Going to free up some disk space in your Linux desktop and/or mobile device? Try cleaning leftover data by your Flatpak apps.
Flatpak is getting so popular in Linux today, that it’s hard to avoid installing applications via Flatpak package. Some Linux Distributions, such as Linux Mint 21 and Fedora 38, even include flatpak packages in their Software Manager/Gnome Software.
After removing Flatpak apps, there may be useless data (e.g., run-time libraries and personal data) left in your system. Advanced users can remove them by running flatpak uninstall --unused and flatpak uninstall --delete-data command. However, a stupid simple graphical app can be helpful for those hate Linux commands.
Flatseep, a free and open-source GTK4 application, is the tool to do the job removing useless data after removing Flatpak app packages. Which, can be useful to free up some disk space and/or remove sensitive data.
Depends on how many Flatpak apps you installed/removed, and how long your system is running with them, it can free up from few MB up to more than 1 GB space.
As you see in the screenshots, the app is quite easy to use. Simply click “understood” warning, that only appear in the first launch. Then, it automatically detect the amount of leftover data and provides a “Clean” button. Just click on that button and done!
The application is written in Python programming language, with GTK4 and LibAdwaita toolkit. So, the UI looks good in Ubuntu, Fedora, etc with GNOME Desktop and follow system color scheme that switch between light and dark mode automatically. As well, it should work in mobile devices, such as PinePhone.
How to Install Flatseep in your Linux
The application itself is available to install in most Linux through Flatpak package.
Fedora 38 (with 3rd party repository enabled) and Linux Mint 21 can directly search for and install it either from Gnome Software or Software Manager.
For other Linux, follow the steps below one by one to install the app as Flatpak package:
- First, launch terminal from start menu or ‘Activities’ overview depends on your desktop environment.
- Then, follow the setup guide to enable Flatpak support.
For Debian and Ubuntu based systems, just run command:sudo apt install flatpak
Enable Flatpak support in Ubuntu - Finally, install the app as Flatpak package by running the command below in terminal:
flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/io.github.giantpinkrobots.flatsweep.flatpakref
Once installed, search for and launch the software either from start menu or ‘Activities’ overview depends on your desktop environment.
First time installing Flatpak app may need log out and back in to make app icon visiable.
Uninstall Flatsweep
The uninstall this application, just run the command below in a terminal window:
flatpak uninstall --delete-data io.github.giantpinkrobots.flatsweep
In the command, the --delete-data flag also remove the personal app data. You may also run flatpak uninstall --unused to clean up useless run-time dependency libraries.