Author: James Fleming
Friday, January 27, 2023

Ways To Free Up Disk Space on Your Mac Hard Drive



Ways To Free Up Disk Space on Your Mac Hard Drive

Introduction

Running out of storage space on a mac is more common than most people may think. 80% of Mac users will experience these issues at one point. Therefore, to keep these problems from unnecessarily interrupting your job and the task that you need to do every day, you need to learn everything you can about topics like:

  • How to free up space on your mac hard drive
  • Built-in tools that are available to automate these processes
  • Paid and free plans that give you more storage space in the cloud
  • Automated Ways to delete duplicate files from your hard drive

Thankfully, a wealth of information online addresses these and other related topics. Therefore, the information you learn in this write-up can help you make the best decisions, particularly regarding mac's storage space options for their user base.

So, let's get started by discussing these six ways to free up space on your mac hard drive.

Ways To Free Up Disk Space on Your Mac Hard Drive
1. Optimize storage with built-in tools

If you lack storage space today, one of the first things you can do to solve this problem is to optimize storage with Mac's built-in tools. Because Apple builds macs, they have provided users with virtually everything needed to assist them with freeing up space on their hard drives. So, for instance, to access these tools, you should follow the steps listed for you below.

  • open the Apple menu to access the utilities that you need.
  • Click About This Mac
  • Click on Storage and then click on Manage

The manage feature will allow you to transfer every large file, photo, and message to the cloud by clicking on the option “Store in iCloud.

Ways To Free Up Disk Space on Your Mac Hard Drive

Special Note: Before you choose this option to free up storage space, you will need to know exactly how much storage space will be required to complete this transfer process successfully, especially if you only have a free iCloud Storage plan that only gives you up to 5GBs of storage space.

If you need more storage space on your hard drive to complete this transfer process to iCloud, you can pay for the storage space that you need. As stated, you can transfer more of your files, photos, and messages if you have a paid storage plan that gives you more space (i.e., 2 TB, 200 GB, 50 GB, etc.).

2. Free-Up Storage Space with the "Reduce the Clutter Feature."

In addition to optimizing your storage space by transferring files and messages to iCloud, you can also use the ‘Reduce the Clutter” feature. This feature is also easy to use and beneficial in these situations. However, this process can be lengthy and time-consuming, especially if you have many extra unwanted files on your hard drive.

Whatever the case, you should follow the steps listed below to complete this part of the optimization.

  • Click Review Files to view the unsupported apps, containers, and other data you will no longer need.
  • Once this list is available for viewing, you will need to review each app and container to see which ones need to be deleted.
  • You will need to delete each of these unwanted files.

Here is an example of what you will do to delete each file.

Step 1: Go to the Finder section and then click on Applications.

Step 2: Click on one of the useless apps.

Step 3: Drag it to the Trash on your dashboard

Step 4: Click on “empty the trash”

Ways To Free Up Disk Space on Your Mac Hard Drive

3. Free-up Storage Space with MacKeeper

Cleaning out your system junk files can also free up a significant amount of storage space. However, you will need to know how to delete these files correctly, so they only exist in your learning background. For instance, the best utility to complete this process is the MacKeeper. Just follow the steps listed below.

  1. Go to the MacKeeper and then select this feature to open.
  2. From the left sidebar, select Smart Uninstaller
  3. To delete the apps you do not want to keep, check each box one by one and then delete to remove.
  4. Click on the “Remove” option to confirm the deletion

Ways To Free Up Disk Space on Your Mac Hard Drive

4. Clean up your Desktop

Most people keep all kinds of different files and photos on their desktops. Some of these files may even include the previous month's ad-hoc reports, cute images of their babies, screenshots of people they like, and other miscellaneous files. Sometimes, something on the desktop needs to be organized for quick retrieval. While these things will not free up gigabytes of storage space, reducing unnecessary clutter will help your operating system run faster and more efficiently.

With this in mind, it is essential to start organizing and reducing this clutter by cleaning up your desktop manually.

Here are the steps that can instruct you on how to do it.

  1. Look through your desktop files to see how to delete and organize them better. For example, some of the files on your desktop can be transferred to specific folders, while others can be deleted to free up more space on your mac hard drive.
  2. Open Finder and then click on Desktop
  3. Under View, you can choose the files that you need to remove as List
  4. Sort these desktop files by size to see which files take up the most space.
  5. If these files are no longer needed, you can delete these files based on which ones take up the most storage space.
  6. Deleting all the files at once may free up several hundreds of megabytes in hard drive storage space.

Ways To Free Up Disk Space on Your Mac Hard Drive

5. Delete All duplicate files with Mac Cleaner App

When the storage space on your Mac is about to reach its limits, you will most likely find that t number of duplicate files on your hard drive. However, the number of duplicate files usually varies based on their current download and file maintenance practices. For example, every Maccan uses considerable storage space by downloading the same apps and email attachments multiple times. Also, because it is relatively easy to make several copies of documents and other files, the storage space that I used mac hard drive can range between 10 to 30% and more. As a result, because the average mac user fits this profile, apps are to get rid of the duplicates in an automated way. So, you are not required to delete duplicate copies. Instead, you can use the features in this app to do this in a matter of minutes versus hours.

Ways To Free Up Disk Space on Your Mac Hard Drive
How to download the Mac Cleaner

Step 1: After downloading the Mac Cleaner, launch the MacKeeper

Step 2: On The left side panel, click on the Duplicate Finder

Step 3: Select the Auto selection boxes to delete each duplicate

Step 4: Click on Remove Duplicates to delete all selected boxes one simultaneously

6. Empty the Trash automatically

Usually, it is essential to note that users are required to empty the Trash bin manually to save on storage space. Yet, a feature in the Mac OS will give the user the ability to make it an automated process. If you use an automatic, the files stored in the “Trash” can be deleted automatically after more than 30 days. The files that are deleted will also be permanently removed from mac storage. In addition, users can save as much as 30 percent of their hard drive storage space every month when enabling this option.

Here are the steps that can instruct you on selecting an option.

Step 1: Go to the Apple menu on your mac

Step 2: Select the option, About this Mac

Step 3: Click manage in the storage tab.

Step 4: Click “Turn On” Thi,” option can be found next to the option “Empty Trash Automatically”

Ways To Free Up Disk Space on Your Mac Hard Drive

Conclusion

Freeing up extra storage space on your hard drive does not have to be difficult, challenging, or time-consuming today. However, you will need to know what methods are available to you efficiently and effectively. From, for example, promising storage space with built-in mac tools to cleaning up your desktop to help your operating system run faster and more efficiently, there are many different free up storage space on your mac.

Before getting started, you need to do your research first. By reviewing each method in advance, you will know which ways are best for your particular storage needs, preference, and requirements specifically since some of the courses listed above will only free up a GB of space. In contrast, others (i.e., iCloud transfers) can free up a TB and more.

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