How to Reduce System Storage on Mac

Macs are known to be very optimized in terms of app support of the complete OS, but one thing that bothers any type of user, which is the storage. The latest...

Rahul Verma

Last updated on January 14, 2021

Rahul Verma

Author

Rahul is a Computer Science student with a massive interest in the field of Tech and cryptocurrency topics. He spends most of his time either writing or listening to music or traveling un-seen places. He believes that chocolate is the solution to all his problems. Life happens, and coffee helps.

Method 1: Empty the Trash bin

You may not need to worry because the quickest way to reduce storage usage on Mac is by clearing out the trash bin. The trash bin is where all your deleted files go just if you want to get them back. If you don’t want the items you recently deleted, you can consider emptying the trash bin. To empty your trash,

On your Mac, hover the mouse to the lowest corner of the screen to bring up the dock.
Now right click on the Dust bin or Trash bin icon.
Click on Empty trash.

This clears your trash bin, giving you some extra space on your Mac. Although sometimes, you have to empty trash from other applications too. For example, if you use iPhoto, it has a separate trash can to store your deleted photos. So to delete them,

Open the app, and right-click on the trash bin.
Click on empty trash.
Similarly, repeat these steps for all other apps.

Method 2: Remove or Uninstall apps that you don’t use:

So if you have a bunch of software that you don’t really use, you should consider removing them. Sometimes you really didn’t want that software, and you just installed it for a one time purpose. Remove them they are using precious storage space. To remove unwanted apps,

Open the Finder app on your Mac.
Click on Applications from the sidebar.
Now click on “Show applications as a list.”

Now see which application is taking up more space. If you don’t want that app anymore, just remove it. To remove an app, just drag and drop that app into the trash can on your dock.

Method 3: Delete caches and other temporary files

As you continue using your mac, it creates temporary files, also known as caches. Although in some situations, these caches help for the smoother usage of your system, but in most cases, it’s just eating some more of your storage. So to clear them,

Open Finder and click on Go and click on “Go to folder.”
Now enter: ~/Library/Caches and click ok.
This will take you to the Caches folder.
Select all files and folders inside this and delete.

Don’t worry, and These are just unwanted junk files. Deleting them brings no harm to your system.

Additionally, you should also consider deleting your browser caches. Although deleting browser cache will not show a larger impact, but it’s best to do it when you’re really running low on storage. To do so,

Open Chrome or any other browser you want to clear cache from.
Right-click on it on the top status bar
Click on Clear caches and click on okay on the next pop up.

That’s it. This will clear all unwanted temporary files and give you some free space.

Method 4: Clean your iTunes backup

If you also use an iPhone or an iPad, you at some point also would have taken a backup of your phone on your mac. If you don’t want those backups now, you can delete them now to free up some storage. Just make sure you really don’t need those backups anymore. To delete those backups:

Close the iTunes app before continuing.
Now use the finder to go to this location: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup.
Browse through the backups and delete them if you don’t need them.

Method 5: Consider using Cloud services

You use a mac, so you may already have an apple account. This also means that you have 5 GB of free cloud storage. Why not use it to backup your files and save storage on your Mac. Plus, if you want more storage, you can buy storage from iCloud, which can be used for a lot of other uses. Plus, some other providers like Google, iCloud, Onedrive, Dropbox provide some more storage options. If you don’t want to spend on buying storage, you can create multiple accounts with multiple providers and use them to save files.

How to Reduce System Storage on Mac

You can use one service for one file type. For example, you can backup photos on iCloud, Documents on Onedrive, and videos on Google drive. You’ll get some more storage on your mac by doing so.

Method 6: Use the storage management window

You may not realize that your Mac already has a wonderful tool that can help you to save storage. It’s the Storage management window. This fantastic tool shows you tips and tweaks that you can do on your mac to save some storage.

However, some of the settings will be already turned on. But you can also find some more tips based on the current situation your mac is in.

Final Method: Delete old files that you don’t want any more

Have a project that is completed or some old photos that you don’t want anymore? Just delete them every Megabyte counts. If you have some old downloads on your mac, consider removing them if you don’t want them anymore. Clearing unwanted files from the computer is the best way to get rid in the end. But when you do so, keep a calm and open mind because you might delete some important data. So think twice before you delete.

To find out which of the files consumes the most space on your Mac, click on the Apple menu and click on About this mac. Now click on Storage.

How to Reduce System Storage on Mac

This window will give you an overview of storage usage on your Mac by file category. This can be useful to remove files manually.

Conclusion

So as you can see, clearing some storage space on Mac is very easy. You don’t need any extra tools for that. All of these methods are done using the built-in tools that come with your mac. So don’t worry about spending money on costly tools that claim to free up storage space. It’s not like they don’t. But they just make it too easy for you by cutting extra steps, and that’s what you’re paying for.

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How to Reduce System Storage on Mac