How to quickly find and delete large files on Linux with Large Files Finder
Running out of disk space on your Linux PC? Unsure how to reclaim your disk space? Check out Large Files Finder! It’s a simple application that can scan your Linux PC for large files so you can delete them.
Note: Large Files Finder is a free program. However, to delete files within the app, you must pay for a software license. To do that, click here.
Install Large Files Finder on Linux
The Large Files Finder is available for Linux as a Snap package via the Ubuntu Snap Store and will run on nearly any Linux operating system. Additionally, there’s also an AppImage release of Large Files Finder, which covers all Linux operating systems that do not run Snaps.
In this section of the guide, we’ll demonstrate how to install the Large Files Finder program on both Snap and AppImage. To start the installation, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard, and follow along with the instructions below.
Snap package
Setting up Large Files Finder’s Snap package release requires installing the Snapd runtime, as Snap packages cannot run without it. To enable the Snapd Runtime, head over to our guide on how to set up Snap packages.
Note: if you dislike using the command-line, you should also install the Snap Store app, as it makes setting up Snap packages an incredibly simple process.
Once the Snapd runtime is up and running on your Linux PC, the installation of Large Files Finder can begin. Using the snap install command below, install the app.
sudo snap install large-files-finder
AppImage
The AppImage release of Large Files Finder is slightly more difficult to install on Linux than the Snap release, as it’s not done in a single command. However, the AppImage method is much better than compiling it from the source code.
To start the installation of the AppImage version of Large Files Finder on your Linux PC, go to the terminal window you opened earlier and use the wget downloader command to grab the latest AppImage release.
wget https://app.qiplex.com/large-files-finder-linux.zip
After downloading the Large Files Finder AppImage release, you must install the Unzip utility to your system, as it is required to extract the contents of the ZIP archive.
Ubuntu
sudo apt install unzip
Debian
sudo apt-get install unzip
Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S unzip
Fedora
sudo dnf install unzip
OpenSUSE
sudo zypper install unzip
Generic Linux
Unzip is available for a variety of Linux operating systems, big and small. To get it working on your system, head over to Pkgs.org, and select your distribution.
Unzipping
Now that the Unzip utility is set up on your Linux PC, you can unzip the AppImage release of Large Files Finder.
unzip large-files-finder-linux.zip
The files will extract directly in your home folder (~).
Setting up Large Files Finder
Using the mkdir command, create a folder called “AppImages”. This folder will hold the Large Files Finder AppImage file.
mkdir -p ~/AppImages
Next, move the AppImage file into the “AppImages” directory with the mv command.
mv 'Large Files Finder-1.2.0.AppImage' ~/AppImages
Update the permissions of the file with chmod.
sudo chmod +x 'Large Files Finder-1.2.0.AppImage'
You can now run the app with:
./'Large Files Finder-1.2.0.AppImage'
Or, by opening the Linux File manager, entering the “AppImages” folder, and double-clicking on Large Files Finder-1.2.0.AppImage with the mouse.
Deleting large files with Large Files Finder
To delete large files with Large Files Finder, start by opening the app. Then, once the app is open on the desktop, look for the “Click Add, or drag’n’drop folder here,” and click the “+ Add” button below it. Or, click the giant cross logo in the center of the app.
By clicking on either the giant cross logo or the blue “+ Add” button, an open-file dialog box will appear. In this dialog box, browse for a folder in which you suspect large files exist. Alternatively, select the home directory for your current user, as it’s where most large files on a Linux system reside.
Upon adding the home directory (or any other folder) to the Large Files Finder, you will be presented with a list of various large files of various types. Look through the list for any large file you wish to delete and click it with the mouse to select it. Or, hold down Ctrl on the keyboard while you click to select multiple files at once.
Note: you can also search for large files in the Large Files Finder app by clicking on “Search” and typing out the name of a particular file.
After selecting all the files you’d like to delete in Large Files Finder, select the blue “Delete” button and it will remove the file.
