Privacy
MakeRoom keeps every path, filename, scan result and operation on your Mac. It has no analytics, no crash reporter and no log files, and it makes no network request at all.
Last updated 3 September 2026
What stays on your Mac
Everything MakeRoom learns about your disk stays on it:
- Scan results, including every path, filename, size, date and item count.
- Which recipe matched which item, and every recommendation MakeRoom made.
- The operation ledger: what was moved to the Trash, what was moved to a drive, and when.
- Volume names and identifiers of the drives MakeRoom manages.
- Your preferences, exclusions and dismissed recommendations.
All of this lives in one SQLite database at ~/Library/Application Support/makeroom/,
along with your key and a local failure log that writes [REDACTED] in place of every
path. MakeRoom stores nothing anywhere else, and sends none of it anywhere. Deleting that
directory removes everything MakeRoom remembers — including your key, so keep the file you were
emailed first.
What is never transmitted
No path, filename, scan inventory, operation ledger, size, item count, recipe match or volume name is transmitted, ever. There is no analytics SDK, no crash reporter and no usage reporting of any kind. MakeRoom does not sync anything to a cloud.
The network requests MakeRoom makes
None. MakeRoom holds no account, stores no credential, and makes no request to obtain, validate or refresh anything. An install that has been running for a year and moved a terabyte has opened no socket.
One contact is reserved, and it is off until you switch it on: a check for a newer version. When you turn it on it sends two strings — the app version and the macOS version — reads back one number, and opens a download page whose address is compiled into the app, never one the answer supplied. It downloads nothing and installs nothing, and turning it off leaves the product complete.
What that check cannot hide, and we would rather write down than let you infer: making any request tells whoever answers it that some IP address is running a particular version of MakeRoom on a particular macOS. That is the whole price of the switch being on, and it is why the switch exists and defaults to off.
A key is a file you download on the web and open here. It is verified on this Mac against public keys inside the signed app, which is why a flight, a hotel network or an outage changes nothing — there is no server in the path to be unreachable.
To issue a key, the web needs to know which Mac it is for. MakeRoom shows you a short code that names this Mac and lets you copy it; you paste it on the web yourself. MakeRoom never sends it, because it never sends anything.
What MakeRoom refuses to read
Scanning is read-only and never follows symlinks. MakeRoom refuses by bundle type to enter Photos, Music and TV libraries and iCloud documents, in every permission state. Full Disk Access is optional; without it MakeRoom scans what macOS lets it read as you and names what it left out.
Data on your drives
Folders MakeRoom moves to a drive are stored in a human-readable layout under MakeRoom/.
A folder from your home directory is written under MakeRoom/Home/, never under a path
that carries your account name, so a drive does not announce whose Mac it came from.
This website
trymakeroom.com is a static site. It sets no cookies, loads no third-party scripts, fonts or trackers, and keeps no record of visitors beyond the ordinary server access log needed to keep it running.
Questions
Write to [email protected].