Help
Getting started
Click Download and try free, drag Mole into Applications and launch it. Each paid tool works twice without a license.
To buy, click the buy button on the homepage and you land on the secure Dodo Payments checkout:
- Enter your name, an everyday email address and a phone number. The license key is sent to that email, so check the spelling. Apple iCloud addresses (
@icloud.com,@me.com,@mac.com) and relay addresses such as@duck.comoften filter or silently drop these emails; Gmail or Outlook is the most reliable. - Fill in the billing address, click Continue to Payment, and pick Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, WeChat or Cash App.
- Confirm payment. The key is emailed once payment is confirmed; some payment methods take longer.
To pay with WeChat in mainland China, make sure the checkout shows Chinese yuan (CNY) and Chinese before you fill in your details, and WeChat Pay appears on the second page.
To activate:
- Open the email from Dodo Payments and copy the license key.
- Open Mole and press
Cmd + Shift + L(or choose License… from the Mole menu in the macOS menu bar). - Paste the key and click Activate. Mole removes accidental spaces and line breaks automatically.
- You will see All tools unlocked. That is it.
License and activation
Activation says "Network error"
Activation talks to Dodo Payments over HTTPS, and some VPNs, proxies, DNS filters or split-routing rules block that request. Turn off the VPN or proxy, or switch briefly to a phone hotspot or a direct connection, then click Activate again. Mole only sends the license key and a short device label.
The license email didn't arrive
It usually arrives shortly after payment is confirmed. Check Junk or Spam and search the mailbox for Dodo; iCloud and relay addresses sometimes block it outright. If nothing shows up after a few minutes, email hi@mole.fit with your Payment ID or purchase email and I will resend the key, or send it to a different inbox.
You can also open the Dodo Payments Customer Portal, enter the email used at checkout and follow the one-time login link to see the order, download the invoice and find the license key.
Moving to a new Mac
The edition on sale covers two Macs at the same time; for more Macs, buy additional licenses, each with its own device list. On the old Mac, press Cmd + Shift + L and click Deactivate, then activate the new Mac with the same key. If the old Mac is gone, sold or wiped, deactivate it from the Customer Portal above.
Refunds and invoices
If Mole is not what you wanted, email hi@mole.fit within 14 days of purchase with your Payment ID for a full refund. Feedback is optional and does not affect the refund. See the Refund Policy for full terms.
Dodo Payments generates a receipt after each purchase. For a formal invoice with a company name or VAT details, email hi@mole.fit within 30 days of purchase.
Doctor
Click the Mole logo in the top-left of the window and pick Run Doctor. Mole gathers a short read-only report on your Mac, permissions, recent operations and environment. Click Copy Report and paste it into your message to support. When Doctor flags something, it links to one of the notes below.
Full Disk Access is missing
Without Full Disk Access, Mole cannot scan caches under ~/Library and system locations, so scans come out much smaller than they should. Open System Settings › Privacy & Security › Full Disk Access, enable Mole and relaunch the app. Scanning reads files locally and never uploads their contents.
Memory pressure is high
Pressure rises when active and compressed memory crowd out the cache. Close apps you are not using, especially browsers with many tabs and large Electron tools; the Status tab lists the processes using the most memory.
If pressure stays high and apps open slowly, run Optimize once. It skips any task its own check says is unnecessary and lists the reason, so it is not meant as a daily habit.
Disk is almost full
Mole flags startup disk usage above 90%, because macOS needs free space for swap files, snapshots and updates. Open Clean to review caches, logs and Trash, or Analyze to find large folders.
Restart recommended
Your Mac has been up for several days and a system process such as fseventsd or syspolicyd is using a lot of CPU. Mole does not force-quit system processes. Save your work, restart, and check whether CPU usage returns to normal.
Battery health is low
Mole flags this when maximum capacity drops below 80% or the battery passes 1000 charge cycles. There is no software fix for a worn battery: check the reading under System Settings › Battery › Battery Health and book Apple service if runtime no longer holds up.
Mole's operations log can't be written
Mole records every clean and uninstall in ~/Library/Logs/mole/operations.log. A full disk or a missing write permission stops that. Check free space and the folder's permissions, then run Doctor again to see whether the warning remains.
Recent operations failed
Usually one path in a clean or uninstall was protected by macOS, held by another app, or already gone. Open the tab where it happened (Clean, Software, Optimize) and check the details; each failed row carries its reason.
Common questions
Why Mole leaves some things alone
Mole would rather miss something than remove the wrong thing. It skips caches of apps that are running, since clearing an open browser's cache can break its session. Anything a reinstall cannot bring back, such as chat history, project files and license data, starts unchecked during an uninstall. System-managed areas like input methods, Notification Center, login items and audio drivers stay out of reach, because breaking them costs far more than the space they hold.
Before anything is removed you see the full list and sizes, and afterwards it goes into the operations log. Caches are deleted permanently by default; choose Move to Trash in Settings if you want to recover items for your first few cleanups. To skip an item for good, choose Never Clean This during the review. Docs › Clean shows which sections are auto-clean and which are review-only.
What the price after a clean means
Under the cleaned size, a line such as 128 cleaned · $20 of Mac storage shows what that space would cost as extra storage when buying a Mac. The SSD in an Apple silicon Mac cannot be upgraded later, so paying Apple for a bigger one is the only way to get more room. Caches grow back, so treat it as a sense of scale rather than money saved. No price appears under 1 GB, or when items only went to the Trash.
Mole uses Apple's flat price per extra terabyte above 1 TB, from the Apple Store matching the app's language, taken from the MacBook Air configurators on 13 October 2026 (the four euro languages share the German, Spanish and Italian price). Mole updates them when Apple reprices storage: English $500 · Deutsch 550 € · Français 550 € · Español 550 € · Italiano 550 € · 日本語 ¥90,000 · 한국어 ₩850,000 · Português (Brasil) R$ 6.000 · 简体中文 ¥3,750 · 繁體中文 NT$17,500 per TB.
Reading the menu bar metrics
The menu bar shows two metrics, plus an optional third that is off by default, all picked in Settings › Menu Bar. CPU adds up every core, including the efficiency cores that run indexing, backups and downloads, so brief spikes are normal; worth a look is a reading that never falls back, usually a process stuck in a loop. The menu bar panel lists the five processes using the most CPU.
Memory shows how much is in use, but macOS deliberately fills idle memory with cache, so Mole judges health by pressure instead. Show Pressure or Swap if you want that signal directly; only steady swap growth means memory is short. Disk is the startup volume, where 80% starts to cost health score and 93% counts as tight.
When to touch the fans
Supported Macs offer Auto, Cool and Max, and Auto, the default, leaves it to macOS. Override it when you know a long stretch of heavy work is coming and want the fans ahead of the heat. Cool starts at about 40% of maximum and speeds up with CPU temperature; Max runs flat out. Both return to Auto once temperature and load stay low for a few minutes, unless you turn off End fan boost after cooling in Settings › Tools. The first switch asks for administrator approval once, and quitting Mole always hands the fans back to macOS.
Camera and microphone alerts
Mole tells you when the camera or microphone starts being used. Hover over an alert and choose Stop notifying for this app, then manage those apps under Apps with alerts turned off in Settings › Menu Bar. The action appears only when macOS identifies the app.
Settings and shortcuts
Press Cmd + , for Settings; the defaults work out of the box, and Docs › Settings describes every option. Cmd + Shift + L opens the License panel and Esc closes any overlay. Open Mole from anywhere with ⌃⌥⌘M, changeable in Settings › Menu Bar; shortcuts for Keep Screen On and Clean Screen are unassigned until you record them in Settings › Tools.
VoiceOver and keyboard
Mole works with VoiceOver and with the keyboard alone: rows read their name first, every tab and action is reachable, and overlays take and return focus. The Analyze treemap is hidden from VoiceOver on purpose, since the Largest items list beside it carries the same data in a form you can move through. If a screen reads wrong, write to hi@mole.fit with the screen and what you heard.
Report a problem
Before filing anything, check open issues first; someone may have hit the same thing.
- Mac app bug or crash
- Run Doctor first (see Doctor above), click Copy Report, and email the report to hi@mole.fit.
- Mole is frozen or keeps spinning
- Do not force quit yet. Email your Mole version, macOS version, and the steps that led to the freeze to hi@mole.fit. If more evidence is needed, support will send you a diagnostic command to copy and run.
- Mac app feature idea
- Open the feature request form. Describe the problem the feature would solve, not just the feature itself.
- CLI bug or suggestion
- The Mole CLI is a separate open-source project. File CLI-specific issues in the CLI issue tracker. Include your macOS version and
mo versionoutput. - License, payment, refund, or private details
- Email hi@mole.fit with your purchase email, Payment ID, and approximate payment time.