How To Free Space On Mac

It all starts with “Disk is almost full”

Install macos mojave unsupported mac. Questionsor comments?

It's the 21st century, and a lot of us have lots of data. If your Mac, MacBook, or iMac's hard drive is beginning to reach it's maximum capacity, you may nee. Save space on your Mac by storing your content in iCloud, using built-in tools to find and remove large files, or manually deleting apps, files, and more.

If you are reading this, you are probably familiar with the “Disk is almost full” message on Mac. The lack of free space is, in fact, a global issue. According to MacPaw research, since the Great Lockdown of 2020, people are 28% more likely to clean their computers. Isn’t it because we started to consume more content? Anyway, limitless hard drives haven’t been invented yet.

Let's take the new MacBook Air 2020 edition that offers startling capacities of 256 GB. That’s roughly the storage of the previous year’s iPad! And how soon you will fill that space full, given today’s media consumption trends, is a different question. And as of the summer of 2020, iCloud storage still remains a paid option, and 50GB will cost you $0.99 per month.

So whether you have a new or older Mac, it’s critical to know how to clear system storage on Mac. Further below, I’ll show you my favorite methods of recovering disk space on Mac. They are a bit like alchemy because we’ll be turning junk into free space.

Okay, let’s go.

How to check storage on Mac

It’s good to check your storage details before we get down to deleting things. For example, this is my disk space structure:

Documents: You have too many downloads and media files on your drive
Apps: There are probably tons of hidden and forgotten apps on your Mac
System: Your OS + caches, temporary files, and app localizations that waste space

To view your storage details, click on the Apple icon > About this Mac > Storage

How the full hard drive affects your Mac?

If your drive reaches about 80% of its capacity, your Mac will get noticeably slower. Partly, this is because of the so-called fragmenting. When there is only so much space left on disk, your Mac will split every new file into pieces or fragments and fit them into available slots elsewhere on your Mac. This slows down how your Mac processes these files. Also, some amount of your RAM (virtual memory) will be taken out to compensate for the loss of disk space.

According to MacWorld magazine, nearly full hard drives performed 17% slower in the test.

So, how do you free up space on your Mac?

Free up disk space on Mac

1. Find large files you don’t need

Potential space reclaimed: 2-5 GB

  1. Go to your desktop and press Command + F
  2. Choose “This Mac”
  3. Select Other in the dropdown menu
  4. Under the Search Attributes menu, tick File Size and File Extension

Well done!Now you can type in different file extensions and sort the results by size. I recommend starting with the .DMG files or application installers. They are just dead weight, and you can live without them. The same goes for .ZIP archives

2. Delete your system junk

Potential space reclaimed: 2-5 GB

There are tons of articles written about system junk, and some Mac users claim the system junk is pure evil and slows your Mac down. In my view, it’s only an excess burden to have on your machine — outdated files, browser caches, app localizations, and old-time machine backups.

How

To delete system junk manually would be a hot mess, even for an experienced user. So if you want to free up space on Mac quickly, just run CleanMyMac X once and forget it. Unlike some supposed 'Mac-Saviours,' this app is actually notarized by Apple, so you’re safe running it.

  1. Run CleanMyMac X — download the app’s free edition here
  2. Click the System junk tab.

After you run the Scan, review the files and click Clean.

What else can you delete with this tool:

  • Time machine backups
  • Temporary documents versions
  • Outdated system logs
  • App localization files

3. Remove unused apps and all their leftovers

Potential space reclaimed: up to 5 GB

Did you know there are 3 ways of deleting apps on Mac? One is dragging them straight to the Trash from Applications, the other involves Launchpad. And, finally, you can use a third-party Uninstaller tool, which also makes sense because the first two methods leave parts of old apps on your drive.

Delete apps via Launchpad

Still, I prefer deleting apps via Launchpad because it’s more fun. Open Launchpad from your Dock.Now, press the Command key and hold any app icon until they start shaking. You will see the [X] symbol above the icon — click it to delete the app.

Delete your unseen apps

That was easy, but here’s the deal. Every Mac has apps that don’t show up anywhere. They may have installed themselves as parts of other apps or be small supporting applications that programmers call “Launch agents” or “Daemons.” In total, they may eat up a whole lot of disk space.

In my experience, of all app cleaners, CleanMyMac X still tops the list. My personal record — 30 GB I was able to clear up on my Mac that had been taken by unused and suspicious programs. So what can you do?

  1. Download CleanMyMac X free edition here
  2. Click the Uninstaller tab.

From there, you can delete apps on a massive scale - simply select the ones you don’t need. Make sure to check the Leftovers section. These are parts and pieces of your old apps that you can’t otherwise access.

4. Delete your duplicate files

I often download an app twice by clicking on it several times or double-save a track to my iTunes library, which creates quite a mess. So if your Mac has started to run out of storage, there is a way to put an end to it. At first, you can try to find duplicates manually, but it can take you way too long with little to no result.

How To Free Space On Mac For Big Sur

There is a good app called Gemini 2 - the duplicate finder. It allows you to clean out many gigabytes of duplicates in a few clicks. Plus, it allows you to check what would be deleted and deselect items you want to keep.

So, if your Mac is suffering from the invasion of the duplicates, give this software a try.

5. Remove browser cache

If you are a heavy internet user (like I am), your Mac’s drive is full of the browser cache. These are the kinds of bookmarks left on your drive by every site that you visited. What’s your primary browser? Here are the solutions for Chrome and Safari.

To clear Chrome cache

While you are in Chrome,

  1. Click the three-dot icon at the top right
  2. Click More tools > Clear browsing data
  3. Choose a time range to clear the browsing data
  4. Also, clear “Cached images and files.”

To clear Safari cache

  1. Click Develop in the top menu.
  2. Click Empty caches

6. Use Optimized Storage

How to free up space on mac

Apple has some storage management tools that come pre-installed on your macOS. To get to use them, click on the Apple logo > About this Mac > Click the Storage tab > Manage.

How to manage storage on Mac with built-in options

First, inspect the tabs in the sidebar on the left. Your largest files will most likely be stored in Documents. Go inside this category to find files you can scrap. A quick tip: You can mass-select and delete screenshots on your Desktop right from here.

Then, click Recommendations in the top left corner.
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Here Apple offers you 4 options: the first option, “Store in iCloud,” is self-explanatory. Is iCloud paid? Yes, if your storage needs exceed 5 GB which in 2020 is laughably small.The second option, “Optimize Storage,” will remove your already watched content and the old attachments in Mail. This may help you free up a couple of gigabytes. When you need to clear disk space on Mac, every little help counts.

7. Create the map of your drive

This method was shown to me by my programmer friend, who also happens to be a fan of CleanMyMac X. There is a tool in CleanMyMac called “Space Lens” that builds a map of your entire drive. You can see all your disk’s contents in the form of interactive bubbles that represent your big and small folders. It’s the most exciting way to clear space on your Mac. Wow!

Here you can spot the folders that hog the most space. You’ll also find your “Russian dolls” folders that are hidden inside other folders.

Get this app here for free.

8. Take out the Trash

This advice is the easiest of all. Nevertheless, people forget to do it all the time. We throw things down the Trash and think they are over with. But that’s just moving things from one pocket to another. To free up Trash, right-click the bin icon. Then, choose Empty Trash.

How to empty the Trash automatically on Mac

If you don’t like to empty the Trash every time, there is a scheduled option. Your Mac will auto-delete Trash every 30 days if you tell it so.

  • Open Finder > Preferences (in the upper menu).
  • Now choose Advanced.
  • Check this box “Remove items from Trash every 30 days.”

9. Delete extra language files

Potential space recovered: 1 GB

There are 180+ languages in the world, and most of your Mac’s applications can operate in these languages. However beautiful the language diversity is, people usually use just one or two. When you need to clear space on Mac, extra localization files are another target.How to see your language files? Language files end with “lproj” extension, which stands for “language project.” Unfortunately, finding them manually is problematic. Still, if you want to recover 1 GB of free space out of thin air, get hold of CleanMyMac X. It deletes extra localizations automatically.

How To Free Space On Mac
  1. Get CleanMyMac X here — a link to a free edition
  2. Click System Junk and Scan.
  3. Then press Review Details.

After you click Review Details, you’ll see the tab called Language Files. As one can see, each of those files takes up about 30 MB. You can only guess how much more it will be with 180+ languages.

10. Clear your Desktop

Desktop may not seem a big deal in terms of storage space, but only because people rarely visit it. It’s a well-known fact that a messy desktop wastes tons of space — and, most importantly — slows your Mac down.

Here’s a quick trick to organize your Desktop: click anywhere in the middle of the Desktop and then choose “Use Stacks” in the window that appears. Everything there will be neatly sorted by categories like Screenshots. Now you can mass delete all the thousands of screenshots that most of us have.

If you are using macOS High Sierra or older, you can manually clear disk space on your Mac Desktop.

  1. Click Finder > Desktop.
  2. Under View, choose the 3-line icon.

Now you can sort all items by size and delete the largest files.

11. Compress your files

Archiving or compressing files is a nice alternative to permanent deletion. Not all file types compress similarly well, though. For example, documents and presentations can be substantially reduced in size by compression, while movies are harder to shrink.

Luckily, you don’t need a third-party solution to zip things up — your macOS has its built-in tool.

Did you know
Zip is the lossless compression format that keeps file quality intact.

How to free up disk space on Mac using compression?

  1. Open Finder and go to your Documents.
  2. Command + click on a folder (or multiple folders).
  3. Choose Compress.

Be aware that macOS leaves the original file untouched, so once you have the archive, the original folder can be deleted. After you’re done, you may transfer the newly-created archive onto an external drive.

Well done, you’ve just saved some space!

12. Slim down Time Machine snapshots

If you have Time Machine set up properly, it creates backups of your whole system at any given time. I’m not recommending you to delete these backups completely but to trim down their size. This doesn’t affect your user-created data.I’ll show you how to do it with a free version of CleanMyMac, the tool I mentioned in the previous section.

  1. Get a free edition of CleanMyMac X
  2. Click the Maintenance tab.
  3. Choose 'Time Machine Snapshot Thinning.'

Here you are. After you click Run, you will successfully reduce the size of backups on your Mac.

13. Trash the old iPhone backups

Potential space reclaimed: 10-20 GB

Outdated iPhone backups may take enormous space. If you’ve ever backed up your iPhone with your computer, your Mac probably stores all your phone’s data. It makes sense to check your drive for the outdated backups before they grow out of proportion.

Here’s how to clear space on your Mac by deleting old backups:

  1. Open Finder > Click Go in the Finder's menu > Go to Folder…
  2. Paste in: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup
  3. Move the insides of the folder to the Trash, and that’s it.

If you want to remove a specific backup, here’s how to do that:

  1. Connect your device to your Mac using a cable.
  2. Go to Finder > Locations > Select your device.
  3. Click Manage Backups.

Right-click, the name of the backup to see the “Show in Finder” command. Move the backup someplace else or delete it using the Delete option.

Note
Droid4x mac. : do this only if you are 100% sure you don’t need your iPhone backups.

14. Get rid of your junk Mail

Potential space reclaimed: 50 MB

How

Everyone hates junk email. Apparently, Apple hates it too because they included automatic junk mail deletion to their Mail app. Junk mail doesn’t weigh much but still, deleting it is good for the hygiene of your Mac.

  1. Open Mail app.
  2. Click on the Mailbox tab.
  3. Choose Erase Junk Mail.
  4. Beware that this operation cannot be undone.

Other great tips to automatically reduce clutter

  • Use Safari. Starting version 10, it automatically removes duplicate downloads.
  • Back up your pictures to Photos.Google.com — it offers unlimited storage. Really.
  • Delete extensions in your browser — you can use a free version of CleanMyMac X.
  • Delete desktop apps for services that offer online analogs, like Figma.

Okay, I’ve told you my favorite ways to free up disk space on your Mac. You can bookmark this article and revisit it next time when the annoying “Your disk is almost full” message pops up. Decluttering your Mac can add a fresh spark to your digital life — so try it today.

Thanks to the technology & other entertainment sections, users have got many options to choose from. Thus, the user will experience that his/her drive is getting filled up quicker than he/she expected. From those favorite music tracks to high quality video files & pictures (moments that you captured), everything takes up space on the disk.

And since the allocated space is limited, you will start running out of options & start deleting the files to create more space. Filling up more space can also result in slowing down the overall speed of your Mac which can be a major concern one must be worried about. Obviously, you want to make the Mac run faster and for that, you can start with freeing up disk space on Mac.

How to Free Up Disk Space & Make Mac Run Faster

If we are damn sure about the problematic place, finding the solution becomes easier. For example, in this case where the Mac started working slower than before after the disk space was getting filled up, we need to free up disk space by cleaning out the garbage. Simple. Yeah!! Cleaning out the unnecessary things from your system will start freeing up disk space which eventually will make things smooth for other programs on your Mac. Now there can be as many ways as you can think of to clean up Mac disk space, but letting it happen automatically helps better than anything. Here also, you can find hundreds of software that claim to be the best in business and you need to narrow down your research to the most reliable, effective, & rich-featured software only. That’s why we will be discussing here about the most powerful & advanced tools to free up disk space and make Mac run faster.

1. CleanMyMac X (Trial Version; Premium version $34.95)

Anyone who has been using the Mac for quite some time now is pretty much known to this tool called the CleanMyMac X. With the ultimate goal of making your Mac as good as new, this tool starts freeing up disk space like you have never experienced before. The tool starts narrowing down those junk & unnecessary files on your Mac & by clearing those out of your system, make Mac run faster than before. CleanMyMac X is also an advanced & powerful tool which has so many features to explore including smart scanning, malware removal, system optimization & deletion of the not-required permanently.

In order to make the Mac run faster by cleaning up disk space, the CleanMyMac X runs on three segments. Starting with cleaning up the whole device for unneeded files, it goes into the protection phase where it looks for the potential threats, if there are any. And lastly, it reaches the optimization section where everything is focused on how to make Mac run faster by using only those tasks that are necessary.

Sawal hi jawab hai pdf free download. Explore the CleanMyMac X & you will know its potential as it’s been signed to boost your Mac speed by freeing up disk space.

2. CCleaner (Free; Premium version $19.95)

A quite popular & effective software to make Mac run faster is all set to free up disk space on your Mac. CCleaner is one of those tools that literally simplifies the process of how to clear disk space on Mac. With the simple interface & utmost efficiency, CCleaner has made its way to become the resolution for safe browsing. You always need to be well aware about not leaving any digital footprints and if you accidentally do, CCleaner helps you erase those search history or cookies so the details remain confidential.

Mac

Considered as one of the best tools to make Mac run faster, CCleaner keeps a close attention to your privacy aspect. Flushing away the unused or temp files that are of concern when it comes to creating space on Mac is something CCleaner is quite good at. Also, many of us don’t think of it as a storage-space-covering-content, but the deleted files (Recycle Bin) also takes up space that needs to be cleared to make space on Mac. Start exploring the CCleaner for Mac and you will be amazed to know how easily it’s freeing up space on the Mac without any hassle.

3. Dr. Cleaner (Free; Premium version $19.99)

As the name suggests, Dr. Cleaner is another addition to the list of the best software to make your Mac run faster & free up disk space. And I couldn’t agree more on the thought that Dr. Cleaner does it amazingly. Yeah!! Dr. Cleaner strongly believes in optimizing the whole device to a level where there is no space for unnecessary programs or files. Developed by Trend Micro Inc., the Dr. Cleaner tool is available in different languages including German, English, & Spanish.

When it comes to cleaning up all the junk on your Mac, Dr. Cleaner doesn’t miss any blind spots or leaves anything behind. Anything that seems unneeded for the Mac, Dr. Cleaner picks it up & puts it in the list of to-be-deleted items. And as soon as it starts cleaning up your Mac, automatically the system will experience freed up disk space. And after cleaning everything from unneeded items to unnecessary processes, your Mac will have free memory which eventually will make Mac run faster than ever before.

4. Drive Genius (Free; Professional Edition $299)

Just as the name suggests, when it comes to keeping your Mac drives clean & without any junk, Drive Genius is also an effective player. From a beginner to an expert, anyone can find his.her way to free up disk space easily, thanks to its simplest user interface. A complete MacOS monitoring software, Drive Genius gives you full control over your system. From problem resolution like malware detection to clone synchronization, everything gets covered under Drive Genius.

With over 18 powerful & useful features, Drive Genius is undoubtedly one of the most advanced software to make your Mac faster by freeing up disk space. Also, finding the duplicate files and defragmenting drives are a few features that will instantly boost up your PC speed in no time. There are many other reasons one must explore Drive Genius and one of them is that the tool runs drive testing constantly to let the user know about how the drive is performing.

5. Disk Drill (Free; Premium version $39.99)

Many of us are quite familiar with the Mac cleaning tool (Disk Drill) as it’s been in the game for quite some time. From being an excellent system cleaner to letting you know about all the alerts, Disk Drill works out quite good for your Mac. And when it comes to freeing up disk space on Mac, this tool is the perfect solution you are looking for. Disk Drill has been designed to keep majorly focused on recovering your lost data, however, Mac Cleanup is another feature where you will experience surprising things to clear disk space.

Among many useful features, Disk Drill helps you identify those files that are taking too much space. And the process gets followed by deleting or removing them out of the system to free up disk space. Eventually, you can use that much space for new files on your Mac and your system will start running faster than before. With Disk Drill, you get to know what’s eating up space on your system & it starts trashing away those duplicate or unneeded files that are covering up unnecessary space on the Mac.

6. DaisyDisk (Trial Version; Premium version $9.99)

How To Free Space On Mac

With the ultimate purpose of “get your space back”, the DaisyDisk is one of the highest rated Mac monitoring software. To answer your question of “What’s taking up so much space on my Mac”, it starts analysing your whole PC for the latest as well as older files. Since we all work on so many files by either creating them or downloading & in the end, there is a pile of those files that we haven’t opened for a while. And eventually, we will become alerted after getting the notification that the disk is almost full.

So in order to not experience those things on your Mac, download DaisyDisk & let this tool do its job by looking deep on your PC. Yeah!! In the easiest steps possible, DaisyDisk helps you analyse your disk in & out. After seeing the virtual interactive map, if you feel like any particular segment is covering up more space than expected, explore the area. And if you feel like the data doesn’t hold anything useful, delete the same then & there only. & you will see the real-time changes happening in front of you & this will free up disk space on your drive make your Mac run faster. Isn’t this amazing??

7. Easy Mac Care (Free; Premium version $49.95)

One of the best Mac optimization tools, Easy Mac Care helps you clean your whole system in the simplest way possible. In order to reclaim the already-occupied storage space, the Easy Mac Care has been designed to clean up disk space comprehensively. Also, just like other Mac clean up tools, Easy Mac Care helps you identify the duplicate files on your PC & flush away as early as possible. And keep yourself away from those online platforms where you might leave digital footprints.

Apart from those advanced features that help you know about the storage space and keeping it clean, Easy Mac Care also brings additional useful features. From deleting the unneeded large files from the Mac to flushing away the unwanted apps & caches from your system, the tool also takes care of junk & temp files as well. So before deleting any of those files in results, preview them thoroughly & then start deleting to free up disk space on the Mac.

8. AVG TuneUp (Free; Premium Version 10-Devices $79.99)

AVG is a quite popular name in the field of cleaning up your device, from Macbook to mobile devices. AVG TuneUp is one of those segments from AVG that’s been helping you get rid of junk & temp files from the system. Also, all those duplicate files including pictures, music, or other media gets cleaned up to remind you that you have got too much space that was covered with unnecessary contents all over the Mac.

After using this advanced & powerful Mac cleaning software, you will know that your system has got much more to use than expected. From identifying those hidden unneeded files narrowing down those bad quality pictures, everything will be out of your system in no time. AVG TuneUp also looks for those long-before-saved details including the log files, long-forgotten downloads, & caches stored on web browsers. If you are trying to clean your Mac then do it thoroughly so that every section of the PC is getting cleaned.

9. OnyX (Free)

Being one of the most multifunctional MacOS monitoring software, OnyX has been used to keep your Mac cleaner than ever before. From deleting caches to removing all those problematic content files, everything will be cleaned easily, thanks to OnyX. Also, OnyX strongly is a reliable application that believes in providing a clean interface to many tasks that would otherwise require complex commands to be typed using a command-line interface.

Also, kind of a warning from the MacOS cleaning up tool is that OnyX has specific versions dedicated for each major version of the operating system. So before starting to use the tool, please look for the specific version & download accordingly, instead of trying a non-compatible version. So without further ado, start using this multifunctional MacOS monitoring software & start freeing up disk space on your Mac so that it will work faster than before.

Free Up Disk Space on Mac to Run Faster

There are various reasons why your Mac is running slower than before & accordingly, you will start looking for different solutions as well. So instead of using multiple software to give your system a clean chit, start using the MacOS monitoring software as mentioned above. We have mentioned above the most advanced & powerful software to make your Mac run faster & free up disk space.

So start exploring every one of those Mac cleaning up tools & go with the one that’s working out best for you without any hassle.

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