How to Clear Storage Space on a Mac

When your MacBook’s hard drive fills up, the entire system slows to a crawl. You might even receive a terrifying “Your disk is almost full” warning, preventing you from saving new files or downloading software updates.

Before you resort to deleting precious family photos or buying an expensive external hard drive, you should utilize Apple’s built-in storage management tools. macOS includes a hidden utility designed to identify and delete massive files that you probably forgot existed. Here is how to clear storage space on a Mac.

Step 1: Access the Storage Manager

The first step is to see exactly what is consuming your hard drive space. Is it applications, documents, or System Data?

1. Click the Apple Logo in the top-left corner of your screen.
2. Select System Settings (or System Preferences on older versions of macOS) from the drop-down menu.
3. In the left sidebar, click on General.
4. In the right pane, click on Storage.

You will see a colorful bar graph calculating your storage usage. Below the graph is a list of categories (Applications, Documents, Messages, etc.) sorted by how much space they consume.

Step 2: Use the Automated Recommendations

macOS offers several automated features to help you reclaim space immediately. Look just below the bar graph for the “Recommendations” section.

• Empty Trash Automatically: By default, files in your Mac’s Trash can sit there forever, consuming space. Clicking “Turn On” here forces the Mac to permanently delete items that have been in the Trash for more than 30 days.
• Store in iCloud: If you pay for an iCloud+ subscription, this feature will automatically offload all of your Desktop files, Documents, and Photos to the cloud, keeping only recently opened files on your local hard drive. Warning: Do not click this unless you have a large iCloud storage plan.
• Optimize Storage: This brilliant feature automatically deletes movies and TV shows from the Apple TV app that you have already watched.

Step 3: Hunt Down the Largest Files

If the automated tools do not free up enough space, you must manually delete the biggest offenders. The Storage Manager makes this incredibly easy.

1. In the Storage menu, look at the list of categories below the Recommendations section.
2. Click the small “i” (info) icon next to the Documents category.
3. A new window will appear. Look at the tabs across the top and click on Large Files.

macOS will present you with a list of the absolute largest files on your entire computer, regardless of what folder they are hiding in. This is usually where you will find old `.dmg` installers, massive zip archives, and forgotten 4K video files.

To delete a file, simply click to highlight it, and then click the Delete… button in the bottom-right corner. Be careful—deleting files from this menu bypasses the Trash can entirely. They are gone forever.

Step 4: Audit Your Applications

Finally, check your Applications folder. Video games and professional software (like Adobe Premiere or Logic Pro) can consume tens of gigabytes of space each.

1. Go back to the main Storage menu.
2. Click the “i” icon next to Applications.
3. The list is automatically sorted by size. If you see a massive game or app that you haven’t opened in over a year, highlight it and click Delete.