Apple has been clear Rosetta 2 is going away in a macOS 28. When that happens, every leftover Intel x86 only app, plugin, codec, and driver on your Mac stops working and is no longer harmless clutter. It potentially becomes a mystery crash, a system alert saying it won’t run, a silent failure, or a “this used to work” problem.
Most Macs are carrying more of this than their owners think: 68K, PowerPC 32 & 64-bit, and x86 32 & 64-bit executables left behind by old installs, migrated systems, and abandoned software. x86Away finds all of it. You can intelligently clean things up once you know whats there.
x86Away will help you clean up gigabytes of old unused files.
• dead drivers
• expired Quicktime 32 codecs
• old unused audio plugins
• antique video plugins
• old files left by apps long since deleted or updated
and more !
FREE Version
Finds everything with deep scan of entire OS.
Locates old x86 32 & 64bit , PPC 32 & 64bit & 68K executables
Sort by a variety of column options like CPU type, driver, plugin
Finder reveal button for direct location. Then manually do what you will with them.
Hint: update or delete carefully !
Fully functional no strings attached, no time or scan size limits. You handle cleanup as appropriate manually.
DOWNLOAD >
PRO Version
Everything in the Free version plus-
Directly move files to trash files found by x86Away
Bulk selection of files to trash
Cached scan results between uses for near instant start up rather than doing full system scan every time. System scans can take 5-10 minutes to complete.
Shows update URLs to updaters when and as possible
BREW & Curl support for apps or libs installed by them
Online Store $4.99
Why use x86Away instead of the OS built in tool ?
How x86Away beats the built-in checker.
The OS supplied tool is hard to find, and very limited in what it shows. It’s limited to installed apps in the applications folder and misses gigs of other dead or need to be updated system files like device drivers.
x86Away will find EVERYTHING by deep searching through the OS extensively. It will find all sorts of dead old items left by uninstallers that failed to fully clean up after themselves.
This is made worse by Migration Assistant that will move old dead files every time you move machines. If you have been using Macs for 10 or even 20+ years it’s amazing how much old stuff gets pulled along even though it’s not being used, nor may of been used in years. In this respect x86Away will help you reclaim many gigs of unused SSD space held by files that shouldn’t be there. Examples ?
Quicktime 32bit codecs – Quicktime is long dead, never mind 3rd party codecs.
OFX plugins and their support folders
Audio filter plugins – AU, VST2, AVX and others
Printer & Scanner drivers long abandoned and replaced with totally new ones
Parts of old apps left behind by their uninstaller – especially in /application support and other deeper system folders
Opensource libraries and apps installed via HomeBrew and Curl. Examples are PostGRES ( used by commercial apps ), ffmpeg, and others. Some apps bring along their own embedded local installs which won’t be touch, but x86Away will find user installed versions and suggest update method like invoking brew to install Arm64 versions. [Pro version feature]
x86Away isn’t designed as some sort of system cleaner. It will not explicitly find dead prefs, plists for those apps but that will be easy enough for you to find. 3.0 Feature ? we’ll think about it ! That said, x86Away does function in a way that lets you find and remove what is often many gigs of useless files just taking up space. Claim back your SSD space from zombie code !
Fair Warning & The Fine Print :
x86Away can be used to delete important system files. You the user agree to understand what you are removing. As a safety, x86Away ONLY MOVES FILES TO THE TRASH which can be undone. If you aren’t sure if removing something will break an app, move the item to the trash and then try starting up the app, or rebooting the OS, or checking to see if the peripheral still works. Presumably you may need to do an update on an app, driver, or other related update as needed if functionality is broken. If you find, BEFORE DELETING something, the app developer doesn’t have an update to support ARM64 aka Apple Silicon, then you need to decide if OS 28+ is for you vs loosing functionality of whatever app you use.
HAVE A VALID SYSTEM BACKUP ! just incase it goes wrong.