Help & FAQ

Short, honest answers. Anything missing? Email [email protected].

Installing · Uninstalling · Sign-in & account · iPhone import · Encryption & privacy · People & privacy · Search by description · Your files · Deletes · Pricing · Beta notes

Installing

Mac

Download the DMG, open it, and drag CleanMyMedia to Applications. The app is signed and notarized, so there are no warnings. Requires an Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later) running a recent macOS.

Windows

Download the installer and run it. Windows SmartScreen will warn that the publisher is unknown — click More info → Run anyway. The installer is unsigned because a code-signing certificate costs more than makes sense for a young product; if CleanMyMedia earns enough users, signing is the first check we write. Nothing about the warning affects what the app does.

Linux

Download the AppImage, then make it executable and run it:

chmod +x CleanMyMedia.AppImage
./CleanMyMedia.AppImage

AppImages need the FUSE 2 library, which some distributions no longer preinstall:

On Ubuntu 23.10+ the app detects Ubuntu's AppArmor restriction on unprivileged user namespaces and launches without the Chromium sandbox — otherwise it could not start at all. The app only ever displays its own bundled interface, never remote web content. If you have installed your own AppArmor profile for the app, set CMM_KEEP_SANDBOX=1 to keep the sandbox on.

Sign-in on Linux needs a keyring (e.g. GNOME Keyring) to store your session securely; standard desktop installs have one already.

iPhone

The iPhone app is in TestFlight beta — join here. It backs up the photos and videos on the phone to your cloud library.

Android

The Android app backs up photos and videos you pick to your cloud library. It installs directly from us while we work on the Play Store listing:

  1. Sign up at cleanmymedia.com first if you haven't — the app signs in to an existing account.
  2. On your phone, download the app (or visit cleanmymedia.com/download).
  3. Open the downloaded file. If your phone says the browser isn't allowed to install apps, tap Settings on that prompt and enable Install unknown apps for it, then go back and tap Install.
  4. If Google Play Protect asks, choose Install anyway — the app is signed by us and downloaded straight from this site.

Uninstalling

Removing the app never touches your photo library — Pictures/CleanMyMedia Library (and CleanMyMedia Import) are plain folders that stay on your disk, and your cloud library stays in your account. That's the no-lock-in promise working as intended. Want the cloud side gone too? Uninstalling doesn't delete your account — do that from your account deletion page.

Mac

  1. Quit the app, then drag CleanMyMedia Free from Applications to the Trash.
  2. For a fully clean removal, also delete the app's data folder: ~/Library/Application Support/cleanmymedia-desktop — it holds settings, your signed-in session, People face data, and the thumbnail cache. (Read the People note below before deleting it.)
  3. Optional tidy-up: the cleanmymedia-desktop Safe Storage entry in Keychain Access, plus any com.cleanmymedia.free leftovers in ~/Library/Caches, ~/Library/Preferences, and ~/Library/Saved Application State.

Windows

Uninstall from Settings → Apps → Installed apps → CleanMyMedia Free. App data stays behind at %APPDATA%\cleanmymedia-desktop — delete that folder too for a fully clean removal.

Linux

Delete the AppImage file. App data lives at ~/.config/cleanmymedia-desktop, and your keyring may hold a cleanmymedia-desktop Safe Storage entry.

Before deleting the app data: a note about People

The app-data folder contains the face groups People built for this computer. Deleting it signs you out and erases those groups. If you reinstall later, a scan rebuilds them — but the rebuilt groups are new, so if this computer owned People sync, names and merges you made for People will need to be redone after the new scan syncs. (The server can't match the old groups to the new ones — it never sees faces.) Reinstalling and want People to survive? Keep or back up the app-data folder and put it back after reinstalling.

Signing in & creating an account

There is no password — sign-in works with your email inbox instead.

Creating an account

Start your free trial by entering your email address. That's the whole signup: no password to invent, no card. We email you a sign-in link right away. (An account is only needed for cloud features — the local cleanup app works without one.)

Signing in

  1. Enter your email — on the web, in the desktop app, or on iPhone.
  2. Check your inbox for a message from CleanMyMedia. It contains a link (click it to sign in on the web) and a code (type it into the desktop or iPhone app).
  3. The link and code expire in 15 minutes and work once — just request a fresh one whenever you need it.

Why no passwords? Nothing to forget, reuse, or leak in a breach — access to your library is controlled by access to your inbox, which for most people is already their best-protected account. On the web you stay signed in for a week; the apps stay signed in until you sign out.

No email arriving? Check spam, and make sure the address is the one you signed up with. Still stuck: [email protected].

Deleting your account

Delete your account any time — it permanently removes your cloud library and cancels any subscription. Files on your own computer are never touched.

Importing from an iPhone (Mac only)

  1. Open the Mac app and choose Import from iPhone.
  2. Connect your iPhone with a cable, unlock it, and tap Trust This Computer.
  3. Photos and videos copy over the cable — no iCloud, no wifi transfer, originals intact.

USB import is Mac-only for now. On Windows and Linux, import from a folder (including a Google Takeout dump) or use the iPhone TestFlight app for cloud backup.

Encryption & privacy

Cloud backup is optional — the local cleanup works fully offline and uploads nothing. If you do use the cloud:

People & your privacy

The desktop app can find faces in your photos and group them into people — for example, to show you the twenty people who appear most in your library. All of that happens on your computer. Your photos are analyzed locally; nothing about faces is uploaded unless you ask for it.

What "Allow People sync" sends

If you turn on Allow People sync in the desktop app (it is off by default), the app uploads only two things to your account: invisible rectangles marking where faces are in each photo, and anonymous group numbers ("this face belongs to group 7"). That is enough for the web app to show your People.

It never uploads face images, face signatures (the numeric "embeddings" used to match faces), or names. Nobody — including us — can reconstruct a face from what is synced.

Turning it off

Switch Allow People sync off at any time in the Mac app's account menu; the app stops sending face data immediately. Face detection itself keeps working locally on your computer.

The first scan of a large library can take a few hours — it runs in the background, so just leave the app open. After that, only new photos are scanned.

People sync runs from one computer at a time — the first machine that syncs owns it. To move it (new computer, old one retired), open the account menu on the new computer and choose Take over People sync. For best results, download your library from the cloud first so the new computer can scan everything. Names and merges you made for People will need to be redone as the new computer's scan syncs — the server never sees faces, so it can't match the old computer's groups to the new one's.

Type what you're looking for — "dogs", "the beach", "birthday cake" — and the app finds matching photos. This is semantic search: it matches what is in a photo, not filenames or tags, so nothing needs to be labeled first.

Local or cloud?

Local. The image model is part of the desktop app and runs on your computer. Every photo is analyzed there, and the result is one numeric summary per photo (an "embedding") that stays on your machine. Searching in the desktop app never contacts the cloud — it works offline, with no account.

The only cloud involvement is optional: if you turn on Allow search sync (below), those summaries are uploaded, encrypted, so the web app can search too. When you search from a browser, the server turns your typed words into numbers and compares them with your summaries. The server never sees or analyzes your photos for search — that already happened on your computer.

What "Allow search sync" sends

If you turn on Allow search sync (it is off by default), the desktop uploads one encrypted numeric summary per photo — a list of numbers, not the photo, and not readable text — so the web app can search too. These summaries are encrypted with your account's key, like your photos. Face recognition data never leaves your machine.

What's covered

Search covers photos your desktop app has scanned; photos uploaded only from a phone or the browser aren't searchable yet.

Turning it off

Turn sync off anytime in the desktop app's account menu.

Your files — no lock-in

Full-quality originals (Vault)

By default the cloud stores viewable copies of your media — your originals stay on your computer. Vault-enabled accounts can additionally store true originals off-site: mark items Make Original in the web app (or use the desktop app's Back up all originals for the whole library), then run the desktop backup to upload them.

Fair warning, stated plainly: originals count against your storage at full size, so switching a large library to originals will raise your storage usage and can increase your monthly bill. The desktop confirmation shows the real gigabytes before anything uploads. You can switch items back to viewable-only (Make Lite) at any time — that deletes the cloud-stored original and frees the space; your local files and the cloud viewable copies are never touched.

Honest disclaimer: no single tool is a backup strategy. Keep at least one independent copy of irreplaceable photos, whatever software you use — including this one.

Deletes stay deleted

Pricing

Local cleanup is free — organize, dedupe, and fix dates on your computer with no account at all. The Anywhere plan ($2.99/mo, or $29/yr) adds cloud backup and viewing from any device, with a 14-day trial — no card needed to try, cancel anytime.

How to cancel

Sign in to the web app, open the menu (☰, top right), and choose Manage billing — that opens your secure Stripe billing page. There, click your Active plan card to reveal the Cancel plan button (Stripe hides it until you click the plan). You can also switch between monthly and yearly, or update your card. Canceling keeps your plan active until the end of the period you already paid for.

Beta notes & disclaimers