How To Free Up Space On Your Hard Drive Mac

Empty The Trash. The most obvious and easy way to free up some space is to empty the Trash. Use selective sync. Selective sync is a feature that lets you remove files from your hard drive and keep them just in your Dropbox online account. This can help you free up some space on your hard drive. Learn how to use selective sync. Your Mac hard drive consists of disks (or partitions). Each disk (or partition) has your Mac data on it, which consists of your operating system, applications, etc. Most Mac users have just one disk but power users may have two or more. Let’s look at an example of a Mac with only one hard disk: Your Mac's hard drive is 500GB. And, if you want your Mac to work smoothly you need to keep 10% of your hard disk space free at all times. So, if you are out of space, it would really hamper your performance. Lately, we examined all the possibilities for cleaning up storage on MacOS and Mac OS X.

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.

The Metrobilly blog has a short tutorial for freeing up a few GBs of precious space on your Mac. Among the tips: OS X and other applications automatically install localization packs onto your system.

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.

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

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.

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. 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.

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

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.

  • 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”

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. 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😉

How to free up space on your hard drive machine

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/PowerMyMac /How Do I Free Up Disk Space on My Mac?

How do I free up disk space on my Mac? This is the question present on your mind for some time. Although you can free up space by removing files and elements that you have downloaded, it will not get you far. Remember that majority of the space on your Mac can be freed up by clearing temporary files, language files, attachments, duplicate files, or emptying the content of the Trash cans.

At present, the Mac still has a limited hard drive that can be filled up easily. In case you fail to efficiently clean your hard drive, you will sooner or later receive the “Your disk is almost full” error. If you want to avoid this ordeal, you should start to clean up your hard drive now. And there are a variety of ways on how to free up disk space on Mac, just keep on reading to learn more.

Article GuideHow Do I Free Up Disk Space? (with PowerMyMac)How Do I Delete Files on My Mac When the Disk is Full?Let's Wrap It Up

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How Do I Free Up Disk Space? (with PowerMyMac)

iMyMac PowerMyMac has a variety of tools that you can use to free up disk space on your Mac. The software is dependable and highly-efficient. It also boasts an array of tools to help clean unwanted files as well as optimize your Mac. Let us take a close look at some of the tools that you can use to free up disk space on your device.

Cleaner Module

  • Master Scan. This tool is used to clean up the system junks on your Mac such as the System Cache, System Logs, Application Cache, User Logs, Localization and more to optimize overall performance while also cleaning up unwanted files to free up disk space. It reduces the size of your photo library on your Mac by cleaning up the photo cache. If you want to delete local copies of your email attachments and downloads that were saved in the disk space, this is a must-have tool. It also provides you with access to empty all available trash bins on your Mac to free up disk space.
  • Large & Old Files. With this tool, it helps you find files that occupy a certain disk space or any outdated files that eat up precious disk space. These are removed to provide you with more space on your device.
  • Uninstaller. This tool is used to easily remove entire applications on your device especially those that you seldom use.

Toolkit Module

  • Shredder. This function allows you to erase files forever so that you can protect your personal privacy.
  • Similar Image Finder. This tool functions as a photo manager that helps find and clean similar photos on your device.

How Do I Free Up Disk Space on My Mac with PowerMyMac?

Let's take Master Scan as an example, follow the simple steps below to clean up your Mac for freeing space with PowerMyMac:

  1. Free download PowerMyMac, install and launch it on your Mac.
  2. Select Master Scan module.
  3. Begin to scan your Mac to look for junk files.
  4. View and choose the files you want to delete.
  5. Press the Clean button to remove your unwanted files.

How Do I Delete Files on My Mac When the Disk is Full?

Since you have been asking – how do I free up disk space on my Mac? Let us now take a close look at some of these methods to clear up space on your device. If you don't want to do these manually, all of them can be done easily by iMyMac PowerMyMac.

1. Remove Duplicate or Similar Files

Duplicate or similar files are notorious for eating up most of your hard drive space. One of the initial tasks that you should focus on is to remove these files, especially if you have been using your computer for a long time.

2. Empty the Trash Cans

The Trash on your device is the equivalent to the Recycle Bin on Windows. Instead of deleting files permanently from within the Finder, they are moved to the Trash so you have the option to restore them later in case you change your mind. If you want to completely remove these files to free up space, you must empty your Trash. Since Macs have several trash cans, you must empty several.

How do I free up disk space on my Mac by emptying the main Trash? Simply CTRL+click or right-click on the Trash icon that you can find at the right bottom corner of the dock and select Empty Trash. This action will delete all the files you sent to the Trash from the Finder. Remember that iMovie, iPhoto, and Mail have separate trash cans. In case you have deleted media files from these applications, you must empty their trash cans.

3. Uninstall Unused Applications

How do I free up disk space on my Mac by removing unused apps? Generally, all applications that you installed on your Mac can take up space. It is recommended to uninstall those that you no longer need:

  1. Simply open a Finder window and choose Applications in the sidebar.
  2. Once you find the icon of the application, drag-and-drop to the Trash on your dock.

Remember that some of these applications might be eating up a lot of space. To distinguish which applications are taking up most space:

  1. Open a Finder window and choose Applications.
  2. Tap on “Show items in a list” knob on the toolbar.
  3. Tap on the Size heading to categorize the installed applications based on size.

4. Remove Any Downloads

Some have downloaded files from messengers, web browsers and mail. If you download files from the Internet, you can find them in the Downloads folder.

Generally, it is found in this location:

  • /Macintosh HD/Users/Current User/Downloads

Based on statistics, an average Mac user can end up with 0.5 GB weekly in the Downloads folder. In most cases, all files in the Downloads folder are left in disarray and eat up precious disk space. It is recommended to sort out the files based on size, date or kind to sift out the unnecessary ones from those that you still need.

5. Clearing the Cache

The cache file is a temporary data file created by browsers, applications, and other programs to allow your Mac to function faster. When cache files are removed, they are recreated once an application is used again. Nevertheless, you might not be using some applications and their leftovers are still in the Cache folder which occupies a lot of disk space. This is the reason why it is recommended to regularly clear the cache.

The cache files are typically stored in the Library folders that you can find in the following locations:

  • /Library/Caches
  • ~/Library/Caches

In the /Library/Caches, you will find temporary files produced by the system. Generally, these files will not take up too much space. Nevertheless, in the ~/Library/Caches folder, it stores many junk files that are produced when running applications. As a result, this folder increases in size over time.

How do I free up disk space on my Mac by clearing the caches? Generally, the Library folder is hidden on macOS as Apple. You can access it with these steps.

  1. Open the Finder window
  2. On the Menu, tap on Go > Go to Folder
  3. In the dialog box, key in ~/Library/Cache and tap on Go

6. Remove Language Files

The applications in Mac include language files for every language being supported. You have the option to switch the system language of your Mac and start using the apps in that specified language right away. Nevertheless, most are likely to use one language, thus the language files only take up space.

7. Remove Old iPhone Backups

For those who often sync their iPhone with iTunes, the application produces several backup copies on your device. Over time, these files can eat up precious disk space since they usually include music, movies and other large files. You can find these old backup copies by opening iTunes > Go to the Menu Bar > iTunes > Preferences.

You will see a list of all the backups that iTunes managed to produce while working with your device. Once you made up your mind that they are no longer need, you can safely remove them but make sure they are in iCloud.

An alternative approach in finding and removing iOS backups is to go to:

  • ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

8. Cleaning up Large Mail Attachments

How To Free Up Space On Your Hard Drive Macos

If you are using the Mail application in macOS with the same email account for a long time, there is a high chance that large email attachments are taking up a large chunk of space on your drive.

The initial step is to change the Mail settings to not download any attachments automatically to help save space or perform a cleanup task to eliminate them. For those who are using Gmail, you can designate limits on the number of messages synced over IMAP by default to only display the last few thousands instead of everything.

  1. Go to Mail > Preferences > Accounts > Account Information.
  2. Change the drop-down for “Download attachments” to either “Non” or “Recent”.

Altering this setting will allow the Mail app to not use up any more space but this will not deal with the issue of attachments from emails that were already been downloaded.

How do I free up disk space on my Mac by removing these attachments? Just do it manually with the following steps.

  1. Open Mail and tap on the folder that you want to find and remove any attachments.
  2. Utilize the Sort by Size option to find large-sized messages
  3. Tap on the Message and select Message > Remove attachments from the menu bar. Remember that this will not remove the attachment from the mail server if you are using IMAP.
  4. Repeat these steps on all messages that you want to delete attachments from.

9. Clean up Photos

Obviously, if you have a lot of photos on your device, they eat up most of your disk space. Essentially, you can choose those that you can remove such as duplicates or copies are photos mistakenly taken.

Once you have deleted the unwanted photos, the next step is to eliminate the files that your system created. In Photos, it is the cache files while for iPhoto, it is the service copies. Understandably, both are difficult to find but there are ways to do so.

The Photos cache includes the iCloud local copies, Faces cache and other elements related to your apps. How do I free up disk space on my Mac by deleting photos? For macOS versions earlier than Sierra, simply follow these steps:

  1. Open Finder and proceed to your Photos library
  2. CTRL+click your Photos library and choose the “Show Package Contents” option
  3. Access “resources” and proceed to “model resource”

At this point, you will see several folders in the Finder window. The Photos cache rests in these folders, but it can be tricky which ones are safe to remove and what is not. Remember that removing the wrong file can disrupt the overall performance of Photos.

For those who are still using iPhoto, you must find the service copies it produces every time an image is altered. If you are going to work on this task, simply repeat steps 1 and 2 above. Go through the Master, Modified, Original and Preview folders to decide on which photos have original copies that were altered.

Let's Wrap It Up

With the help of these methods obove, you have answers on 'how do I free up disk space on my Mac' now, and you will gain free space for other important uses. Regular cleanup of any unwanted files or elements will free up space on your Mac as well as fix the “Startup Disk is Full” error.

Although you can clean up your device manually, it generally takes time. With the help of the highly-efficient tools byiMyMac PowerMyMac, you can save time while ensuring that your Mac functions optimally. Feel free to have its free trial below!

How To Free Up Space On Your Hard Drive Mac

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