Where should a Mac scan show that a folder couldn’t be read?
I’m on the team that builds AI Agent Clean, a Mac app for reviewing storage used by AI tools. In 1.0.9, we clarified the notice for unreadable locations and made it easier to see the previous scan results when switching views.
Say Deep Scan can read your logs but hits a folder it can’t open. When you come back to the results, the sizes for the files it read are still useful. The missing folder’s size is unknown. If the page shows a total without that context, it’s easy to assume the scan covered everything it tried to read.

I’d put a short “Partial scan” label beside the total and let people expand it to see which paths couldn’t be read. That keeps the limitation visible when you return to the results, even if you don’t need the full list of paths every time.
If you came back to a partial scan before choosing files to clean up, what would you want to see alongside the total to decide whether to use the results or scan again?
AI Agent Clean 1.0.9 Deep Scan illustration.
Replies
I'd want the label you describe, plus how many paths it couldn't read. I have a rule for my own tools: when a search comes back empty, first check whether it really found nothing or whether the search itself failed. A total that quietly leaves out an unreadable folder is the same trap.