How to Clean Your Mac's Hard Disk Drive?
SSD (Solid State Drives) is fast, stable, and offers great performance. Unfortunately, compared to HDDs (Hard Disk Drives), the capacity-to-cost ratio is not good. There are, however, methods to free up hard drives to obtain additional capacity for computer systems, including the macOS.
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 on how to clean macOS disk space.
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 add external storage, for example, an external drive, USB drive, DVD/CD drive, or cloud storage. Back to Table of Contents Compress large items. Another method to obtain some free space is to compress files. 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.
Video showing How to Obtain Free Space on Your Mac's Drive
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 a result of fake error logs. So, first, ensure that the system is, in fact, running out of free space. There are two methods to check available space on a hard drive:
1. Access the Apple menu and select About this Mac. Choose the Storage tab.
2. 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 the 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:
1. Click Mailbox and choose Erase Deleted Items.
2. Select In All Account and Mailbox.
3. Finally click Erase Junk.
Alternatively, to avoid permanently losing your files, choose to archive your emails by following the steps below.
iPhoto
1. Click on iPhoto from the menu at the top of the screen.
2. Choose Empty iPhoto Trash.
iMovie
1. Click on File from the menu on top of your screen.
2. Select Move to Trash or File.
3. Then choose Move Rejected Clipsto 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.
1. Open Finder.
2. In the sidebar, choose the Downloads folder. Disk image (.dmg) files commonly occupy the 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.
1. To delete them, open Launchpad.
2. Click and hold the program's icon you wish to remove.
3. When the icon starts to animate, click the Delete (x) button.
4. 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 add 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, follow the steps below:
1. Open Finder from the sidebar.
2. Select the Device (the label you provided) and type criteria into the search field.
3. When your search location appears (for example, This Mac), click the Add (+) button.
4. Click the first drop-down menu, and choose Other.
5. Find the logical size option, enable it, and then click OK.
6. Choose the 'is greater than' condition and type the amount (i.e., 50 Mb).
7. 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:
1. Click Go from the Finder menu and select Home.
2. Choose File, click Find and open the Find menu.
3. Find the File size option.
4. Choose the 'is greater than' condition and type the amount (i.e., 50 Mb).
5. To compress items, right-click or hold Control and left-click it, and then select the Compress 'name' option.
6. To archive, your emails, open the Mail application and select a folder you wish to archive (e.g., Inbox).
7. Drag it to the desktop. The mbox folder will appear on your desktop.
8. Right-click it or use the Control and left-click combination, and select Compress 'Inbox.mbox'.
9. Now you can delete your messages from Mail.
Delete unnecessary temporary files, system caches, and logs
System stores several 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 recommendCombo Cleaneror other third-party applications.
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 similarly.
The limitations of Mac storage often create a problem that prevents the Mac from running smoothly, which results in inconvenience to every user. With that said, we take a look at the four ways to free up the storage space on the device manually, according to Apple.
How to Free Up Storage Space Manually on Your Mac
1. Store the contents of the device to the iCloud storage.
iCloud is an online storage service that enables Mac users to save their files and other data online. This is a safe and secure place for your files. It will save the files automatically after editing or modifying its contents. Also, a user can always check and access these files online, anywhere and anytime. All Apple users have a free 5 GB storage space in iCloud and can subscribe to more storage through monthly subscription
- To use the iCloud, go to the 'Apple menu'. After, you will see the option 'About this Mac.' Click it.
- Once you see this on the screen, select the 'Storage.'
- Then, click 'Manage.'
- Click the 'Store in iCloud' and it is done.
For documents stored in iCloud, you can always download these documents locally on your Mac anytime. For photos and videos, the iCloud will store full resolution images and videos. It can also save the messages and attachments.
2. Uninstall unused or unnecessary applications in the device.
Sometimes, there are unnecessary applications in the device that occupy spaces in the storage. To free up the storage, users can uninstall these applications.
Read Also: How to clean up your Mac quickly? Outbyte MacRepair's Guide
This can be done in three easy steps, per Tech Solutions:
- Choose the 'Finder' in the device's dock.
- Then, click 'Go.' After, browse the options, find and click the 'Applications.'
- After clicking it, it will show you all the applications in your Mac. Browse through the applications and choose those applications that are unused and unnecessary. To uninstall each application, drag the application's icon to the Trash icon that you will see in the dock. Continue doing this until you have uninstalled all the unneeded applications.
3. Empty trash
How To Free Space On My Mac Computer
The items in the Trash can also occupy space in the storage. There are two options you can choose from. You can manually empty the Trash once in a while or enable the feature that automatically and permanently delete all the items in the trash every 30 days.
- To delete manually, click the Trash icon in the device's dock. Browse through the items and delete the items that you do not need anymore. You can also select all and empty the Trash.
- To enable the feature that will automatically and permanently delete all the items in the trash every 30 days, follow the instructions in storing in iCloud above mentioned. However, this time, browse and choose the 'Empty Trash Automatically' and click 'Turn On...'.
4. Free up a large storage space on the Mac
You can use an external storage to help maximize the storage of the device. These external storage devices are: USB flash drives, external hard drive, SD or Micro SD card, and external port adapters. There are four steps to move the items from the Mac to an external storage device, per Business Insider.
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- Check for an available port on your Mac device and plug the external storage device.
- After plugging it in, it will appear in the finder and the desktop of the device.
- Copy or move the items or files that you do not need currently and are often unused in the Mac.
- Lastly, after copying and moving the items in the external storage, delete all the original documents and other items in the Mac to free up storage.
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