Save space on your Mac by storing your content in iCloud, using built-in tools to find and remove large files, or manually deleting apps, files, and more. Emptying trash on Mac will completely remove them and free up the disk space. However, Mac OS has multiple trash cans, so you may need to empty more than one. To empty main trash of your user account. 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. Sep 28, 2021 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.

It's estimated that every year globally, we generate 40 million tons of electronic waste. That's like throwing away 800 laptops every second. Unless you securely clean your free space or wipe your hard drive, there's potentially a lot of recoverable personal data floating around.

Are you looking to erase the free space on your Mac? You've come to the right place. Data privacy has never been more important, but surprisingly, not everyone realizes that your Mac is not entirely erasing that data when you delete a file.

Did you know? Deleted files are identified as free space, available to be written over with new data. Meaning, they can be fully or partially reconstructed if your Mac ends up in the wrong hands. Unless, of course, you erase your Mac's free space.

What do we mean by erase

On macOS, secure erase means your data is replaced with a random set of zeroes and ones. In this way files are “shredded” digitally. Which app should you use? There is a free Shredder tool that is a part of CleanMyMac X — you may use this simple eraser to do the job.

Let’s take a look at how to erase free space and securely erase the hard drive on your Mac.

Why erase free space on your Mac hard drive?

Here’s a quick look at some top reasons to erase your Mac’s free space:

• You’re selling an old Mac or a used hard drive.

• You work with top-secret non-disclosure agreements.

• Your Mac has become too expensive to repair, and it’s time to recycle.

• You want to be sure your deleted data is really gone.

Sometimes emptying your trash just isn’t enough; We need to remove files securely.

If your Mac has an SSD, Apple claims that erasing free space on your Mac’s hard drive is unnecessary because a standard erase makes the recovery of data difficult.

Not everyone wants to take Apple’s word for it. Standard erase doesn’t make me entirely comfortable that my data can’t be recovered. Luckily there are some options if you’d prefer to take your Mac’s deleted data fate into your own hands.

You can both easily and safely wipe the free space on your Mac to prevent future recovery of deleted files and data.

How to find out if you have an HDD or SSD disk:

1. Click the Apple icon top left and select About This Mac.

2. Select System Report and scroll down to Storage.

3. Now, select the drive from the list at the top and look for Medium Type.

4. Here you'll discover if you have an HDD or SSD.

No matter which drive your Mac has, let’s look at how to erase your Mac’s free space.

Erase your free space

One way to securely erase free space on your Mac hard drive is to use theCleanMyMac X Shredder module. Though the main app is paid, this particular tool is 100% free to use.

As we’ve said this feature can be used free of charge and it erases files along with their digital footprints, making them irretrievable. Removal of this nature takes a little longer than a quick empty of your trash, but it does ensure that all data gets rewritten, leaving no chance of recovery at a later date.

Tip: Be sure to select files carefully for secure removal. This action is irreversible.

How to erase free space on your Mac with CleanMyMac X:

1. Download the free version of CleanMyMac X - It’s also notarized by Apple.

2. Launch the app, and select Shredder from the sidebar.

3. Click on the Select Files button.

4. Now, browse which files you want to remove and press Open.

Or you can just drag and drop the file to feed it into the Shredder.

I found it helpful that once the process finishes, you get an update on remaining free space, and you can also view a log of the removed items. I also love the fact this is really simple to use, for quick peace of mind.

Erase a drive using Disk Utility

If you’re planning on transferring ownership or your Mac, Apple recommends erasing the entire disk; this protects you from any standard erased files or data being rebuilt or recovered.

Disk Utility can feel like a scary place to be clicking around. This powerful and notoriously tricky to locate feature can securely erase your Mac hard drive, ultimately preparing your Mac for new ownership.

Tip: Don’t forget to backup any important files you want to keep before erasing a disk.

If you’re trying to erase your Mac’s startup disk, you will need to start up from macOS Recovery first. On your computer, the Startup disk is the main hard drive, and your Mac is using it to run macOS, so it would be unlikely you would be able to erase it without following the next steps.

Startup from macOS Recovery

• Turn your Mac on and quickly press down Command (⌘) and R. When you see an Apple logo or spinning globe, release the buttons.
• If prompted to enter a password, this will be the primary admin account password. The macOS utilities screen will appear, select Disk Utility.
• Once open, select View in the top menu and choose Show All Devices. The disk your Mac started up from will be top of the list. In my example, you can see Apple SSD is the startup disk.
• Select the disk that you want to erase, and click Erase at the top.
• Give your device a new name,select a format. (Disk Utility shows a compatible format by default.) and finally, choose GUID Partition Map and click Erase.
• When it's finished, quit Disk Utility.

If you're not erasing your Mac's main hard drive, then follow these steps:

• Select the Finder icon from the Dock on your Mac and select Applications.
• Now, scroll down to Utilities and then select Disk Utility. You can now follow the same steps as above from point 5.

Final option: If you only need to free up space

There is a difference between “erase” and “free up” when we talk about disk space. If you only need to free up a few gigabytes removing the junk on your drive, that’s much easier to do.

You have 2 options:

1) Use the Optimized Storage feature (a default macOS feature)

This feature is found under Apple menu > About this Mac > Storage > Manage...

2) Use a dedicated junk “destroyer”

The one we’ve told you about is CleanMyMac X. But the same app has another cool feature, called System Junk, that removes clutter in almost astronomical amounts.

It looks like shown below; note how many categories of junk it identifies:


It's up to you to select which option suits your needs. Whether you want to erase free space on your Mac, by selecting which files to remove with a handy tool like CleanMyMac X or opt for the complete drive erasure treatment, it's always good to know your options.

Thanks for reading. Come back soon for more useful Mac tips.

It all starts with “Disk is almost full”

If you are reading this, you are probably familiar with the “Disk is almost full” message on Mac. The lack of free space is, in fact, a global issue. According to MacPaw research, since the Great Lockdown of 2020, people are 28% more likely to clean their computers. Isn’t it because we started to consume more content? Anyway, limitless hard drives haven’t been invented yet.

Let's take the new MacBook Air 2020 edition that offers startling capacities of 256 GB. That’s roughly the storage of the previous year’s iPad! And how soon you will fill that space full, given today’s media consumption trends, is a different question. And as of the summer of 2020, iCloud storage still remains a paid option, and 50GB will cost you $0.99 per month.

So whether you have a new or older Mac, it’s critical to know how to clear system storage on Mac. Further below, I’ll show you my favorite methods of recovering disk space on Mac. They are a bit like alchemy because we’ll be turning junk into free space.

Okay, let’s go.

How to check storage on Mac

It’s good to check your storage details before we get down to deleting things. For example, this is my disk space structure:

Documents: You have too many downloads and media files on your drive
Apps: There are probably tons of hidden and forgotten apps on your Mac
System: Your OS + caches, temporary files, and app localizations that waste space

To view your storage details, click on the Apple icon > About this Mac > Storage

How the full hard drive affects your Mac?

If your drive reaches about 80% of its capacity, your Mac will get noticeably slower. Partly, this is because of the so-called fragmenting. When there is only so much space left on disk, your Mac will split every new file into pieces or fragments and fit them into available slots elsewhere on your Mac. This slows down how your Mac processes these files. Also, some amount of your RAM (virtual memory) will be taken out to compensate for the loss of disk space.

So, how do you free up space on your Mac?

Free up disk space on Mac

1. Find large files you don’t need

Potential space reclaimed: 2-5 GB

1. Go to your desktop and press Command + F
2. Choose “This Mac”
3. Select Other in the dropdown menu
4. Under the Search Attributes menu, tick File Size and File Extension

Well done!Now you can type in different file extensions and sort the results by size. I recommend starting with the .DMG files or application installers. They are just dead weight, and you can live without them. The same goes for .ZIP archives

2. Delete your system junk

Potential space reclaimed: 2-5 GB

How Can I Free Space On My Macbook

There are tons of articles written about system junk, and some Mac users claim the system junk is pure evil and slows your Mac down. In my view, it’s only an excess burden to have on your machine — outdated files, browser caches, app localizations, and old-time machine backups.

To delete system junk manually would be a hot mess, even for an experienced user. So if you want to free up space on Mac quickly, just run CleanMyMac X once and forget it. Unlike some supposed 'Mac-Saviours,' this app is actually notarized by Apple, so you’re safe running it.

1. Run CleanMyMac X — download the app’s free edition here
2. Click the System junk tab.
   

After you run the Scan, review the files and click Clean.

What else can you delete with this tool:

• Time machine backups
• Temporary documents versions
• Outdated system logs
• App localization files

3. Remove unused apps and all their leftovers

Potential space reclaimed: up to 5 GB

Did you know there are 3 ways of deleting apps on Mac? One is dragging them straight to the Trash from Applications, the other involves Launchpad. And, finally, you can use a third-party Uninstaller tool, which also makes sense because the first two methods leave parts of old apps on your drive.

Delete apps via Launchpad

Still, I prefer deleting apps via Launchpad because it’s more fun. Open Launchpad from your Dock.Now, press the Command key and hold any app icon until they start shaking. You will see the [X] symbol above the icon — click it to delete the app.

Delete your unseen apps

That was easy, but here’s the deal. Every Mac has apps that don’t show up anywhere. They may have installed themselves as parts of other apps or be small supporting applications that programmers call “Launch agents” or “Daemons.” In total, they may eat up a whole lot of disk space.

In my experience, of all app cleaners, CleanMyMac X still tops the list. My personal record — 30 GB I was able to clear up on my Mac that had been taken by unused and suspicious programs. So what can you do?

1. Download CleanMyMac X free edition here
2. Click the Uninstaller tab.

From there, you can delete apps on a massive scale - simply select the ones you don’t need. Make sure to check the Leftovers section. These are parts and pieces of your old apps that you can’t otherwise access.

4. Delete your duplicate files

I often download an app twice by clicking on it several times or double-save a track to my iTunes library, which creates quite a mess. So if your Mac has started to run out of storage, there is a way to put an end to it. At first, you can try to find duplicates manually, but it can take you way too long with little to no result.

There is a good app called Gemini 2 - the duplicate finder. It allows you to clean out many gigabytes of duplicates in a few clicks. Plus, it allows you to check what would be deleted and deselect items you want to keep.

So, if your Mac is suffering from the invasion of the duplicates, give this software a try.

5. Remove browser cache

If you are a heavy internet user (like I am), your Mac’s drive is full of the browser cache. These are the kinds of bookmarks left on your drive by every site that you visited. What’s your primary browser? Here are the solutions for Chrome and Safari.

To clear Chrome cache

While you are in Chrome,

1. Click the three-dot icon at the top right
2. Click More tools > Clear browsing data
3. Choose a time range to clear the browsing data
4. Also, clear “Cached images and files.”

To clear Safari cache

1. Click Develop in the top menu.
2. Click Empty caches

6. Use Optimized Storage

Apple has some storage management tools that come pre-installed on your macOS. To get to use them, click on the Apple logo > About this Mac > Click the Storage tab > Manage.

How to manage storage on Mac with built-in options

First, inspect the tabs in the sidebar on the left. Your largest files will most likely be stored in Documents. Go inside this category to find files you can scrap. A quick tip: You can mass-select and delete screenshots on your Desktop right from here.

Then, click Recommendations in the top left corner.
p='>

Here Apple offers you 4 options: the first option, “Store in iCloud,” is self-explanatory. Is iCloud paid? Yes, if your storage needs exceed 5 GB which in 2020 is laughably small.The second option, “Optimize Storage,” will remove your already watched content and the old attachments in Mail. This may help you free up a couple of gigabytes. When you need to clear disk space on Mac, every little help counts.

7. Create the map of your drive

This method was shown to me by my programmer friend, who also happens to be a fan of CleanMyMac X. There is a tool in CleanMyMac called “Space Lens” that builds a map of your entire drive. You can see all your disk’s contents in the form of interactive bubbles that represent your big and small folders. It’s the most exciting way to clear space on your Mac. Wow!

Here you can spot the folders that hog the most space. You’ll also find your “Russian dolls” folders that are hidden inside other folders.

Get this app here for free.

8. Take out the Trash

This advice is the easiest of all. Nevertheless, people forget to do it all the time. We throw things down the Trash and think they are over with. But that’s just moving things from one pocket to another. To free up Trash, right-click the bin icon. Then, choose Empty Trash.

How to empty the Trash automatically on Mac

If you don’t like to empty the Trash every time, there is a scheduled option. Your Mac will auto-delete Trash every 30 days if you tell it so.

• Open Finder > Preferences (in the upper menu).
• Now choose Advanced.
• Check this box “Remove items from Trash every 30 days.”

9. Delete extra language files

Potential space recovered: 1 GB

There are 180+ languages in the world, and most of your Mac’s applications can operate in these languages. However beautiful the language diversity is, people usually use just one or two. When you need to clear space on Mac, extra localization files are another target.How to see your language files? Language files end with “lproj” extension, which stands for “language project.” Unfortunately, finding them manually is problematic. Still, if you want to recover 1 GB of free space out of thin air, get hold of CleanMyMac X. It deletes extra localizations automatically.

1. Get CleanMyMac X here — a link to a free edition
2. Click System Junk and Scan.
3. Then press Review Details.

After you click Review Details, you’ll see the tab called Language Files. As one can see, each of those files takes up about 30 MB. You can only guess how much more it will be with 180+ languages.

10. Clear your Desktop

Desktop may not seem a big deal in terms of storage space, but only because people rarely visit it. It’s a well-known fact that a messy desktop wastes tons of space — and, most importantly — slows your Mac down.

Here’s a quick trick to organize your Desktop: click anywhere in the middle of the Desktop and then choose “Use Stacks” in the window that appears. Everything there will be neatly sorted by categories like Screenshots. Now you can mass delete all the thousands of screenshots that most of us have.

If you are using macOS High Sierra or older, you can manually clear disk space on your Mac Desktop.

1. Click Finder > Desktop.
2. Under View, choose the 3-line icon.

Now you can sort all items by size and delete the largest files.

11. Compress your files

Archiving or compressing files is a nice alternative to permanent deletion. Not all file types compress similarly well, though. For example, documents and presentations can be substantially reduced in size by compression, while movies are harder to shrink.

Luckily, you don’t need a third-party solution to zip things up — your macOS has its built-in tool.

How to free up disk space on Mac using compression?

1. Open Finder and go to your Documents.
2. Command + click on a folder (or multiple folders).
3. Choose Compress.

Be aware that macOS leaves the original file untouched, so once you have the archive, the original folder can be deleted. After you’re done, you may transfer the newly-created archive onto an external drive.

Well done, you’ve just saved some space!

12. Slim down Time Machine snapshots

If you have Time Machine set up properly, it creates backups of your whole system at any given time. I’m not recommending you to delete these backups completely but to trim down their size. This doesn’t affect your user-created data.I’ll show you how to do it with a free version of CleanMyMac, the tool I mentioned in the previous section.

1. Get a free edition of CleanMyMac X
2. Click the Maintenance tab.
3. Choose 'Time Machine Snapshot Thinning.'

Here you are. After you click Run, you will successfully reduce the size of backups on your Mac.

13. Trash the old iPhone backups

Potential space reclaimed: 10-20 GB

Outdated iPhone backups may take enormous space. If you’ve ever backed up your iPhone with your computer, your Mac probably stores all your phone’s data. It makes sense to check your drive for the outdated backups before they grow out of proportion.

Here’s how to clear space on your Mac by deleting old backups:

1. Open Finder > Click Go in the Finder's menu > Go to Folder…
2. Paste in: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup
3. Move the insides of the folder to the Trash, and that’s it.

If you want to remove a specific backup, here’s how to do that:

1. Connect your device to your Mac using a cable.
2. Go to Finder > Locations > Select your device.
3. Click Manage Backups.

Right-click, the name of the backup to see the “Show in Finder” command. Move the backup someplace else or delete it using the Delete option.

Note: do this only if you are 100% sure you don’t need your iPhone backups.

How To Free Space On My Mac

14. Get rid of your junk Mail

Potential space reclaimed: 50 MB

Free Up Space On My Macbook Air

Everyone hates junk email. Apparently, Apple hates it too because they included automatic junk mail deletion to their Mail app. Junk mail doesn’t weigh much but still, deleting it is good for the hygiene of your Mac.

1. Open Mail app.
2. Click on the Mailbox tab.
3. Choose Erase Junk Mail.
4. Beware that this operation cannot be undone.

Other great tips to automatically reduce clutter

• Use Safari. Starting version 10, it automatically removes duplicate downloads.
• Back up your pictures to Photos.Google.com — it offers unlimited storage. Really.
  
• Delete extensions in your browser — you can use a free version of CleanMyMac X.
• Delete desktop apps for services that offer online analogs, like Figma.

How Do I Free Space On My Mac

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.