Discotech by PixeLabs

Disk space map for macOS

See where your disk space went

Discotech scans a drive or folder and maps every file by size, biggest first. See what's taking the space, then clear what you don't need.

Coming soon to the Mac App Store
The Discotech window scanning a demo folder of 173.3 GB. The sidebar lists its items largest first, from Movies at 57.07 GB down to Notes.txt at 12 KB. The Ball shows the same folders as rings around the centre, coloured from green for the smallest items through yellow and orange to red for the biggest: Movies and Wedding Edit are red, most folders orange, the smallest files green. The Discotech window scanning a demo folder of 173.3 GB. The sidebar lists its items largest first, from Movies at 57.07 GB down to Notes.txt at 12 KB. The Ball shows the same folders as rings around the centre, coloured from green for the smallest items through yellow and orange to red for the biggest: Movies and Wedding Edit are red, most folders orange, the smallest files green.
The Ball, coloured by size with the Traffic theme: green is small, red is big. Every screenshot here is the real app scanning a made-up demo folder.

How it works

From full disk to a clear answer

Three steps, and the whole drive is in front of you.

  1. Pick a drive or folder

    Your startup disk is one click away. Any other drive works too, or a folder from ⌘O, or one dropped on the window.

  2. Watch the scan count up

    The scanner runs in parallel and shows live totals. You can stop early and browse what it has measured so far.

  3. Explore, then clear out

    Open the biggest folders, preview files, and collect what you don't need in the Crate.

Findings and the Crate

Clear space without the guesswork

Discotech points out what's usually safe to clear and says why.

Findings

Findings: space that comes back on its own

Findings spots rebuildable developer output, such as node_modules, Python environments and Rust, Swift, Xcode and Gradle build folders, sitting next to the project file that recreates them. It also lists well-known caches in your home folder, and a few bigger things worth a look before you clear them.

Open a finding to see its items in a Finder-style list, with where each one lives and its size. Add one, or all of them, to the Crate.

The Findings sidebar lists Node.js dependencies 3.77 GB, Rust build output 2.3 GB, Python virtual environments 1.44 GB and Swift package build output 435.1 MB, each with its reason. Node.js dependencies is open as a list of seven node_modules folders with their locations on the demo disk and their sizes, and an Add all to Crate button. The Findings sidebar lists Node.js dependencies 3.77 GB, Rust build output 2.3 GB, Python virtual environments 1.44 GB and Swift package build output 435.1 MB, each with its reason. Node.js dependencies is open as a list of seven node_modules folders with their locations on the demo disk and their sizes, and an Add all to Crate button.
One finding opened: every item with its location and size.

The Crate

  1. Drag files and folders into the Crate as you explore. It totals the space you'll get back.
  2. Review the Crate (⌘⌫) to see everything in one window. Take out what you want to keep.
  3. Confirm once more. Items in system or app-data folders are flagged, and you're asked about each one on its own.
  4. Everything goes to the Trash, never straight to deletion. Change your mind until you empty it.

Return never confirms a move.

Safety stoppers

Two checks keep the wrong thing out of the Trash. The first runs when you add an item. macOS system folders, disk roots, and anything locked or protected by System Integrity Protection can never go in the Crate. Folders like your home folder, Documents, Downloads and Applications stay too, though what is inside them can go. If you try, Discotech tells you why.

The second runs right before anything moves. Discotech checks that each item is still exactly what it scanned: the same file, the same size, no folder swapped for a link. If anything changed, it refuses and asks you to rescan.

Honest totals

A hard link is a second name for the same file. Discotech counts that file once, and the Crate counts its space as freed only when every name goes to the Trash.

Scan a whole disk and the total adds up to its full capacity. Besides your files you see Free (space you can use now), Purgeable (counted as used, but macOS can clear it when it needs room) and Unseen (used space that no file explains).

Where macOS reports them, Unseen is split into swap, Recovery, update staging and local snapshots. Discotech only lists snapshots. It never deletes them.

Views

Three ways to read one scan

Switch any time with the shortcut beside each name. The folder you're in, your selection and the Crate carry over, so you never lose your place.

Ball · ⌘1

Ball: the whole folder at once

The folder you're in sits at the centre of the disco ball. What's inside spreads outward, ring by ring, up to six levels deep. Labels follow the curve.

  • Point at anything to light up its path to the centre
  • A card shows its size and its share of each folder above it
  • Click a segment to go in, click the centre to step back out
  • Or scroll: up to open the folder under the pointer, down to go back. The Floor does this too
Ball view zoomed into Movies, 57.07 GB. The pointer rests on Iceland, a folder inside Travel: its path to the centre is lit in orange and red while everything else fades, and a card reads Iceland, 6.23 GB, 35% of Travel, 11% of Movies. Ball view zoomed into Movies, 57.07 GB. The pointer rests on Iceland, a folder inside Travel: its path to the centre is lit in orange and red while everything else fades, and a card reads Iceland, 6.23 GB, 35% of Travel, 11% of Movies.
Zoomed into Movies, pointing at Iceland.

Layers · ⌘2

Layers: every level to true scale

Columns read left to right. Each one splits the column before it in exact proportion, so up to four levels sit side by side at the same scale.

  • A folder that is almost all one subfolder folds into a single labelled band
  • Hundreds of tiny items merge into one "smaller items" band
  • Click a band to go in, click the spine to come back out
Layers view: four columns headed Inside Demo Mac, One level down, Two levels down and Three levels down. Movies, 57.07 GB or 33%, and Virtual Machines are red; Music, Applications, Pictures, Projects and Library are orange; the many small items further right are yellow and green. Layers view: four columns headed Inside Demo Mac, One level down, Two levels down and Three levels down. Movies, 57.07 GB or 33%, and Virtual Machines are red; Music, Applications, Pictures, Projects and Library are orange; the many small items further right are yellow and green.
The same demo folder in Layers.

Floor · ⌘3

Floor: one block per folder

Rounded blocks, largest first, filling the window at any size. A block's area grows more slowly than its size, so one giant folder can't crowd out the rest. Labels still show the true size and share.

  • Large folders show their own largest items inside
  • Click a block to go in, click an empty spot to come back out
Floor view in the Heat theme: Movies and Virtual Machines are red blocks, Music, Applications, Pictures, Projects and Library orange, Backups, Documents and Downloads yellow, Screen Recordings green and the smallest files blue. Floor view in the Heat theme: Movies and Virtual Machines are red blocks, Music, Applications, Pictures, Projects and Library orange, Backups, Documents and Downloads yellow, Screen Recordings green and the smallest files blue.
Heat theme: cold blue is small, hot red is big.
  • Space Quick Look
  • Show in Finder
  • Copy Path
  • ⌘↑ Enclosing folder
  • ⌘R Scan again
  • ⌘? Help
  • Full keyboard control in the list

Colour

Colour that tells you something

Every view and the sidebar share one colour key, shown above the chart. Change it in Settings (⌘,) and everything redraws at once, with no rescan.

Floor view in the Gradient style, Studio theme, coloured by size: every block is a shade of violet, pale for small and deep for big. The key reads Smaller to Larger. Floor view in the Gradient style, Studio theme, coloured by size: every block is a shade of violet, pale for small and deep for big. The key reads Smaller to Larger.
Gradient · Studio · SizeOne colour family. Lighter is smaller, stronger is bigger.
The same Floor view in the Multicolour style, Traffic theme, coloured by size: Movies and Virtual Machines are red, most folders orange, Screen Recordings yellow and the smallest file green. The key runs from green to red. The same Floor view in the Multicolour style, Traffic theme, coloured by size: Movies and Virtual Machines are red, most folders orange, Screen Recordings yellow and the smallest file green. The key runs from green to red.
Multicolour · Traffic · SizeGreen is small, yellow and orange are in between, red is big.
The same Floor view coloured by kind of content in the Clear theme: media folders are pale yellow, archives and disk images brown, apps blue, code orange, system and libraries dark blue, documents light blue. The key above names them: Media 87.62 GB, Archives 42.85 GB, Apps 15.2 GB and three more. The same Floor view coloured by kind of content in the Clear theme: media folders are pale yellow, archives and disk images brown, apps blue, code orange, system and libraries dark blue, documents light blue. The key above names them: Media 87.62 GB, Archives 42.85 GB, Apps 15.2 GB and three more.
Multicolour · Clear · Kind of contentThe key above the chart names each kind.

Colour by

Size Default
Small items are calm, big items are loud.
Kind of content
Apps, media, documents, code, caches and so on each keep one colour everywhere.
Top-level folder
Everything inside a top-level folder shares its colour, even when you zoom in.

Themes and palette style

Pick a palette style, then one of its six themes.

Gradient
Studio, Neon, Iridescent, Ocean, Sunset and Forest.
Multicolour
Several hues in a row, easy to tell apart at a glance: Traffic, Heat, Terrain, Spectrum, Aurora, and Clear, which is colour-blind safe.

Gradient is the default. Not sure what a colour means? The Help centre shows the key for your current setting.

The Discotech Settings window. Palette style offers two cards, Gradient and Multicolour, with Multicolour selected. Below are six theme cards: Traffic (green to red, selected), Heat (cold blue to hot red), Terrain (sea to summit), Spectrum (violet to red), Aurora (indigo to magenta) and Clear (colour-blind safe). Below, Colour by offers Size (selected), Kind of content and Top-level folder. The Discotech Settings window. Palette style offers two cards, Gradient and Multicolour, with Multicolour selected. Below are six theme cards: Traffic (green to red, selected), Heat (cold blue to hot red), Terrain (sea to summit), Spectrum (violet to red), Aurora (indigo to magenta) and Clear (colour-blind safe). Below, Colour by offers Size (selected), Kind of content and Top-level folder.
Settings: palette style, theme, and what colour means.

Privacy

Your file list never leaves memory

A map of your disk says a lot about you. Discotech treats it that way.

  • Scans are never savedThere's no scan history, and nothing is cached: a saved map of your files could expose them. Quit, and the results are gone.
  • The app has no account, analytics or networkNo sign-in and no tracking. The app contains no networking code. The source is open, so you can check.
  • Remembers settings, not filesIt keeps your view, theme, colour setting and window layout.
  • Full Disk Access is your callWithout it, macOS keeps Mail, Messages, Safari and other protected folders out of every scan, and that space shows up as Unseen. Turn it on for complete totals.
  • This website counts page viewsThe site uses Cloudflare Web Analytics, which sets no cookies and collects no personal data. The app is separate.

Coming soon

Coming soon to the Mac App Store

Discotech will be available to download from the Mac App Store. There is no direct download.

  • macOS 14 Sonoma or later
  • Mac with Apple silicon