Xcode DerivedData Cleaner for Mac
Stop losing 30–80 GB to stale Xcode build intermediates, symbol indexes, and forgotten simulator devices. CleanYourMac Space scans and purges them safely with Trash-first rollback.
Why does Xcode consume so much storage on Mac?
Every time you build an iOS, macOS, watchOS, or visionOS app, Xcode generates intermediate object files, precompiled headers, module maps, and symbol tables in ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData. Over weeks of development across multiple branches, this directory silently balloons to 50+ GB.
Stale compilation artifacts for old git branches and deleted CocoaPods or Swift Packages.
Duplicated disk images and runtimes for old iOS versions (iOS 16, 17) you no longer test.
Historic TestFlight and App Store submission archives saved in ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/Archives.
How CleanYourMac Space Cleans Xcode Safely
Targeted Project Selection
Instead of blindly wiping all DerivedData and forcing hours of re-indexing, you can select and clean specific stale project targets while preserving current projects.
100% Trash-First Rollback
Items are moved to macOS Trash rather than permanently unlinked. If an unexpected build dependency is needed, restore it instantly from Finder.
Simulators & Caches Analyzer
Identifies unavailable simulator runtimes and unneeded SDK device containers without breaking CoreSimulator daemon state.
Multi-Threaded Mach Kernel Scan
Scans 500,000+ files in seconds using low-overhead native macOS POSIX directory streams, leaving your CPU free for compiling.
Can I just run rm -rf ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData?
Yes, you can manually delete DerivedData from the command line, but it has significant drawbacks:
- It wipes all projects at once, forcing Xcode to rebuild and re-index active codebases from scratch.
- Terminal
rm -rfpermanently deletes files with zero Trash recovery. - It misses iOS simulator containers, documentation caches, and old archive dSYMs stored elsewhere.
Step-by-step guides
Prefer to do it by hand? These guides show the exact Terminal commands.
Reclaim your Mac storage today.
Download CleanYourMac Space for free to inspect your Xcode disk consumption, or upgrade to Pro for $19.99 one-time.