Everything happens on your Mac
Your Downloads folder
isn’t going to sort itself.
Nook opens each file, works out what it actually is, and gives it a name you’d still recognise in six months. You press an arrow key. That’s your half of the deal.
30 files freePay oncemacOS 26 · Apple silicon
Top row: your Downloads folder. Bottom row: the same files, after.
Go on. Arrow keys, or just drag it.
The real thing
That was a toy. This is the app.
Ten files, one take, nothing cut. Watch the screenshot go in as Screenshot 2026-06-02 at 09.41.18.png and come out described. Nook looked at the picture.
How it works
Three keys. That’s the whole interface.
No rules to write, nothing to configure. Nook proposes, you decide.
File it
Renamed, moved, done. It won’t overwrite anything already sitting there.
Trash it
To the system Trash, where it sulks until you empty it. Nothing is ever really gone.
Keep it
Stays exactly where it is. And ⌘Z undoes the last one, for when you get trigger-happy.
Clean up
Then it goes looking for your disk.
Tidying your folders doesn’t give you a single gigabyte back. So there’s a second screen. Nook sweeps the six places where space actually hides, and puts a size and a plain reason on every line it shows you.
Scan finished · ⌘L
22.2 GB you can get back
- Caches~/Library/Caches/com.google.ChromeAn app’s cache — it rebuilds itself when you open it Rebuilds itself 6.2 GB
- Duplicates~/Movies/keynote-final.movIdentical to ~/Desktop/keynote.mov, byte for byte Look first 2.4 GB
- Large files~/Downloads/dataset-backup-mar.zip8.9 GB untouched for over a year Look first 8.9 GB
- App leftovers~/Library/Application Support/com.figma.DesktopI can’t find that app installed any more Look first 1.1 GB
- Trash~/.TrashAlready in the Trash — emptying it has no undo Look first 3.6 GB
- Startupcom.adobe.AAM.UpdaterOpens by itself when you turn the Mac on I won’t touch it —
Nook has ticked 6.2 GB of that. Just the cache — the one thing on the list that comes back on its own. The other 16 GB it found, sized and explained, and then stopped, because that call isn’t its to make.
An example scan. The numbers will be your own; the six piles, the reasons and the three labels are exactly the ones the app shows.
Mail, Photos, Keychain, Safari, iCloud Drive, your iPhone backups, your photo library. Not “handled carefully” — never opened.
Same size, then the first 64 KB, then a full checksum of both files. Two files having the same name proves nothing.
Nothing is deleted. It sits in the Trash sulking until you empty it, like everything else on your Mac.
If macOS blocked a folder, you get told. A cleaner that quietly reports a smaller total is a cleaner that’s lying to you.
It shows you what opens when you boot and stops there. Switching one off is a decision for System Settings, not for a €3.99 app.
Something huge that’s also a duplicate appears once. Counting it twice would promise you twice the space.
Privacy
There is no server.
The model that reads your files ships inside macOS. Your files never leave the Mac, because there is nowhere for them to go.
One thing leaves, once: the licence key. After that Nook works with the Wi-Fi off.
Inside
It reads the file. Not the filename.
That’s the entire trick. A scanned invoice has no text layer and a name nobody could decode. Nook opens it, reads it, and calls it what it is.
Scanned pages too
No text layer? Nook renders the page and reads it. Scanned invoices are the whole point.
Never overwrites
Same name already there? The new one gets a number. Sorting can’t cost you anything.
In batches
Ten, twenty-five, a hundred, or the lot. It stops for a summary so you can go and do something else.
Your folders
Downloads and Desktop out of the box. Point it at anything else you like.
Only what you asked for
Just the videos. Just the screenshots. Just the things over 100 MB, which is where your disk went.
It admits when it’s lost
If Nook isn’t sure, it doesn’t guess. It leaves the file alone and tells you why.
Honestly
Things Nook doesn’t do.
Cheaper to read now than to find out after paying.
No daemon, no menu bar icon. You open it when things get bad, and you quit it.
If you want «every .zip from this sender into that folder, forever», you want Hazel. Nook asks every time.
PDFs, images and text it reads. The rest it judges by type, size and date, and says so on the card.
Only the folders you point it at, on this Mac’s disk. Your photo library is safe from both of us.
The key works on three. Each one sorts its own mess.
So macOS pulls a face the first time you open it. Two clicks, once. Full story below.
Pricing
€3.99
Once. Then it’s yours.
- 3 Macs, one key
- ∞ free updates
- 30 files free first
macOS 26 · Apple silicon · check yours
Requirements
Will it run on your Mac?
▸ Apple menu › About This Mac.
▸ Same window. If it says Intel, don’t buy it.
▸ System Settings. A free macOS feature, not a subscription.
Not sure? Sort your 30 free files first. Nook says on screen whether it’s reading contents or just filenames.
Install
Not on the App Store. Yet.
macOS pulls a face the first time. Two clicks, once, then never again.
Open the .dmg and drag Nook into Applications.
Open it. macOS says it can’t verify it. Click OK.
Privacy & Security → scroll down → Open Anyway.
Done. Nook asks to see Downloads and Desktop.
Why the warning. Apple charges $99 a year to sign an app; Nook costs €3.99. It means «I can’t verify who made this», not «this is dangerous». The rest is on the support page →
Questions
Before you buy.
Can it delete something of mine?
No. Discarded files go to the system Trash, nothing moves without your approval, and ⌘Z undoes it.
How does the trial work?
Thirty of your own files. No payment, no email, no expiry date. After the thirtieth, Nook locks until you enter a licence — everything it already sorted stays exactly where it put it.
What if it gets a name wrong?
You see the name, the folder and the reason before anything moves. Press ↓ and nothing happens. Approve it and regret it, ⌘Z puts it back.
I have an Intel Mac. Should I buy it?
No, and I’d rather say it here than refund you later. The model that reads your files is part of Apple silicon. On Intel, Nook can only sort by type and filename.
Is any of this sent anywhere?
No analytics, no account, no server. Two network requests exist: activating your key, and a daily check for a new version. The long version →
How is this different from Hazel?
Hazel is rules. You write them, you maintain them, and they only ever know what the filename says. Nook has no rules to write: it opens the file, reads what’s in it — a scanned invoice included — and proposes a name and a folder. Hazel is a machine you program. Nook is a pile you go through.
Does it organise my Desktop too, or only Downloads?
Both, out of the box, and any other folder you point it at in Settings. Downloads and Desktop are just the two that are always a mess.
Does it work without an internet connection?
Yes. The model that reads your files ships inside macOS, so sorting works with the Wi-Fi off. The only thing that needs a connection is activating your licence, once.
What if something breaks?
You write to me and I answer, usually the same day. The common snags are written up on the support page.
Your Downloads folder
has waited long enough.
30 files free. No account, no email.
Or just come say hi —