Clearing up space on your Mac Step #1: Analyze your Disk Space Now that you have already checked your disk space using the information on your Disk utility, you already know which application, files, and folders are eating up all of your storage. Apr 6, 2018 - Apple iPhones come in a range of different storage configurations. But even if you've opted for more space, you can easily fill it up after a year.
So, your Mac is running out of storage. You try to figure out what's taking up your disk space by clicking the Apple logo on the top-left of the screen, selecting About This Mac, and hitting the Storage tab.
To your surprise, you see a yellow bar representing 'System' that seems to occupy way more space than you think it should. In the example above, it only shows 33.87 GB, but take a look at — some Mac users report that System Storage takes an astonishing 250 GB. Worse yet, you have no idea what's included in 'System' storage, because clicking the 'Manage' button brings you to this System Information window and the 'System' row is greyed out. Why does my Mac system require so much space? What does it contain?
Is it safe to remove some of those system files? How do I regain more storage space?
Questions like these may easily get to your head. Although my Mac now has a good amount of disk space available, I'm always wary of files that are taking up more space than they should. I have no idea why 'System' is greyed out while 'Documents,' 'System Junk,' 'Trash,' etc.
Allow you to review the files based on size and type. My hunch is that Apple does this on purpose to prevent users from deleting system files that could lead to serious issues. What Files Are Included in System Storage on Mac? During my research, I found many people report that Apple counts iTunes backup files and app caches (e.g. Adobe video cache files) in the System category. Since it's greyed out and we are unable to click on that category for deeper analysis, we'll have to use a third-party app to assist. Is perfect for this kind of analysis.
Since I tested the app in our, it immediately came to my head when I saw 'System' was greyed out in Storage. Note that Dr. Cleaner isn't freeware, but the 'Disk Map' feature is totally free and it allows you to scan your Macintosh HD, and then show you an in-depth overview of what's taking up disk space on your Mac.
Cleaner isn't available to download or use, is a nice alternative. Step 1: and install the app. Open it, under 'Disk Map' module, click the blue button to select the 'Macintosh HD' folder to get started. The interesting part is that the System file size shown in Dr. Cleaner (10.1 GB) is much smaller than the size shown in System Information (33.87 GB). This puzzles me and makes me believe that Apple definitely has counted some other files (not real system files) in the System category.
What are they? I have no clue, honestly. But as reported by other Mac users who experienced the same issue, they said Apple also considers app caches and iTunes backup files as System files. Out of curiosity, I ran for a quick scan. That app found 13.92 GB in iTunes Junk. Further review revealed that the junk files are old iOS device backups, software updates, broken downloads, etc. But even after adding this amount to the original system files returned by DaisyDisk, the total size is still a bit less than what's returned in System Information.
If cleaning the System Storage is still not enough to bring your Mac available disk space to a normal level (i.e. 20% or more), see below. What Else Can I Do to Reclaim More Disk Space? There are tons of ways out there.
Here are a few of my favorites that should help you get back a decent amount of space quickly. #1: Sort all files by size and delete old large files. Open Finder, go to Recents, and look at the Size column. Click on it to sort all recent files by file size (from large to small). You'll have a clear overview of what items are eating up a large amount of space, e.g. From 1 GB to 10 GB, and from 100 MB to 1 GB. In my MacBook Pro, I found a few large videos that could be transferred to an external drive.
It then scans them and returns all the duplicate files that might be worth removing. Of course, it's always a good practice to review them before doing so. You can also read my. Wrapping It Up Ever since Apple introduced on macOS Sierra and High Sierra, users got the option of saving space by storing content in the cloud.
Apple also has several new tools that make it easy to find and remove unneeded files. That bar under the Storage tab is beautiful. It does allow you to get a quick overview of what's taking up the most space on our hard drive. However, it still lacks insights on the 'System' category as it's greyed out.
Hopefully, the guides above have helped you figure out the reasons you’ve got so much 'System' data, and most importantly you've reclaimed some disk space — especially for new MacBooks pre-installed with flash storage (usually 128 GB or 256 GB) — the storage is so precious!
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Sometimes, out of mere curiosity (or because you noticed that ALL of your disk space happen to disappear in some strange way) you wonder: Where the heck did all my storage space go? Turns out, it’s not just your favourite ‘Breaking Bad’ or ‘Friends’ TV episodes. And it’s not the trash bin that you always forget to empty. (But you’d better not to!) All things considered, there are many more huge files whose existence you’ve never even suspected. We provided short descriptions for majority of them.
And below you’ll also find quick helping tips to sweep them all out of your iron friend. Let’s get right into it: Temporary files On Mac OS temporary files are usually cleared out on their own (unlike Windows). But, guessing, not all of them get removed. After taking a closer look at my MacBook Air storage space, it turned out that.tmp files take up whooping 36,7 GB. Well, honestly, I’m not a techie person, and maybe not a very profound Mac user, but holy cow! While you can under no circumstances remove the files manually, the best you can do is to reboot your computer.
Yeah, it’s that simple. If this didn’t work try rebooting it in the safe mode – that is holding ‘Shift’ button, when it’s starting. Let us know if it worked out in the comments section. Cache Files These are the files stored on your computer aimed to provide better user experience.
Because of cache files, you can reach the info, you’ve already accessed before, much faster. But very frequently they take just too much of your HDD, so you need to clear cache out from time to time. To remove cache files on your Mac, do the following: – open Finder – select ‘Go’ ‘Go to Folder’ – type in ‘/Library/Caches’ – delete those files (we suggest delete the insides of the folders rather than folders themselves) – repeat the operation one more time, but type ‘/Library/Caches’ this time (without ‘’ sign) Then head to your trash bin and make sure you cleaned it. After this restart your Mac. Language Files If Application is available in several languages, it comes with additional files for every language it supports. You don’t speak Thai, do you? Either way – you still got the file.
A simple free app like Monolingual can easily remove those files. But think twice before doing this – unless you update your OS, you won’t get them back. Mail Attachments Turns out, that if you’re using Apple’s Mail app – all the message archives and mail attachments are stored on your computer. And they can take up floppily jillion of space. Of course, it depends on how much mail you get, but the chance is – they do eat a lot of your storage. So perhaps, there is no need to keep ‘em all on your machine. Go to the Mail.app and there you can easily get rid of all the unnecessary emails.
ITunes backups Without you even knowing about it, iTunes keeps a lot of unnecessary info. For instance, if you have a habit of downloading iOS apps through iTunes, they are still kept there. In addition – All the backups of your iOS devices are also stored in iTunes.
Sometimes they are completely useless. For example, if you upgraded to a newer device, you probably don’t need a backup for the older one. That’s exactly what I’ve got on my working computer: So to check on your devices’ backups, go to iTunes menu Preferences. Tap on ‘Devices’ section there. What’s good about Apple operational systems – they are clever.
That is iOS or Mac OS are thought to remove cached files on its own. So to check on your devices’ backups, go to iTunes menu Preferences. Tap on ‘Devices’ section there. How to Analyze Your Disk Space Anyways – these are just the part of all unnecessary files your Mac is piled up with. To analyze what is eating up your space exactly, we’d also suggest using app. DaisyDisk is a pretty cool app. I’ll even let you in on a secret – we share the same office with DaisyDisk’s creator Oleg Krupnov.
Here’s the proof: Daisy Disk will quickly let you know what files are being too big and bulky. Once you scan your computer (it takes just a couple of secs), it’ll show you your computer storage in a colourful diagram, divided into bright blocks. Move the cursor to any of them – and the app will tell you the file’s name and how much storage it takes. If you click on it – you’ll get another diagram composed of bright blocks just as well. This is how you can get even deeper in the storage space hierarchy. Warning: Be aware – this will certainly be a revelation moment: you’ll never believe what’s taking up your storage space.
Remember you downloaded that useless app a year ago? Well, DaisyDisk will quickly refresh your memory.
The thing I like the most about it – you also can collect all the unneeded materials and delete them altogether inside of the application. And you know what – removing the files in such a nice flowery way is a lot of fun. Do you already smell this daisy sent going from your computer?
In the end – What files take the most storage on your Mac? Tell us in the comments section!