Proven methods to help you free up disk space on a Mac

There are many times when we run out of space on a Mac, and it’s a very good idea to figure out why that happens, but also what are the best ways to prevent such issues from happening in the future. With that in mind, there are a variety of methods that can work very well and which can help you free up disk space on a Mac. Here’s what you need to focus on.

Check for the free space first

A very good rule of thumb before you use these proven techniques for Mac is to check and see how much free space you have. In the General System Settings/Storage you will see the documents, apps, system data and Mac OS required storage.

That will help you figure out what is eating up a lot of space, and it will surely eliminate a lot of unwanted problems. The upside is that it works extremely well, and it can provide a much better result than you normally expect. 

Delete system junk

Using a Mac cleanup tool is the best and simplest way to free up disk space on your Mac. The truth is that you always want to clean up system junk because it’s done automatically with such a tool. And it can remove anything from cache, temporary files, backups you don’t need and so on.

You might not really care about this at first. But the truth is that these issues add up. And if it wasn’t that much in the beginning, eventually this can be quite tricky in the long run. That’s why we highly recommend taking it into consideration, because it will help you get started with the cleanup process. And it works very well, too.

Remove the browser cache

Another good thing that you can do is to remove the browser cache. The upside with this is that it allows you to easily remove unnecessary files that are just there on your device, sitting without use. Sure, some sites might use that cache to load faster. But a lot of the content that’s there is unnecessary and it will just waste your time, which could end up being a problem here.

Every browser has its own, different way of removing cache. But you can find that info online if you search “how to remove cache from X” and replace X with the browser name, such as Opera, Chrome and so on. Give it a try, and you might be amazed with the amount of space you can recover this way.

Delete unnecessary media files

Most of us have a ton of media files out there, and these aren’t really necessary. You can enter the storage settings and see the amount of media files on your Mac. Normally, you want to watch something and then delete it, so it can save space. 

If you want, you can also buy external storage, ideally an SSD or even a regular hard drive. The idea is that you can move backups and media files to that, so your Mac won’t be encumbered in any way. It works great, and it will only make things a whole lot better in the end.

Remove duplicate photos, too. You can use duplicate file finders, and some cleanup tools might even have that feature embedded. It works great, and the fact that you can easily delete files without worries is a major plus. You’re not deleting anything bad, just duplicates that you would not need or use anyway.

Remove apps and their leftovers

Not every app you have installed on your Mac is necessary. That’s why deleting some of the apps can be a good idea. And when you delete apps or uninstall them, try to remove stuff related to them from the Library folder, too. That’s where you can find tons of leftovers, and those can be rather problematic. 

The same thing is valid when deleting large files that you don’t need anymore. A very good rule of thumb is to try and check what files you don’t need, and then sort them by size. Naturally, you want to focus on the largest files first. And you can do that not only for apps or media files, but also for backups. Do it often, and you will be amazed to see how much space you can reclaim. 

Closing thoughts

It’s clear that clearing disk space on a Mac is not as difficult as you might expect. Yes, it can be a tad challenging at first, until you narrow down the right processes to focus on. After you do so, it’s all about doing maintenance, and it will work quite well. Give it a try and rest assured that it will make the process much easier to handle every single time.