About DiskSpace This is a simple widget which displays the volume name of all your connected disks and their availible space, plus a graphical bar of the occupied percentage, to enable quick and easy monitoring. Full disk space. You took all those vacation pictures. But what if you can't actually save them? Don't let that 'Disk space is almost full' message get in the way. Clean junk files and useless apps to save gigabytes of disk space for things you really need. I am a MacBook user through and through. However, I partitioned my hard drive 3 years ago using Boot Camp to do some light Windows-only work. I only partitioned 8 GB to Windows, which wasn't a problem til now. I'm now trying to use some Windows-only software again, but am faced with a 'low disk space' message. Xcode 'There is not enough disk space available to install the product.' With plenty of space. At 4.4 ish GB, my late 2013 MB Pro's internel SSD with 7.9 GB available ought to be able to handle size requirements for this update, I would think.
From the all-in-one solution of disk space analyzers to macOS' own built-in offering, we've found the best ways to keep your system in tip-top condition.
How to check disk space on Mac
Most of the things that take up disk space on Mac can't be seen from a top-level overview, but it's worth keeping a close eye on how much space you have available. You can do this by clicking on the Apple icon in the top-left corner of the screen and selecting 'About This Mac.' Select 'Storage', and you'll see where space is being taken up.
If disk space is at a premium, turn to the following apps to get rid of the things you no longer need, using a Mac disk cleanup. Disk space analyzers are fantastic tools for finding out what is taking up so much space on my Mac.
Before you take action, ensure none of your files will disappear when you clear disk space. Download Disk Drill for free and stop worrying.
Free Download on SetappHow to clear disk space on Mac
1. Clear disk space on Mac with CleanMyMac X
Online product design software free. CleanMyMac is the go-to disk space analyzer for over three million people worldwide, particularly for those who want to know how to free up space on your Mac?
And for good reason — it does all the heavy-lifting for you, leaving you with the simple task of clicking a single button to free up space. The app uses a 'Smart Cleanup' feature to perform a deep scan of your Mac, analyzing the System, Large and Old Files, Mail, iTunes, Photos, and Trash bins, freeing up 64GB of space on average. Without an effective disk cleanup Mac, you could end up with too much junk taking up too much space.
Using the CleanMyMac Dashboard, you can check the disk space and free up RAM, ensuring your Mac runs smoother and faster.
How to make free space on Mac with CleanMyMac
The simplicity of CleanMyMac is its outstanding feature. To clear disk space, all you need to do is:
- Launch CleanMyMac X (download it for free here).
- Click on Smart Cleanup from the sidebar menu.
- Click on Scan and then Clean.
That's it!
In the sidebar menu, there are options to scan and clean applications individually using the same 'Scan' and 'Clean' method.
2. Clean up duplicate disk folders on Mac with Gemini
Duplicate files such as edited documents, photos, or Photoshop files can accumulate rapidly. But they're hardly ever needed. Rather than trawl through your system trying to perform a disk cleanup manually or risking the loss of potentially useful files in a blanket cleanup, use Gemini to find and delete files safely.
Like CleanMyMac, Gemini has its own 'smart' scan and cleanup feature to speed up the process. The app works through your photos, iTunes, documents, and files to find duplicates that can be removed. It also picks out similar files that probably don't warrant two copies.
Everything that Gemini finds is placed in a neat interface where you can examine individual files to decide which to keep and which to purge. If something is deleted in error, you'll still be able to find it in amongst recently deleted files for quick restoration.
3. Visualize disk space with Disk Drill
'The storage option is useful, but what is really taking up space on my Mac?'
Disk Drill can see how to check disk space on Mac.
Disk Drill does exactly what its name suggests: drills down into your disk to analyze and help you visualize what's hogging space. From a familiar Mac-like interface you can delve into files and delete anything that isn't needed in a few clicks.
There's also a useful feature that lets you clean up local folders that are synced with your Google Drive or Dropbox accounts, as well as the ability to identify and remove duplicate files à la Gemini.
If you want to keep a close eye on system performance and carry out a Mac disk cleanup as soon as available space is under threat, Disk Drill includes a feature called S.M.A.R.T. Once enabled, S.M.A.R.T monitoring tracks space, performance, and drive temperature from an icon on your desktop.
4. Use macOS Sierra's Optimized Storage to see what is taking up space on your Mac
Finally, to make sure things keep on ticking over nicely, make use of macOS' own Optimized Storage feature. This is another way to see how to check free space on Mac.
Granted, this feature doesn't offer the heavyweight cleaning capabilities of a CleanMyMac, but it's useful nonetheless.
By clicking on Details from within Storage, you'll have access to four features: Store in iCloud, Optimize Storage, Empty Trash Automatically, and Reduce Clutter.
While emptying the trash and reducing clutter are simple ways to free up a small amount of space, Store in iCloud is the outstanding feature. This allows you move items from local storage and save them to your iCloud account.
From Store in iCloud, simply check the boxes for Store files from Desktop and Documents in iCloud Drive and Store photos and videos in iCloud Photo Library. All of your files will then be synced to the cloud. You can then use a Mac disk cleaner to get rid of the locally stored duplicates.
The Optimize option is also useful if you happen to have movies or TV shows that you've watched on iTunes. By enabling Optimize, previously watched media will be automatically removed from your computer and kept in iTunes where you can download them again if you get the urge to give a show a rerun.
Keep your disk space under control
A full hard drive results in a slow running, overheating Mac. The best way to keep your system running smoothly with plenty of room for files is to keep on top of disk space. Use these apps to analyze disks and perform routine cleanups.
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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.
The tools that you need are found in the Cleaner and Toolkit module of PowerMyMac. 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
- System Junk. 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.
- iPhoto Junk. The tool reduces the size of your photo library on your Mac by cleaning up the photo cache.
- Email Junk. 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.
- Similar Photo. This tool functions as a photo manager that helps find and clean similar photos on your device.
- Trash Bins. The tool 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.
Toolkit Module
- Uninstaller. This tool is used to easily remove entire applications on your device especially those that you seldom use.
- File Manager. With this tool, you can check the detailed information of your files and helps remove them completely from your Mac.
How Do I Free Up Disk Space on My Mac with PowerMyMac?
Let's take System Junk as an example, follow the simple steps below to clean up your Mac for freeing space with PowerMyMac:
- Free download PowerMyMac, install and launch it on your Mac.
- Select System Junk under the Cleaner module.
- Begin to scan your Mac to look for junk files.
- View and choose the files you want to delete.
- Press the Clean button to remove your unwanted files and confirm the process.
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:
- Simply open a Finder window and choose Applications in the sidebar.
- 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:
- Open a Finder window and choose Applications.
- Tap on 'Show items in a list' knob on the toolbar.
- 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. Where is the hard drive on a macbook air. 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.
- Open the Finder window
- On the Menu, tap on Go > Go to Folder
- 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.
Disk Space Explorer
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
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.
- Go to Mail > Preferences > Accounts > Account Information.
- 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.
- Open Mail and tap on the folder that you want to find and remove any attachments.
- Utilize the Sort by Size option to find large-sized messages
- 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.
- 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:
- Open Finder and proceed to your Photos library
- CTRL+click your Photos library and choose the 'Show Package Contents' option
- 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. Apple magic mouse 2 keyboard bundle.
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!
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