Channel 02 · Shortcut ⌘2

SPACE LENS

Short answer

Space Lens is CleanUai’s channel 02: a map of your disk in LED rings. The center is the folder you’re looking at, each ring is one folder level below it, and the bigger the arc, the more space it takes. Click an arc to step into that folder, check what you don’t need and send it to the Trash. On a test Mac it mapped 2.3 million items (295 GB) in about 12 seconds.

How to read the map

The center shows the current folder and its total size.
Each ring is one folder level. The first ring holds the folders inside; the second, the ones inside those, and so on.
Arc size is proportional to space. An arc that takes half the circle is half the folder.
The breadcrumbs at the top show where you are and take you back to any level.

No mouse needed

The same map exists as a list (folder, size and percentage), navigable with the arrow keys and read by VoiceOver. Nobody needs to see the rings to find what’s heavy.

Speed

Space Lens measures the whole home folder without freezing the interface: you can browse while it’s still counting. On the test Mac that was 2.3 million items in about 12 seconds.

12-core MacBook Pro with 24 GB and an SSD, 295 GB home folder, measured on October 28–29, 2026.

Without installing anything

macOS also shows a summary by category in System Settings › General › Storage. The difference is that there you see categories, and in Space Lens you see the actual folders, down to the file.

Step by step

Open channel 02 (⌘2). It maps your home folder, or pick another folder.
Hover over an arc to see its name and size. Click to step in.
Find what’s heavy and no longer needed, and check it.
Press Remove. The items go to the Trash.

Questions

Does Space Lens work with external drives?

Yes. By default it maps your home folder, where the heavy stuff usually is, but you can pick any other folder to map, including one on an external drive.

Why is the Space Lens total different from the Finder’s?

The Finder counts the whole disk, including the system and APFS snapshots. Space Lens counts only the files in the folder it mapped.

Can I delete a whole folder from Space Lens?

Yes, and it goes to the Trash. Folders the guard protects, like Documents and the Photos library, can’t be removed from it.