file cleanup recommendations

[GoreTiger]

Awhile ago I downloaded the ubisoft launcher and set it up to play on the steam deck per an old video on youtube. I had a game downloaded through the launcher that i'd launch from the deck's game mode. Recently for whatever reason I can't get ubisoft to launch anymore. I'm looking to delete the games I had downloaded from ubisoft but I can't access them anymore. What's a good file cleanup app for deleting "other" space and such?

[Chris]

None, file clean-up apps, in my experience, always delete something critical sooner or later.

This might not be the answer you hoped for, but your best bet is learning Linux Basics, getting used to the file directory, and manually finding and deleting the Data.

It sucks at first because it's new, but you'll get the hang of it!

And in the worst case, reset.

I recommend using some official app from the Linux app store to see what directory is hogging all the space.

[GoreTiger]

Originally posted by PoweredByCoffee:

None, file clean-up apps, in my experience, always delete something critical sooner or later.

This might not be the answer you hoped for, but your best bet is learning Linux Basics, getting used to the file directory, and manually finding and deleting the Data.

It sucks at first because it's new, but you'll get the hang of it!

And in the worst case, reset.

I recommend using some official app from the Linux app store to see what directory is hogging all the space.

Any recommendations for those apps would be appreciated.

I used to use a clean-up app that let me manually delete files easier and it worked great, but sadly it vanished from the store.

[@R+5]

Originally posted by GoreTiger:

Originally posted by PoweredByCoffee:

I recommend using some official app from the Linux app store to see what directory is hogging all the space.

Any recommendations for those apps would be appreciated.

I used to use a clean-up app that let me manually delete files easier and it worked great, but sadly it vanished from the store.

Just like PoweredCoffee commented, avoid using apps to "auto-clean" temp files and such (ie ccleaner, which i think "fell from grace" and popularity sometime ago), because sometimes you may accidentally delete something that could create a snowball effect of problems later.

If you are 100% sure you wont want back a file when deleting it, you can skip the trash bin if you add the option "delete files" to right click menu in dolphin file manager.

You can also reduce the amount of "backup versions" of programs you have installed with the package manager with a command (i think the normal amount is 5 versions; you could reduce it to 3). this backups are made to offer the option to "rollback" an update if its bugged or is not working properly.

An app to find which files are consuming space is QDirStat, K4DirStat (search this one, since it uses KDE libraries, so it should take less extra space), Baobab and Filelight.

https://www.maketecheasier.com/clean-up-hard-disk-storage-qdirstat-linux/

if you use an external storage, or secondary disk, try using AppImages of some programs from there, so you dont have to consume space of your main disk with them (which will happen with flatpaks, or more common installations).

[GoreTiger]

Originally posted by @R+5:

Originally posted by GoreTiger:

Any recommendations for those apps would be appreciated.

I used to use a clean-up app that let me manually delete files easier and it worked great, but sadly it vanished from the store.

Just like PoweredCoffee commented, avoid using apps to "auto-clean" temp files and such (ie ccleaner, which i think "fell from grace" and popularity sometime ago), because sometimes you may accidentally delete something that could create a snowball effect of problems later.

If you are 100% sure you wont want back a file when deleting it, you can skip the trash bin if you add the option "delete files" to right click menu in dolphin file manager.

You can also reduce the amount of "backup versions" of programs you have installed with the package manager with a command (i think the normal amount is 5 versions; you could reduce it to 3). this backups are made to offer the option to "rollback" an update if its bugged or is not working properly.

An app to find which files are consuming space is QDirStat, K4DirStat (search this one, since it uses KDE libraries, so it should take less extra space), Baobab and Filelight.

https://www.maketecheasier.com/clean-up-hard-disk-storage-qdirstat-linux/

if you use an external storage, or secondary disk, try using AppImages of some programs from there, so you dont have to consume space of your main disk with them (which will happen with flatpaks, or more common installations).

My bad I guess I didn't word what I meant correctly. I don't mean an auto-clean as in it searches for filess my apologies. I mean a program that lets me go deep into files to delete all the backed up "other" space that's clogged up by a game I can't uninstall normally.