Mole 1.14.0 Mac

Mole 1.14.0 stops re-downloading the same installer when an app can’t be updated — it reuses the finished download instead. The update also detects newer builds of the same version and asks before quitting a running app, then reopens it after installation.

Get a read on your disk

Launch Mole and head straight for the disk analysis tool. It draws tree maps that make large files and folders impossible to miss, showing exactly what’s eating space. From there you can clear caches, logs and temporary files the app surfaces, without digging through hidden Library folders yourself.

Run the one‑click maintenance sweep

Newcomers often overlook the combined maintenance routine. One click runs system checks, optimization tasks and cleaning jobs in sequence — a quick way to see what Mole covers. After that, take a minute to review startup items. Mole can remove Dock launchers that slow the login process, and the interface is available in nine languages including English, German, Japanese and both Simplified and Traditional Chinese.

How Mole stacks up against similar Mac tools

Mole occupies a middle ground between single-purpose cleaners and sprawling system monitors. Compare it to DaisyDisk, and the difference is clear immediately. DaisyDisk focuses entirely on disk scanning and visualization, presenting gorgeous sunburst maps that drill into folders. It does nothing else. Mole offers tree maps that serve the same forensic purpose — finding what's ballooned to 40 GB overnight — and then gives you the tools to clean caches and leftovers directly, rather than sending you back to Finder to delete things manually.

Side by side with CleanMyMac, Mole feels lighter. CleanMyMac bundles malware scanning, privacy controls, an uninstaller and a menubar monitor into a polished, chatty interface. Mole skips the malware module and the hand-holding. Its menubar readout shows CPU, memory, GPU, disk, network, battery charge and temperature in a compact strip, without suggestions or alerts. People who want a dashboard plus an automated assistant tend to reach for CleanMyMac. People who want a fast status check and a manual cleanup toolkit often find Mole fits better.

Onyx, the veteran freeware utility, runs deeper system maintenance tasks and exposes far more Unix-level toggles. It assumes you know what you are doing. Mole wraps similar maintenance chores — rebuild caches, rotate logs, flush temporary directories — behind a single button and a summary screen. It does not offer Onyx’s granular parameter tweaks, which for many users is the whole appeal.

One session with Mole, step by step

A writer fires up Mole after Final Draft beachballed twice during a deadline morning. The menubar panel opens first: memory pressure sits in the yellow, and swap has crept to 6 GB. She clicks into the main window and taps the cleanup section. A scan finishes in under twenty seconds, listing 3.2 GB of user cache files, 800 MB of system logs, and a forgotten Davinci Resolve render cache from a project wrapped three weeks ago. She unticks the logs — those stay tiny on her machine — but confirms the rest. Mole empties them without fanfare.

She moves to the leftover removal pane. A 1.5 GB folder from a screen-recording app she deleted months ago surfaces immediately. Mole flags it with the path visible, so she can verify before clicking remove. Satisfied, she clears it. Finally, she opens disk analysis. The tree map paints her home folder in blocks of blue and orange. A single 22 GB virtual machine image she no longer uses dominates one corner. She drags it to the trash from Finder later; Mole gave her the map, not the move.

The whole session — menubar check, cache sweep, leftover removal, tree-map browse — runs under four minutes. No restarts, no permission prompts beyond the initial full-disk access she granted weeks ago.

Render cache and plugin debris cleanup across creative apps

People who run several large creative applications benefit first. Video editors, 3D artists and music producers accumulate render caches, waveform files and auto-saves that standard cleaning routines miss. Mole's leftover scanner catches project debris from uninstalled plugins and trial software, the kind that sits in Application Support for years without a trace in the main app list.

Developers who compile locally and toggle between containerized environments are another strong fit. Docker images, Xcode derived data and Node dependency trees chew through space fast. The tree map makes runaway folders obvious faster than du commands, and the one-click maintenance run clears build artefacts without touching source repos. System administrators managing a fleet of lab or office Macs appreciate the combined status readout — one glance covers thermals, network throughput and disk I/O — before they decide whether a machine needs attention.

Casual users who just want a periodic tidy-up also find Mole usable, but the app assumes a basic comfort with seeing file paths and choosing what to delete. It skips suspicious items by default, a safety net that prevents accidental removal of anything it cannot confidently classify.

Non-App Store apps now check for updates inside Mole

Version 1.14.0 added a software-update mechanism for apps downloaded outside the App Store, which shifts a small but frequent chore into the Mole window. A user launching a website-downloaded app gets a detection for a newer build — even a same-version build with a hotfix — and Mole asks before quitting the running instance, installs the update, then relaunches it. The re-use of a finished download when an update cannot proceed saves bandwidth on metered connections, a detail that matters during travel or tethering.

Earlier versions laid the groundwork for the cleanup flow people rely on now. Mole 1.8.0 introduced the disk tree map, turning a feature request into the second-most-used panel after cleanup. Mole 1.12.1 tightened the leftover scanner to reduce false positives for framework bundles that some apps share, which cut support queries noticeably. Mole 1.13.0 improved the battery and temperature readouts for Apple Silicon Macs, reporting sensor data that third-party monitors often misread on M-series chips.

Version 1.14.0 stops fetching a fresh download when an app update cannot proceed, reusing the file already on disk. A newer build of the same version is now detected. The app also asks before quitting a running application and reopens it after the update installs.

• macOS 14 or later
• Apple Silicon or Intel (x86‑64) Mac
• Full disk access supported