Mobile Dev Cleaner

Terminal app for macOS that scans and cleans junk left behind by Xcode and Android Studio. DerivedData, simulators, AVDs, Gradle caches, SDK toolchains, orphan IDE versions — all in one place, with safety rails.

Typically frees 20–40 GB on an active mobile dev's Mac.

Why

Xcode + Android Studio scatter caches, builds, downloaded SDKs, simulator state, and old IDE versions across half a dozen folders. There is no built-in cleanup. Generic "clean my Mac" tools either don't know about these paths or wipe stuff you actually need.

This tool knows the exact paths, classifies each one as either:

• 🟢 safe — regenerable junk (caches, build artifacts)
• 🟡 costly — works fine to delete but triggers re-downloads, slow rebuilds, or wipes simulator state

You decide what goes. Nothing is deleted without explicit confirmation.

Install

Requires macOS and Node 20+.

npm install -g mobile-dev-cleaner

Update later:

npm update -g mobile-dev-cleaner

Usage

Interactive (recommended)

mdc

Opens a TUI dashboard. Navigate with arrows, mark items with space, delete with d.

Keys at a glance:

| Key | Action | |---|---| | ↑↓ | move through list / menu | | → ⏎ | enter list from menu | | ← ⌫ esc | back to menu | | tab | switch focus menu/list | | space | mark/unmark item | | a | mark/unmark all in current category | | 1 2 3 0 | pick simulator/AVD action (clean / reset / delete / unmark) | | d | delete marked | | s | summary of what's marked | | / | search current list | | f | filter by risk (all / green / yellow) | | ? | full help | | r | rescan | | l | switch language (en/es) | | q | quit |

Headless / scripting

# Scan and emit JSON
mdc scan --json > plan.json

# Scan only one tool
mdc scan --tool xcode --json
mdc scan --tool android --json

# Edit plan.json to flip "selected": true on items you want gone, then:

# Dry run
mdc clean --plan plan.json

# Actually delete
mdc clean --plan plan.json --execute --yes

What gets scanned

Xcode

• DerivedData (build folders + global caches like ModuleCache)
• iOS / watchOS / tvOS / visionOS DeviceSupport
• iOS Simulators (per-device breakdown with clean/reset/delete actions)
• Simulator runtimes (system-wide, requires Full Disk Access)
• Xcode Previews
• Archives
• CocoaPods / Carthage / Fastlane caches
• Misc Xcode caches and logs

Android

• Gradle caches (versions, build cache, jars/transforms, metadata)
• Gradle dependencies (modules-2)
• Gradle wrappers and JDKs
• Kotlin daemon logs
• AVDs (per-emulator with clean/reset/delete)
• Android SDK system images (cross-checked against active AVDs)
• SDK NDK / cmake / build-tools / platforms
• SDK binaries (emulator, deprecated tools)
• Old Android Studio versions (orphans from upgrades)

What is not touched

By design, this tool refuses to scan or list anything that could break things:

• Keystores, signing certificates, provisioning profiles
• ADB keys, accepted Android licenses
• Active simulator/AVD runtimes in use
• Device backups
• Critical SDK binaries (adb, cmdline-tools, platform-tools, licenses)

If you want to touch those, you're on your own.

Safety

• Default: nothing is pre-selected
• Single confirmation for green-only deletions
• Double confirmation for yellow operations (re-downloads, state loss)
• Refuses to delete while Xcode, Android Studio, Simulator.app, or a target AVD is running
• Persistent size cache (~/Library/Caches/mdc/) makes rescans nearly instant

Languages

English and Spanish. Toggle in-app with l. Saved to ~/.config/mdc/config.json.

Privacy

• Never leaves your machine
• No telemetry
• No network calls

Author

Built by @LeoMogiano.

License

MIT