Avast Cleanup Premium is an optimization tool that scans your PC to identify unnecessary items and performance issues, freeing up disk space and improving the speed of your system.
Scan your PC
If you are using Avast Cleanup Premium for the first time, the application opens automatically after installation and you can click Scan now to perform a general scan.
The scan results are shown on the main dashboard. To perform subsequent general scans:
- Open Avast Cleanup Premium and click Rescan.
- When the scan is complete, follow the instructions for each found issue.
The general scan looks for junk items that can be cleaned and ways to improve system performance. For detailed instructions about each category, refer to the sections below.
Free up disk space
Avast Cleanup Premium scans for and safely deletes system junk and web browser data to free up disk space.
- Open Avast Cleanup Premium and hover your mouse over the side menu, then select Disk Cleaner.
- Select the category that you want to clean.
- Choose your preferred Cleaning mode.
If you include your Downloads folder, review its contents first, to ensure it does not contain files you want to keep.
- Click Clean.
- When cleaning is complete, click Finish cleaning.
The selected file categories are now cleaned.
Enable Auto-Clean
Auto-Clean runs silently in the background with no actions required from you and frees up space on your PC by removing dispensable items, such as broken shortcuts and registry items.
To enable Auto-Clean:
- Open Avast Cleanup Premium and hover your mouse over the side menu, then click Settings (the gear icon).
- Select the Auto-Clean tab.
- Click the gray (OFF) slider so that it changes to green (ON).
- Optionally, use the drop-down menu under How often should we clean automatically? to specify the frequency of scans.
- Optionally, select the file types that Avast Cleanup Premium has permission to remove during automatic cleaning. The file types that Avast ticks automatically are safe to clean without losing crucial data.
Auto-Clean is now enabled.
Clean your browsers
Avast Cleanup Premium scans for and safely deletes web history, cookies, and cashes.
- Open Avast Cleanup Premium and hover your mouse over the side menu, then select Browser Cleaner.
- Choose your preferred Cleaning mode.
If you select the Full mode, Browser Cleaner will delete the auto-fill data saved in your selected browsers.
- Click Clean.
- If your browsers are open, close them, and click Continue.
- When cleaning is complete, click Finish cleaning.
The selected browsers are now cleaned.
Use Sleep Mode
Certain applications slow down your system by running silently in the background. Avast Cleanup Premium scans for these applications, then allows you to safely put them to sleep and boost performance.
- Open Avast Cleanup Premium and hover your mouse over the side menu, then click Sleep Mode.
- The Sleep Mode screen shows applications that are running unnecessarily in the background and slowing down your PC. To put an application to sleep, click the green (ON) slider next to an application, so that it changes to gray (OFF).
The selected applications are now sleeping. You can open and use sleeping applications as normal. After you close the application, Avast Cleanup Premium automatically returns its status to sleeping.
To turn on a sleeping application, click the gray (OFF) slider next to an application, so that it changes to green (ON).
Manage applications
Avast Cleanup Premium scans your PC for outdated or unused applications, then allows you to easily update or uninstall them. This helps ensure that your applications are running optimally and frees up resources on your PC.
Update applications
- Open Avast Cleanup Premium and hover your mouse over the side menu, then click App Manager.
- In the Updater tab, find the application you want to update, and click Update.
The application is now updated.
Uninstall unused applications
- Open Avast Cleanup Premium and hover your mouse over the side menu, then click App Manager.
- Select the Uninstaller tab.
- Find the application you want to uninstall, and click Uninstall.
- Select Uninstall to confirm the unistallation of the application.
The application is now uninstalled.
Check your PC for problems
Open Avast Cleanup Premium, hover your mouse over the side menu, and click Fix Issues, to check for a variety of problems that may impact the performance and security of your PC. Follow the instructions on the Fix Issues screen, to resolve the problems.
For more information about the issues that Avast Cleanup Premium may detect during a Fix Issues scan, refer to the following article:
Recover your data
Data Recovery helps you to recover deleted files from hard drives and other storage devices. To recover files:
- Open Avast Cleanup Premium and hover your mouse over the side menu, then click Data Recovery.
- Click Scan PC in the upper-right corner.
- Select the relevant options in each category to narrow down your search. Click the drop-down arrow beside Show advanced filters to add extra filters on your search.
Adding detailed filters can help you to find the desired items that you are looking for and help reduce the scan time.
- Click Scan.
The scan may take several minutes to complete.
- Tick the boxes beside the files you want to recover, then click Recover.
- A recovery location is automatically selected for you. To change the location, click the folder link, then select the folder you want the files to be recovered to, and click OK.
We recommend choosing a different drive to increase your chances of successful data recovery. Data recovery to the same drive may end in the overwriting of recovered files and lead to the failure of the operation.
- Click Start recovery.
- When the files are recovered, select Open recovered files to view them.
Undo actions
The Undo Center allows you to undo certain changes made by Avast Cleanup Premium:
- Open Avast Cleanup Premium and hover your mouse over the side menu, then click Undo Center.
- Click the drop-down menu in the relevant panel, and select Undo next to the action you want to reverse.
The selected action is now reversed.
Further recommendations
To learn more about Avast Cleanup Premium, refer to the following article:
Avast Cleanup Premium is an optimization tool for Mac that includes a range of scans to detect unnecessary items and performance issues, freeing up disk space and helping improve the speed of your system.
Run Quick Clean
Quick Clean scans your Mac for unnecessary files and allows you to select which files are deleted to clear disk space. Quick Clean also allows you to easily remove cookies and other browsing data from your web browsers.
To run a scan:
- Open Avast Cleanup Premium and click Scan in the Quick Clean panel.
- Tick the boxes next to the types of files you want to clean. Optionally, click the
v
arrow to expand a section and select the specific files you want to clean. - Click Clean ▸ Done.
Clear disk space
The Clean clutter option scans your Mac for unnecessary files and allows you to select which files are deleted to clear disk space. To run a scan and remove files:
- Open Avast Cleanup Premium, then hover your mouse over the side menu and select Clean clutter.
- Click Scan clutter.
- Use the drop-down menu in the bottom-left corner to select file categories for removal. The following options are available:
- Recommended selection: Selects only file categories that you can safely clean without losing crucial data.
- Select all: Selects all listed file categories. You can then manually de-select any file categories you don't want to clean.
- Select none: De-selects all listed file categories. You can then manually select the file categories you want to clean.
- After selecting the files you want to remove, click Clean.
- If prompted, enter the password that you use when you start your Mac, and click OK.
- Click Done to return to the main Avast Cleanup Premium screen.
Clean your browsers
The Clean browser option allows you to easily remove cookies and other browsing data from your web browsers. The following options are available:
- Run a manual scan and specify which data you want to remove.
- Choose the type of Browser History you want Avast Cleanup Premium to delete.
- Configure Avast Cleanup Premium to run automatic scans.
- Add allowed websites that are always exempt when Avast Cleanup Premium clears cookies and other browsing data.
Run a manual scan
- Open Avast Cleanup Premium, then hover your mouse over the side menu and select Clean browser.
- Click Scan browsers.
- Use the drop-down menu in the bottom-left corner to select the items you want to remove. The following options are available:
- Recommended selection: Selects only the items that you can safely clean without losing potentially useful data. You can check the items that are selected for cleaning by clicking Details next to a browser.
- Select all: Selects all listed items. You can then click Details next to a browser to manually de-select any items you don't want to clean.
- Select none: De-selects all listed items. You can then click Details next to a browser to manually select the items you want to clean.
- Click Clean to remove the selected data.
- Click Done to return to the main Avast Cleanup Premium screen.
Choose Browser History
- Open Avast Cleanup Premium, then hover your mouse over the side menu and select Clean browser.
- Click Scan browsers.
- Click Settings.
- Tick the box beside Only delete Browser History older than: and choose the frequency according to your preferences.
Schedule automatic scans
- Open Avast Cleanup Premium, then hover your mouse over the side menu and select Clean browser.
- Click Scan browsers.
- Click Settings.
- Use the drop-down menu next to a browser to specify how regularly you want Avast Cleanup Premium to scan the browser for cookies and browsing data.
- Select the relevant internet browser panel, then tick or untick the boxes to specify the data you want Avast Cleanup Premium to delete from your browser.
Automatic scanning is enabled for the selected browser.
Add allowed websites
- Open Avast Cleanup Premium, then hover your mouse over the side menu and select Clean browser.
- Click Scan browsers.
- Click Settings.
- Scroll to the Cookie Allowlist section and select Add manually.
- Add a website using either Option A or Option B below:
- Option A: Enter a website (for example, example.com) into the text box, then click Add.
- Option B: Select a website from the Choose from popular websites drop-down menu, then click Add.
The selected website is now excluded from cookie clearing.
X
icon) in the relevant websites' panel. Remove duplicate files
The Find duplicates option scans your Mac for duplicate files. To run a scan and remove duplicate files:
- Open Avast Cleanup Premium and click Find next to Find duplicates.
- Tick the location(s) you want to scan for duplicate files. To add additional folders or external drives, click Add, and select a folder or drive.
- Click Scan.
- After the scan completes, click View duplicates.
- Use the drop-down menu in the bottom-left corner to select the files you want to remove. The following options are available:
- Keep oldest: Automatically selects the newest version of each file for removal.
- Keep newest: Automatically selects the oldest version of each file for removal.
- Select none: De-selects all files and allows you to manually select files for removal. Tick each file that you want to remove. After you tick a file, Select none becomes Custom selection.
- After selecting the files you want to remove, click Clean.
- If prompted, enter the password that you use when you start your Mac, then click OK.
- Click Done to return to the main Avast Cleanup Premium screen.
Identify bad or similar photos
The Find photos option scans your Mac for photos that are blurry, badly-lit, or similar. To run a scan and review bad or similar photos:
- Open Avast Cleanup Premium and click Find next to Analyze photos.
- Tick the location(s) you want to scan for photos. To add additional folders, external drives, or specific photos, click Add, then select the folder, drive, or photo.
- Click Scan.
- After the scan completes, click Review under either Bad photos or Similar photos to see the photos that Avast Cleanup Premium has identified.
- Click Got it to remove the pop-up message.
- Use the drop-down menu in the bottom-left corner to select the files you want to remove. The following options are available:
- Select all: Selects all photos that were found.
- Recommended: Selects the photos that Avast Cleanup Premium recommends for removal.
- Select none: De-selects all photos and allows you to manually select photos for removal. Tick each photo that you want to remove. After you tick a photo, Select none becomes Custom selection.
- After selecting the photos you want to delete, click Remove.
- Click Remove to confirm deletion of your selected photos.
- Click Clean even more or Review and repeat steps 5-8 above to continue reviewing and deleting photos.
- Click Done to return to the main Avast Cleanup Premium screen.
Uninstall apps you no longer use
The Uninstall apps option allows you to easily find and remove applications you no longer use, to keep your Mac tidy and free up space. To uninstall apps you no longer use:
- Open Avast Cleanup Premium and click Show next to Uninstall apps.
- Tick the box next to an app to select it. You can also filter the list of apps using the Unused apps and Large apps categories in the left panel.
- After selecting the apps you want to remove, click Uninstall.
- Click Uninstall to confirm removal of the selected apps from your Mac.
- If prompted, enter the password that you use when you start your Mac, then click OK.
- Click Done to return to the main Avast Cleanup Premium screen.
Manage startup items
The Manage startup items option allows you to turn off unnecessary processes that launch automatically when you start up your Mac, preventing issues like slowness or long loading screens. To manage your startup items:
- Open Avast Cleanup Premium and click Show next to Manage startup items.
- Click the green (ON) slider next to a startup item, so that it changes to gray (OFF).
- To view additional details and options, hover your cursor over a startup item and click the Information icon that appears.
Further recommendations
To learn more about Avast Cleanup Premium, refer to the following article:
Avast Cleanup for Android is a mobile app designed to help improve the performance of your device and preserve storage space by removing unnecessary media, files, apps, and app data. Remove these items by transferring them to a cloud storage account and/or deleting them from your device. You can also optimize photos to consume less space.
Navigate Avast Cleanup
- On the Home screen of your device, tap the Cleanup icon to open the app.
- The following options are available via the main app screen:
- Quick Clean: Scan for and delete dispensable items, including thumbnails, APKs, residual files, and hidden, visible, and shared cache.
- Sleep Mode: Hibernate apps that are running in the background, stopping them from slowing down your device and draining your battery.
- Tips: Review tips for clearing space on your device. The first time you use the Tips feature, you are prompted to specify which kinds of tips you want Avast Cleanup to prioritize via the Analysis preferences screen.
- Media: Access an overview of the media that is stored on your device, including suggestions for clearing space.
- Apps: Access an overview of the apps that are installed on your device, including suggestions for clearing space.
Perform a Quick Clean
Quick Clean cleans your device by removing unnecessary files to free storage space. You can select which item types are removed before you clean.
- Tap the Quick Clean button.
- Tick the item types you want to clean. Item types are divided into two sections (you may see one or both sections, depending which data types are stored on your device):
- Unneeded files: Data that has been carefully selected to ensure that it is truly dispensable, including thumbnails, APKS, residual files, and hidden, visible, and shared cache.
- Files to review: Data that may not be valuable to you. We recommend reviewing items included in this group and only ticking items that are dispensable. All items are unticked by default and will not be deleted unless you manually select them.
- Tap Finish cleaning to delete the selected items.
Hibernate apps
The Sleep Mode feature stops apps from running in the background, releasing memory for other tasks.
- Tap the Sleep Mode tile.
- Tick the apps that you want to stop, then tap Force stop.
You may need to grant Avast Cleanup permission to force stop apps in bulk via your device settings. Tap Grant, then follow the on-screen instructions. If you do not grant this permission, you are prompted to hibernate each selected app individually.
- Tap Proceed.
- Wait while Avast Cleanup hibernates the selected apps, then tap the back arrow to return to the main Avast Cleanup screen.
The selected apps are no longer running in the background.
Optimize your photos
Avast Cleanup allows you to optimize your images to occupy less space. Images that are already the same size as your device screen (for example, screenshots) are not optimizable. To optimize your photos:
- Tap
☰
Menu (the three lines) in the top-left corner of the main app screen. - Go to Photo Optimizer ▸ Show photos.
- Photos are arranged in groups according to age. Tick the photo(s) you want to optimize, or tap Select all next to a group of photos to select the whole group.
- Tap the Confirm button at the bottom of the screen.
- Tap Continue to proceed with default optimization, or tap Setup to preview an optimized image. If you have a paid Avast Cleanup subscription, you can additionally set the optimization level according to your needs.
- Under Original photos, tap Select (or Change) to specify what will happen to your original photo(s). The following options are available:
- Send originals to cloud storage: Remove the original photos from your device and send them to cloud storage. If Avast Cleanup is already connected to a cloud storage account, tap the email address connected to your preferred account. If not, tap Connect to cloud storage to connect the app to a new cloud storage account.
- Just delete: Remove and permanently delete the original photos from your device.
- Keep originals: Keep the original photos on your device.
- Tap Optimize now to immediately start optimizing the selected photo(s).
- When optimization is complete, tap the back arrow to return to the main Avast Cleanup screen.
Your photos are now optimized to occupy less space on your device.
Define your Analysis preferences
When you tap the Tips tile on the main app screen, you can review tips for clearing space on your device. You can specify which kinds of tips you want Avast Cleanup to prioritize via the Analysis preferences screen:
- Tap
☰
Menu (the three lines) in the top-left corner of the main app screen. - Go to Settings ▸ Analysis preferences.
- Touch and hold the icon (four lines) next to a tip category and drag the panel up or down to reorder your preferences. Optionally, tap the slider beside Find unwanted photos to turn the feature on (blue) or off (gray).
Avast Cleanup shows tips according to your specified preferences.
Manage cloud transfers
'The cloud' refers to virtual storage space where you can keep media and files such as photos, videos, and documents. Avast Cleanup allows you to easily transfer items from your device to a connected cloud storage account. To connect Avast Cleanup to a cloud storage account:
- Tap
☰
Menu (the three lines) in the top-left corner of the main app screen. - Go to Settings ▸ Cloud services.
- Tap Connect next to your chosen cloud service (Dropbox or Google Drive).
- Select your preferred account and tap OK. Enter login credentials if prompted.
- The account now appears under Connected. To sign out of an account, tap
⋮
More options (the three dots) next to the account and select Sign out.
You can be connected to multiple Google Drive accounts and one Dropbox account at the same time. If you are connected to multiple accounts simultaneously, you are prompted to choose an account each time you attempt to transfer data to cloud storage.
Further recommendations
For more information about Avast Cleanup Premium, refer to the following article:
- Avast Cleanup Premium 24.x for Windows
- Avast Cleanup Premium 4.x for Mac
- Avast Cleanup 24.x for Android
- Microsoft Windows 11 Home / Pro / Enterprise / Education
- Microsoft Windows 10 Home / Pro / Enterprise / Education - 32 / 64-bit
- Microsoft Windows 8.1 / Pro / Enterprise - 32 / 64-bit
- Microsoft Windows 8 / Pro / Enterprise - 32 / 64-bit
- Microsoft Windows 7 Home Basic / Home Premium / Professional / Enterprise / Ultimate - Service Pack 1, 32 / 64-bit
- Apple macOS 14.x (Sonoma)
- Apple macOS 13.x (Ventura)
- Apple macOS 12.x (Monterey)
- Apple macOS 11.x (Big Sur)
- Apple macOS 10.15.x (Catalina)
- Apple macOS 10.14.x (Mojave)
- Apple macOS 10.13.x (High Sierra)
- Apple macOS 10.12.x (Sierra)
- Google Android 9.0 (Pie, API 28) or later
Updated on: 6/2/22