How to Free Up Storage on Mac

Your Mac is warning that the disk is almost full, or an update will not install for lack of space. macOS shows where the space went and offers a few quick wins. Work through the steps below before deleting anything at random.

Check what is using space

Open System Settings, General, Storage. A colored bar shows how the disk is divided. Below it, a list breaks usage down by category such as Applications, Documents, Messages, and Photos. Wait a moment for the numbers to finish calculating.

Follow the recommendations

At the top of the Storage pane are recommendations. Empty Trash Automatically removes items after they have sat in the Trash for 30 days. Optimize Storage removes watched Apple TV content and keeps only recent email attachments. Click the i button next to any category, such as Documents or Applications, to see the largest items in it and delete them directly from that view.

Empty the Trash

Deleting a file moves it to the Trash, where it still takes up space. Right-click the Trash icon in the Dock and choose Empty Trash, or open the Trash and click Empty in the top-right corner. This alone often recovers several gigabytes.

Clear the Downloads folder

Open Finder and click Downloads in the sidebar. Installers, disk images, and old attachments pile up here. Select what you no longer need, press Cmd + Delete to move it to the Trash, then empty the Trash again.

Find large files in Finder

Open any folder in Finder, choose View, as List, then click the Size column header to sort with the largest items first. Folders only show a size if Calculate all sizes is turned on under View, Show View Options. Check the Movies, Music, and Desktop folders, along with any project folders that contain video.

If most of the space is photos and documents. In the Storage pane, Store in iCloud keeps full-size files in iCloud and leaves smaller placeholders on the Mac, downloading originals when opened. It needs enough iCloud storage to hold everything and a reliable connection, so weigh that before turning it on.

If the Storage pane shows a large System Data category. This includes caches, logs, and Time Machine local snapshots. It usually shrinks on its own after a restart. Avoid deleting anything inside /System or /Library by hand.