Install, update and remove Strata

What you need

• macOS 13 Ventura or later. Strata is a universal app, so it runs natively on Apple silicon and on Intel Macs.
• About 44 MB of space for the app. The download itself is about 11 MB.
• No account. Nothing to sign up for, before or after you buy.

Strata is not on the Mac App Store. App Store apps are sandboxed, and a sandboxed app cannot read ~/Library, which is where most of the space on a Mac hides. It is signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple instead, which is the same malware check App Store apps get, without the sandbox.

Install it

1. Download the disk image

   Get it from the download page. It is always the latest version, named Strata- and the version number, ending .dmg.

2. Open it

   Double-click it in Downloads. macOS checks Apple's notarization before it opens and names Kapybara LLC as the developer, which is the company that makes Strata. The notarization ticket travels inside the download, so this works on a Mac that is offline too.

3. Drag Strata to Applications

   The window shows Strata beside your Applications folder. Drag one onto the other, then eject the disk image. You can move the disk image to the Trash afterwards; Strata's own Installers room will offer to do that for you later.

4. Open Strata

   The first time, a short tour points at each part of the window and Strata checks for Full Disk Access. Your first scan covers both.

How updates work

Strata checks this website for a new version every hour and downloads it in the background. It then installs the update in one of three ways:

• When you quit Strata.
• When you choose Update Now in the notice that says what is new.
• By itself, while you are away. When the menu bar panel is closed and Strata is not scanning, optimizing, searching a room or removing an app, after a minute with no key pressed and the pointer still if no Strata window is open, or fifteen minutes if one is. Strata then comes back as you left it: in the menu bar alone, or with its window and what is new. Copies older than 1.0.17 wait for the window to be closed and ten minutes away, and copies older than 1.0.13 install only when they quit.

To look for an update yourself, choose Check for Updates… in the Strata menu, or Check Now in Settings. When an update has downloaded, Strata says so and offers What's New; after it installs, Strata shows what changed the next time you open it. The full history is on the changelog.

The update check is the only thing Strata ever fetches from the internet. One switch in Settings, Update Strata automatically, turns off the hourly check and the download together. What Strata sends over the network lists everything.

If an older copy froze

Versions 1.0.5 to 1.0.11 could freeze as they opened during the free trial, with a spinning wheel and buttons that did nothing. 1.0.12 fixed it. A frozen copy cannot update itself, so:

1. Quit the frozen copy

   Press Option Command Esc, choose Strata, and click Force Quit.

2. Download the latest version

   From the download page, and drag it into Applications in place of the old one. Your trial and your settings stay as they were.

Remove Strata completely

Strata is one app in Applications. It installs no helper tools, no launch agents and no system extensions, so once it is in the Trash nothing of it runs. Like any app, it leaves a few small files in your Library. To remove those too:

1. Turn off Open Strata at login

   If you turned it on, switch it off in Strata's Settings first. Otherwise remove Strata afterwards from System Settings, General, Login Items & Extensions (Login Items on macOS 13 and 14).

2. Quit Strata and move it to the Trash

   Choose Quit from the menu bar panel or the Strata menu, then drag Strata from Applications to the Trash.

3. Remove what it kept in your Library

   In Finder, choose Go, Go to Folder, and remove these if they are there:

   • ~/Library/Preferences/com.stratamaccleaner.strata.plist, its settings (including your licence key, if you entered one);
   • ~/Library/Application Support/Strata, the scan snapshots behind Report;
   • ~/Library/Caches/com.stratamaccleaner.strata, a small cache and any update it had downloaded.

4. Optionally, the trial record

   Your login keychain holds an item labelled Strata trial, which remembers when the trial began. Delete it in Keychain Access if you want it gone. It survives removing the app on purpose, so that reinstalling does not restart the trial.

If you gave Strata Full Disk Access, you can also remove it from the list in System Settings, Privacy & Security, Full Disk Access.

Your licence key is not lost with any of this: it is in the email you got when you bought Strata Pro, and you can look it up again if that email is gone.