Answers, without the hedging.

Why does Strata need Full Disk Access?

Because macOS hides Mail, Messages, Safari and other apps' data from any app that has not been granted it.

Without the permission Strata still scans and still works: those folders are simply invisible, and your totals come out short by whatever is in them. The app tells you when that has happened rather than quietly reporting a wrong number.

Granting it takes three steps in System Settings and requires relaunching the app, because macOS only applies the change at launch. Nothing is uploaded either way: Strata has no network code beyond updating itself.

Does Strata delete anything permanently?

No. Everything goes to the Trash.

That means Finder can put it back even if you never open Strata again, and it means a mistake costs you a click rather than a backup restore. Strata also has its own one-click undo for the last batch.

Some disks have no Trash: certain network shares and external volumes. There, removal fails and tells you why. It never falls back to a permanent delete to get the job done.

Can it delete something important by mistake?

There is a list of things it refuses to touch, checked twice: once when the confirmation is built and again immediately before anything moves.

• System folders: /System, /bin, /usr (except /usr/local), /Library/Apple
• Your keychain
• The standard folders in your home directory: their contents can go, the folders stay
• Anything in iCloud Drive, because deleting it here removes it from every device you own
• Volume roots, and Strata's own application bundle

Skipped items appear in the confirmation with the reason, rather than vanishing from the list without explanation.

What does Optimize do to my apps?

It asks the ones you are not using to quit, the same way choosing Quit in each app would, and only after showing you which and why.

An app is ticked only when it has not been in front for half an hour, or ten minutes if you hid it. It is never quit while it is in front, playing or recording sound, keeping the Mac awake, running a program of its own (a shell, a build, an assistant at work) or busy with the processor, and Strata takes one more look at sound and wake locks at the moment of quitting. Apps that keep you notified, like mail and chat, and apps that work unwatched, like terminals and editors, are listed but never ticked for you.

Because quitting is the app's own Quit, anything with unsaved work asks you first, and an app that declines stays open. The junk Optimize clears goes to the Trash like everything else Strata removes, and Put Back returns it.

How complete is the app uninstaller?

It searches eighteen Library locations and rates every match, and it deliberately leaves some leftovers behind.

Matches are graded from certain to possible. Anything below "very likely" arrives unticked, because a missed leftover costs a few megabytes and a wrong one costs data.

The deliberate gap: it will not remove a folder shared by several apps from the same vendor. Taking Application Support/Google while uninstalling Chrome would take Drive's data with it. That trade means Chrome's own subfolder is not found either. Given the alternative, it is the right way round.

Can it remove Music, TV or other Apple apps?

No app can, so Strata keeps them closed instead.

macOS installs its own apps on a part of the disk it seals, which nothing can change while System Integrity Protection is on: not an app, not Finder, not an administrator. Turning that protection off to delete Music would weaken the whole Mac, and Strata will never ask you to.

In Strata Pro, the Uninstaller lists Apple's apps under Built into macOS, and any of them can be kept closed: whenever it opens, even Music by itself when you press Play or connect headphones, Strata quits it. Nothing on the disk changes, and turning it off gives the app back.

Does it need administrator rights?

No, and it never asks, except to update in any account but the administrator account that installed it.

A handful of things live in folders owned by the system: apps an installer put in Applications, launch daemons, helper tools, and some apps' shared files, such as GarageBand's sound library. Strata lists them with their sizes, and Show in Finder selects them in Finder: press Command-Delete there, and Finder asks for the password itself. If Finder says it will delete something immediately, macOS will not keep it in the Trash, and you can cancel.

Strata installs no helper, never deletes anything and never asks for a password. The one exception is updating Strata in any account but the administrator account that installed it: macOS asks for an administrator's password first. To read the disk it asks for one permission, Full Disk Access; since 1.0.19 macOS also asks whether its notices may show, the first time one is due.

A system extension, such as a camera extension left behind by an app you removed, is the one thing no app can remove: only macOS does. Startup Items lists it and opens the page of System Settings where macOS lets you switch it off.

Can Strata remove Apple Intelligence's models?

No: only macOS can. Strata shows them, and opens the settings where each feature is set.

Apple Intelligence, Siri, dictation and spoken voices download their models by themselves, often several gigabytes, into a folder macOS protects: no app can move them to the Trash, and Finder cannot either. The AI Data Sweeper sums them up by feature and opens the page of System Settings where each feature is set. Apple does not say whether switching a feature off frees its space, so Strata does not promise it.

Models that AI apps downloaded, such as Ollama's, LM Studio's and Hugging Face's, are yours to remove: the AI Data Sweeper names each one the way its app does, sizes it, and moves it to the Trash, where it can be put back. Ollama 0.40 and later keeps its models in a way only Ollama removes safely, so for those Strata gives you the ollama rm command to copy instead.

Is there a free trial?

Yes: every download starts with 14 days of everything in Strata Pro, removing up to 40 GB.

No account, no card and nothing to cancel. The days count from the first launch, on that Mac, and in them the trial can move up to 40 GB to the Trash: enough to see what Strata does on your Mac. Put Back gives back what it returns. When they are up, Strata keeps working as the free version: the map, search, large files, unused apps and the readouts, with no time limit. Nothing you removed during the trial comes back, and a key bought at any point unlocks everything again.

Is this a subscription?

No. Strata Pro is a one-time purchase and does not expire.

Bug fixes, security fixes and macOS compatibility updates are free forever: you never pay to keep a version you already own working. Strata 1.0.1 added seven tools to Strata Pro, 1.0.3 an eighth, and 1.0.4 Optimize and keeping Apple's apps closed, and everyone who had bought it got them in those updates.

And if it is not for you, ask for a refund within 14 days of buying, with no reason needed: see refunds.

What data does Strata collect?

None. No account, no telemetry, no analytics, no crash reporting.

The only network requests are Strata's own updates: a small check once an hour, and the download of a new version when there is one, which says what is new in it and installs when you quit Strata, when you choose Update Now, or by itself while you are away. One switch in Settings, Update Strata automatically, turns both off. In any account but the administrator account that installed Strata, an update waits for you, and macOS asks for an administrator's password to install it. Licence keys are verified on your Mac using cryptography rather than by asking a server for permission, so activation works offline, and if this company disappeared your copy would carry on working.

The full detail is on the privacy page, which is short for the same reason.

What are the system requirements?

macOS 13 Ventura or later, on Apple silicon or Intel.

The app is a universal binary of about 44 MB, in a download of about 11 MB, signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple. The notarization ticket travels inside the download, so it opens on the first try even on a Mac that is offline.

Does Strata work in every account on my Mac?

Yes. Installed once in Applications, it opens in every account on the Mac.

Each account keeps its own Strata settings, licence included, so enter your key once in each of your accounts: a key has no activation limit. The same goes for the switches in Settings, such as Tell me when the disk is almost full, Show Strata in the menu bar and Open Strata at login. Full Disk Access is the exception: macOS keeps it for the whole Mac, so once it is on for Strata in one account, it is on in all of them.

Strata cleans the account it runs in: the caches and downloads it finds, and the Trash it moves them to, are that account's own. macOS keeps each account's private folders closed to the others, with Full Disk Access or without it, so to clear another account's junk, log in to that account and open Strata there. Anything you remove from a folder every account shares, such as an app in Applications, goes from every account; the files an app left in other accounts' own folders stay there.

The app itself is shared, so an update installed from any account updates Strata in all of them. In any account but the administrator account that put Strata in Applications, an update waits for you, and macOS asks for an administrator's password to install it.

Strata froze when I opened it. What do I do?

Download the latest version from the download page, and open that one.

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 quit it first with Option-Command-Esc, then drag the new Strata into Applications in its place. Your trial and your settings stay as they were.

How long does a scan take?

Under a minute for a full boot volume on most Macs, and a few seconds for a folder.

Strata reads directories in batches through a single kernel call rather than asking about files one at a time, which is most of the difference. You do not wait for it: the Overview shows the disk, junk files and unused apps at once, the scan shows how far it has got, and the disk is scanned once each time Strata starts, not each time its window opens.

Why is it not on the Mac App Store?

Because App Store apps are sandboxed, and a sandboxed app cannot read ~/Library: which is the entire product.

Every disk analyzer worth using is distributed directly for the same reason. Strata is signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, which is the same review for malware that App Store apps get; what it does not get is the sandbox that would make it useless.

Who makes Strata?

Pankaj Kholiya, who builds, signs and releases every version.

Strata is made and licensed by Kapybara LLC, and signed with its Apple Developer ID. Questions reach a person: email support@stratamaccleaner.com, or message @Panku005 on X. He also writes the guides on this site: see Pankaj's articles.