Dioptra — Support

Known issues in versions 1.0 and 1.1

• Reclaim Space can suggest files it should leave alone: duplicates inside a project's .git folder, a “kept” copy that is itself in the Trash, iPhone backups and other data in your Library folder, and a whole photo, music or video library, listed as a large file you haven't touched. Look at every item before you trash it, including the ones Select Safe Items ticks. Reclaim scans the folder you are browsing, so run it on a folder such as Downloads rather than on your whole home folder, which is the scan that reaches the Trash and Library. Untick anything in .git, the Trash or Library, and anything you don't recognise. Under Large, untouched files, leave photo, music and video libraries, and Final Cut, GarageBand and Logic projects, unticked too, even though you'll recognise them: Reclaim goes by the dates on the library itself, which may not change when you use it, so one you open every day can still be listed. Each item shows only one folder, even when its files are in several, so if you can't tell where an item's files are, leave it unticked. Reclaim moves files to the Trash rather than deleting them, so if something went that shouldn't have, look there before you empty it.
• Don't press ⌘Z or ⌘⌫ while typing in a field. In a rename field, the address bar or the search field, ⌘Z undoes your last file operation instead of your typing (a move is reversed, or a folder you just made goes to the Trash), and ⌘⌫ moves the selected files to the Trash. Press Esc to leave a rename field, or click in the file list, before you press ⌘Z. To clear text, use ⌫.

What version 1.2 is planned to change: when you run Reclaim Space on a folder, it skips any version-control folder inside it (.git, .svn or .hg; a project's own files around it are still scanned), the Trash, and your home Library folder. It also skips iPhone and iPad backups, wherever they are and whatever they are called, and it never offers a Photos, iPhoto, Aperture, iMovie, Music or TV library, or a Final Cut, GarageBand, Logic or MainStage project, or anything inside one. Music and TV keep your songs and videos in a Media folder beside the library rather than inside it, and some libraries and projects can be set to use imported files where they are instead of copying them in, so Reclaim can still list those: check them like any other file. If you start Reclaim inside a .git, .svn or .hg folder, the Trash, one of those libraries or projects, or a backup, it offers nothing. Your Library folder is different: Reclaim skips it only when it meets it inside the folder you scan. Started inside Library, it scans it like any other folder, so even in 1.2, don't start Reclaim from inside Library. Every item expands to show the exact files, and a set of duplicates says which copy it keeps and where. ⌘Z and ⌘⌫ in a text field act on the text. The list is still yours to read before anything goes: look it over before you trash it.

Requirements

Dioptra runs on macOS 26 or later, and its interface is in English. Organize, and the short written summary in Reclaim Space, need Apple Intelligence, on a Mac that supports it and with it turned on in System Settings. Everything else works without it.

Dioptra is on the Mac App Store, where the version history lists what changed in each release. To see which version you have, choose Dioptra ▸ About Dioptra.

Questions that come up first

Dioptra is empty when I open it. Is it broken?

No — that is by design. Dioptra is sandboxed and begins with access to nothing at all. On first launch it asks for a folder: one button offers your home folder, another lets you choose a different one, and both open the standard macOS folder picker. Whatever folder you choose there becomes the part of your disk Dioptra can read, and it is remembered the next time you launch. If you chose Skip for Now, or want more, use Add Location… in the sidebar; Settings ▸ Locations lists what you have granted and removes it just as easily.

This is deliberate. A file manager that quietly helped itself to your whole home directory would be easier to write and much harder to trust.

Why can't it open some folder I picked a while ago?

Dioptra remembers each folder you grant as a macOS bookmark. The bookmark follows the folder if you rename it or move it elsewhere on the same disk, and Dioptra picks up the new place the next time it launches. It stops working when:

• The disk or server is not connected. Nothing is lost: connect it again. If the folder still shows as locked or not connected, quit and reopen Dioptra with the disk connected. There is no need to grant it again.
• The folder was deleted or moved to another disk, or the disk was erased or replaced. The saved permission no longer points anywhere. Grant the folder again with Add Location… in the sidebar, or Grant Again… in Settings ▸ Locations.

Folder sizes show “—” instead of a number.

What the Size column shows for a folder depends on Settings ▸ General ▸ Folder sizes:

• When I ask (the default in 1.0 and 1.1): every folder shows “—” until you right-click it and choose Calculate Size, which measures the whole folder.
• Automatically (planned to be the default from 1.2, unless you chose another setting): folders are measured as they come into view. A folder with more than 5,000 items inside shows “—” until you choose Calculate Size.
• Never: the Size column always shows “—”, and the file list does not offer Calculate Size.

In every mode, the Space view (View ▸ Space) draws the folder as a map of blocks sized by the space each item takes.

Why is the Space map smaller than Storage in System Settings?

They measure different things. Storage in System Settings counts the whole disk. The Space view maps only the folder you are browsing, and Dioptra can only see folders you have granted. macOS itself, your apps, System Data and snapshots are outside a map of your home folder, and so is your Library folder, which is hidden: hidden items are left out unless View ▸ Show Hidden Files is on. On a very large folder the map also stops counting at 200,000 items, so its total is a lower bound; version 1.2 is planned to say “at least” in front of it. Dioptra can't shrink System Data or snapshots.

The folder tree shows “N more items…”.

The navigation tree draws at most 400 items per folder so it stays responsive. When there are more, it says how many it left out rather than silently hiding them, and clicking that row opens the folder in the main list, which has no limit.

Can I drag photos from Photos, or attachments from Mail?

Yes, from version 1.1. Those apps hand over a promise of a file rather than a file, and 1.1 and later accept promised files: drop a photo from Photos or an attachment from Mail on the file list, and it is copied into the folder you are browsing, with a progress ticket and undo like any other copy.

In version 1.0 the drop does nothing. Update to the current version, or save the file first (File ▸ Export in Photos, or save the attachment in Mail) and drag the saved file in.

Some shortcuts worth knowing

• ⌘⇧P — Quick Jump: go to any folder by typing part of its name
• ⌘⇧\ — split the tab into two panes
• ⌥⇥ — move focus to the other pane
• F2 — rename; with several files selected, batch rename. On most Mac keyboards, hold Fn and press F2, or choose File ▸ Rename.
• F5 / F6 — with two panes open, copy or move the selection to the other pane (with Fn on most Mac keyboards)
• ↩ — open the selection; with several files selected, every one of them opens
• ⌘Z — undo the last file operation, including moves and Move to Trash. Delete Permanently cannot be undone. In 1.0 and 1.1, leave any text field first (see known issues).

Refunds and removal

Can I have a refund?

Refunds are Apple's to give rather than mine. Every App Store purchase goes through Apple, so I never see your payment details and have no way to look up what you bought. Ask Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com, signed in with the Apple Account you bought Dioptra with.

How do I remove Dioptra completely?

Drag the app to the Trash. That removes the app but not the container macOS keeps for it: deleting a sandboxed app leaves its container behind. It is the folder ~/Library/Containers/App.andreas.Filefy (the identifier dates from before the app was called Dioptra; Finder may list the folder as Dioptra). Deleting that folder removes everything the app ever stored, including the security-scoped bookmarks recording which folders you granted access to. There is no copy anywhere else, because nothing was ever sent anywhere else.

Privacy

Dioptra collects nothing and has no network access at all. The full policy is on the privacy page.