Hyperspace, the new utility from Macintosh veteran John Siracusa, has been updated a handful of times since we covered its launch in February. If you haven’t tried Hyperspace since it first launched, there are new capabilities that could reveal even more space to reclaim.
First, a primer on how Hyperspace came to be according to the blog post on Hypercritical:
Today, most Mac users don’t even notice that using the “Duplicate” command in the Finder to make a copy of a file doesn’t actually copy the file’s contents. […]
There are plenty of Mac apps that will save disk space by finding duplicate files and then deleting the duplicates. Using APFS clones, my app could reclaim disk space without removing any files! As a digital pack rat, this appealed to me immensely.
By the end of that week, I’d written a barebones Mac app to do the same thing my Perl script was doing. In the months that followed, I polished and tested the app, and christened it Hyperspace. I’m happy to announce that Hyperspace is now available on the Mac App Store.
The latest version of the space-saving Mac app introduces support for reclaiming storage without deleting files from cloud services like Apple’s iCloud Drive, Microsoft’s OneDrive, and more.
Hyperspace cautiously launched without touching more complex file storage locations. Now the app is capable of working its magic on cloud storage including iCloud Drive. An earlier version added support for scanning package directories including Apple Photos and iMovie libraries, Logic Pro projects, and more.
These features are disabled by default. as a precaution. You can enable each in the app’s settings from the Advanced tab.
As ever, ensure you have a redundant backup strategy. especially before performing tasks that shouldn’t result in data loss but, you know, could. iCloud on its own is not a backup since deleting files in one place deletes that file in all the places.
Hyperspace is free to download and run on your Mac. After scanning to reveal space-saving potential, you can purchase the app to perform the task of reclaiming storage without deleting files.
Hyperspace supports unlimited scans without having to pay. The app includes three one-time purchase options and two subscription options.
Hyperspace works with your Mac storage as well as attached storage that uses Apple File System (APFS). Hyperspace is available on the Mac App Store.
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