FAQ

FAQ

--apply said it reclaimed space, but my disk isn't any emptier?

Trash is the default (see Safety-Model). Moving a directory to the Trash / Recycle Bin on the same volume frees no disk space at all until the bin is emptied — the OS just relocates the entry. Either empty your Trash, or re-run with --permanent to delete outright and free the space immediately. The tool states which mode it used in its output every time, specifically so this isn't a surprise.

Why was my project skipped even though it's huge and old?

Check the NOTES column in report. Common reasons:

• "too recent" — last real activity (see the two-signal freshness check in Safety-Model) is inside min_age_days.
• "Binaries kept (C++ rebuild cost)" — expected; C++ Binaries is protected by default.
• "owned by uid N, not writable by you" — the project was copied from another account/machine. You'll need to fix ownership yourself; the tool won't attempt it.
• "skipped ... (symlink resolves outside the project)" — a Plugins/* directory is a symlink to a different repo. Intentional; see Safety-Model.
• "opted out (.ueclean.json)" — see Configuration.

I don't have Everything installed on Windows — is this unusable?

No, but it's slower. Without an index, discovery falls back to a filesystem walk across every fixed drive, pruned to skip system trees (Windows, WinSxS, AppData, etc.) and capped at 8 directories deep so it actually finishes. It found 539 projects across 4 drives on the machine this was validated against. Installing Everything makes discovery close to instant.

Will this delete my save games / editor settings / crash-recovery autosave?

Saved/SaveGames is hard-excluded and cannot be reached through any config. Saved/Config (window layout, editor prefs — not gameplay saves) is opt-in only. Saved/Autosaves is gated at 90 days regardless of your other settings, because right after a crash it can be the only copy of unsaved work. Full list: Safety-Model.

Can this delete my engine install?

Only its caches and logs by default. Engine/Binaries and Engine/Intermediate are refused outright on a precompiled (launcher) install — deleting them there destroys the engine, not build output.

On a source-built engine they're genuinely reclaimable but stay off by default, and they're two separate flags because they're not the same risk:

• --engine-intermediate reclaims tens of GB and the editor still opens afterward — it's purely the compile cache, and the cost is only that the next engine compile is a full rebuild instead of incremental.
• --engine-binaries reclaims the compiled editor executable itself — the editor will not launch again until the engine is fully rebuilt (hours).

The tool found a project I have open in Unreal — will it delete out from under me?

No. Before touching any project, a live-editor guard checks the running process list for an actual UnrealEditor process (not its background helpers) with that project's path in its command line, and skips the project if found. If the process list can't be read at all, it fails closed and blocks rather than assumes it's safe.

Does this need admin/root?

No. It only touches directories your user account can already write to, and reports (doesn't silently fail on) anything it can't.