If you do not use an external storage device and just rely on the internal hard drive that too with a size of 128GB then it will fill up more quickly than you think. Moreover, if your drive is more than 75% filled to its capacity, your mac will start getting slower and slower.
This is because when you have so little space left on your hard drive; mac starts splitting every new file into fragments so that it can be put into available slots. And this in turn slows down the mac’s capability to process these files. Also, to handle this low disk space some amount of your memory is also taken out making the mac more sluggish.
Therefore, freeing up space on your mac is also a way to free up memory on mac. So folks, without further ado let’s begin our article on how to free up space on your Mac.
Uninstall Unneeded Applications from Your Mac
It is quite obvious that you do not come up with a question of how to free up space on your Mac right from the start. As when our Mac is new we tend to install a lot of applications and then over time we forget about them. And these applications keep residing in the mac and thus keep on consuming the storage space of your mac unnecessarily. So a quick and easy way to free up space on your mac is finding all such applications that you do not need anymore and then remove them or permanently Uninstall app from mac.
Basically, there are 3 ways of removing an unneeded app from your Mac. The first one is obviously the simplest one to directly drag the app and put it straight to the Trash from Applications.
Another one is using the Launchpad. And the third one is using a third-party app that has an uninstaller module or a dedicated uninstaller program.
Some of you may question why to use a third-party app to remove an app when mac has provided a simple way to remove an application. So the answer for this is, the first two methods often leave some parts or data of the app on the hard drive that you have just removed.
Apart from this, there are some apps that you can’t easily find or locate on your mac although they are there on your mac. An uninstaller app here comes more than handy and within minutes helps you to free up a considerable amount of space on your Mac.
Empty Your Trash
The Trash bin on your Mac is no different than the Recycle Bin on Windows operating system. So whenever you delete any file then instead of deleting it permanently it is sent to the Trash of Mac so that you have an option to restore it in case you deleted the file accidentally. So, to remove these files permanently and clear system storage on mac, you need to empty your Trash. But unlike Windows, Mac can have multiple Trash bins, and you need to empty each individually.
Firstly let’s empty the main trash for your account. To do so right-click the Trash icon located at the bottom-right corner of the dock and selects the option Empty Trash. This will permanently delete all your files that were present in the Trash folder.
iPhoto, Mail, and iMovie all have their own respective Trash folders. This means if you have removed any files from any of these applications you need to empty their respective trash to recover the complete space.
Remove Duplicate Files
Duplicate files, one of the main culprits on your mac that consumes a lot of space on your hard drive. With data transferring so easy and fast it is highly likely that you may have tons of duplicate files that reside on your device without your knowledge.
Now if you try manually looking for these duplicates, it will take ages to find and remove these duplicates. Also, there is a high risk that you may end up deleting a non-duplicate file.
Therefore, we always suggest using a dedicated duplicate file remover tool that first thoroughly scans your mac for all the duplicates and then shows them in groups, so that you can remove them easily, with the original copy of each file remaining intact.
Clean Up the Downloads Folder
A must-have tip on how to clean system storage on mac is cleaning up the downloads folder. Every file or program that we download from the internet is stored in the downloads folder. And within a few years, this folder is filled to the brim with huge files that you might even don’t need.
So once you clean up the downloads folder it will not only help you to free up space on your Mac but also boost its performance.
Open up Finder on your Mac and then navigate to the Downloads folder. Now go through the downloaded files and start deleting all such files that are obsolete and you don’t need them.
You can also sort the files present in the Downloads folder as per size so that you can’t miss deleting the files that are consuming most of your system space.
Delete the Temporary Files
A hard drive of your mac not only stores the valuable files but also stores the temporary, junk, and redundant files. So another quick way to free up space on your Mac is to clean your hard drive from these unneeded and temporary data files. Now it can be a bit tough to clean these temporary files manually for a novice user but if you are a regular mac user then you can easily clean these files by investing some time.
And believe us, cleaning the space on your mac will also help you to free up memory on mac for a smoother performance.
Apart from failed downloads, unneeded language files, there are a lot of other temporary files that reside on your system. To clean them follow the steps given below:
- Open the Finder on your mac and from the Go menu select Go to Folder
- Next type in the command ~/Library/Caches and hit the Enter key. This will open a folder with many other folders inside it.
- Go inside each folder individually and manually delete the files that are inside them.
- Empty the trash of your mac to permanently delete the temporary files.
Remove Language Files
Most of the Mac applications that you install on your mac come with a pre-set of language files for each language that the app supports. The benefit is that you can switch the system language of your mac and immediately start using the application in that respective language.
But if you are using a single language on mac, then these different language files are just consuming the space on your hard drive unnecessarily. Moreover, many times after the uninstallation of an application its language files are not removed and they stay there on your mac to consume the disk space.
So if you are running out of space and want to free up disk space on my Macbook Air of 64 GB, then removal of these language files will be more than handy.
Now to remove these unnecessary language files you need to have an optimization tool like TuneupMyMac or CleanMyMac.
Use a Third-Party Tool
To free up space on your Mac you need to basically follow each of the above-listed methods. So it will be a time-consuming process and requires a lot of manual effort. Also, there is no guarantee that you achieve maximum success to clear system storage on mac.
Therefore, it is recommended to have a third-party cleaning and optimizing tool that not only helps you in freeing the space on your mac but also free up memory on the mac for better and optimized performance.
We have tried various mac optimization tools and find TuneupMyMac as one of the best optimization tools that can perform all the above-discussed steps automatically with a single click.
This all-in-one optimization helps you to clean all the temporary and redundant files, cleans duplicate files, removes browser cache, clears unused language files, and cleans the trash. Moreover, the tool also helps you get a detailed overview of the large files that are in your Downloads folder so that you can delete them if they are no longer required.
So in short this amazing utility not only cleans system storage on mac but also frees up memory on your mac and boosts its performance.
Conclusion
We hope that our article has helped you in freeing up space as well as memory on your mac for a smooth performance. So if you do not invest money then you can invest your time and clean your mac, however, if you don’t have time then you can get a mac optimization tool by spending a few dollars that will clean your mac with just a single click.
