Open Downloaded From and pick a source. (⇧⌘J) 2. Or drag a recent download straight from the menu bar. 3. Clear forgotten downloads and old installers from Clean Up. (⇧⌘K) ### When another app fits better Peekaboo doesn’t download anything: it has no download queue, no speed-up and no resume. For that, use a download manager such as Folx, or your browser’s own. Files with no “Where from” record, such as ones copied from a drive, can’t be grouped by source. ### FAQ **How does it know where a file came from?** When Safari, Chrome and most apps save a download, macOS records the address it came from. Finder shows it as “Where from” in Get Info; Downloaded From groups every file by it. **Does it upload my download history?** No. Sources are read and grouped on your Mac, and source badges are built into the app, so no site’s icon is ever fetched. **Can it tidy my Downloads folder too?** Yes. Organize sorts Downloads into folders by kind or month, and the “Tidy Downloads every week” Routine does it every Friday. **Can Shortcuts get my latest download?** Yes. The Get Latest Download action returns your newest download, ready for the next step. --- ## Rename hundreds of files at once, and see every name first (Bulk rename) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-bulk-rename-tool/ (updated 2026-11-07) IMG_4821 to IMG_5104 should be “Lisbon 001” to “Lisbon 284”. Peekaboo shows each old name beside its new one as you type, stops on any clash, and records the whole rename so one Undo reverses it. ### What it does - **Four ways to rename**: A pattern built from {name}, {n}, {date} and {ext}; find and replace, with or without matching case; a number before or after the name; or the date each file was created in front. - **Every name, previewed**: The list shows old name and new name side by side and updates as you type. Choose the start number and how many digits it pads to. The extension stays as it was. - **Clashes caught first**: A new name that matches another file, in the batch or already in the folder, is flagged, and Rename stays off until there are none. Nothing is overwritten. - **One Undo for the lot**: The rename is one session in Activity: ⌘Z right away, Undo in the toast, or later from the list. Select files anywhere in the app, search results included. ### How to use it 1. Select the files, then choose Rename. (⌥⌘R) 2. Pick Pattern, Find & Replace, Add Number or Add Date, and read the preview. 3. Press Rename. Not what you wanted? Undo it. (⌘Z) ### When another app fits better Finder has a built-in batch rename that replaces text, adds text and numbers files, and for a quick job it’s enough. Peekaboo has no regular expressions, case changes or names taken from photo metadata; for those, A Better Finder Rename goes much deeper, and NameChanger is free. ### FAQ **How do I rename multiple files at once on a Mac?** In Finder, select the files, right-click and choose Rename, then replace text, add text or format them with a number. Our guide walks through each, and where a bulk rename tool helps. **Can I undo a bulk rename?** Yes. Peekaboo records the rename as one session, so ⌘Z or Activity puts every name back. If a file’s old name has been taken since, that file is left as it is rather than overwriting anything. **Does it keep file extensions?** Yes. Only the name before the extension changes, so files still open in the same app. **Can the Assistant rename files for me?** Yes, on Macs with Apple Intelligence. Ask in plain words and it plans a bulk rename you check file by file before pressing Run. --- ## See what’s using your Mac’s memory, and free it the honest way (Memory) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-memory-cleaner/ (updated 2026-11-07) Most “RAM cleaners” show a scary number and a big button. Used memory isn’t the problem; memory pressure is. Peekaboo shows the pressure, the apps behind it, and the step that actually helps: quitting what you aren’t using. ### What it does - **Pressure, not just a number**: Memory pressure as Normal, Elevated or Critical, swap in use, and how memory splits into apps, wired, compressed, cached files and free. - **Apps by memory, with Quit**: Every open app and how much it holds, its helper processes counted toward it, with Quit right there. An app can still ask to save your work. - **Free Up Memory, explained**: Clears the memory macOS holds as file cache, after asking for your password. The page says plainly that quitting unused apps frees more. - **From the menu bar too**: The menu bar menu shows memory used and the pressure, with Free Up Memory and Show What’s Using Memory. Mac Health sends you here when memory pressure costs points. ### How to use it 1. Open Memory. (⇧⌘P) 2. Check the pressure, then look at which apps hold the most. 3. Quit what you aren’t using, or use Free Up Memory if pressure stays high. ### When another app fits better If pressure is Normal, your Mac doesn’t need its memory freed: macOS hands cached memory to apps the moment they ask. For every process, its threads and energy use, Activity Monitor is the tool, and [iStat Menus](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/istat-menus/) or [Stats](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/stats/) (free) graph memory over time. ### FAQ **Do Mac memory cleaners work?** Briefly. Clearing the file cache makes the free number jump, but macOS fills it again because cached files open faster. Quitting apps you don’t use is what lowers memory pressure. **What is memory pressure?** How hard macOS is working to find memory for apps. Normal means there’s room; Elevated and Critical mean it’s compressing memory and writing it to disk as swap, which is when a Mac slows down. **Why does Free Up Memory ask for my password?** Clearing macOS’s file cache needs an administrator’s permission, so macOS asks for your password before it runs. **Is swap bad for my Mac?** A little is normal. Swap that keeps growing while pressure is high means apps want more memory than the Mac has, and quitting some is the fix. --- ## Clear your Mac’s app caches, knowing what each one is (App Caches) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-cache-cleaner/ (updated 2026-11-07) ~/Library/Caches is a wall of folder names like com.something.helper. Peekaboo’s App Caches names the app behind each, says what clearing it means, and keeps the ones with side effects apart. ### What it does - **Safe or Check First**: Caches and logs apps rebuild on their own are marked Safe. The ones with consequences you’d notice, like sign-ins, sync or the Spotlight index, are marked Check First. Filter by either. - **Sizes you can sort**: Sort by size, date modified or name, and see every folder behind a row. Exclude anything you want kept from future scans. - **Never what’s in use**: Folders a running app is using aren’t offered, nor are developer caches, which have their own page, or files left by a macOS update that hasn’t installed yet. - **To the Trash, with a way back**: Review what’s ticked, move it to the Trash, and Cleanup History puts it back. Clean Safe Items clears only the Safe rows in one step. ### How to use it 1. Open App Caches and scan. (⇧⌘E) 2. Filter to Safe, or read the Check First rows one by one. 3. Move what you picked to the Trash. Put it back if an app misses it. (⌥⌘Z) ### When another app fits better Clearing caches frees space; it rarely makes a Mac faster, and they grow back as you use your apps. If you want free maintenance scripts and system cache cleaning, [OnyX](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/onyx/) does that. For Xcode, npm and other developer caches, see the [developer cleanup](https://getpeekaboo.app/xcode-cleaner-mac/). ### FAQ **Is it safe to clear cache on a Mac?** For app caches, generally yes: apps rebuild them. Some hold sign-ins or offline data, which is why those are marked Check First. Everything goes to the Trash, so you can put it back. **Will clearing caches speed up my Mac?** Rarely. It frees space, which helps when the disk is nearly full, but apps can be slower until their caches rebuild. **Why are some caches missing from the scan?** Without Full Disk Access, macOS keeps some folders private and the scan says so. Caches of running apps and developer tools are left out on purpose. **Can it clear caches automatically?** Yes, if you turn it on. Clean Safe Items can run as a Routine or daily, and clears only rows marked Safe. --- ## Know your Mac is running out of space before it does (Disk space monitor) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/mac-disk-space-monitor/ (updated 2026-11-07) “Your disk is almost full” usually arrives in the middle of an export. Peekaboo tells you earlier, at a level you choose, and shows which folders have been eating the space. ### What it does - **An alert at your level**: Pick 5, 10, 20, 50 or 100 GB. One notification when free space drops below it, not a stream of them, and another only after space has recovered and dropped again. - **Roughly when it fills**: When the trend is clear, the alert adds a sentence like “At this rate it fills up in about 12 days”, worked out from recent daily readings since the last cleanup. - **What Grew This Week**: Home shows the folders that grew most over the last seven days, with a month’s growth once there is one. Click a folder to open it in Disk Usage. - **Readings stay on your Mac**: The daily folder sizes behind it are kept on this Mac for 90 days and never sent anywhere. ### How to use it 1. Open Settings › Cleanup and turn on Notify me when space is low. (⌘,) 2. Choose the level, and allow notifications when macOS asks. 3. When it fires, check What Grew This Week on Home, then Clean Up. (⇧⌘K) ### When another app fits better If you want free space on screen all the time, a menu bar monitor such as [iStat Menus](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/istat-menus/) or [Stats](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/stats/) (free) shows it constantly; Peekaboo’s menu bar readings cover processor, memory and network. To warn you a drive is failing rather than filling, [DriveDx](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/drivedx/) reads its health data. ### FAQ **Does macOS warn me when disk space is low?** Only when it’s nearly gone, and it doesn’t say what filled it. An alert at a level you choose gives you time to act. **How does it forecast when the disk fills?** From a daily reading of free space. It only says a number when the recent days fall on a clear line downwards, and starts again after a cleanup frees space. **Why is my Mac storage filling up by itself?** Usually caches, iCloud copies, local snapshots or an app writing data in the background. What Grew This Week names the folders, and our guide explains the usual causes. **Is the alert on by default?** No. It stays off until you turn it on in Settings, and macOS asks once for permission to show notifications. --- ## Undo any change to your files, not just the last one (Activity and Undo) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/undo-file-changes-mac/ (updated 2026-11-07) Finder’s ⌘Z only steps back through what you just did, and the Trash doesn’t say which forty files went in together. Peekaboo records every change it makes as a session you can search and reverse, whole, later. ### What it does - **One list of everything**: Moves to the Trash and Put Backs, organizes, renames and bulk renames, moves, new folders, File Tool results, automatic cleanups and uninstalls, newest first. Permanent removals are listed too. - **Undo whenever**: ⌘Z in the window, Undo in each toast, ⌥⌘Z for the last cleanup, or Undo and Put Back from Activity, for as long as the files are still there. - **Searchable**: Search Activity by name, and Show in Finder for any line. Undone and restored lines can be cleared from the list. - **Never overwrites**: If a file’s old name or place has been taken since, that file stays where it is instead of replacing anything, and lines whose files left the Trash say so. ### How to use it 1. Open Activity. (⇧⌘Y) 2. Find the change, by scrolling or searching. 3. Click Undo or Put Back, and every file in it goes back. ### When another app fits better Activity covers what Peekaboo did. It doesn’t record changes made in Finder or other apps, and it can’t bring back an earlier version of a file’s contents; Time Machine and the versions built into apps do that. Once the Trash is emptied, a cleanup can’t be put back. ### FAQ **Can I undo moving files to the Trash on a Mac?** In Finder, Put Back works on files you pick from the Trash. In Peekaboo, each cleanup is one session, so every file in it goes back together, to where it was. **How far back can I undo?** As far as the list goes, as long as the files are still in the Trash or where they were moved. A line that can’t be undone any more says why. **Can I undo what a Routine did?** Yes. Every Routine run is its own session in Activity with Put Back. **Does it record changes made outside the app?** No. It lists what Peekaboo did, including its Assistant and Routines. For everything else, Time Machine keeps hourly backups. --- ## Find a file from any app, without switching windows (Quick Search) Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/quick-file-search-mac/ (updated 2026-11-07) You’re in the middle of an email and need last week’s PDF. ⌥Space opens a search panel over whatever you’re doing; type what you remember and the file is a keystroke away. ### What it does - **Over any app**: The panel opens over the app you’re in, even with the main window closed. With nothing typed it shows your recent files. - **Type it the way you’d say it**: “screenshots from last week” or “pdfs from gmail”, with an “Understood as” line showing how it read you. Name matches come first, then files that match by what’s inside them. - **A keystroke to act**: ↩ opens, ⌥↩ shows in Finder, ⌘↩ shows in the app. Right-click for Quick Look, Copy and Copy Path, or drag a result into Mail, Slack or Figma. - **Your shortcut**: ⌥Space by default, changed in Settings › General. On Macs with Apple Intelligence, ⇧↩ hands what you typed to the Assistant. ### How to use it 1. Press ⌥Space in any app. (⌥Space) 2. Type what you remember: kind, date, size, where it came from. 3. Press ↩ to open, or drag the file where it needs to go. ### When another app fits better Quick Search finds files; it doesn’t launch apps, run commands or keep clipboard history. For that, [Raycast](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/raycast/) or [Alfred](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/alfred/) do far more, and Spotlight’s ⌘Space is still the quickest way to open an app. ### FAQ **What if ⌥Space is already taken?** Peekaboo tells you when another app holds the shortcut. Pick a different one in Settings › General, or change it in the other app. **Does it search inside documents?** Yes. Names come first, then files whose contents match, through Spotlight’s index. **Does Quick Search work without the app window open?** Yes. It works from any app as long as Peekaboo is running, even with its window closed. **Are my searches sent anywhere?** No. Searches are read by a parser on your Mac and nothing you type leaves it. --- # Guides ## How to free up space on a Mac Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/free-up-space-on-mac/ (updated 2026-10-31) Open System Settings › General › Storage to see which categories are largest, then clear the usual suspects: old files in Downloads, installers (.dmg, .pkg, .zip), large videos, duplicate files and apps you no longer use. Move them to the Trash, check nothing is missing, then empty the Trash to actually get the space back. ### Where does the space on a Mac go? On most Macs a handful of things account for most of the disk: video files, photo libraries, the Downloads folder, disk images and archives you opened once, apps you tried and forgot, and copies of the same file saved twice. “System Data” covers caches, logs, Time Machine local snapshots and app support files; it is real, but it is usually not where the easy wins are. ### How do I check storage with macOS’s own tools? 1. Open the Apple menu › System Settings › General › Storage. 2. Wait for the bar at the top to finish calculating. Each colour is a category. 3. Look at Recommendations: Store in iCloud, Optimize Storage, Empty Trash Automatically. 4. Click the ⓘ button next to Documents to see Large Files, Downloads and Unsupported Apps, sorted by size. 5. Select anything you don’t need and click Delete. This deletes immediately, so be sure. Storage settings are good for a first look. They don’t show duplicates, they can’t tell you where a download came from, and their Delete button skips the Trash. ### Which files are safe to delete? - Installers you have already run: .dmg, .pkg and .xip files, usually in Downloads. - Archives you have already unzipped, if the unzipped folder is still there. - Screen recordings and exported videos you have uploaded or shared. - Exact duplicates: two files with identical contents, where you keep one. - Apps you haven’t opened in months. Drag them from Applications to the Trash. Leave ~/Library, system folders and anything you don’t recognise alone. Deleting an app’s support files by hand can break it, and macOS manages its own caches. ### How do I find the biggest files from Terminal? If you’re comfortable in Terminal, this lists every file over 1 GB in your home folder, largest first: ```sh find ~ -type f -size +1G -exec du -h {} + 2>/dev/null | sort -hr ``` It only lists. Nothing is moved or deleted. ### Why didn’t the free space go up? - The Trash still holds the files. Empty it (Finder › Empty Trash). - Photos and Mail keep their own deleted items: Photos › Recently Deleted, and Mail’s Trash mailbox. - Time Machine local snapshots hold deleted files for a while. macOS frees them on its own when space runs low. - Files stored in iCloud Drive with Optimize Mac Storage on may already be off the disk, so deleting them frees nothing locally. ### Freeing space with Peekaboo Peekaboo does the looking for you and keeps every step reversible. [Space Map](https://getpeekaboo.app/disk-space-analyzer-mac/) draws your disk as a map you can click into, and Clean Up gathers forgotten downloads, old installers, stale screenshots, big old videos and unused apps, each with the space it’s worth. Everything goes to the Trash, never straight to deletion, and each cleanup is a session you can put back in one click. Comparing tools? See [the best disk space analyzers for Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/best/disk-space-analyzers-for-mac/) or [DaisyDisk vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/daisydisk/). Got a “storage full” warning right now? Start with [what to do when Mac storage is full](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/mac-storage-full/). 1. Open Space Map to see which categories and folders are largest. (⇧⌘M) 2. Open Clean Up and review each group before anything moves. (⇧⌘K) 3. Run Duplicates to find identical files and look-alike photos. (⇧⌘I) 4. Changed your mind? Undo the whole cleanup from the Undo timeline. (⌥⌘Z) **Is it safe to delete files in the Downloads folder?** Usually, yes. Downloads holds copies of things you fetched from the web or email, and most can be downloaded again. Check for anything you saved only there, like signed documents or receipts, before you empty it. **What is System Data on a Mac, and can I delete it?** System Data is caches, logs, local Time Machine snapshots, virtual memory and app support files. macOS trims most of it on its own when space gets low. Deleting files inside it by hand is risky; restarting the Mac and emptying the Trash is the safe first step. **How much free space should a Mac have?** Keep at least 10–15% of the disk free, and never less than about 20 GB. macOS needs room for updates, virtual memory and snapshots, and a nearly full disk makes the whole Mac slower. **Does Peekaboo delete files permanently?** No. Peekaboo moves your files to the Trash, and every cleanup can be put back in one click. Items that can’t go to the Trash (simulators, Homebrew packages, local snapshots) are removed only if you turn on permanent removal in Settings › Cleanup. Files that live only in iCloud are skipped, so nothing gets downloaded just to be checked. --- ## How to find duplicate files on a Mac Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/find-duplicate-files-on-mac/ (updated 2026-10-31) macOS has no duplicate finder for ordinary files. For photos, open Photos and choose the Duplicates album in the sidebar, then Merge. For everything else, compare file checksums in Terminal or use a duplicate finder app that matches files by their contents, not their names, and moves the extra copies to the Trash. ### What counts as a duplicate? An exact duplicate has byte-for-byte identical contents, whatever it’s called: “Invoice.pdf” and “Invoice (1).pdf” downloaded twice. A look-alike is a different file of the same picture: a burst shot, an edited copy, a screenshot saved as both PNG and JPEG. Matching names is not enough. Two files can share a name and differ, and two identical files often have different names. ### How do I find duplicate photos with the Photos app? 1. Open Photos (macOS 13 Ventura or later). 2. In the sidebar under Utilities, click Duplicates. It only appears once Photos has found some. 3. Review each set, then click Merge. Photos keeps the highest-quality copy and combines their details. 4. Merged copies go to Recently Deleted, where they stay for 30 days. This only covers pictures inside your Photos library, not images in Finder folders like Desktop or Downloads. ### How do I find duplicate files with Terminal? This hashes every file in Downloads and prints each extra copy (the first copy of each file is left out of the list): ```sh find ~/Downloads -type f -print0 | xargs -0 shasum -a 256 | sort | awk 'seen[$1]++' ``` Change ~/Downloads to any folder. It only lists files; delete the copies yourself once you’ve checked them. Large folders take a while, because every byte of every file is read. ### Can Finder find duplicates? Not directly. The closest thing is a list view sorted by name or size, where copies such as “Report (1).pdf” sit next to each other, or a Smart Folder (File › New Smart Folder) filtered by kind and size. Both rely on names and sizes, so they miss renamed copies and can flag different files of the same size. ### How do I remove duplicates safely? - Keep the copy in the folder you actually use, not the one in Downloads. - Move copies to the Trash rather than deleting them outright, and empty it a few days later. - Don’t de-duplicate inside app libraries (Photos, Music, Lightroom) from Finder; use the app’s own tools. - Leave files in ~/Library and inside app bundles alone. ### Finding duplicates with Peekaboo Peekaboo’s [duplicate finder](https://getpeekaboo.app/duplicate-file-finder-mac/) matches exact duplicates by SHA-256, the same check as the Terminal command, and finds look-alike photos with Apple’s Vision framework, all on your Mac. Files are grouped by size first, so scans are fast. It shows how much space the copies are worth, keeps the best copy unless you pick another, and moves the rest to the Trash with one-click undo. For other duplicate finders, see [Gemini 2 vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/gemini-2/), [PhotoSweeper vs Peekaboo](https://getpeekaboo.app/alternatives/photosweeper/) and [the best duplicate file finders for Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/best/duplicate-file-finders-for-mac/). Only after photos? See [how to find duplicate photos on a Mac](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/find-duplicate-photos-on-mac/). 1. Open Duplicates. (⇧⌘I) 2. Review exact copies and look-alike photos, each with the space you’ll get back. 3. Pick which copy to keep, or let Peekaboo choose. 4. Move the rest to the Trash. Undo the whole session any time. (⌥⌘Z) **Does macOS have a built-in duplicate file finder?** Only for photos. The Photos app has a Duplicates album (macOS 13 Ventura and later). For files in Finder folders there is no built-in tool, so use Terminal or a duplicate finder app. **Is it safe to delete duplicate files?** Yes, for exact duplicates, as long as you keep one copy and the files aren’t inside an app’s library or system folder. Moving copies to the Trash first gives you a way back. **Why do I have so many duplicate files?** Downloading the same attachment twice, exporting the same image in two formats, copying folders between drives, and syncing services that make “(1)” copies on conflict are the usual causes. **Does Peekaboo upload my files to find duplicates?** No. Hashing and photo matching both run on your Mac. Peekaboo has no account and no cloud. --- ## How to search the text in screenshots on a Mac Source: https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/search-text-in-screenshots-on-mac/ (updated 2026-10-31) macOS reads text in images with Live Text (macOS 12 Monterey and later): open a screenshot in Preview or Quick Look and you can select and copy its words. Spotlight can find some images by their text, but results are inconsistent for files in Finder folders. To search every screenshot by its words reliably, use an app that runs text recognition over the whole folder. ### How do I copy text from a screenshot? 1. Select the screenshot in Finder and press Space to open Quick Look, or open it in Preview. 2. Move the pointer over the text until it becomes a text cursor. 3. Drag to select, then press ⌘C. If you can’t select anything, check System Settings › General › Language & Region and make sure Live Text is turned on. For Photos, Safari and other cases, see [how to copy text from an image](https://getpeekaboo.app/guides/copy-text-from-image-on-mac/). ### Can Spotlight search the text in images? Sometimes. Spotlight uses on-device text recognition and can surface photos by the words in them, especially pictures in the Photos library. For loose screenshots on the Desktop or in Downloads it is hit and miss, it shows only a few image results, and there’s no way to ask for “only screenshots” or “only from last month” alongside the text. ### Where are screenshots saved on a Mac? On the Desktop by default, named “Screenshot at