Freeing up space on your Mac can be a tedious task, but it's an important one to ensure your computer continues to run smoothly and quickly. Doing so on a regular basis will help to reduce clutter and (hopefully) prevent a marathon session of deleting old files when you're almost or completely out of space. Show There are several methods to free up space on your Mac, from cleaning out your Downloads folder to enlisting the help of a free or paid decluttering app. Here's what you need to know. How to manually free up space on a MacIn this section, we'll cover some basic ways to free up storage space on your Mac, from manually deleting files to zipping them. Delete files and appsTake a look through your computer files and apps and see if there's anything you can delete, particularly larger files like videos or hi-res images. For example, if you often take multiple photos of the same thing to get the best shot, deleting unnecessary duplicates is a good place to start. To delete a file or app, right-click on the app icon or the name of the file, then click Move to Trash. As you delete files manually, make sure you're also emptying your trash to ensure you're actually clearing up space and not just moving things from one place to another. To empty your trash, right-click on the trash icon, then click Empty Trash. ZIP filesFor large files or folders that you don't want to delete, you can zip those files to save space without having to delete them. Zipping compresses files so that they take up less space. To access a zipped file, double-click it to unzip it. Abigail Abesamis DemarestClear temporary filesDeleting temporary files is another way to free up some space on your Mac, but most of them will end up returning to your Mac as you continue to use it. Temporary files take up space on your Mac's hard drive, and you don't typically need them. To locate temporary files, click the Go tab on Finder. Select Go to Folder, type in ~/Library/Caches, then click Go. This will lead you to a Caches folder. To delete files in the folder, right-click on the file(s) you want to delete, then click Move to Trash. An app like CleanMyMac can also locate and delete these temporary files for you. Use Finder to find and delete temporary files. Abigail Abesamis DemarestRemove language filesMany Mac apps support various languages, and thus come with language files. To remove language files you don't need (since you're likely using just one language on your Mac), use an app like CleanMyMac or Monolingual. Clean out your Downloads folderFrom old work presentations to restaurant menus that automatically downloaded without you realizing, your Downloads folder is another place to find unnecessary files to delete. In Finder, click the Go tab, then Downloads to open the Downloads folder. To delete files in the folder, right-click on the file you want to delete, then click Move to Trash. The Downloads folder is another good place to find and delete unnecessary files. Abigail Abesamis DemarestIt can also be helpful to keep a shortcut to your Downloads folder in your Dock so that it's easily accessible. To do this, simply drag the Downloads folder from your Finder to your dock. Store files on iCloudStoring your content on iCloud, Apple's cloud storage service, helps you save space on your computer while still having easy access to your files. When storing files on iCloud, you can choose from one of three options:
Note that Apple users are automatically given 5 GB of storage space for free, but if you need more you can buy more iCloud storage for a monthly fee starting at 50 GB for $0.99 a month. To store files in iCloud, follow these steps: 1. Click the Apple icon at the top-left of your screen. Select About This Mac. 2. Click the Storage tab, then select Manage. 3. Click Store in iCloud. This window has shortcuts to multiple options for clearing storage space. Abigail Abesamis Demarest4. In the pop-up menu, click the boxes corresponding to the types of files you want to store in iCloud. When you're finished, click Store in iCloud. Choose from the three options to enable iCloud storage. Abigail Abesamis DemarestThird-party apps to free up space on your MacCheck out these popular apps that help you free up space on your Mac:
Abigail Abesamis Demarest is a contributing writer for Insider based in New York. She loves a good glazed donut and nerdy deep dives into the science of food and how it's made. Read more Read less Why is my disc full on my Mac?The warning message indicating that your startup disk is almost full appears when there is no longer enough free space on your disk. This is often due to having too many files occupying your Mac's hard drive, bringing free space to a dangerously low level. To resolve this issue, you need to free up some disk space.
Why does my Mac keep saying not enough disk space when there is?This conflict could be attributed to the so-called “purgeable” space. It's basically the space taken by all the unnecessary stuff that can be purged and converted into free storage. One way to free up your purgeable space is to disable iCloud drive optimization.
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