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Nexthink Library

Disk Cleanup for macOS

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Disk Cleanup for macOS

Latest Version: 2.0.1.0
|
Updated on April 15, 2024
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Description

Allows to obtain information about certain files (size and path), and allows to remove unnecessary files such as the trash or cache files.

Important!

For these Remote Actions to work, special disk permissions must be granted to the Collector. Please refer to our documentation for more details.

Versions

  • 2.0.1.0 - 15 Apr 2024 - Output modified on "Disk cleanup" Remote Action
  • 2.0.0.0 - 21 Jul 2023 - Added "Invoke recycle bin cleanup" Remote Action
  • 1.0.3.0 - 02 Jun 2023 - Changed URL to internal Nexthink documentation
  • 1.0.2.0 - 12 Aug 2022 - Updated documentation
  • 1.0.1.0 - 22 Jul 2022 - Updated OS requirements
  • 1.0.0.0 - 22 Jul 2022 - Initial release

Required Products

Nexthink Act
Nexthink Engage

Platforms

MacOS Catalina and newer

Compatibility

V6.28 and later

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Disk Cleanup macOS

Script Description

This Remote Action is designed to help employees to maintain healthy levels of disk space. It can be used in 2 different formats, either with the Campaign which will provide some information to the employee with the option of a light or deep clean, which the employee can select. Without the campaign, administrators can use the Remote Action to automatically clean the disk according to the input parameter options they supply (Light or Deep).

Light clean only cleans the macOS bin.

Deep clean cleans the macOS bin and user cache folder (/Users/$USER/Library/Caches/).

It is possible to run a silent execution without user interaction via the Campaign, in this case, the Campaign can be skipped by providing an empty GUID as input DiskCleanupCampaignId. When using this silent method the “cleanup_level” determines how cleanup will be processed.

Execution context and suggested scheduling

Run the script as 'interactive user'. The script should be executed manually.

A timeout of 720 seconds is recommended.

Parameters

Label Description
disk cleanup campaign id ID of the campaign to allow the user select which clean up level will be applied. Provide an empty ID to avoid executing this campaign
cleanup completed campaign id ID of the campaign to notify the user that the cleanup process has finished. Provide an empty ID to avoid executing this campaign
maximum delay in seconds Maximum random delay set to avoid overloading server hosting virtual machines. Provide a number of seconds less than 600
cleanup level Cleanup level to support Chatbot solution. Relevant only in case an empty guid is provided in disk_cleanup_campaign_id parameter. Accepted values are (Light/Deep), Light applied by default

Outputs

Label Type Description
cleanup space Size Space gained in MB

Further Information

A Campaign is triggered to perform a Light (Trash Bin) or a Deep (Trash Bin and Caches folder) clean.

The Campaign can be skipped by providing a "-" (without quotes) instead of a Campaign GUID. In such case, cleanup_level determines how the clean up will be processed.

cleanup_space output is based on the difference between the size of the profile before and after the cleaning process.

In order to execute this Remote Action, nxtcod must have full disk permission granted in Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access. The configuration steps are documented here.

Test Scenarios

DeepCleanupWithCampaign
Test Case User answer is Deep cleanup.
Environment VM macOS 10.14, 10.15, 11, 12
Results Success - Trash Bin and Caches are deleted.
LightCleanupWithCampaign
Test Case User answer is Light cleanup.
Environment VM macOS 10.14, 10.15, 11, 12
Results Success - Trash Bin is deleted.
DeepCleanupWithInput
Test Case Campaign is empty and input is Deep.
Environment VM macOS 10.14, 10.15, 11, 12
Results Success - Trash Bin and Caches are deleted.
LightCleanupWithInput
Test Case Campaign is empty and input is Light.
Environment VM macOS 10.14, 10.15, 11, 12
Results Success - Trash Bin is deleted.

Get File Extension Total Size macOS

Script Description

Reports disk size for all the files found in the hard disk for a given set of file extensions and lists each file found

Execution context and suggested scheduling

Run the script as 'interactive user'. In some environments it might be necessary to run as 'local system'. The script should be executed manually.

A timeout of 720 seconds is recommended.

Parameters

Label Description
Maximum Delay In Seconds Maximum random delay set to avoid overloading server hosting virtual machines. Provide number of seconds less than 600
File Extensions Comma separated list of file extensions to report ('txt,log,iso,dmg')
Minimum File Size Threshold (MB) Minimum size in MB that a file must have to be included in the report

Outputs

Label Type Description
Total Size Float Total size of files matching the provided file extensions in MB
File List StringList File names list for each file included in the report

Further Information

This remote action relies on the Spotlight service. It must be enabled for the root volume in order to find the required files. If it is not enabled the results may be empty and zero size. Requesting a file extension that have a huge amount of files on disk increases the time to get the results. Increasing the timeout property is advised in that case.

Test Scenarios

ThresholdProvided
Test Case Provided a threshold to skip files under a given size
Environment VM macOS 10.14, 10.15, 11, 12
Results Success - The size of files under a given value are not included in the report
EmptyExtensionsInputProvided
Test Case Input parameter FileExtensions set as empty
Environment VM macOS 10.14, 10.15, 11, 12
Results Failure - The FileExtensions input parameter must not be empty

Get Old Files Size macOS

Script Description

Provides total size of files older and newer than the number of days given as threshold parameter.

Execution context and suggested scheduling

Run the script as 'interactive user'. In some environments it might be necessary to run as 'local system'. The script should be executed manually.

A timeout of 720 seconds is recommended.

Parameters

Label Description
Path Full path of the folder to measure. Examples of valid paths are '$HOME/Documents' or '$HOME/Downloads'
Threshold In Days Number of days into the past to consider a file as old
Maximum Delay In Seconds Maximum random delay set to avoid overloading server hosting virtual machines. Provide number of seconds less than 600

Outputs

Label Type Description
Old Files Size Float Total size of files in the given path in MB, older than the Remote Action execution date minus the number of days provided as threshold
Recently Modified Files Size Float Total size of files in the given path in MB, newer than the Remote Action execution date minus the number of days provided as threshold

Further Information

The input parameter 'Path' allows to use $HOME (/Users/username). This variable only works as expected when running this Remote Action as 'current interactive user'.
If the input parameter 'Path' contains special folders, nxtcod must have full disk permission granted in Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access. The configuration steps are documented here.

Test Scenarios

PathProvided
Test Case Provided a path to measure the files size.
Environment VM macOS 10.14, 10.15, 11, 12
Results Success - The size of old and recent files on the device is shown correctly
EmptyPathProvided
Test Case The directory is empty.
Environment VM macOS 10.14, 10.15, 11, 12
Results Success - The result is 0 since there are no files present in the given directory path
PathProvidedDoesNotExist
Test Case The directory does not exist.
Environment VM macOS 10.14, 10.15, 11, 12
Results Failure - An error is about that the path does not exist is shown in Execution Status Details

Invoke recycle bin cleanup

Script Description

This Remote Action helps to conserve disk space on end-user devices by performing a proactive recycle bin clean (compatible on Windows or macOS) with an optional capability to use a Campaign to request user permission.

The Remote Action checks the recycle bins from all logical drives and determines the size of the files inside.

A cleanup is then performed based on the input parameters 'settings' that you supplied to the Remote Action.

'Warning' the cleanup operation permanently deletes recycle bin data that meets the criteria specified in the input, from all targeted devices.

Execution context and suggested scheduling

Run the script as 'interactive user'. The script should be executed manually.

A timeout of 1200 seconds is recommended.

Parameters

Label Description
Bin Size in MB Size in MB to be reached in order to initiate the action (the campaign will be triggered if selected, otherwise the action will proceed automatically). Provide a number in MB between 100 and 10240 (10 GB) and when that amount of storage usage is reached we will start the cleanup action
campaign id ID of the campaign to notify the user about the size of their bin and offer cleanup. Provide an empty ID to avoid executing this campaign
operation completed campaign id ID of the campaign to notify the user about the finish of the cleanup process. Provide an empty ID to avoid executing this campaign

Outputs

Label Type Description
recycle bin size Size The amount of data that we managed to clear from the recycle bin
deletion done Bool If the recycle bin on the device was cleaned, then we output 'true', otherwise if the clean was not performed this output shows as 'false'