Mac free app - Free up dozens to hundreds of GB on your Mac by trimming the fat from your plugins

[sergenas]

Hey everyone,

So I had this problem that was driving me nuts. I've got 1000+ legit plugins on my Mac, and they're eating up a ridiculous amount of space on my boot drive.

Why? Because every plugin on Mac is now a "Universal Binary" – meaning it contains code for both Intel Macs AND Apple Silicon Macs in the same file. Literally double the size they need to be.

If you're on Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4), you're no longer using that Intel code. Back in the day, some of us ran Intel plugins through Rosetta, but now everything is fully native – all the major plugins have been ported to ARM. And with Apple planning to drop Rosetta support soon anyway, that Intel code is just sitting there taking up space.

I got tired of it and originally wrote a shell script to strip out the unused Intel binaries from my plugins.

Been using it for a few months now, and depending on how many plugins you have, you can recover anywhere from dozens to hundreds of GB. Works like a charm on VST3, VST, AU, and AAX.

Then I made it easier: I built a simple GUI app so you don't need to mess with Terminal and command line stuff. You just pick which plugin folders you want to process, select which formats (AAX, VST, VST3, AU), and hit go. Takes a few minutes and boom – half your plugins' size gone.

There is a simulation mode (estimate) that will only run an estimation and tell you how much GB you can save. Nothing will be modified in that mode, so it's worth trying it.

(If you prefer using the original script instead of the app, just ask – but fair warning, it's trickier to use since you need to be comfortable with Terminal commands.)

Download the app here:
https://avelio.tech/unfatten
v1.5 with lof of improvments has just been released.

Important stuff:

- This is beta ! it works great for me, but your mileage may vary.
- Backup your plugins folder first – just in case something weird happens with a specific plugin
- The only plugins I've had issues with are Sonnox (they crash after stripping), so I just exclude those
- Some plugins are installed with weird permissions (root owner or immutable flags) – the app will not process those. if. you need to process them, change their permissions first. Hopefolly this is very rare cases.
- When you update plugins, they'll come back as Universal binaries, so just run it again. I do it monthly

If you're on an Intel Mac:

You can use this to strip out the ARM code instead and save the same amount of space. Just be aware that if you upgrade to an Apple Silicon Mac down the road, you'll need to reinstall all your plugins since they won't have the ARM code anymore.

That's why I personally wouldn't recommend it for Intel users unless you know what you are doing – the option is there if you desperately need the space.

If estimation is working but processing doesnt free space
You probably have a privileges issues : the plugins you are trying to strip are either owned by an other user or by root user. Solution: change the privileges of the parent folder with right-click and Get Info on the parent folder, selecting apply to enclosed items, or use an utility like batchmod


The deal:

This is free, no strings attached. Use at your own risk, no warranties given. If you've got a smaller SSD and/or you're constantly juggling space, this might help you and save you time.

Let me know if you try it and how much space you recover.
Happy to answer questions!

[Uncle E]

Does this require Sequoia or Tahoe? Sonoma is telling me it's not compatible.

[PAK]

Pearcleaner ( https://github.com/alienator88/Pearcleaner ) has a Lipo function which does the same thing, and shows you the projected space saving for each app too. (It's designed for apps rather than plugins.. )

ALWAYS back the app up before stripping the x86 bits out as it can (and will) break some apps (they won't be able to launch.) Works fine with Cubase though, and saves about 700MB of space.

[sergenas]

I used Percleaner before, and the fact is that there is few tricks for plugins to avoid some crashes for the stripped plugins, that's why I coded Unfatten.

Unfatten includes too a simulation mode (estimate) that will only simulate how much space you can save.
And the GUI and process is I guess far simpler and faster to use than Percleaner (my wife was able to use it, which was the test )

in any case, as you said, always backup before but so far except for sonnox plugins, I didnt encounter any issues with Unfatten over 1000+ plugins and a few friends who use it.

[sergenas]

Does this require Sequoia or Tahoe? Sonoma is telling me it's not compatible.

Yes, that's right, but I just modified the code and build a new version which should be compatible with MacOS 11+.

I posted the version for MacOS 11+ which should run on Big Sur and later macos.
Link added in the initial post.

Let me know if it works for you

[Uncle E]

Pearcleaner ( https://github.com/alienator88/Pearcleaner ) has a Lipo function which does the same thing, and shows you the projected space saving for each app too. (It's designed for apps rather than plugins.. )

Thank you. Pearcleaner is great! Lipo cleaned up almost 7GB for me.

[Uncle E]

Yes, that's right, but I just modified the code and build a new version which should be compatible with MacOS 11+.

I posted the version for MacOS 11+ which should run on Big Sur and later macos.
Link added in the initial post.

Let me know if it works for you

Thanks! Worked great with Sonoma and cleared 10GB! Would you like me to upload the list of plugins that didn't get stripped?

[adl]

I´m getting the following
"Error: Could not gain access to the selected directory."
Granted permission to access harddrive in my systemsettings/privacy and security and the app shows "Plugin Management permission granted" with a little green icon. Anything else i can do?

EDIT:
Ok, i had to manually choose the Plugin directory in your app. Not sure why, cause i basically went to the exact same folder as it already was but now it works.

[sergenas]

I´m getting the following
"Error: Could not gain access to the selected directory."
Granted permission to access harddrive in my systemsettings/privacy and security and the app shows "Plugin Management permission granted" with a little green icon. Anything else i can do?

EDIT:
Ok, i had to manually choose the Plugin directory in your app. Not sure why, cause i basically went to the exact same folder as it already was but now it works.

Great it works for you !
Sometimes the permission granting in MacOs needs to be reloaded (reselecting the folder). Will try to update the app to ensure that.

[sergenas]

Nice to read it was working and helpfull for you.

If it cant strip the plugins, that's probably because the plugins are owned by an other user or the root user.

In such cases this version of the app may not work on those plugins because of the security features of Mac, and you would need elevated root privileges to strip them.
I am thinking of coding a version with an helper with root privileges, that will handle such case.

Meanwhile you can try something simple :

In the finder menu:
- right click on the plugin folder you want to process (for example VST3)
- in the bottom section on the right click on the lock icon to be able to modify.
- add your current user in the list with the + sign and select read&write for the privileges
- with the arrow on the right, pick in the submenu 'apply to enclosed items'.

here is a screenshot showing that: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lMh...ew?usp=sharing

This should give privileges to your user for processing all plugins in that folder.

There are some free utilities too like Batchmod which let you do that easily with a GUI.

Let me know if that works for those remaining plugins

Yes, that's right, but I just modified the code and build a new version which should be compatible with MacOS 11+.

I posted the version for MacOS 11+ which should run on Big Sur and later macos.
Link added in the initial post.

Let me know if it works for you

Thanks! Worked great with Sonoma and cleared 10GB! Would you like me to upload the list of plugins that didn't get stripped?

[Uncle E]

Thanks! That worked! 'Apply to enclosed items' was the thing I was missing, now everything was processed.

[nanostream]

Could you please post the original script? I’d love to see what it does. Thanks.

[sergenas]

Thanks! That worked! 'Apply to enclosed items' was the thing I was missing, now everything was processed.

Great to hear that !

[sergenas]

Of course. I already posted it on GS a while ago.
It was very basic and limited. That's why I built the app, the processing is far more reliable, faster, more features (filters/exclusion etc ... ) and avoid all pitfalls and issues of the script

[sergenas]

So I am releasing a new version 1.3.

Should process faster, better, and give you better reporting and help for the few plugins who can't be processed (why and how to solve it).
It gives you some kind of health check of your plugin folders (bad or weird permissions, root-owned plugins etc ...)

The download page has a few information which may be helpful too.

https://www.avelio.tech/unfatten

I am drafting a new free app for plugin info and management too. I've got some ideas of features I miss currently. You're welcome to share ideas too Smile smiley

Have fun.