Freeing Up Disk Space On Mac

  1. Freeing Up Disk Space On Mac
  2. How To Free Disk Space On Mac
  3. How To Free Up Disk Storage On Mac
  4. Freeing Up Disk Space On Mac Laptop

Mar 13, 2018 Hard drives are getting larger and larger, but somehow they always seem to fill up. This is even more true if you’re using a solid-state drive (SSD), which offers much less hard drive space than traditional mechanical hard drives. RELATED: 10 Ways To Free Up Disk Space on Your Mac Hard Drive. If you’re hurting for hard drive space, these. How to check a Mac’s free hard drive space. You also get a simplified overview of what sort of files are eating up your storage space. The Mac’s About box is the easiest way to see. Feb 11, 2017 Support Communities / Mac OS & System Software / macOS Sierra. In a nutshell: When I go to 'About This Mac Storage' the System files were taking up a whopping 90+ GB of my hard drive. Here is a screen shot. Finally, my macbook has free space again. Thank you so much!

Jul 21, 2012 I have the extract same issue. MacBook Pro with a 500gb internal drive. I have 17gb free space I spent the afternoon moving project and files to an external 1tb drive. My external show I have now used 200+gb of space and I only free up 6gb on my internal drive. Oh I am an IT tech I know the difference between move and copy.

Summary :

Many computer users find that the hard drive is filled up and they may wonder what is taking up space on the hard drive and how to clean up the hard drive. This article will solve these problems.

What Is Taking up Space on My Hard Drive

To free up disk space on your Mac start with simple steps: empty Trash, delete files from the Downloads folder. If there is still not enough storage, then consider deleting large files. They can be found by clicking on About This Mac - Storage - Manage. Here are 8 of the best disk cleaning steps.

Freeing Up Disk Space On Mac

  • Aug 06, 2020 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.
  • Turning off Optimize Mac Storage has consequences for data stored on iCloud, but it can also remove or clear the “Purgeable” storage space on a Mac (keep in mind the data is being downloaded to the Mac, so you’re not necessarily freeing up space, simply reallocating it).
  • Find out how much storage is available on your Mac. Choose Apple menu About This Mac, then click Storage. Each segment of the bar is an estimate of the storage space used by a category of files. Move your pointer over each segment for more detail. Click the Manage button to open the Storage Management window, pictured below.

Many computer users may find that their hard drives are filled up without reasons after the computer is used for a while. And at last, low disk space error may come up (especially partition C). This problem will affect computer performance. For example: apps or files can't be downloaded, the computer gives no response to your command or it gives a delayed response.

Then, what cause this problem? Or what is taking up space on my hard drive? Many users may ask problems like these. Usually, the hard drive space is occupied by system files, installed apps or personal files, backups, virus or other malware, or other unknown files.

How to Check the Hard Drive Space

How can we know what files take up the hard drive space most? Here is a tutorial for how to see what's taking up space on a hard drive on Windows 10.

Step 1: Press Start button, and then navigate to Settings>System >Storage.

Step 2: Click a disk and then its storage usage will be displayed.

Click What Is Taking up Space on Win10 for more methods.

In general, computer users could check the hard drive space first, and then they can solve the low disk space problem according to the actual storage usage in their computers.

As for how to free up disk space, the following two categories of methods are suggested. And the method with MiniTool Partition Wizard is strongly recommended because it's versed in managing disk space and the ways provided by it can solve the problem radically.

How To Free Disk Space On Mac

How to Free up Disk Space on Windows

1. Free up Space with Disk Cleanup

Many computer users like to run Disk Cleanup to free up disk space. This is a common way for most of computer users. Right click the disk you want to clean up, and then navigate to Properties>Disk Cleanup. Then check the files you want to delete and click OK to carry out.

However, some users may find that it can't solve the problem fundamentally. Disk cleanup can't relieve the problem at all. Or it relieves slightly but the low disk space problem persists and it relapses after a while.

2. Deal with Personal Files to Free up Disk Space

If there are lots of personal files in hard drive, users can delete the unnecessary files to clean up hard drive. As for the important files, users can transfer them to another hard drive. Or, users can store files like music, movies, photos, etc. on external storage or in the cloud.

In a word, users could delete or transfer all files to another place except the files that must be stored in this disk. (Actually, this method not only can free up disk space, but also can help you to manage or optimize the disk space.)

3. Delete Backups and Reduce Space Used for System Restore

If users have habit of making backups, they could delete the backups to free up disk space. At the same time, system restore points can be automatically created when users install a new app or update and they take up a lot of hard drive space.

So, users can delete the restore points or reduce the hard drive space used for system restore to free up disk space.

Here is a tutorial for deleting restore points and reducing space used for system restore.

Step 1: Open Administrator and right click This PC,and then click Properties from the drop-down menu.

Step 2: Click System protection from the pop-up window to make System Properties window pop up. And then click Configure button.

Step 3: Drag the block to adjust the max space usage for system restore points. Surely, there will be less restore points for system restore if you do so. Or, you can delete all restore points and disable system protection to free up disk space. But if you do so, there is no restore points for system restore.

4. Uninstall Programs

Surely, most of the time, it is programs and games that take upmost of the hard drive space. So, users also can uninstall apps or games that they no longer need to solve this problem. Press Start button and navigate to Settings>Apps>Apps & features to uninstall programs.

5. Run Antivirus Program

Sometimes, a virus or other malware may consume a lot of hard drive space. If you suspect the low disk space is cause by a virus, you can use an antivirus program like Windows Defender to run a virus scan and cleanup.

However, most of the time, the low disk space is not caused by a virus, and running Disk Cleanup or deleting personal files can't solve this problem. Although uninstalling apps can relieve the problem slightly, many users wouldn't like to adopt this method because most programs on the computer are useful and necessary for them.

To solve this problem radically, MiniTool Partition Wizard,professional partition management software, is recommended, which is versed in dealing with problems like this. And it provides you three solutions to clean up hard drive.

The first solution is Space Analyzer, which is similar to the above methods. But it is easier for users to operate. The second and third solutions are extending partition and upgrading to a larger hard drive, respectively. Only the last two methods can radically solve the problem.

Free up Disk Space with MiniTool Partition Wizard

MiniTool Partition Wizard provides 3 solutions to clean hard drive and you can choose one according to your need.

1. Space Analyzer Feature

Clear space on mac

This feature is free for computer users. What you need to do is to download the MiniTool Partition Wizard and follow the following guide.

Freeing up disk space on xp

Step 1: Download MiniTool Partition Wizard and launch it to get its main interface. And then click Space Analyzer on the toolbar.

Step 2: Select the partition that you want to clean up to scan.

Warning: If you want to clean up local disk C, you should pay attention to system files (.sys files). These files are related to the operating system. If you delete them mistakenly, the operating system probably doesn't work well.

Step 3: Choose a file in Tree View, File View, or Folder View to delete.

Mac cd ripper software amplifier. Attention:

Mac
  • The Space Analyzer feature can also help you to check hard drive space. The files are listed from top to bottom according to the percentages that they take up in hard drive.
  • The result can also show you the hidden files and you can delete the files (even the hidden files) that you don’t want.
  • You could explore the selected file before you delete it to avoid deleting important files mistakenly.
  • Click here to obtain file attributes, which can help you to decide whether the files can be deleted.

Compared with the above methods, this solution does actually free up disk space to a certain extent. However, it also can’t help you a lot if all the files in the partition are important for you. So, you need to think of the following two solutions.

2. Extend Partition

If your hard disk has unused space, you can use Extend feature of MiniTool Partition Wizard to extend the disk space of partition to increase the real disk space. The reason why the extend feature of Disk Management is not recommended is that it has many limitations. Click Why Extend Volume Grayed out for more information.

Note: If you want to free up the disk space of system related partition, you need to use Bootable Media feature first and then to use Extend feature to avoid damage to system files. You should note that the Bootable Media feature is not free. The whole process is shown below.If you just want to free up space of data partition, please use the Free Edition and start from Step 5.

Free up disk space of data partitions (not including system partition):

Free up disk space of system related partition:

Step 1: Install MiniTool Partition Wizard and launch it to get its main interface. And then click Bootable Media on the toolbar.

Step 2: A media type selection window pops up, and then click WinPE-based media with MiniTool plug-in to get another window. And finally choose the media destination.

Attention:

  • ISO File: If the boot.iso file can't be burned into the USB flash drive or CD/DVD successfully, you could choose this option, and a boot.iso file is generated. And then you could burn this file to your USB flash drive later.Finally, you can use the drive containing the file to boot your computer.
  • USB Flash Drive (This option is recommended): If you have a USB flash drive, you could choose this one, and the boot.iso file will be burned into it directly.
  • CD/DVD Writer: If your computer supports recording on CD/DVD, you could choose this one, and the boot.iso file will be burned into it directly.

Step 3: Set the Firmware to make the computer boot from the disk containing the burned boot.iso file.

Enter firmware (The specific entry methods vary from computer model to computer model). And then,navigate to boot page with right arrow key and put Removable Devices (USB)or CD-ROM Drive in the first place of the boot sequence with 'plus' key.

Step 4: Boot the computer to get the following interface. And then wait a few seconds without any operation to get the main interface of Partition Wizard.

How To Free Up Disk Storage On Mac

Step 5: When you get the main interface of MiniTool Partition Wizard, Right click the partition that you want to extend, and finally click Extend.

Step 6: A window for adding space pops up. Drag the light blue block to adjust the space size to be added. Finally click OK.

Step 6: Click Apply button on the toolbar to execute the pending operations.

This solution is recommended because it increases the real disk space. Surely, some users may ask what if there is no unused space in the hard disk.Then, you must consider buying a larger hard drive if this situation happens.

3. Buy a Larger Hard Drive for Disk Upgrade

If your hard disk runs out and all data stored in it is very important, you should consider buying a larger hard disk. And then you could migrate OS to the larger drive to make it the new boot disk. And if possible, you could still store data on the original hard drive. Click here for the specific steps of migrating OS from the old hard disk to the new hard disk.

Tip: If your computer is laptop computer, which can only be mounted with one hard drive, you should choose to copy all the partitions on the system disk to another hard disk.

What Is Taking up Space on My Hard Drive FAQ

How do you find out what's taking up space on Windows 10?

Step 1: Press Start button, and then navigate to Settings>System >Storage.

Step 2: Click a disk and then its storage usage will be displayed.

Or you can use MiniTool Partition Wizard to find large files taking up hard drive on Windows 10.

C drive keeps filling up because the following reasons:

  1. The C drive itself is very small.
  2. You have installed much software on this drive.
  3. The system is patched, and all patches are installed on C drive by default.
  4. Cache junk files are not cleared in time.
  1. Use Disk Cleanup.
  2. Uninstall programs you don't need.
  3. Use Space Analyzer of MiniTool Partition Wizard.

Your Voice

We really want to know whether these methods can solve your problem, so please leave a comment to let us know it. If these methods can't help you, please leave a comment to describe your problem in detail so that we can help you. You also can email to [email protected] for help. Expecting your good news.

You won’t regret cleaning pools of junk files from OS X El Capitan since cleaning Mac hard drive is a prolific activity and basic start of Mac optimization. However, if you look deeper into OS X El Capitan disk you will actually find difficult to identify between useful and junk files. Since looking and identifying junk files is confusing you might end up removing important files. This would be a sure short disaster, which is why you should be ensuring a complete updated backup of the Mac hard drive running OS X El Capitan. 10.11 or to reclaim Mac hard drive spaces, remove junk files, etc. try Mac cleaner software which is available free.

Free Up Disk Space Mac

Before you launch cleaning operation on Mac OS X El Capitan, right-click on the Time Machine icon from top – left of the menu bar and select BACK UP NOW. Wait for some-time so that Time Machine application performs full backup of your OS X El Capitan hard drive.

Now gather your strength and start Mac cleaning with.

Emptying Trash on OS X El Capitan

You know by pressing “Command + Shift + Option + Delete” keys, you can clean out all the files from the Trash without the use of mouse and its right click. This is helpful when you are sure that no important files exist to be resorted back from the trash. Otherwise manually take a tour of your trash folder so that you can restore important files back to their location and proceed with permanent deletion of files from the trash.

Which of the above trash looks cleaner and better on El Capitan? You decide.

Clean all unwanted files from Download folder

You might be busy in downloading the best Mac apps or videos for OS X El Capitan but did you remember to move all the used DMG and zip archive files to trash? Go to the Download folder and press-hold “Command + I” to get info of Download folder. No surprises, if you are surprised to check out the Size of the folder due to presence of unwanted files. Don’t spare a minute to send all of them to Trash and do empty it for free space collection.

Cleaning iTunes duplicate files

Music files can easily get duplicated in iTunes but don’t worry because iTunes can help you find them for removal. It’s very simple, see how: Launch iTunes << Click View << Click ShowDuplicateItems. The iTunes application will list up all the duplicate music files by name, artists or group items. To remove the duplicate files from the hard drive you first need to uncheck the original files and keep checked all the duplicate items. Now click on Edit from iTunes menu bar and click Delete. This is how to you says GOODBYE to duplicate files on iTunes using OS X El Capitan or below versions.

Let me share with you that there is an otherwise better solution to remove iTunes, iPhoto, iMovies, iWork and Aperture duplicate files by using Smart Finder application. Though small, it’s a helpful application that eliminates all kinds of duplicate files from OS X.

Cleans caches safely from El Capitan

There are pros and cons of removing old & news caches from Mac hard drive. The plus part is that your Mac OS X gets good amount of hard drive spaces by removal of large stockpile of caches. If your Mac hard drive is dying on free spaces, giving you hiccups or freezing at the best part of your OS X computing then you shall always go ahead to clean this culprit knows by the name – CACHES. Additionally, when your Mac hard drive have good amount of free spaces it will never ever disappoint you with the error message “Your startup disk is almost fullYou need to make more space available on your startup disk by deleting files.

My recommendation is to register Stellar Speedup Mac utility for cleaning out caches from the OS X El Capitan home folder. This tool reaches to the deeper location of the hard drive where mouse cursor may not reach. Run this tool now and you will clean all the junks (including logs, unwanted language files, binaries, extensions and system junks) from the hard drive. After the use of Stellar Speedup Mac software all you will be left with a better and faster OS X El Capitan.

Coming back to the minus part of deleting the caches is some of the OS X apps, mostly browsers may behave slower than before. But don’t worry since creation of new and fresh caches will soon fill up the void.

Uninstalling useless application

Mac hard drive cleaning is incomplete without uninstallation of unwanted freeware, shareware, widgets and plugins. Show your Mac OS X that you care for its cleanliness and remove all sorts of useless and unused software to a location they deserve the most i.e. TRASH. Let me also remind you again to empty the trash.

Backup Mac OS X and fresh install OS X

Some misery of slowness never ends which is why you should go for fresh installation of the OS X El Capitan. Though technical, but simple procedure of cleaning an old copy of sluggish and freezing Mac and replacing it with new one. This post best describes the clean installation of OS X El Capitan. Be prepared for an OS X performance evolution and leave me your thoughts.

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It all starts with “Disk is almost full”

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.

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.

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

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.

  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.
Macbook

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.

Disk

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.

Freeing Up Disk Space On Mac Laptop

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
: 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

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.