Answers first, and a person if you need one.

No. ClutterScrub does not declare the Android internet permission, so the operating system blocks it from making any connection. Scanning, fingerprinting and every count happen on your phone. If a library declares the permission, the build strips it, and a check fails the build if it ever reaches the app.

There is no account, no analytics, no ads and no crash reporting.

Because ClutterScrub cannot remove files on its own. Every move to the trash, every restore and every permanent delete is a request to Android, which shows its own confirmation, such as Allow ClutterScrub to move 12 photos to trash?

One confirmation covers up to 250 items; a larger selection asks again for each batch. Deny, and nothing in that batch moves. If you stop partway, the batches you already allowed stay done.

Yes, for 30 days. Moving to the trash is the default, and Android keeps each item in its trash for 30 days. Open Trash from Settings or from the Home card, select items and tap Restore: the system asks first, then puts them back.

After 30 days the system deletes them for good. Items removed with Delete permanently cannot be restored.

Files in the trash keep their space until the trash empties, which is why ClutterScrub says Moved to the trash and never claims space freed. To get the space back today, open Trash and tap Delete permanently; otherwise the system deletes each item 30 days after it was moved.

Usage access is an Android setting that lets an app read storage and usage figures for the other apps on your phone. ClutterScrub uses it, on the phone, for the profile’s full total on the storage card, the per-app sizes on the Apps screen, and when each app was last opened.

It is optional and never asked for at setup; everything else works without it. Turn it on with Count apps too on the storage card, and off again in Android’s settings at any time.

Without Usage access, ClutterScrub can count only your photos, videos and audio, so the card says This profile uses at least and shows the rest as everything else on the phone. With Usage access on, apps and their data join the total and the “at least” goes away.

While that figure is on its way, the card says Counting apps and their data. If Android cannot give it, the card says apps and their data could not be counted this time, so only media is in the total, and the next scan tries again.

On Android 14 and newer you can share only selected photos and videos with an app. ClutterScrub then counts only those and says Totals are partial. Tap Select more to add to the selection, or allow all photos and videos for ClutterScrub in Android’s app settings. It never asks again on its own.

On GrapheneOS, Storage Scopes can have the same effect. When ClutterScrub can tell it sees only part of your library, it says so; turning Storage Scopes off for ClutterScrub and allowing photos and videos lets it review everything.

Exact copies: files of the same size are compared by a fingerprint of their first and last 64 KB, then by a SHA-256 hash of the whole file. Only files whose full hashes match are grouped, so the copies in a group are identical byte for byte, whatever their names.

Similar photos: a separate tab compares a small visual fingerprint of each photo, which finds burst shots and re-saved copies. A slider in Settings sets how alike they must be, and nothing in a similar group is ticked for you. Tap a similar photo to compare it with the keeper, full screen, both zooming together.

In an exact group, the oldest copy in your camera folder, or the oldest overall, is suggested as the Keeper and the other copies come ticked. In a similar group the photos are listed best first, so the sharpest leads as the suggested keeper, and nothing is ticked. Tap the outlined star on any copy to make it the keeper instead; what goes is always your pick.

Yes. Tap the swipe icon at the top of Photos, Videos, Screenshots or Messaging media. The screen’s list, with the filters you set, opens by month; inside a month, swipe right to keep and left to mark for the trash, or use the buttons.

Nothing moves while you swipe. At the end of the month you see everything you marked, all ticked: untick what you want to keep, then move the rest to the trash, with the system asking as always.

The Quality menu on the Photos screen offers four reasons. Blurry: far softer than the typical photo in your own library. Too dark and Too bright: a camera photo that is at least 80 percent near black, or at least half near white; only your camera folder is judged, so documents and screenshots are left alone. Low resolution: under 1,000 pixels on the longest edge.

Sharpness and brightness are measured when the similar-photo search runs on the Duplicates screen. A score never removes anything by itself.

Everything you have moved to the trash or deleted with ClutterScrub, less anything you restored. Files in the trash count as cleared but keep their space until the trash empties, so the total never calls them freed. Settings shows it under Your files.

No. ClutterScrub removes only photos, videos and audio, and only through Android’s own confirmation, to the trash by default. With Usage access on, the Apps screen shows each app’s data and cache sizes, and tapping an app opens its own Settings page, where you can clear its cache yourself.

ClutterScrub reviews the media apps keep in their shared media folder (Android/media), such as WhatsApp’s photos and videos. It groups them by app, with what you sent apart from what you received where the app keeps a folder for sent media.

Media an app keeps only in its private storage is out of reach for other apps, ClutterScrub included.

It works in the profile you are using. Android keeps each profile’s files apart, so the storage card measures this profile and shows other profiles’ space together with the system’s. To review another profile, install ClutterScrub in that profile too.

So results are ready when you come back, it keeps an index of the last scan (file names, folders, types, sizes, dates, durations and dimensions, and for chat media whether it was sent or received), the fingerprints and quality measures taken from your photos, per-category totals from past scans, and your settings, including the months you have reviewed and your cleared total, in its private storage on your phone. It keeps no thumbnails and no file contents.

This data is excluded from cloud backup and device transfer, and uninstalling the app removes it.

Android 11 and newer, on phones and tablets. The app is in English and Latin American Spanish and follows your phone’s language; on Android 13 and newer you can also pick its language on its own. The privacy policy and terms are in English.

Here, as the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, and in the app under Settings, About. Both places show the same text.

Refunds are handled by Google Play under its refund policy. Within 48 hours of purchase you can request one yourself from your order history in the Play Store.