Clean Eject documentation

Install Clean Eject

Clean Eject runs on macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple silicon and Intel Macs. After buying, download the app zip from your Polar receipt, unzip it, and drag Clean Eject to your Applications folder.

The app is signed and notarized by Apple. Confirm Open at the normal first-launch prompt.

The app works without a license key. The key in your receipt turns on automatic updates: enter it in Clean Eject → License…. Once a day, the app checks for a new version, shows what’s new, and installs it with Install and Relaunch. Clean Eject → Check for Updates… checks right away. A key works on 3 Macs. To move it to another Mac, choose License… → Deactivate This Mac first. Your receipt always has the latest version, too.

The list

The window lists the cards and drives you can take out, each with a line like “Memory card · 31.9 GB · 12.41 GB free · FAT32”. It lists them again when you plug one in or take one out.

Clean & Eject looks for the files your Mac left on the drive and shows them before anything is removed.
Eject ejects it as it is.
Eject All, at the bottom, ejects every card and drive, one after the other.

With nothing plugged in, the window says “No cards or drives” and “Plug in a memory card or a USB drive. It shows up here.”

Clean Eject never lists your Mac’s own disk, a network drive or a Time Machine backup disk.

Clean Eject has an item in the menu bar, under an eject icon. Each card and drive is listed there with Clean & Eject… and Eject. Below them are Eject All, Open, Settings… and Quit. When an action needs you, like the list of files to remove, the window comes forward.

Clean & Eject

Click Clean & Eject. The first time, macOS asks whether Clean Eject can read the card. Click Allow. The app never looks at a card or a drive until you click.

The app shows “Looking for the Mac’s hidden files on NO NAME…”, then a window titled Clean NO NAME with what it found, like “The Mac left 55 files on NO NAME (729 KB). Other devices, like a TV, a car or a Windows PC, show them as clutter.” Each kind is one line with its count and size:

In the app	On the drive
Folder view settings	`.DS_Store` files, in any folder
Copies of file details	`._` files, in any folder
Log of file changes	`.fseventsd`, at the top of the drive
Temporary files	`.TemporaryItems`, at the top of the drive
Saved versions of documents	`.DocumentRevisions-V100`, at the top of the drive
AirPort disk file	`.apdisk`, at the top of the drive
Spotlight search index	`.Spotlight-V100`, shown as “Stays: macOS protects it”

Click Clean & Eject to remove them and eject the drive, or Cancel to leave everything as it is. Removed files don’t go to the Trash.

When the drive has none of these files and no Trash to empty, the app ejects it straight away and says “There was nothing to remove: NO NAME was already clean.”

The drive’s Trash

Files you moved to the Trash from a card stay on the card, in a hidden .Trashes folder, until the Trash is emptied. Clean Eject leaves them alone. When there are some, the window has a box, unticked: “Empty this drive’s Trash (12 files, 3.1 GB). This can’t be undone.” Tick it to remove them too.

Spotlight’s index

Spotlight keeps its index of a drive in .Spotlight-V100, at the top of the drive. macOS doesn’t let any app but itself open or remove that folder, on any drive, so Clean Eject lists it and leaves it.

Tick Keep the Mac from indexing this drive to stop the Mac from making it there again. Clean Eject leaves one small empty file on the drive, .metadata_never_index, that tells Spotlight to stay away. To have the box start ticked on every drive, turn on Keep the Mac from indexing the drives I clean in Settings.

What it never removes

Your own files.
A ._ file that isn’t one the Mac made. A real one starts with the same four bytes every time, and the app checks them, so a file of yours named ._notes.txt stays.
._ files on a drive that isn’t FAT or exFAT.
A folder like .fseventsd anywhere but at the top of the drive.
Anything a shortcut (an alias or a link) points to.

After the eject

The window says “NO NAME is safe to unplug.” and what was removed: “Removed 55 files the Mac left (729 KB).” When you left the Trash alone, it reminds you how much is still in it: “NO NAME’s Trash still has 12 files (3.1 GB).”

A file that can’t be removed is listed under “1 item couldn’t be removed:”, with macOS’s reason. The drive is ejected anyway.

Drives in the Mac’s format

Clean & Eject is for cards and drives in a format other devices read, like FAT32 and exFAT. A drive in the Mac’s own format (APFS or Mac OS Extended) is made to be used by a Mac, and the Mac’s files belong on it: its saved versions of documents are someone’s work. So those drives only get Eject, with the line “In the Mac’s own format, so the Mac’s files belong on it. Eject only.”

Settings

Clean Eject → Settings… has a checkbox for each kind of file Clean & Eject removes. All are ticked but This drive’s Trash. Untick one to keep that kind on every drive.

Spotlight’s index isn’t listed, since macOS protects it from every app.

At the bottom, Keep the Mac from indexing the drives I clean makes the indexing box start ticked.

When a drive won’t eject

If an app has a file open on the drive, macOS won’t eject it. Clean Eject shows “NO NAME couldn’t be ejected”, the apps that have files open on it with the files’ names, and a Quit button next to each.

Click Quit next to each app. An app may ask you to save first. If it doesn’t quit, the window says “QuickTime Player didn’t quit. It may be asking you something in its window.”
Click Try Again. Some apps write one more hidden file as they quit, so Try Again cleans the drive once more before it ejects it.

macOS can take a few seconds to say a drive is in use. With a video open in QuickTime Player, it took between 6 and 20 seconds.

If no app is listed, macOS itself is using the drive, often Spotlight looking through it. Clean Eject can’t see what macOS is doing. Wait a few seconds and click Try Again.

Force Eject… is the last resort, behind a warning: “The apps that are using it lose any change they haven’t saved there, and a file that’s being copied can end up damaged. Quit the apps first when you can.”

Eject All stops at a drive that’s in use. Once you sort it out, Try Again goes on with the others.

Troubleshooting

Another app has the drive open on its own

“Another app has NO NAME open on its own, like Disk Utility does.” Quit Disk Utility, or the app that’s working on the whole drive, then try again.

The drive shares its disk with another volume

“NO NAME is on the same drive as TRAVEL, which Clean Eject leaves alone. Eject it from the Finder.” Ejecting one would eject the other too, so Clean Eject leaves that to you.

The card is locked

A card with its lock switch on shows “Locked” in its line, and Clean & Eject is off: “This card is locked, so nothing on it can be removed.” Click Eject, slide the lock switch on the card’s side up, and plug it in again.