System Cleaner

The System Cleaner helps you reclaim disk space by finding and removing files you no longer need — old package caches, crash dumps, application logs, and more. You can run a scan manually, pick exactly which categories to clean, and even set up automated schedules so cleaning happens in the background without you thinking about it.

Scan Categories

Nexis scans eight categories of cleanable files. Each category is displayed as a card with a title, a description of what it targets, and a size estimate populated after a scan.

Linux: Application caches are scanned from ~/.cache. Package caches depend on your distro’s package manager. Browser privacy artifacts are scanned from ~/.config/ and ~/.cache/ for Chromium-based browsers, ~/.mozilla/firefox/ for Firefox, and ~/.local/share/recently-used.xbel for recent file history.

macOS: Application caches are scanned from ~/Library/Caches. Package caches come from Homebrew’s download directory. Browser privacy artifacts are scanned from ~/Library/Caches/ and ~/Library/Application Support/ for each browser, including Safari and the system’s recent file list.

Running a Scan

Click the Scan button to search all eight categories. Nexis displays a progress indicator while it works. When the scan completes, each category card updates to show the total size found. A persistent footer at the bottom of the page shows the estimated total recoverable space across all selected categories.

Reviewing Results

Selecting Categories

Each category card has a checkbox. Check the categories you want to clean. The footer total updates live as you change your selection. Uncheck any category you want to skip.

For a detailed look at what was found in a specific category, click View scan results → to open a file tree showing every file discovered in that category. This is useful when you want to verify the contents before cleaning.

Scan Trend Sparklines

Below each category checkbox, a small sparkline chart shows how the category’s size has trended across your last 20 scans. Hover over the sparkline to see the delta compared to the previous scan (e.g., “+120 MB since last scan”). This helps you spot which categories are actually growing and worth cleaning regularly versus those that stay small.

Cleaning

Once you are happy with your selection, click Clean selected in the footer to delete the files in all checked categories. Nexis removes them permanently — they do not go to the trash.

Tip: If you are unsure about a category, uncheck it and clean everything else first. You can always run another scan later.

Scheduled Cleaning

Instead of remembering to clean manually, you can set up automated schedules that run in the background.

Setting Up a Schedule

Open the schedule manager from the System Cleaner page (or from Settings > Scheduled Cleaning). For each schedule, you can configure:

• Frequency — Daily, every N days, weekly, or monthly
• Categories — Which of the eight scan categories to include, plus Old Downloads (see below)
• Minimum file age — Only clean files older than a certain number of days
• Threshold alerts — Get a tray notification when cleanable files exceed a size threshold (e.g., alert me when there is more than 5 GB to clean)

The schedule indicator on the System Cleaner page shows when the next automated clean will run and when the last one completed.

Tip: Browser Privacy is unchecked by default in new schedules. Since browser cleaning can remove active session data, enable it only if you are comfortable clearing caches and session files on a schedule.

Old Downloads

Schedules can include an Old Downloads category that moves files older than a configurable age from a configurable folder (default: your platform’s Downloads directory) to the Trash — recoverable, not permanently deleted. The age threshold and folder path are configured under Settings > Scheduled Cleaning.

Pre-Clean Snapshots

Before any clean runs — manual or scheduled — Nexis can automatically create a system restore point. Enable Create restore point before cleaning under Settings > Scheduled Cleaning:

Linux: Creates a Timeshift snapshot via pkexec timeshift --create. The toggle is hidden if Timeshift is not installed.

macOS: Creates a local Time Machine snapshot via tmutil localsnapshot. No elevation prompt is needed.

If snapshot creation fails, the clean proceeds anyway — the snapshot is a safety net, not a prerequisite.

How Scheduling Works

Nexis uses your operating system’s native task scheduler to trigger cleans at the right time:

macOS: Schedules are stored as launchd plist files in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/.

Linux: Schedules use systemd timers or cron entries, whichever your system supports.

Headless CLI Mode

Scheduled cleans run without opening the GUI. Nexis supports two command-line flags for this:

# Run a specific cleaning schedule
./nexis --clean <schedule-id>

# Check if any threshold alerts should fire
./nexis --check-threshold

This means cleaning can happen even if you are not logged into a desktop session, which is useful for servers and headless setups.

What’s Next

Find large files and duplicates with the built-in Disk Tools, or search for files across your filesystem in the Search guide.