Modern FOSS Android Junk-File Cleaner That Actually Handles Scoped Storage

android app real project •• multiple requests

Android's scoped-storage migration since Android 11 broke most legacy 'cleaner' apps, leaving SD Maid SE (paid, single-dev) as the de-facto-only credible recommendation. The Play Store's free 'cleaners' are ad-laden permission-grabbers that frequently include malware. Users on r/androidapps actively ask for a FOSS deep cleaner and the recommendation list is one item long.

builder note

The hard part isn't the UI, it's the heuristics — 'is this APK leftover safe to delete' is a knowledge-base problem. SD Maid's exclusion lists are years of curated work. Either fork sdmse and re-license/re-distribute properly, or partner with Darken (the dev) to commercialize a managed version. Don't underestimate the support burden of 'I deleted X and now my app crashed.'

landscape (3 existing solutions)

The FOSS junk-cleaner category is essentially monopolized by one developer's side project. Scoped storage made it harder to write, so nobody wrote one. That's the gap.

SD Maid 2/SE Excellent and FOSS-adjacent (source-available), but most features are paid, and it's a single-developer project — bus-factor of one for the entire trustworthy-cleaner category.

Files by Google Surface-level cleaner suggestions only, no deep duplicate scanning or app-residue detection. Plus it's Google.

CCleaner / 1Tap Cleaner / AppMgr Privacy-hostile, ad-supported, frequently flagged for malware. Several have been pulled from Play Store after the fact. Recommending these to a normal user is borderline reckless.

sources (1)

reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/androidapps/comments/1t1vlx4/app_th... "App that dives deep into the File Explorer and finds old junk and deletes it?... ofc I would prefer an app that is FOSS" 2026-05-02

fossandroidstorageprivacyutility