Download CCleaner Pro for macOS

Version 1.18.30 supports a wide spread of macOS releases, from Sierra right through to Ventura. That broad compatibility puts the same deep-cleaning engine on machines that newer 2.3+ builds leave behind. You get the core browser and system junk scan, but the real draw for an experienced user sits in the file-wiping function.

The secure deletion tool runs multiple overwrite cycles on sensitive files. A simple trash empty leaves data recoverable; this writes patterns over the raw bytes so nothing comes back. It's a separate, deliberate action — you choose exactly what to scrub.

Before anything gets deleted, the app layers several verification prompts. The safety net is designed so a quick click won't wipe a folder by mistake. Each scan shows a preview, and the final confirmation lists item counts and types before you commit.

On the architecture side, this is a native Intel 64-bit binary. The interface ships in eleven languages including Japanese, Czech, and Polish, so it slots into a multilingual workflow without friction.

Little things that speed you up

Once you know the scan dance, a few keyboard moves make it faster. While the main window lists results, Space jumps you straight to the first flagged item, and the arrow keys walk through the tree. You can toggle whole categories with Enter.

Holding Option while clicking a checkbox selects only that row’s children and leaves siblings alone — handy when you want to keep cookies from one site but ditch the rest. Right‑click any result line for a ‘Reveal in Finder’ shortcut; the path opens in a new window so you can inspect files before they disappear.

The wipe tool has its own quiet shortcut. Drag a file or folder directly onto the dock icon and the overwrite dialogue pops open with that item pre‑selected. No need to browse from inside the app.

Where it plays well with other tools

CCleaner Pro reads the same temp folders that Adobe apps leave behind, so running it after a Premiere or Photoshop session clears render caches that otherwise sit hidden for weeks. It also picks up language‑pack debris from older Office for Mac installs, stuff the Microsoft updater won’t touch.

Because the clean‑up respects macOS quarantine flags, files pulled from archives tagged by Gatekeeper stay flagged. If you grabbed an adobe ccleaner helper script that came in a zip, the quarantine bit survives the scan — the app won’t strip metadata that the system uses for security.

Integration with Notification Centre is light. Alerts appear only after a scheduled clean finishes, and you can silence them per app in System Settings without losing the background task itself.

Stop scans stalling on browser profiles

A common hiccup: the scan hangs partway through a browser profile. Nine times out of ten the browser is still open. Chrome and Firefox lock their history databases while running; quitting the browser unblocks them instantly.

If the app refuses to launch on Catalina or newer, the culprit is usually Gatekeeper’s notarisation check. The fix is quick: open Terminal, type xattr -cr (with a trailing space), drag the CCleaner.app icon into the window, and press Return. That strips the quarantine attribute and lets macOS trust it.

Some people notice that free space doesn’t change much after a ‘System Junk’ pass. That’s because the count includes purgeable space — files macOS already earmarked for deletion when the disk gets full. The number shown is honest, but the actual bytes freed depend on how the system handles those purgeable chunks. For a truer read, run the scan twice: the second pass shows what’s left after the purgeable items are released.

On older spinning‑disk Macs, the secure overwrite can take a while. Standard three‑pass mode is enough for most situations; the seven‑pass option is best left for small folders unless you’re happy to walk away and come back later.

• macOS: OS X 10.10 or later
• Architecture: Intel 64-bit