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How to Free Some Disk Space on a Mac Computer

As long as the system drive is about 80% full, you Mac will slow down considerably. There are numbers of third-party utilities to clean unnecessary files automatically, but quite often they are commercial. In today’s article, I’ll show you how to clean your Mac’s system drive manually.

How to Free Some Disk Space on a Mac Computer

The amount of free space on a Mac system drive may affect its performance a lot. Over time, it decreases, and your computer starts to become sluggish. However, there are certain ways to fix the problem.

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MAC Can’t Detect an External Drive

MAC Can’t Detect an External Drive

Method 1. How to find and remove big files quickly

The first method to gain more disk space is to remove unnecessary files.

Often users download big files from the Internet, and over time they tend to forget about the files they don’t use anymore. If this is your case, the first step should be to clean the downloads folder. Here’s how you search for big files.

Use the search feature to find and remove files quickly:

  • Open Finder and go to the home folder (Shift + Сommand + H). Then press the key shortcut Cmnd + F to open the search window.

    Finder: Shift + Сommand + H / Cmnd + F
  • Click on the first drop-down list and choose Other.

    Finder: Shift + Сommand + H / Cmnd + F/ Other
  • Check the box next to File Size.

    Check the box next to File Size
  • In the next drop-down list, choose Is greater than. Change the file size to 100 MB.

    In the next drop-down list, choose “Is greater than”
    Change the file size to 100 MB.
  • Now select everything you don’t need any more and click Move to Bin.

    Move unnecessary files to Recycle Bin

In the same way, you can remove any files you have not used for a long time:

  • Instead of searching for file size, choose Last opened date.

    Instead of searching for file size, choose “Last opened date”
  • Now select Before and change the date to a year ago.

    Select Before and change the date to which was a year ago
  • Delete unnecessary files.

    In the same way, you can clean the Desktop.

    After everything was removed, empty the Bin (right-click – Empty Bin).

    Empty the Bin (right-click – Empty Bin)

Method 2. How to check disk size on Mac

If you did step one, but didn’t gain much space, check the storage data: System SettingsGeneralStorage.

Check the storage data: System Settings - General - Storage

Looking at the categories, you can see what’s taking up most space on your system drive.

Storage: what’s taking up most space on the system drive

You can see what’s taking up most space on your system drive (Documents, Downloads and Unsupported apps). From this menu, you can safely remove the stuff you don’t need anymore. Just select a file and click Delete. Then confirm the action by clicking Delete one more time.

See what big files take up disk space

To view a file, double-click on it to open it in Finder, or click Show in Finder.

To remove a file from Finder, right-click on it and choose Move to Bin. To remove a file without using the Bin – press the key shortcut Cmnd + Alt + Delete.

To remove a file from Finder, right-click on it and choose Move to Bin

When files end up in the Bin, they will still take up disk space, so the Bin should be emptied regularly.

To do it, right-click on the Bin and select Empty Bin.

Be careful, though: when it’s emptied, all files in the Bin will be erased, and they can’t be recovered unless you use a specialized software tool.

Also, this menu shows you how much disk space is occupied by music, apps, iOS files, the operating system and its system data.

To view a particular category, click on the i button. This is where you can decide which items you don’t need so they can be removed to free up disk space.

To view a particular category, click on the i button

In addition, when the system drive is almost full, Apple will offer a few ways to save disk space. If there are any recommendations to reduce the used storage space, you will see them here under the histogram. These may include Store in iCloud, Optimize Storage, and Empty Bin automatically.

Store in iCloud, Optimize Storage, and Empty Bin automatically

As you can see, system files can’t be cleaned, but some part of unnecessary files – the so-called junk files – are just among system files, though.

Method 3. Clean junk files

Some users claim that such junk files can slow down a Mac. Obsolete files, browser cache, app localizations, and old backups.

Removing system junk files manually is a long process since all files need to be found first. All you can do manually is removing old Time Machine backups or clean browser cache in the settings.

However, you can use a free utility – CleanMyMac X – to assist you. Download it from Appstore to your Mac.

CleanMyMac X

Then go to the tab System Junk on the side panel.

CleanMyMac X: System Junk

After you start the scan, click Review Details to see what the app has found, and then hit Clean.

CleanMyMac X: Review Details - Clean

If you don’t feel like using any third-party apps, let’s see how to clean various stuff manually.

Method 4. How to clean browser cache

When you use Internet actively, the system drive gets filled with all kinds of temporary files. These include browsing history and links to websites you have visited.

In your Safari browser, open Settings and go to the Advanced tab.

Check the box next to Show features for web developers.

Safari: Show features for web developers

After that, go to Develop menu and choose Empty Caches.

Safari: Empty Caches

This is how you can remove unnecessary browser files and free up some disk space on your system drive.

Method 5. Remove media files

Users often keep various photos and videos on their Mac, which quickly fills the disk to the brim and creates a disk space problem. In this case, the best way out is to store them in iCloud or on an external drive.

To move your photos to iCloud, open the main Apple menu – About This MacMore InfoStorage Settings.

Apple menu - About This Mac - More Info - Storage Settings

Click Store in iCloud and choose what exactly should go there. After that, hit Store in iCloud one more time.

Click Store in iCloud and choose what exactly should go there

The free iCloud plan lets you store up to 5 GB of data. If you have more stuff, you can keep it on a removable drive.

To move files to an external storage device, open FinderGoHome.

Finder – Go – Home

Let’s select a folder – for example, Pictures – and copy it to your external drive.

After that, you’ll be able to remove it from your system drive to free disk space.

Method 6. Optimize your storage

Now let’s get back to system recommendations and optimize the storage. If you enable this option, it will prevent the disk from being clogged with junk files.

Optimize your storage

To get things started, hit Optimize in the storage settings.

Optimize your storage: Optimize

Method 7. Empty Bin automatically

When files are sent to the Bin, they accumulate there, and unless you remove them from time to time, their total size can become immense. If you don’t remember to empty the Bin regularly, you can have it emptied automatically.

Click Turn On to make sure that all items that have been in the Bin for more than 30 days will be deleted automatically.

Empty Bin automatically

Method 8.Uninstall unnecessary apps

One more method to free some disk space is to remove the apps you don’t use and their remaining files.

To delete an app, open FinderApplications.

Right-click on an item you want to delete – Move to Bin. It will be uninstalled. To have all disk space back, empty the Bin.

Uninstall unnecessary apps

Some macOS apps have application setting and support files which can exist in various locations across your Mac. These can only be cleaned with third-party utilities.

Method 9. Delete iPhone backups

If you store iPhone backups on your Mac, you can free some disk space by removing older items.

Open FinderGoGo to folder.

Finder - Go - Go to folder

Insert this path:

~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

Finder - Go - Go to folder

Hit the Return key, then send the folders to the Bin.

Method 10. How to free up some space on a Mac disk by compression

Open Finder and go to the folder containing the files that can be compressed. For example, the Documents directory.

Now hold down the Command key and select the folder you need, then choose Compress.

How to free up some space on a Mac disk by compression

While you’re doing that, the source folder is not affected, and as soon as the files are compressed into an archive, you can delete the source folder. When you’re finished with that, this archive can be moved to an external drive to save even more disk space.

Method 11. Duplicate files

One more way to clean the disk is to search for duplicate files.

There are several reasons why so many duplicate files appear. This way or another, but they can occupy pretty much disk space.

To find them quickly, you will have to use third-party apps. However, some files can be located manually.

For example, in the Photos app, duplicate images can be found easily:

  • Open the app, find and select one by one the photos you want to remove. Then right-click on them - Delete.

    The Photos app: search for duplicate files
  • Deleted photos will be moved to the folder with the name Recently Deleted.

  • To remove the photos completely, go to the Photos folder, scroll down and select Recently Deleted - then click Delete All.

    The Photos app: Recently Deleted
    The Photos app: Recently Deleted – Delete All

Search duplicate files on Mac with Finder

You can also find duplicate files in your system by using the Smart Folders feature in Finder.

  • Open the Finder app.

  • In the menu, choose File - New Smart Folder.

    Smart Folders in Finder
  • In the right upper corner, click on the + button.

    Smart Folders in Finder: +
  • Duplicate files will be displayed in the search by name mode. Review them and delete any duplicates.

    Smart Folders in Finder: Duplicate files will be displayed in the search by name mode

Search duplicate files on Mac with Terminal

Also, you can find duplicate files with the help of the Terminal. This method is quite effective, but some files can be skipped.

  • Open the Terminal. For illustration, let's scan the Downloads folder.

  • Type the command:

    cd ~/downloads

    it makes the app go to the required directory where it will search for duplicates.

    Terminal: cd ~/downloads
  • Then type:

    find ./ -type f -exec md5 {} \; | awk -F '=' '{print $2 "\t" $1}' | sort | tee duplicates.txt

    find ./ -type f -exec md5 {} \; | awk -F '=' '{print $2 "\t" $1}' | sort | tee duplicates.txt
  • As a result, a .txt file will be created and then saved to the same directory where we searched for duplicate files. Check the files for duplicates and remove them.

    .txt file with the list of duplicate files in this folder

How to recover files accidentally deleted from your Mac

If you lost some important data while cleaning the disk, a special data recovery tool - Hetman Partition Recovery - will be there for you. Use it to bring back any files accidentally deleted from your Mac.

The tool recovers data from any devices, regardless of the cause of data loss.
Recovering deleted MAC files: Hetman Partition Recovery Hetman MACOS Recovery Hetman Linux Recovery
After reinstalling the operating system + + +
After disk formatting + + +
After deleting a partition + + +
With support for Windows file systems + - -
With support for macOS file systems + + -
With support for Linux file systems + - +

Conclusion

Summing up, now you know several effective ways to gain more free space on a Mac computer. Check for unnecessary files and remove them regularly, clean the cache and old backups, and remember to use integrated macOS tools to optimize your storage. Taking a few simple steps to ensure there’s enough free disk space will help your computer work faster and more efficiently.

Vladimir Artiukh

Author: , Technical Writer

Vladimir Artiukh is a technical writer for Hetman Software, as well as the voice and face of their English-speaking YouTube channel, Hetman Software: Data Recovery for Windows. He handles tutorials, how-tos, and detailed reviews on how the company’s tools work with all kinds of data storage devices.

Oleg Afonin

Editor: , Technical Writer

Oleg Afonin is an expert in mobile forensics, data recovery and computer systems. He often attends large data security conferences, and writes several blogs for such resources as xaker.ru, Elcomsoft and Habr. In addition to his online activities, Oleg’s articles are also published in professional magazines. Also, Oleg Afonin is the co-author of a well-known book, Mobile Forensics - Advanced Investigative Strategies.

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