Export what would be removed, without removing it

"Export What Would Be Removed" writes the plan for your current basket to a file and changes nothing on disk. Use it when you want a second pair of eyes, a record before a big clean, or a list you can search.

Two ways to get it

From the File menu, Export What Would Be Removed saves a plain text file for whatever is in your basket. It is greyed out while the basket is empty, and has the shortcut Cmd Shift E. The other way is the "Details" section of the review sheet, which also offers CSV, copy to the clipboard and a save panel. Nothing is written until you pick a place. The suggested name is "Spotless - what would be removed" with the date and time.

What is in the file

A header says nothing has been changed. A summary counts items going to the Trash, deleted for good, needing your Mac password, and not touched, with sizes. Then one line per item: action, size, kind, last used, path, why it is listed and how sure Spotless is. The order is the review sheet's order. The CSV adds columns such as owner, verdict and source page, and is safe to open in a spreadsheet because formula-like values get a leading apostrophe.

Items the safety check would refuse right now are listed under "Not touched" with the reason, so the file shows what a lock would stop.

A fingerprint (a SHA-256 of paths, sizes and actions) identifies the exact list. If the basket changes, the panel warns that the copy is out of date.

What it does not do

It is not an undo file and cannot run a clean. It does not promise the numbers: files can change between export and clean, and each item is checked again just before it moves. Paths show ~ in place of your home folder by default. Untick that and the file holds your user name. File names can be private, so look before you send it to anyone. Copying to the clipboard is capped at 20,000 lines. Saving is not.

The manual way

Finder has no dry run. For a folder, list before you delete, read-only:

du -sh ~/Library/Caches/* | sort -h | tail -20
find ~/Downloads -type f -mtime +180 -size +100M -exec ls -lh {} +
find ~/Downloads -type f -mtime +180 -size +100M > ~/Desktop/plan.txt

The first two print only. The third writes a file, so choose the path. For rm, nothing previews it, so print the same find before adding -delete. A Spotless export covers the same job across every page, with reasons attached.

Keep going

• Undo a cleanup and restore files: How to put back files Spotless removed, where they are kept, what cannot be restored, and how scheduled cleaning keeps the same safety net.
• Locked items and the Safety Lock: What a Locked tag means in Spotless, how to release one item or a whole page, how the Safety Lock switch works, and what stays protected whatever you choose.
• How a Spotless clean works: Scan, look, choose, review, Trash.
• Pricing: Every feature for $9, once.

Buy for $9 All features