Monolingual for Mac

1.8.2

1.8.2

See all Versions

I think I hadn't used Monolingual since the PPC times... :-) I ran v1.7.3 last week on my 10.11 main OS and gained 4 Gb (about 2 for languages and 2 for unused arch, if I recall well — I still have a lot of UB apps). I believe it's ok to remove languages, but be very cautious for architectures: I had no major issue, but it clearly did hit the 32 bits only apps, bundles, extensions, libraries, etc. and made them unusable. In the end, I've restored such apps and all /Library and didn't lose much space so I guess it's better to uncheck Architectures for /Library in the prefs and add sensitive apps too. Strange enough, I had no issue with Adobe apps! My advice to spot damaged elements: open Console and search for 'wrong architecture', then reinstall or restore what's needed. I'm still using old CleanApp 3 to cleanup one app at a time, never found an alternative.

The concept is good—a knowledgeable friend recommended it, and we both work from Macs. When I saw that Monolingual was removing language stuff from Microsoft, I realized I needed to keep French, so I cancelled the operation mid-purge. Running it again resulted in 0 bytes of space saved. Deleting it, emptied trash, restarted the computer then re-downloaded and re-launched a fresh ML only gave the same 0 results. No idea what to do know, or even how to get help.

Would be nice if it would allow to install the Utility Helper app. I have the same on my laptop and it runs fine. What's the difference to my imac?

I tried this today. I ran it in the mode to remove unused architectures. I removed all except the Intel arch's keeping both 64bit and 32bit.

After running a few minutes, the finder froze and I had to restert finder. The dock still was not working right so I rebooted and used AppDelete to remove all of it.

I see in the FAQ that some things should not be touched, but there seems to be no way to disable touching Adobe apps, for example. (At least I do not see it in the preferences.) It would be nice to be able to select one app to see what it does without going thru the entire disk, but that seems not to be an option.

I also notice that even on applications where nothing is removed, it changes the date stamps of the files thus making them have to be re-backed up.

Overall it just seems too dangerous to me for the minimal amount of savings. That said, I am not sure how much it got done because I had to kill it due to the finder issues, but it probably did what it claims to do, otherwise it would be one star. Sorry. (10.13.6 is my OS, 1.8.2 is my version)

I tried to install 1.8.2 and got a window saying "Failed To Install Helper Utility." I have an iMac running macOS Mojave 10.14.3. Doesn't rate a star at all.

doesnt this mess up signed apps nowadays?

I did a spotlight search for any previous "Monolingual" files and found nothing. I tried to install 1.8.1 and got a window saying "Failed To Install Helper Utility." I have an iMac running Mojave 10.14.2. Doesn't rate a star at all.

I just installed 1.8.1. The note at the end states, "Files Removed. Space saved: 1.86 TB." That's pretty funny. My SSD is only 256GB. I had it put the removed files in the trash. When Monolingual was done, I had 2MB in the trash. Maybe it should have said, "Space saved: 1.86 MB." Even though we may have a typo, it still does an excellent job removing language files.

i downloaded v1.8.1 from github (the link here wasn't working), rebooted with SIP disabled... and regained about 2GB on my mac (running mojave, latest beta); for some reason, the app showed "2PB"... (whatever the hell that means). but it works!

Absolutely worthless. I am using Mojave and Monolingual still does not work. It still cannot install the helper app required when using previous versions, including this one.

Just a question: is version 1.8.0 fully compatible with Mojave 10.14.1? Thank you for your answers.

"1 byte" might be old, but just go into preferences and tell it to put the removed files in the trash. You'll find a bunch when it's done.

would be nice to get a 1.8.1 version

I appreciate the author providing this useful app, but wish he would maintain it. "1 byte" removed is getting old.

innanzitutto ho dovuto scaricare una versione precedente dell'app in quanto le più recenti non funzionavano poi mi ha lasciato file lingue nel cestino impossibili da cancellare. alcune app sono andate in crash e non è stato più possibile riaprirle. alla fine ho dovuto fare rispristino da time machine.

I like this app. Great work.

would be nice if monolingual could be configured to automatically remove files on a schedule or at least once weekly

Version 1.8.0 on High Sierra when started does not report any file removals. This update is definitely broken.

installed 1.8.0 and got: Failed to install helper utility. it's not new.

I installed 1.8.0 and got: Failed to install helper utility I have macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 (17D102) installed on my 27 inch iMac, 8 GB of memory.

I tried 1.7.8 again, same results: Failed to install helper utility I'll try the new 1.8.0 and see what happens.

Version 1.8 does NOT work. It always claims it has removed 1 byte... This is hardly possible, as either it removes ressources, which use more space, or there is nothing to remove. When using version 1.4.5, which is much older, 56 MB were removed...

although v 1.8 appears to work it always reports only 1 byte of removed files. i run it under MacOs X 10.13.4 developers beta v. 5

Still does not work. I said this on 9 Feb 17. I get this trying to install it: Failed to install helper utility.

Handy

Works for me.

It would seem that the initial run did remove some stuff and the second run removed very little. To my surprise Photoshop CS6 was left alone and I had to remove all language files manually, from which I learned there's no reason to not process Photoshop CS6.

Given this app is free, version 1.7.3 running in OS X 10.11 in my case, I add one star. Good work, though I wish Monolingual was more informative and allowed for user overrides.

The link to the last version for OS X 10.11 is wrong and downloads 1.7.8. The proper download URL for 1.7.3 is https://github.com/IngmarStein/Monolingual/releases/download/v1.7.3/Monolingual-1.7.3.dmg.

Beware! Installing this version also installs Clean My Mac without asking. Clean my Mac is very difficult to remove, is a joke, and sneaky installs should be reported! Stay away.

Still not possible to install helper utility, OMG.

the new version 178 still does not remove zh-Hans.lproj/zh-Hant.lproj. why can't it be fixed??

the new version 178 still does not remove zh-Hans.lproj/zh-Hant.lproj. why can't it be fixed??

ended up using DriveGenius for unwanted fonts... large files no longer using... etc

1.7.7 still does not remove zh-Hans.lproj and zh-Hant.lpro

This app has been useless for over a year, probably longer. Used to love this app. Was hoping it would work this time. I doesn't. Won't install helper running 10.12.3. I guess there is no fix for this otherwise it would have been done quite a while ago. Don't waste your time.

Monolingual Steps 9 Feb 17 Installed new app, ver 1.7.7 Ran the app. It could not install the helper utility. Did a restart. Quit all apps. Did First Aid using Apple’s Disk Utility. Operation successful. Ran the app. It could not install the helper utility.

still does not remove zh-Hans.lproj and zh-Hant.lproj

Wow, it removed 3.2 GB from my macOS 10.12.3 MacBook Pro.

Still does not work with version 1.7.6.

link doesn't work for me

1.7.5 fails to install helper app as did the previous version! (macOS 10.12.2 (16C67))

I just did the latest version and STILL DOESN"T WORK !!!

I am running macOS Sierra ver 10.12.2 I downloaded the new Monolingual ver 1.7.5 The app still won't install the "HELPER UTILITY."

Thanks for the suggestion to use the old v 1.4.5 that worked well on a 2011 2.7GHz 27" iMac running macOS Sierra 10.12.2 with SIP disabled. Used "Find Any File.app" to find and delete a few hiding stragglers. Finally, and just over 10GB surplus .lproj language "gypsy" folders deleted that I don't need and camped out on my HDD, and only need the "english" and "base" stuff. The Version 1.7.4 removed 0 files/folders when I tried it. I didn't try using the Monolingual 1.6.7 versions as v 1.4.5 got 98±%. Review is for v 1.4.5!!!

v 174 does not remove localization from the MS office apps... the 173 did..

Part 1 - I am running macOS Sierra ver 10.12.2 (16C67) I downloaded the new Monolingual ver 1.7.4. I got a different message. It was titled "Warning." "The following disk image couldn't be opened." It listed the Monolingual dmg as" Resource Busy."
Part 2 - I closed the warning and double clicked on the dmg. This time it opened.
Part 3 - The app still doesn't install the "HELPER UTILITY."
Part 4 - I totally removed the old app: 12 files, 28.7 MB.
Part 5 - Repeat of Part 3.

The newest version still doesn't install the "HELPER UTILITY". What now???

I cannot empty these files from my trash -- I get a message that they are in use when they are not -- any help?

Still does not work with macOS Sierra 10.12.1. It gives me "Failed to install helper utility" when I try to use the app.

How safe would it be to use this application in macOS Sierra ? ( i ask this question here because the developer does not seem to have a contact email for questions about his application )

I am on maOS Sierra and downloaded 1.4.5 for Snow Leopard (as per artie505). It worked great. I did not need to install any "helpers" and it completely removed all unneeded language files from the system and apps, as well as old architectures. Just make sure to go into Preferences and choose System as a location for archs.

Still does not work.

The version that works best for me in El Cap (10.11.4) is 1.6.7, but Monolingual's biggest fault is that it hasn't got option for the removal of lproj files in areas protected by SIP for those of us who are running with SIP disabled.

Please!

versions 172 and 173 work with 10.11.4 generally OK, but they do not remove zh-Hans.lproj and zh-Hant.lproj localizations and i think Latin may be also not removed

Strange that I've never gotten a request for a "helper" in any iteration of El Capitan, It just plain doesn't work...runs and invariably returns -0- deleted. HAS THIS APP BEEN ABANDONED? IT SURE SEEMS THAT WAY! I'm running v 1.67, but it leaves a lot of lproj files intact. :(

Simply does not work under 10.11.1. Keeps asking to install Helper. Hope this gets fixed. I have been using it for years, and when working, its great.

su el capitan non funziona

Always the same problem on my 2009 Macbook Pro running 10.11.1. Keeps asking to install helper… and failed to Install Helper Utility... since Monolingual 1.7.1 But Monolingual 1.6.7 works fine...

Doesn't work for me in El Cap. Sits on the screen and does nothing. Maybe because of SIP?

mine totally does not work after upgrading the system to 10.11.1

Since upgrading, Monolingual 1.7.1 doesn't work on my MacBook Pro 2009 (MacOS 10.10.5). "Failed to install helper utility" appears everytime. ;-( But Monolingual 1.6.7 works fine... I don't know what to do. Thank you for helping

I see why it is used and how it can help the disk drive, although i got this app and i tried to delete a lot of languages and it told me it did, but i don't see any change, especially in my disk drive space, as it didn't change. I do like the use of it and its power for management, but i want someone to help me with the situation.

Ingmar, new localizations not removed from Dropbox: nb_NO.lproj th_TH.lproj uk_UA.lproj thanks

Why do some reviews here praise this application and others warn about the dangers ??? I would think that the developer would have the knowledge as to how and what languages are safe to remove without destroying the entire system which in my case is Mavericks ( 10.9.5 ). Since Apple it seems to me has removed my ability to select and install only the language i want and use then i must rely on this developer to know what he is doing and to programme his application accordingly. Then at worst simply reinstall. Also, hopefully when i launch for example a text application or a music application it does not take for ever to load because my 2014 iMac has 12GB of RAM .

Ingmar, I found several more local files not removed by 167: uk_UA.lproj nb_NO.lproj th_TH.lproj these r from Dropbox thanks

ingmar fixed everything!! v1.6.7 is perfect now! highly recommend. one item for my wish list though - if it could perform language removal automatically on a regular, user defined basis/time line. (kid of like macaroni used to do). thanks ingmar!

Latest (1.6.7) version simply does't work from an non Admin account, even when in the Applications folder. Requests Admin rights to install a helper tool, and then does nothing. Sadness. Haven't tried from an Admin account, but why should I have to? Never used to have to.

I dunno. I didn't try this app, I'll admit. But I DO know that removing language files from Adobe apps like Creative Suite can render a lot of those apps useless. Like Dreamweaver and Photoshop. So be careful. Aren't these language strings also built into the OS? I mean, I'd like a transparent dock, but anything that affects core function seems dangerous. Am I wrong about this? Wouldn't be the first time . . .

Wanna break your system and apps? Give this a try!

Looking forward to the update that includes how much space is saved by removing useless language files. After 5 minutes and heaps of files moved to the bin .. it always tells me Space saved - Zero KB I have to go back at least 2 years for a version that actually showed this. Otherwise a very handy app .. so cheers to the Dev :D

v 1.6.6 crashes when located NOT in applications folder (under 10.10.3 at least). also it does not remove some languages. finally, and it is an old bug, it requires inputting password twice if it is located in a custom folder. not clear why it can't be fixed already!

Just a few things you should make sure you do before using this app: 1) Make sure you back up your system before removing the extra languages. 2) Go into Monolingual Preference and check, "Move language files to trash." so you don't have to hunt down the folder with the language files you removed.

27 Mar 2015: vs. 1.6.5 available
http://ingmarstein.github.io/Monolingual/

Can someone with Adobe CS6 on Yosemite and has used this please let me and others know if it worked ok? An earlier version of Monolingual removed a file that Acrobat required and I had to do a complete re-install of CS6. Any experiences (good or bad) with CS6 on Yosemite welcomed.

One of the most useful tools in my toolbox. Many thanks for all of the developers efforts!!!!

Running 10.10.2 - Just installed latest version 1.6.3 and it still crashes on start up. This is a shame as I have been using Monolingual for longer than i can remember :(

There is a problem with this app. It doesn't reflect that you delete anything. As an example, I ran this app. I had all the languages checked except English and English (United States). Don't know if there is a difference. I then emptied the trash before running the app. When it got done it showed: Files removed. Space saved: Zero KB. But, if you do a get info on the trash it showed two sets of figures: Across from the trash icon it showed: 1.57 GB Under General it showed: 1,566,440,145 bytes (2.36 GB on disk) for 339,043 items I don't know what the true amount of deletion is. Maybe that is an Apple Inc. problem. Anyone know?

Good idea but it breaks codesigning (gatekeeper). So dangerous to use.

Adding items to ignore list causes the application to crash. Is this going to be fixed soon?

So I have a brand new iMac running Yosemite and I just nuked it with this app. What I did is run this app with everything selected except English (United States) and now I can't open probably half of my apps. I've reinstalled OS X multiple times and it doesn't help. I hope that there's someone out there that can tell me what I need to do!

I love this app .. and thank the dev for the freebie. Downloaded the latest version and gave it a run to clear all the languages from Yosemite .. some 200k files were removed into trash.. yet showed space saved .. 0 Kb after removing files for almost 30 mins. I like to see space saved, so I ended up reverting back to the previous version. Please let us know when this is fixed .. so I can upgrade again to the latest. Cheers :D

The description says it's for OS 10.10 but the system requirements say 10.7. It certainly doesn't open with my OS, so somebody was Lion. 0 stars.

This app has a bug and does NOT remember your preferences for architectures to keep, very disappointing. The default is to remove Intel 64-bit code! Eek.

Monolingual is <i>the best</i> for removing extraneous languages. The irony is that Monolingual, itself, contains a few extraneous languages — as "Gregm" duly noted on 2013-11-10 — right out of the box (or the disk image, in this case). You can, of course, right-click on Monolingual.app, choose "Show Package Contents," then crawl through the folders and remove the languages yourself, being certain to leave in "en.lprog" and "Base.lproj." Or, install it in your Applications or Utilities folder, then run it. Still, the old adage of "Physician, heal thyself." seems appropriate.

I use this program whenever updating to to a new operating system or buying a new laptop. So about once every few months. My preference would be not have to use programs such as Monolingual and Xslimmer (and don't think they make a huge difference in speeding up the computer) but they only take about a minute to run and can often save several GB's worth of data.

After using this for years, I feel safer now using a similar app that does not clean the whole machine but stays out of the system and other places it’s clear the OS doesn’t want you to go. Even though I do, would still not advise these “delete everywhere”apps.

Doesn't this break the codesigning of an app? Because anything you change/remove does break the Gatekeeper codesign and the app will not launch anymore.

Very valuable program; though, developer, is there any way you could eliminate the need for the password entry? Eliminating that step would be welcomed.

Great program ..Amazing how much data is used for languages..and when using a SSD Drive I am glad to have the extra space...Thank you

Beware!!! About a year ago, I made the mistake of choosing all languages to be removed, which turned my MacBook Pro into a temporary doorstop. Make sure you leave your preferred language intact:-( Fortunately I had backed up just before using it, so could revert:-)

Using OSX 10.9.2 the OS tells me the app is damaged and can't be opened. I DL from developer sire and same result.

Great piece of software except for just released 1.5.9 which won't load the helper. When attempting to load the helper it loops back to the main window. Removing all related files and trying again doesn't solve the problem. Reverted back to 1.5.8 which works great. Other than that, it's great.

This has been a boon. Some users carry on about simply buying larger hard drives. I bought my 2011 MBP with a 500GB drive, because it performed better that the 750GB for video. I use lots of apps, and have lots of raw images I want to have on my internal drive (and not have to carry an external). I try to keep 20% of my drive free to make the most of virtual memory and improve drive performance. As a result, I am always pushing the limit and constantly having to find stuff to remove. The remaining GBs above the 100GB I keep free become precious as does remaining air for a person trapped in a large but confined space filling up with water. Being able to remove over a GB of languages in a click means a lot to me. Frankly, I believe that apps should give an install option of a single language, or multiples.

I find it entertaining to notice that Monolingual does *NOT* remove those extra language packages from itself -- :-P

The savings means a lot to me and to others.I have to disagree with foregoing comments as this app saves me megabytes and appreciate this app.

Just making a comment here - I'm certainly not trying to put down this software! People are saying that this saves them several hundred MBs, and I pretty much can't remember the last time I had a computer with less than 250GB. So we're talking about saving around 0.25% of disk space (for people like me I suppose). The vast majority of my hard drive consumption is in media files and those can't be trimmed. Trimming code signed programs is always a bit of a risk, and there are definitely programs that can't be trimmed (and you often find that out the hard way) and you're rolling the dice with system stability (especially when upgrading the OS). The unix OS (including OS X) needs to keep about a good 5% (or more) of available disk space for virtual memory, cache files, temporary files, and other such things. If you're cutting it that close, it's time for a new hard drive. Just saying...

Love it. I've used it for many, many years. Absolutely essential when building an image to strip out junk that takes up space. The difference a gig makes is important when pushing out images simultaneously to groups of macs. And free too.

Wow--great; works flawlessly on Mavericks. Ingmar--thanks for all your effort!

Monolingual appears to work on Mavericks with one small issue....when you launch monolingual you have to repeatedly re-select languages you want removed; apparently after you close monolingual it fails to remember the languages that were selected for removal on prior occasions.

This is a simple, understandable application that does exactly what it claims to do and does it reliably. I'm overwhelmed by multi-purpose programs that I'll never get around to figuring out how to use effectively and have bought them repeatedly before realizing they sit unopened on my hard drive waiting for some fantasy block of time to learn them... Monolingual, however, I used on the first day and have used weekly since. Routinely, it saves 100s of MBs. Highly recommend.