- Free Disk Space Macbook Air
- How To Clear Disk Space On Mac
- How To Free Space On Mac Computer
- How To Clear Storage On Mac
- How To Free Space On Macbook
Backup the Mac computer with Time Machine. Check the available storage space on your Mac to ensure at least 30 GB available storage. Otherwise, you will need to remove some content from your Mac to clean up the storage space. If you don't have an idea how to clean up your Mac. So the best way to free up space on Mac is to start with this type of files. With just a few clicks you'll discover what's where and what's ripe for deletion. The best way to free up hard drive space is to get CleanMyMac X for free and wave goodbye to space-hogging files. Delete Large Files on your Mac. Instead of deleting a hundred small files and images, first of all, let.
Modern computers, including those made by Apple and known as 'Macs,' come standard with hard drives that boast huge amounts of space. A new iMac can easily have 500GB to 1TB of storage space. The average MacBook has about 250GB. That's a lot of space when you consider how far hard drives have come. However, even with that much available memory, given the size and scope of graphics programs and files, you may find that you need to know how to free up space on Mac.
The very first computers took up an entire room and had only about 5 MB hard drive space. And that's not a typo. Just 5 MB. That's smaller than most photo files today. However, these first machines weren't designed to keep data for the long run. They were created to compute numbers, to find the answers to numerical questions There wasn't a great need to store the information for later use. The first 'small' disk drives were 24 to 14 inches wide and held about 2 MB worth of data. At the time, no one could conceive of why you would need more space than that. In the 1960s, computers were used to run numbers for business or military applications, that was their limit. However, the next few decades changed things.
Now, we can fill up a 250GB hard drive in no time. Pictures, music, home videos, and other streaming content take up a lot of room. As Americans, we can take hundreds of pictures in one day. We need space to store these things, so we're filling up hard drives faster than it seems possible. If your Mac is full and you need more storage, this article will show you how to free up space on Mac.
The files that take up the most space on any computer are generally photo, music, and video files. This is why iTunes backups, storing family photos, and downloading movies can make your Mac slow down significantly. As you'll see below, it's a good idea to store your media on an external drive or back them up to the cloud to keep your Mac running efficiently.
Letting files piles up in the trash can is another way to use a lot of space and not realize it. Every time you delete something, it stays in the 'trash can' until it is emptied. Even if you delete a bunch of larger, media files, they're not gone if they're sitting in the trash can. This is an easy thing to forget, and it takes up a lot of space.
The most obvious sign that you need to free up space on your Mac is when it begins to run slowly. If your computer is taking a long time to open applications, to save documents, or to show your thumbnails, it's struggling. You may also find it needs to restart often or has the occasional error. Eventually, you may start getting warnings about the lack of space. When you see these things, it's time to do a thorough cleaning of your Mac to keep it running in top form. Now, let's look at how to free up space on Mac.
We're going to take a look at 10 easy tricks you can use to clean up and create space on your Mac. However, if you're not up to doing the work yourself and you'd rather leave the computer cleaning to professional, there are a couple of highly recommended programs that will do most of this for you. They are called CleanMyMac 3 and Gemini 2. They can both be purchased for $100 and you can use them over and over again. Using programs like this will guarantee you don't miss anything, but they can be costly. If you're not totally sold on them, they offer a free trial at:https://cleanmymac.macpaw.com. Now, let's look at how to free up space on Mac.
After you've used for a computer for a certain amount of time, you build up piles of old, unused files that are just sitting on your hard drive. It's easy to forget they're there or to have them get lost in the daily shuffle. You could go through and cull your files yourself, but this can take a long time. The easiest thing to do is to use an online app to locate files that are no longer in use and remove them.
Both PC and Mac have a version of the 'trash can.' It's called a 'trash can' on Mac and a 'Recycle Bin' on PC. Files are stored here when you delete them in case you need to restore them. To permanently delete the files, you need to empty the trash can. This is as simple as right-clicking on the 'trash can' icon and selecting 'empty trash.' However, other apps often have their own, separate trash cans. iPhoto, iMovie, and Mail have their own cans. To make sure you get all the trash emptied, go into these applications and right-click on their unique trash can to empty.
Anything you install on your Mac is taking up space. Most people have at least a few old applications that they no longer use. These apps are just taking up space that you could be using for other things. It's a good idea to go through your apps once in a while and purge things you no longer need. To remove apps, open the Finder, select Applications in the sidebar, and drag things you don't need into the trash can. Remember, to make sure everything is really gone you have to empty the trash can.
Backing up your files can be a good thing, but backing up your iPhone or iPad through iTunes can take up a huge amount of space. You may be able to free up about 200GB of space by removing these backup files. The safest way to delete these files is to use CleanMyMac because it clarifies which folders are storing what.
Most Macs have a bunch of temporary files you don't need. They just take up space without serving a purpose. Mac OS X will try to remove them, but you can find and remove more of them if you use an application designed to find them. The web browser has a built-in option that you can use to clear your browsing data. This will save you a little space but might cause you a headache. The files store data that help web pages load faster. If you delete the files, sites you visit often will load more slowly. Your Mac will rebuild the cache anyway. You can delete a lot of temporary files by going to the Finder and opening ~/Library/Caches. There are lots of folders there that can be deleted. If all else fails, you can use CleanMyMac to remove temporary files. It will not only help you delete unnecessary files, but it will clarify what those files are. Temporary files come back, so you'll have to do this regularly.
A great tool for examining your hard drive is Disk Inventory X. This app will scan the hard drive on your Mac and show you what files and folders are taking up the most space and give you an idea how to free up space on Mac. Delete what you don't need to clear up big chunks of space. If they are important files, consider moving them to external media to help your Mac run more efficiently. Make sure you don't accidentally delete any important system files. Focus on files in the directory /User/name.
Your Mac applications have files for every single language they support. This is so you can switch languages quickly at any moment. However, most people don't need that many other languages. These files are just using up space. To remove them, you can use a tool like CleanMyMac or something similar. The app Monolingual does the same thing.
MacOS has a built-in mail application. If you've had the same account for a while, it may have large attachments hanging out in it. Those may take up several GBs of space. It's a good idea to check them out and see what you can delete. You could also change your mail settings so attachments are not automatically downloaded. Then can save you some space. Other mail services like Gmail have settings where you can limit how many messages are synced so the attachments aren't downloaded.
Everything you have downloaded sits in your downloads folder, and it's an easy place to forget about. All you have to do is open Finder and then open the Downloads folder. You'll have to go through the list and decide what you don't need. Delete all of your unwanted files.
The Mac operating system has a new tool that will help clean out the junk on your Mac. To find it, go to the menu and choose 'About This Mac.' Go to the storage tab.
Use the Storage Tools in macOS High Sierra
The latest version of macOS Sierra has a new tool designed to show you how to free up space on Mac. Just go to the menu and choose 'About This Mac' and then flip over to the Storage tab. Here, you can change your settings to what makes sense for you. Some of your options are:
- Store you Desktop data in the iCloud to keep them from using up space
- Optimize Storage deletes movies and TV shows you've already watched
- Empty Trash Automatically
- Reduce Clutter finds and deletes large files you select
A slow computer can be very frustrating. However, before you call an IT professional to help you solve the problem, consider how to free up space on Mac yourself. Using the tips listed above, you may be able to clear out a lot of the stuff that's bogging down your Mac. You'll be surprised how much better it will run with just a thorough cleaning.
Today, in 2020, MacBooks are more spacious than ever. The new MacBook Air 2020 is confirmed to be shipped with a 256-GB hard drive. But no amount of storage seems to be enough as the ever-inflating digital media is taking over our hard drives. Cloud servers are only a partial answer to that. They aren't getting cheaper and consume insane amounts of the world's electricity. So if you want to take a load off your drive and help the planet, you should teach yourself a couple of storage-keeping tricks. Let's go.
That's the bad news. Now for the good. There are several simple ways to fix the low disk space problem, including one we're especially fond of: wiping out junk files with a cleaner app. We recommend CleanMyMac X — it removes system junk and empties multiple trashes to free up disk space on your Mac. You can download it now and get cleaning right away, or take a look at some DIY ways first.
What's causing low disk space on your Mac?
Before you begin to free up disk space, let's identify what's taking it up. From the Apple Menu in the upper left-hand corner of your screen, select About this Mac and then click the storage tab in the window that opens. You'll get a handy, color-coded graph that looks like this:
In the above example, you can see that apps, audio files and 'other' (for details on what this 'other' category consists of, look here) have commandeered most of the disk's available space.
Free Disk Space Macbook Air
It's nice to see what's stored on your Mac, and even nicer to be able to browse the folders that contain the files themselves. Now that you've identified what's on your drive, let's look up at freeing up some space.
How to increase disk space on your Mac
How do i get smart switch on my mac. There are several options here, so let's go through a few.
1. Move large, old files off your Mac
Often times the files that end up taking the most space are tucked away in 'cold storage' on your computer. These are big movies, photos or the like that you rarely look at, but can't part with, either. In this case, archiving the files and moving them to an external drive is a good way to free up storage space on your Mac.
Locating huge neglected files can be a pain, but it gets super easy with CleanMyMac app. It has a dedicated Large & Old File finder. With it you can find some massive documents and sort them by type, last used, and more criteria.
You can download the free version of CleanMyMac X here. How to win at craps table.
As the name suggests, it finds files that occupy a lot of space on your disk, but haven't been opened for a long time. You can quickly review these files right in the app and decide which ones you want to archive. to see how it works, it's a really handy feature if you have a lot of heavy stuff piled up.
2. Uninstall unused applications
If you're like me, you often try an app '.just to see what it does'. While that's fun, it frequently results in a slew of forgotten apps. It's a good practice to set a reminder to review your Applications folder and clean out the ones you no longer use. Just note, however, that simply dragging an app into your Mac's trash doesn't eliminate all of its related files.
CleanMyMac's App Uninstaller, on the other hand, leaves no leftover pieces behind, which means more available space on your Mac. When told to delete an app, CleanMyMac X finds every related document and file, no matter where it has been tucked away, and marks it for deletion.
And speaking of setting up a reminder, CleanMyMac's scheduler will handle that task for you, too. Just tell it how often you'd like to be prompted to give your Mac a good cleaning and leave the rest to the app.
3. Take out your Trash
Review your Trash bin's contents one last time before you empty it. How to use transcend hard drive on mac. Click on your Trash and click the Empty button that is found to the right of the pane.
Tip: Use Command + Option + Delete to delete any folder immediately bypassing Trash.
How To Clear Disk Space On Mac
4. Clean up the Downloads folder
Files love to hide in your Mac's Downloads folder. Old disk images, random photos, unused extensions, ZIP files… they're in there, not making a sound. Hiding. ?lick the Downloads stack in the OS X Dock and browse what's sitting in there, wasting space on your disk. Anything that's unnecessary can be dragged to the Trash.
5. Delete duplicate folders and files
How many times do we copy or download things twice? Like many users, I would prefer to have a backup twin of my important files. But that often ends up in my files being quadrupled…or what do they call a 4th or 5th copy of the same folder?
To effectively remove duplicate files and make space on Mac, you can use Gemini 2. This is how this app looks.
You can download this little duplicate finder here.
Gemini 2 analyzes potential duplicates by many criteria, not just the name of the file. It searches for:
- Duplicate folders
- Duplicate movies
- Similar images
6. Learn to use Optimized Storage
How To Free Space On Mac Computer
Optimized Storage is the built-in feature of the macOS. It's a sorting algorithm that shows different categories of files on your Mac for review and removal.
Click on the 🍎Apple Menu > About This Mac > Storage
Choose 'Manage…'
By far, the most-space demanding of your files will be Documents.
Using the quick tabs above you will decide what is there you can toss away.
Make sure to also check Recommendations (on top of the list). There are a couple more space-saving options there.
7. Delete your Desktop screenshots
Mac's Desktop is where you keep screenshots by default. macOS Mojave and its successor, macOS Catalina have a tool called 'Stacks' that organizes your Desktop into clearly labeled folders. One of such folders will be Screenshots which you can later remove in one sweep.
How To Clear Storage On Mac
- Go to your desktop (press F3, or Fn + F11 if you use a TouchBar Mac)
- Right-click somewhere in the middle of your Desktop.
- Select 'Use Stacks'
How To Free Space On Macbook
Now you should see the Screenshots folder with all your screengrabs neatly stuffed inside.
Drag this folder to the Trash and empty it.
8. Get rid of system junk
It's not just your files that are hogging disk space — it's also useless system files like logs, cache, unused binaries, old iOS backups and installers, and what not. Fortunately, CleanMyMac can find and eliminate them all to make low disk space a thing of the past, at last.
After you've used for a computer for a certain amount of time, you build up piles of old, unused files that are just sitting on your hard drive. It's easy to forget they're there or to have them get lost in the daily shuffle. You could go through and cull your files yourself, but this can take a long time. The easiest thing to do is to use an online app to locate files that are no longer in use and remove them.
Both PC and Mac have a version of the 'trash can.' It's called a 'trash can' on Mac and a 'Recycle Bin' on PC. Files are stored here when you delete them in case you need to restore them. To permanently delete the files, you need to empty the trash can. This is as simple as right-clicking on the 'trash can' icon and selecting 'empty trash.' However, other apps often have their own, separate trash cans. iPhoto, iMovie, and Mail have their own cans. To make sure you get all the trash emptied, go into these applications and right-click on their unique trash can to empty.
Anything you install on your Mac is taking up space. Most people have at least a few old applications that they no longer use. These apps are just taking up space that you could be using for other things. It's a good idea to go through your apps once in a while and purge things you no longer need. To remove apps, open the Finder, select Applications in the sidebar, and drag things you don't need into the trash can. Remember, to make sure everything is really gone you have to empty the trash can.
Backing up your files can be a good thing, but backing up your iPhone or iPad through iTunes can take up a huge amount of space. You may be able to free up about 200GB of space by removing these backup files. The safest way to delete these files is to use CleanMyMac because it clarifies which folders are storing what.
Most Macs have a bunch of temporary files you don't need. They just take up space without serving a purpose. Mac OS X will try to remove them, but you can find and remove more of them if you use an application designed to find them. The web browser has a built-in option that you can use to clear your browsing data. This will save you a little space but might cause you a headache. The files store data that help web pages load faster. If you delete the files, sites you visit often will load more slowly. Your Mac will rebuild the cache anyway. You can delete a lot of temporary files by going to the Finder and opening ~/Library/Caches. There are lots of folders there that can be deleted. If all else fails, you can use CleanMyMac to remove temporary files. It will not only help you delete unnecessary files, but it will clarify what those files are. Temporary files come back, so you'll have to do this regularly.
A great tool for examining your hard drive is Disk Inventory X. This app will scan the hard drive on your Mac and show you what files and folders are taking up the most space and give you an idea how to free up space on Mac. Delete what you don't need to clear up big chunks of space. If they are important files, consider moving them to external media to help your Mac run more efficiently. Make sure you don't accidentally delete any important system files. Focus on files in the directory /User/name.
Your Mac applications have files for every single language they support. This is so you can switch languages quickly at any moment. However, most people don't need that many other languages. These files are just using up space. To remove them, you can use a tool like CleanMyMac or something similar. The app Monolingual does the same thing.
MacOS has a built-in mail application. If you've had the same account for a while, it may have large attachments hanging out in it. Those may take up several GBs of space. It's a good idea to check them out and see what you can delete. You could also change your mail settings so attachments are not automatically downloaded. Then can save you some space. Other mail services like Gmail have settings where you can limit how many messages are synced so the attachments aren't downloaded.
Everything you have downloaded sits in your downloads folder, and it's an easy place to forget about. All you have to do is open Finder and then open the Downloads folder. You'll have to go through the list and decide what you don't need. Delete all of your unwanted files.
The Mac operating system has a new tool that will help clean out the junk on your Mac. To find it, go to the menu and choose 'About This Mac.' Go to the storage tab.
Use the Storage Tools in macOS High Sierra
The latest version of macOS Sierra has a new tool designed to show you how to free up space on Mac. Just go to the menu and choose 'About This Mac' and then flip over to the Storage tab. Here, you can change your settings to what makes sense for you. Some of your options are:
- Store you Desktop data in the iCloud to keep them from using up space
- Optimize Storage deletes movies and TV shows you've already watched
- Empty Trash Automatically
- Reduce Clutter finds and deletes large files you select
A slow computer can be very frustrating. However, before you call an IT professional to help you solve the problem, consider how to free up space on Mac yourself. Using the tips listed above, you may be able to clear out a lot of the stuff that's bogging down your Mac. You'll be surprised how much better it will run with just a thorough cleaning.
Today, in 2020, MacBooks are more spacious than ever. The new MacBook Air 2020 is confirmed to be shipped with a 256-GB hard drive. But no amount of storage seems to be enough as the ever-inflating digital media is taking over our hard drives. Cloud servers are only a partial answer to that. They aren't getting cheaper and consume insane amounts of the world's electricity. So if you want to take a load off your drive and help the planet, you should teach yourself a couple of storage-keeping tricks. Let's go.
That's the bad news. Now for the good. There are several simple ways to fix the low disk space problem, including one we're especially fond of: wiping out junk files with a cleaner app. We recommend CleanMyMac X — it removes system junk and empties multiple trashes to free up disk space on your Mac. You can download it now and get cleaning right away, or take a look at some DIY ways first.
What's causing low disk space on your Mac?
Before you begin to free up disk space, let's identify what's taking it up. From the Apple Menu in the upper left-hand corner of your screen, select About this Mac and then click the storage tab in the window that opens. You'll get a handy, color-coded graph that looks like this:
In the above example, you can see that apps, audio files and 'other' (for details on what this 'other' category consists of, look here) have commandeered most of the disk's available space.
Free Disk Space Macbook Air
It's nice to see what's stored on your Mac, and even nicer to be able to browse the folders that contain the files themselves. Now that you've identified what's on your drive, let's look up at freeing up some space.
How to increase disk space on your Mac
How do i get smart switch on my mac. There are several options here, so let's go through a few.
1. Move large, old files off your Mac
Often times the files that end up taking the most space are tucked away in 'cold storage' on your computer. These are big movies, photos or the like that you rarely look at, but can't part with, either. In this case, archiving the files and moving them to an external drive is a good way to free up storage space on your Mac.
Locating huge neglected files can be a pain, but it gets super easy with CleanMyMac app. It has a dedicated Large & Old File finder. With it you can find some massive documents and sort them by type, last used, and more criteria.
You can download the free version of CleanMyMac X here. How to win at craps table.
As the name suggests, it finds files that occupy a lot of space on your disk, but haven't been opened for a long time. You can quickly review these files right in the app and decide which ones you want to archive. to see how it works, it's a really handy feature if you have a lot of heavy stuff piled up.
2. Uninstall unused applications
If you're like me, you often try an app '.just to see what it does'. While that's fun, it frequently results in a slew of forgotten apps. It's a good practice to set a reminder to review your Applications folder and clean out the ones you no longer use. Just note, however, that simply dragging an app into your Mac's trash doesn't eliminate all of its related files.
CleanMyMac's App Uninstaller, on the other hand, leaves no leftover pieces behind, which means more available space on your Mac. When told to delete an app, CleanMyMac X finds every related document and file, no matter where it has been tucked away, and marks it for deletion.
And speaking of setting up a reminder, CleanMyMac's scheduler will handle that task for you, too. Just tell it how often you'd like to be prompted to give your Mac a good cleaning and leave the rest to the app.
3. Take out your Trash
Review your Trash bin's contents one last time before you empty it. How to use transcend hard drive on mac. Click on your Trash and click the Empty button that is found to the right of the pane.
Tip: Use Command + Option + Delete to delete any folder immediately bypassing Trash.
How To Clear Disk Space On Mac
4. Clean up the Downloads folder
Files love to hide in your Mac's Downloads folder. Old disk images, random photos, unused extensions, ZIP files… they're in there, not making a sound. Hiding. ?lick the Downloads stack in the OS X Dock and browse what's sitting in there, wasting space on your disk. Anything that's unnecessary can be dragged to the Trash.
5. Delete duplicate folders and files
How many times do we copy or download things twice? Like many users, I would prefer to have a backup twin of my important files. But that often ends up in my files being quadrupled…or what do they call a 4th or 5th copy of the same folder?
To effectively remove duplicate files and make space on Mac, you can use Gemini 2. This is how this app looks.
You can download this little duplicate finder here.
Gemini 2 analyzes potential duplicates by many criteria, not just the name of the file. It searches for:
- Duplicate folders
- Duplicate movies
- Similar images
6. Learn to use Optimized Storage
How To Free Space On Mac Computer
Optimized Storage is the built-in feature of the macOS. It's a sorting algorithm that shows different categories of files on your Mac for review and removal.
Click on the 🍎Apple Menu > About This Mac > Storage
Choose 'Manage…'
By far, the most-space demanding of your files will be Documents.
Using the quick tabs above you will decide what is there you can toss away.
Make sure to also check Recommendations (on top of the list). There are a couple more space-saving options there.
7. Delete your Desktop screenshots
Mac's Desktop is where you keep screenshots by default. macOS Mojave and its successor, macOS Catalina have a tool called 'Stacks' that organizes your Desktop into clearly labeled folders. One of such folders will be Screenshots which you can later remove in one sweep.
How To Clear Storage On Mac
- Go to your desktop (press F3, or Fn + F11 if you use a TouchBar Mac)
- Right-click somewhere in the middle of your Desktop.
- Select 'Use Stacks'
How To Free Space On Macbook
Now you should see the Screenshots folder with all your screengrabs neatly stuffed inside.
Drag this folder to the Trash and empty it.
8. Get rid of system junk
It's not just your files that are hogging disk space — it's also useless system files like logs, cache, unused binaries, old iOS backups and installers, and what not. Fortunately, CleanMyMac can find and eliminate them all to make low disk space a thing of the past, at last.
System junk is comprised of:
User cache files
Application cache
Broken downloads
Unused .DMG installers
As you can see, the 'User cache' category alone can recover about 3 GB of space. https://tripharinan1974.mystrikingly.com/blog/istumbler-103-43. So the best way to free up space on Mac is to start with this type of files.
With just a few clicks you'll discover what's where and what's ripe for deletion. The best way to free up hard drive space is to get CleanMyMac X for free and wave goodbye to space-hogging files. Don't worry. You won't miss them. Hopefully, you liked our tips on how to clear disk space on Mac — drop by for more Mac housekeeping tips😉
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