Emptying trash on Mac will completely remove them and free up the disk space. However, Mac OS has multiple trash cans, so you may need to empty more than one. Purgeable space mainly consists of local snapshots which your Mac makes periodically. It also contains sleep images, caches and temporary system files. DaisyDisk can locate and delete these files instantly. When you complete a scan of your hard drive with DaisyDisk, you'll see a sector called 'Hidden space'. Option-Space also sometimes lets you type a space character when the spacebar would otherwise do something else, such as selecting the first item in a folder instead of activating Quicklook in the Leopard Finder (I think this hint was posted here). Ditto for selecting playlists in iTunes instead of play/pausing (I don't know if that has been. This serving of macaroni and cheese is typical of Shuttle-era menu choices. Astronauts choose their meals several months before flight from a list of hundreds of food items. As there is no onboard refrigerator or freezer, most foods are processed for storage at room temperature. In simple terms, a cache is a type of temporary files that enable the macOS Big Sur to operate efficiently. There are various types of cache files. They include Browser cache, System cache; and User cache. Although these caches are helpful, they are temporary and can usurp a large space on your macOS disk.
How to clean up your macOS or Mac OS X hard disk drive?
SSD (Solid State Drives) are very fast, stable, and offer great performance. Unfortunately, as compared to HDDs (Hard Disk Drives), the capacity-to-cost ratio is not so good. There are, however, methods to free up hard drives to obtain additional capacity for computer systems, including the macOS. None of these methods can expand the default disk capacity, but in some cases, even several extra gigabytes might help. You can also consider moving your data to an external drive or a cloud storage to free up storage.
Certain data and files are important and you will not want to delete or move them, however, some files are redundant and can be removed without consequences. If you know which files you can safely delete, you can free up this space. Although the Windows operating system is known for inefficient clutter, the macOS also produces unnecessary files that take valuable disk space. In this article, we describe some methods to clean macOS disk space.
Table of Contents:
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Inspect the drive to ensure that the system is running out of free space
Some issues relating to lack of storage might be difficult to determine, and can even be due to fake error logs. So, first ensure that the system is in fact running out of free space. To check available space on a hard drive, there are two methods: 1) access the Apple menu and select About this Mac, or; 2) choose the Storage tab. More detailed information can be found within the Disk Utility feature, which is located in the Applications folder under Utilities. Once Disk Utility is launched, select a drive connected to the Mac.
Begin by cleaning Trash
Once you are sure that the drive is actually full, the next step is to simply clean the computer (as if you were cleaning your home: you empty the trash). Open the Finder menu and choose Empty Trash. Bear in mind that some applications such as Mail, iMovie, iPhoto, and others, have their own Trash. To clean those apps, follow the steps below:
- Mail: click Mailbox, choose Erase Deleted Items, select In All Account and Mailbox, and finally click Erase Junk. Alternatively, to avoid permanently losing your files, choose to archive your emails by following the steps below.
- iPhoto: click on iPhoto from the menu at top of the screen and choose Empty iPhoto Trash.
- iMovie: click on File from the menu on top of your screen, select Move to Trash or File, and then choose Move Rejected Clips to Trash
Clear unnecessary Downloads
The Downloads folder stores all files downloaded from the Internet. Often, these are forgotten after use and continue to use storage space. This is an excellent area to address when looking to free up space on your drive. Delete all redundant Download files. Open Finder. In the sidebar, choose the Downloads folder. Disk image (.dmg) files commonly occupy most unused storage space.
Remove unused applications
Unused apps in isolation might not take up a great deal of space, but the amount of hard drive storage used by them collectively can be significant. Furthermore, removing apps on Macs is simple, especially those installed through App Store. To delete them, open Launchpad and click and hold the icon of the program you wish to remove. When the icon starts to animate, click the delete (x) button. To delete any other app, drag the icon to Trash, and then empty Trash.
Make space without losing any data
The best way to gain extra space on the Mac is to move non-executable files such as photos, movies, documents and any large files, to additional external storage, for example, an external drive, USB drive, DVD/CD drive, or cloud storage.
Compress large items
Another method to obtain some free space is to compress files. Compressed files remain on the computer, but occupy less space. On the other hand this can be less efficient than deleting or moving files to external storage. To find the largest files on the drive, open Finder, from the sidebar select the Device (the label you provided), and then type criteria into the search field. When the location of your search appears (for example This Mac), click the add (+) button, click the first drop-down menu, and choose Other. Find the logical size option, enable it, and then click OK.
Choose the 'is greater than' condition and type the amount (i.e. 50 Mb). To compress items, right-click or hold control and left-click it, and then select the Compress 'name' option.
If you are using an earlier version of macOS, click Go from the Finder menu, select Home, choose File, click Find, and then open the Find menu. Find the File size option. Choose the 'is greater than' condition and type the amount (i.e. 50 Mb). To compress items, right-click or hold control and left-click it, and then select the Compress 'name' option. To archive your emails, open the Mail application, select a folder you wish to archive (e.g. Inbox), drag it to the desktop. The mbox folder will appear on your desktop, right-click it or use the control and click combination, and select Compress 'Inbox.mbox'. Now you can delete your messages from Mail.
Delete unnecessary temporary files, system caches, and logs
System stores a number of System logs and temporary files - deleting them will increase the available space on your drive. To clean the system from this type of file, we recommend Combo Cleaner or other third-party applications. Laserino mac os.
Clear the browser cache storage
Browsers store website data such as cookies and cache information. Cleaning these hidden files might free up storage space. To clean up Safari, simply click Safari on the menu at the top of the screen and select Clear History. Browsers such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox can be cleaned in a similar way.
Video Showing how to obtain free space on your macOS or Mac OS X drive:
What is taking up space on my Mac?
There comes a time in every computer's life when it is full of files and programs, slowing it down so much that its owner searches for an article such as this in order to cure it of these ailments (before it gets thrown out the window!).
Worry not, you're in the right place. This article will take you through 8 steps which will free up space on your Mac - removing unneeded files and clearing space for the stuff you actually need.
No matter if you're tech savvy or not, anyone can use these tips to breathe new life into their Mac.
To find out how much space is available on your Mac:
- Open the Apple menu (the Apple icon in the top-left corner of your screen).
- Click 'About this Mac'.
- Click 'Storage'.
This overview will show what categories are taking up the most space, as well as how much space is available on your Mac.
The 8 sections below address the biggest culprits of space-hogging on your Mac and how to clean them up.
Jump straight to:
1. Mac OS Storage Management
The first port of call when making space on your Mac is to see what tools your Mac offers you for such a task.
If your Mac is running macOS Sierra or later, it has great built-in tools for managing files and optimizing storage. To access these tools, click the apple icon in the top-left corner of your screen > About this Mac > Storage > Manage…
As you can see this is also how to check storage on Mac. The tool shows a breakdown of the storage space taken up on your Mac by media such as Apps, Books, Photos and others.
Let's have a look at each tool to see how it can help:
- Store in iCloud: Quickly store files (Documents, Photos and Messages) from your Mac in iCloud. When considering how to clear space on Mac, getting rid of files quickly springs to mind- However, if you need to keep the files, you can just move them to an external hard drive, or into iCloud!
Enabling this option will allow your Mac to automatically save space when it's needed.
This is great as you'll be able to access your files on any device using your Apple ID. However, if you have a large number of files, you'll need to purchase more storage space than your allotted free amount (5GB)- obviously, depending on the amount of space you need, this can quickly become an expensive option.
- Optimize Storage: For those who download and watch lots of movies and TV, this option can save you a lot of space and a lot of time. Enabling this option will allow your Mac to automatically remove such files (which can be HUGE depending on their length and quality) once you have watched them.
Empty Trash Automatically: Similar to the above, enabling this option allows the automatic removal of files, saving you time and space without having to keep on top of it manually. This will remove items in your Trash after 30 days of them being there. Be aware that once files have been removed from your Trash, you will not be able to retrieve them.
Side note: Many points in this article will advise the removal of unwanted files from your Mac. However, these files are not completely removed from your computer until you empty the Trash (the space is not regained until they are removed from Trash). You can manually empty it by clicking the Trash Can icon in your dock, then clicking 'Empty'.
Reduce Clutter: Find large and unused files on your Mac and delete them from your system. You'll need to delete them manually, but it's well worth it if you can remove files that you do not use.
Navigate to files that you don't need using the 'Large Files' or 'Downloads' sorters, then hit 'Delete.'. Note that this action will bypass sending the item to Trash, so it's permanent.
If you're finding unwanted files using the 'File Browser' tab, you'll need to right-click > 'Move To Trash'.
2. Find Duplicate Files Mac
The quickest way to free up space on your Mac is to automatically remove files that you don't need. Without realizing it, you can accumulate gigabytes worth of duplicate files and folders on your computer.
Social distancing (mudlee) mac os. The problem is that it can take so much time to find and delete these duplicates that people do not bother to do it even if they want to.
Luckily, you can use an app like Duplicate Sweeper to do this for you.
Duplicate Sweeper: Easily scan your Mac for duplicate files and photos. You can then select and remove duplicates based on your preferences. In this way you can keep your newest version of files and remove all duplicates with a click of a button.
In the example below, I was able to remove over 6000 files with one-click. This freed up 2.3 GB of space on my MacBook. Imagine manually going through and comparing 6000 files without Duplicate Sweeper. it would have taken forever!
For more information about Duplicate Sweeper, or to download the free trial:
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3. Unused Apps- Uninstall Programs on Mac
One of the biggest areas you should consider when looking at how to free up space on Mac is your Apps. Maybe unsurprisingly, apps on your Mac can be some of the largest files on your computer. Removing apps that you don't use can free up a huge amount of space. Let's list your apps by their files size:
Open Finder, then open the Applications section. Display the items as a list (using the button with 4 horizontal lines), then click the ‘Size' header to reorder your applications by size. You can then work down the list and decide which applications you don't use. Simply drag an application from the list into the Trash Can on your Dock to remove them.
Remember that you'll need to empty your Trash Can to completely remove the applications from your Mac.
4. Clean up media and downloads
The quality of media like photo and video is constantly improving. Unfortunately, this usually means that the corresponding files are bigger than they used to be.
For this reason, your saved media could be a great place to free up some of that precious storage on your Mac.
Open Finder and look through your Pictures, Movies and Music folders. If there is media there that you don't want, select it and move it to Trash to get rid of later. If you prefer to delete this media from the associated apps like Photos and iMovie, see how to empty their trash.
It is also recommended to check your Downloads file for unwanted files too.
This folder can receive copious amounts of files downloaded from multiple sources. Many of these files you may have only needed to read or use once.
You can get to your Downloads folder by opening a Finder window and clicking the 'Downloads' header.
Again, select whatever files you don't need, then right-click > Move to Trash/Bin.
Extra: Zipped / Archived files
If you receive a zipped file (with the .zip extension), opening it will unzip the file or folder and create the files in a non-zipped form.
This will create files that you can use, but it will not remove the (now unneeded) zip file. If you've already unzipped, you can delete the .zip file.
On the flip side, you can use file archiving to compress files or folders that you don't use regularly.
Say you have a folder of documents that you only need to save for safekeeping; right-click the folder in Finder and click 'Compress [file/folder name]'. This will compress the files and create a .zip file.
Don't forget to delete the original, uncompressed folder in order to save the space!
5. Delete iTunes backups
Depending on the number of files, photos, messages etc that you have stored on your iPhone, iPod or iPad, it's backup on your Mac can be huge.
Keeping backups of your devices is a good idea. If something was to happen to your device, your data can be restored to it (or another device) using your backup. However, these backup files can be massive, and you may never need them! For this reason, consider backing up your devices to iCloud instead – freeing up space on your Mac.
To set your device to backup to iCloud, go to Settings > (your name) > iCloud > iCloud Backup.
To initiate a backup, connect your device to a power source and also to a Wi-Fi network. Lastly, ensure that your device screen is locked and that you have enough free space in iCloud to store the backup.
How to delete backups on Mac - You can also delete the backups which you already have stored on your Mac. To do this, open iTunes and go to iTunes > Preferences > Devices. If you don't need the backups in the list, select and delete them!
Find out: where are iTunes backups stored?
Alternatively, if you don't want to use iCloud for backing up your data, or if you only need certain data from your backups, you could use iBackup Extractor. This handy tool allows you to access and browse your backups, and extract any important photos, messages etc. that you need. You can save this data to your computer, then delete the backup from iTunes as seen above!
6. How to Delete Temporary Files on Mac
Some of the most common questions asked are 'how to clear cache on mac' and 'how to delete cookies on mac'. Well, let's answer those for you!
Temporary and cache are files that are stored locally in order to speed up processes. For example, images from a website that you visited can be cached, so that when you visit the page again, you don't have to wait to download the images again, they are simply pulled in from the cache. That's great for processes that you use regularly, but without care, your temporary and cached files can build up and eat away at your Mac's performance.
Let's see how to clear cache on mac – Open Finder > Go > hold ‘option' and click ‘Library' > Caches. Select and delete any cache files and folders that you don't need to save space!
7. Taking out the Trash
Deleting files on your Mac usually only moves them to your Trash Can (or Bin).
This is great, because if you 'delete' something by accident, you can restore it to its original location - no harm done.
However, if you are culling files on your Mac to make space, you may wonder why you are not gaining storage after clicking delete.
To permanently delete files from the Mac, you'll need to empty your Trash Can. To do this, simply click the Trash Can (or Bin) icon in your Dock.
Here, you can review or restore files in your Trash/Bin.
To permanently delete all the files in your bin, click Empty. You'll be asked if you're sure, and to confirm the permanent deletion of the files.
Deleting files from Photos, iMovie and Mail apps.
Generally, you'll be able to use the steps above to permanently delete files. However, some apps have their own way to manage 'deleted' files.
As such, you'll need to empty trash cans in individual apps to ensure that files are fully deleted.
An example of this can be seen in the Photos app:
Criminal tail mac os. Click the 'Recently Deleted' header to access the trash in the Photos app.
After 'deleting' photos from the app, the files can remain in this section for up to 40 days before being automatically deleted.
If you are sure you'd like to permanently delete these photos, click 'Delete All' to remove them from your hard drive.
You can use similar steps to empty trash for other apps like iMovie and Mail.
8. Move files into external storage
The majority of the methods above cover how to delete unwanted files to gain space. But what you if want to keep your files?
If you need more space on your Mac, but deleting your files is not an option, you may want to consider investing in external storage. Free slot apps that pay real money.
You can purchase external storage drives pretty cheap nowadays.
The way this works is that you connect your external drive with your Mac via USB cable. The drive then pops up as a Location on your Mac:
You can then drag files from your Mac onto your external drive, or cut/paste them into specific folders on your drive.
Takeaways
These are the most effective steps to make the most of the available space on your Mac in our experience.
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There's a lot of information above, but this is not an exhaustive list of everything you can do to clear space on your Mac. We hope that you now have the tools that you need to breathe new life into your Mac or MacBook.
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Happy spring cleaning!
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