Finding specific things

Finding what you never use

Updated 2026-07-31 · 4 min read

The most useful cleanup filter is not size — it is when you last actually opened something.

In Finder

⌘F → + → Last opened date → before → a date two years back. Add a size criterion to focus on things worth removing.

In the Terminal

find ~/Documents -type f -atime +730 2>/dev/null

-atime is access time in days. Combine with size:

find ~ -type f -atime +365 -size +100M 2>/dev/null -exec du -sh {} \; | sort -hr

The caveat that matters

Access time is unreliable on modern macOS. Backup software, indexing, antivirus and even Finder previews can update it without you opening anything. A file may show as accessed yesterday because Time Machine read it.

Modification time is more trustworthy for "have I worked on this", though it answers a slightly different question.

A better proxy

Combine three signals: not modified in a year, not opened in a year, and large. Anything matching all three is a genuine candidate.

find ~ -type f -mtime +365 -atime +365 -size +50M 2>/dev/null

What to do with them

Archive rather than delete. Move to an external drive, and keep something that can still tell you what is on it once it is unplugged — otherwise you have traded a storage problem for a findability problem, which is worse.

Common questions

Is access time reliable on macOS?

Not entirely. Backups, indexing and previews can update it without you opening the file.

How do I find files not modified in over a year?

find ~ -type f -mtime +365, optionally combined with a size filter.