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Aug 26, 2026
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SD Maid SE is a free, open-source storage cleaner for Android that works out which installed app owns each file, so it can delete leftovers from apps you removed, expendable caches and duplicate photos without guessing.
The low-storage warning arrives, you delete a few hundred photos to make it go away, and two weeks later it is back.
That cycle happens because the space was never really the photos - it was everything Android quietly kept from apps you installed, used once, and removed months ago.
SD Maid SE is worth a look because its actual trick is not deleting harder than anything else, it is knowing which app each stray file belonged to before it offers to delete it.
Where the Space Actually Went
Android is good at sandboxing apps and bad at cleaning up after them. An app that writes outside its own folder leaves that data behind forever when you uninstall it, and nothing in the system ever goes looking for it.
The heavy consumers are almost always the apps that write video rather than the ones that play it. Blackmagic Camera records at broadcast bitrates, and an editor like VN Video Editor keeps render caches and project scratch files long after the export finished.
The same goes for CapCut and for anything that saves media locally, including 4K Video Downloader for Android.
Offline downloads are the version of this that most people forget they switched on, whether in YouTube for Android or in Google TV, which keeps purchased films on the device once you have saved them.
Players are gentler but not innocent. VLC for Android and Kodi for Android both build thumbnail and metadata caches in proportion to the size of your library.
MX Player does the same, and streaming apps such as Tubi TV hold buffers you never see and never asked for.
Music apps are the smallest offenders despite their reputation. AIMP for Android and foobar2000 Mobile cache artwork rather than audio, which is megabytes rather than gigabytes.
Why This One and Not the Other Fifty Cleaners
The Android cleaner category is mostly adware. The pattern is familiar - a scan animation, a large invented number, a button, and an advert, after which the app has cleared the same cache Android's own storage settings would have cleared for free.
SD Maid SE is a different kind of thing. It is open source under GPL v3, written by one developer, Matthias Urhahn, and it carries no advertising of any kind. Its builds are reproducible, meaning anyone can compile the source and confirm the published APK matches it.
The functional difference is attribution. Rather than pattern-matching filenames that look like junk, it maintains a map of which installed package owns which paths and compares your storage against it - so when it offers to delete something it can tell you which app put it there, and you can disagree.
It is also honest about its limits in a way the category is not. The developer's own description opens by saying the app is still being worked on and is not feature complete.
The Tools, and What Each One Is For
The app is a set of separate tools rather than one big Clean button, which is slower and considerably safer. Each runs on its own and shows you results before anything is removed.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| CorpseFinder | Finds files left behind by apps that are no longer installed, and names the app each one belonged to. This is the headline feature and the reason to install. |
| AppCleaner | Clears expendable data from apps you still use - thumbnails, offline caches, trash folders that never empty themselves. |
| SystemCleaner | Filter-driven sweep for empty folders, temporary files, logs and crash reports. You can write your own criteria. |
| Deduplicator | Finds files that are exactly identical and files that are merely similar, which catches the six near-identical photos of the same moment. |
| StorageAnalyzer | Shows what is using the space, across internal storage, SD cards and USB. Since 2.0.4 it also estimates how long until the drive is full. |
| AppControl | A full app manager covering enabled, disabled, user and system apps, with the ability to disable what you cannot uninstall. |
| Swiper | Goes through a folder file by file with swipes to keep, delete or skip. Every decision is reviewed before anything is actually removed. |
| Media Squeeze | Recompresses photos at a quality setting you choose, freeing space without deleting the picture. |
| Scheduler | Runs chosen tools automatically on a schedule so the maintenance stops being something you remember to do. |
If Media Squeeze is the part that interests you, it is worth knowing what else the platform offers. Image Toolbox handles format conversion and batch work, and Hypic covers editing, where SD Maid SE only compresses.
Root, Shizuku, or Neither
How much the app can reach depends on how much access you give it, and there are three tiers rather than the usual two. This is the part most write-ups get wrong.
- No elevation. The app works inside Android's normal permission model across shared storage and app-accessible directories, which is enough for most of what CorpseFinder, Deduplicator and StorageAnalyzer do.
- Shizuku. A separate free app that grants elevated system access without rooting, using ADB or a wireless debugging pairing - SD Maid SE supports it directly, and it unlocks most of what root offers.
- Root. The deepest tier, reaching system partitions, protected app directories and the data left by preinstalled software you cannot remove.
There is a fourth, optional route worth knowing about because it looks alarming when it asks. AppCleaner can use Android's accessibility service to tap through system dialogs on your behalf when clearing caches across many apps at once, which is automation rather than surveillance - the app states it does not use that permission to collect anything.
The Permissions It Wants, and Why
This app asks for more than most, and on a page about sideloading it would be strange not to say so. The requests are consistent with what it does, but you should recognise them rather than tap through.
- All-files access to read and delete across shared storage. A cleaner that cannot see your files cannot find leftovers in them.
- Usage access and query-all-packages to build the map of which app owns which paths. This is the mechanism the whole app rests on.
- Request delete packages so AppControl can offer to uninstall things.
- Write secure settings and the Shizuku permission, both only used on the elevated tiers described above.
If you want to read that list yourself before installing anything, APK Checker shows the full manifest of any APK, including permissions, signature and the minimum Android version the build requires.
Free, Paid, and Where the Money Comes From
The app is free and carries no adverts, and it does not sell data. Development is funded by users buying the optional upgrade and by GitHub sponsorships, which is why there is no third revenue stream trying to get your attention.
Some features need that paid upgrade. The developer does not publish a fixed feature-by-feature split, so the honest answer is that the free version covers the cleaning most people came for and the app will tell you when something is behind the upgrade.
The upgrade is bought through Google Play. That matters here more than usual: if you are sideloading this APK because your device has no Play Store, you can install and use the free version normally, but the Pro purchase will not be available to you. Play Store Check will tell you where your device stands before you plan around it.
What It Will Not Do
Worth setting expectations, because this category has spent a decade wrecking them.
- It will not make your phone faster. Freeing storage is not the same as freeing memory, and RAM boosters have never worked on modern Android.
- It will not extend your battery life. Nothing that deletes files can.
- It cannot recover the gap between advertised and usable capacity. That space belongs to the system and the filesystem, and it was never yours.
- It is not finished. The developer says so plainly, so treat missing features as not built yet rather than as a bug.
If you are here from a search for the original SD Maid, that app is now called SD Maid 1/Legacy and this is its replacement - a complete rewrite aimed at newer Android versions, focused on the cleaning tools rather than the full file-management suite.
Installing the APK
- Allow installs from your browser. On Android 8 and newer this is granted per-app under Settings, Apps, your browser, then Install unknown apps.
- Get the file from the SD Maid SE download page, choosing the build that matches your device where a choice is offered.
- Check it before you open it. A genuine build reports the package name eu.darken.sdmse - anything else is not this app, whatever the icon says.
- Install, then grant access in stages. Start with storage only, run StorageAnalyzer to see where you stand, and add elevated access later if the free tier does not reach far enough.
The general version of that is in how to install an APK safely on Android, and if the file refuses to install at all, an architecture mismatch is the usual culprit.
Run a scan before you delete anything. Seeing the list, with each item attributed to the app that created it, is the point of this tool - and it is the step every cleaner that skips straight to a Clean button is hoping you will not take.
What It Runs On
- Android 8.0 or newer, on phones and tablets.
- Separate builds for arm64-v8a, armeabi-v7a, x86 and x86_64.
- No root required. Root and Shizuku are both supported and both optional.
- Open source under GPL v3, ad-free, with an optional paid upgrade sold through Google Play.
Quick questions
Do I need root to use SD Maid SE?
No. The app works without any elevation and that covers most cleaning. Root and Shizuku both extend how far it can reach, and Shizuku gets you most of the way without modifying the system.
Is it safe to delete what it finds?
CorpseFinder names the app each file belonged to, so you are approving a list rather than trusting a number. Review before deleting, and exclude anything you are unsure about - exclusions are remembered.
What happened to SD Maid 1?
It still exists as SD Maid 1/Legacy, but this is the successor and the one being developed. It is a complete rewrite built for newer Android versions rather than an update to the old app.
Is there a Databases tool like the old version had?
No. Database optimisation was an SD Maid 1 feature and it was not carried into the rewrite. The current tools are CorpseFinder, AppCleaner, SystemCleaner, Deduplicator, StorageAnalyzer, AppControl, Swiper, Media Squeeze and Scheduler.
Why does it want access to all my files?
Because it compares your entire storage against the list of installed apps to work out what is orphaned. A cleaner restricted to its own folder could only ever find its own leftovers.
Will it free up as much space as those cleaner ads promise?
Probably not, and that is the point. Those numbers are invented, usually by counting caches that Android would clear by itself. What you get here is real and attributed, and on a phone with years of uninstalls behind it that is often several gigabytes.
More tools for the platform are in the rest of the Android APK category.
Download SD Maid SE and run a scan before you delete anything else, or tell us how you got on - this page has no reviews yet.
