Some caches, logs and local snapshots belong to macOS or another user, and an app you run can't move them. The helper is a small part of Wombit that can, with an administrator's name and password. Most people never need it.
What it does
The helper does these jobs, and nothing else:
- moves items that belong to macOS or another user to your Trash, and puts them back
- erases those items when you empty the Trash
- deletes Time Machine's local snapshots, and asks Time Machine to remove as many as it can
- uninstalls apps an administrator installed in Applications, and their leftovers in the Library folders macOS keeps for all users, stopping the app's background jobs first
When the app offers it
The app never sets the helper up by itself. When a cleanup or an uninstall includes something that needs it, the review lists those items under Needs an Administrator with Set Up Helper…, and the Local Snapshots page shows its own Set Up Helper… notice. You can also set it up, or check on it, in Settings › Helper.
Setting it up
- Click Set Up Helper….
- macOS asks you to allow it, and the app opens System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions, where macOS lists it as background activity. Turn it on there. Until you do, Settings › Helper shows Open System Settings… to get back to it.
- When a task needs the helper, the app asks for an administrator's name and password. macOS remembers them for a few minutes. If you cancel, nothing runs.
The helper runs only while a task you confirmed needs it, and quits soon after.
How it's kept safe
- It answers only this app, checked by the app's code signature, never by anything a request says about itself.
- It checks every path again before acting, never follows a link, and moves items only into your own Trash.
- In a cleanup, it moves only items a catalog entry describes, and never anything on the list of places the app never touches.
- It keeps its own record of what it moved, and puts back or erases only those items.
- It never runs a shell or a script.
- For an uninstall, it checks the app itself: it has to be in Applications, signed by its developer, with the identifier the app named. Anything it can't verify is left for Finder.
Turning it off
In Settings › Helper, click Turn Off. Items it moved stay in the Trash; putting them back later needs the helper again. You can also turn it off in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions.
Clearing items that need an administrator is part of PRO, like the rest of cleanup.