Calm squares that tidy up.
Remember watching the disk defragmenter for hours? Defragment brings it back as a full-screen grid of little squares that tidies itself up, forever. Nothing real is moved — it just looks busy, so you don't have to be.
Free · iPhone and iPad · iOS and iPadOS 17 or later · optional Plus for $0.99
- No data collected
- No account
- Works offline
- Nine languages
Talking the resistors out of their resistance
- Talking the resistors out of their resistance
- Blowing into the floppy drive
- Feeding the daemons
- Oiling the lid hinges
- Cleaning the mouse ball
- Figuring out how to quit vi
- Untangling the headphone cable
- Moving jumpers on the motherboard
- Laying zombie processes to rest
- Sewing loose bytes back on
- Looking for the Turbo button
- Compiling the kernel. Again.
- Tuning the strings in the antenna
- Degaussing the monitor
- Counting inodes
- Balancing the gyroscope
- Rewinding the tape with a pencil
- Grepping for the meaning of life
- Stretching the transistors
- Installing from 24 floppies, 23 to go
- Reading the manual. Finally.
- Tucking in stray pixels
- Setting IRQ and DMA
- Pinging outer space
- Tuning the vibrations to the right frequency
- Assuming 640 KB will be enough
- Convincing make that everything is up to date
- Trimming unnecessary decimal places
- Waiting for the modem to finish its song
- Waiting for fsck
- Waking up sleepy transistors
- Flicking the write-protect tab
- Setting the terminal to 80 columns
- Polishing the connector pins
- Tidying a desktop full of icons
- Converting tabs to spaces and back
Six themes. The whole page follows.
Pick one and this site re-skins itself, the way the app does. Your choice is remembered next time you visit.
What you're looking at
A pretend disk. Nothing on your device is read, written or moved, but the squares follow the rules of a real defragmenter.
1. Analyze
The disk map fills in row by row, from the top down.
2. Read
One to five fragments light up green and shrink as the head picks them up — from anywhere on the disk.
3. Write
They land at the front of the disk in yellow, grow and glow, then settle as tidy data. Whatever sat there moves to where they came from.
4. Repeat
Until there is nothing left to tidy. A short pause, then a brand-new mess.
- Free space
- Fragmented data
- Tidy data
- Unmovable
- Reading
- Writing
For everyone who watched it for hours.
Classic 98 is the theme for the late nineties: dialog grey, square blocks that change colour instantly, a chunky navy progress bar and a drive called Drive C. The jokes go retro too.
The real dialog never told jokes. This one does.
Give it a shake.
In the app a shake or a double tap on the disk brings a new mess. Here, double-click or double-tap the phone's screen, or use the button. The rest works like the app, in whichever theme you picked.
Talking the resistors out of their resistance
On a real iPhone every write also taps your hand: lightly for one block, firmly for five. iPads have no Taptic Engine, so there it is just the squares.
It never has to finish.
When the top row is completely tidy it flashes, disappears, and everything slides up a row while a new messy row arrives at the bottom — like a finished line in Tetris.
- No progress bar, because there is no end.
- Data that leaves with a row is topped up with fresh fragments further down, so the disk never runs dry.
- Leave it running all afternoon. It will still be busy.
For people who think in 80 columns.
Two terminal themes, monospaced from the percentage down to the quips — green or amber, like the monitor you had. They come with their own jokes.
$ defrag --forever /dev/squares
Analyzing disk… ok
Small app. Lots of little squares.
Everything in the free app. No ads, no sign-up, nothing to configure unless you want to.
Six themes
Midnight, Daylight, Graphite, Classic 98, Phosphor and Amber.
Three speeds
Calm, Normal or Brisk — for staring, glancing or showing off.
Square sizes
Small, medium or large, from a dense map to chunky blocks.
Endless mode
Tidy rows vanish Tetris-style and the disk never finishes.
Clock, timer and stopwatch
Time and date for the bedside table; a timer set to the second or to a time of day, which can buzz, bring a new mess or let the screen sleep at the end; and a stopwatch with hundredths.
Quips
An animated “Defragmenting…” and about 80 rotating jokes where the file names used to be. Switch them off for peace and quiet.
Haptics that follow the head
On iPhone, a light tap when one block is written and a firm one for five. (iPads have no Taptic Engine.)
Shake or double-tap for a new mess
Shake the device or double-tap the disk: everything is thrown around and tidies up all over again.
Keeps the screen awake
The display stays on while it runs, so it works as a desk toy.
Nine languages
English, Czech, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Every quip written anew for each.
Private by design
No data collected, no accounts, works offline — and nothing on your device is actually moved.
iPhone and iPad
Bigger squares on iPad, in Split View and Stage Manager too. Propped up on a stand it makes a big ambient screen.
More colour for the tidy-minded.
Plus is a one-time in-app purchase — no subscription. It adds special sectors, five more themes and a quip pack of household chores.
Defragment
Free
No ads, no account, no time limit.
- Six themes, Classic 98 included
- Three speeds and three square sizes
- Endless mode
- Clock, timer and stopwatch
- Quips in nine languages
- Haptics, and a shake or double tap for a new mess
- iPhone and iPad
Defragment Plus
$0.99
One-time purchase · no subscription · Family Sharing
- Everything in the free app
- Five more themes: Pastel, Neon, Blueprint, Paper and Pocket
- Special sectors: bad sectors, golden and lost clusters, a swap file
- The “Household chores” quip pack
US price. The App Store sets the price for each country, so yours may differ.
Special sectors
Bad sectors
Red and crossed out. The head steps around them, and now and then a new one turns up.
Golden clusters
Secret and rare. They sparkle when they get moved.
Lost clusters
Violet strays that get found and put back where they belong.
Swap file
A cyan block that breathes, slowly, all day long.
And a few extras
Quip pack: Household chores
30 household chores mixed in with the theme's own quips. Switch the pack off if you'd rather keep the originals.
Tip jar
Optional. If Defragment made your desk calmer, you can buy the developer a coffee.
Three sizes: $1.99, $4.99 and $9.99.
Five more themes
Tap one to try it on the disk above.
You don't need Plus: the free app is complete without it.
On a Mac, it's a screen saver.
The same disk tidies up whenever your Mac sits idle. It's free, signed and notarised by Apple, and has the six themes, the speeds and square sizes, free space, endless mode, the quips and the clock.
Installing it
- Unzip the download and double-click Defragment.saver.
- macOS asks whether to install it just for you or for everyone on this Mac. Either works.
- In System Settings › Wallpaper › Screen Saver, pick Defragment under Other. Options… sets the theme and everything else.
It's a download rather than a Mac App Store app because Apple doesn't take screen savers there. Plus's themes and special sectors stay in the iPhone and iPad app, since a screen saver can't check an App Store purchase.
If Options… stops opening after you've switched screen savers, quit System Settings and open it again. It's a macOS bug that every third-party screen saver shares.
Talking the resistors out of their resistance
Questions, answered.
Does it actually defragment my iPhone or iPad?
No. Nothing real is read, written or moved — the disk is pretend. Your device's storage doesn't need defragmenting anyway; this is purely for looking at.
Does it collect any data?
No. No analytics, no advertising and no account, and it works offline. Purchases are handled by Apple. The privacy policy has the details.
Does it make any sound?
No, it's silent. On iPhone the haptics do the clicking: the more blocks written at once, the firmer the tap, and you can turn them down or off. iPads have no Taptic Engine, so there it doesn't tap at all.
What is Defragment Plus?
A one-time in-app purchase ($0.99 in the US). It adds special sectors (bad sectors, secret golden clusters, lost clusters and a breathing swap file; each one can be switched off), five more themes (Pastel, Neon, Blueprint, Paper and Pocket) and the “Household chores” quip pack. Separately, there's an optional tip jar. The free app is complete without Plus.
Which devices does it run on?
iPhone and iPad, with iOS or iPadOS 17 or later. On iPad the squares are bigger, and it works in Split View and Stage Manager.
Can I slow it down or turn off the jokes?
Yes. There are three speeds and three square sizes, and switches for the quips, the progress line, the clock, timer or stopwatch, endless mode, haptics, shaking and keeping the screen awake.
Is there a version for Mac?
Yes, as a free screen saver. Download it from the Mac section on this page: macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon and Intel.
Curious how defragmenting really worked, and whether you still need it? Read our guide to disk defragmentation.
Calm squares, whenever you need them.
Free for iPhone and iPad. Prop it up, pick a theme and let it tidy.
Download on the App StoreFree · iPhone and iPad · iOS and iPadOS 17 or later · optional Plus for $0.99