GIMP

Why clean GIMP?

• Leftover swap tile files from a crash can consume gigabytes of disk space, and you notice free space suddenly disappear after editing large PSD, TIFF, or XCF files
• Stale thumbnail cache entries can show outdated previews for recently changed images, making the file open dialog display the wrong version until the cache is rebuilt
• Abandoned plug-in working files and temporary exports can pile up after failed batch jobs, leaving cache folders much larger than the projects you actually kept
• When GIMP's disk-backed tile cache grows from old temp data, opening a new large canvas can trigger low-disk warnings or make saves fail because there is not enough scratch space
• Corrupted session temp files after an unclean shutdown can cause long startup pauses while GIMP scans cache directories, or repeated complaints about missing temporary resources
• Thumbnail databases and cache directories can become cluttered with entries for files that were moved or deleted, so browsing folders feels slower and previews appear inconsistent
• SQLite-style page fragmentation is not the issue here because GIMP's temp and thumbnail caches are mostly file-based rather than row-based databases, so cleaning helps by removing obsolete working files instead of rewriting live project data

Common questions about GIMP

Download Kudu and reclaim your disk space.

Available on Windows, macOS, and Linux. No account required, no feature gates, no telemetry without consent. All cleaning targets are open source and community-auditable.