Free Up Space on Your Mac Hard Drive

Regardless of how large you think your MacBook storage is, there’d certainly come a time when you’d need to free up some space.

If you are not at that point yet, you can keep these tips for later.

However, if you urgently need to free up space on your Mac Hard Drive to help your system run better, keep reading.

This tutorial will provide tips on how to do that.

Step-by-Step Guide on Creating Space On your Mac Hard Drive

One of the most effective ways to free up space when you are almost or completely out of storage space is using auxiliary storage devices or uploading your files to your iCloud to optimize storage space.

But, while this method is effective, it may require spending some extra cash, especially if you have a lot of information or data to store.

If you want to save space while saving cash, here’s a step-by-step guide on optimizing storage with some built-in-tools.

First, open the Apple menu on the screen corner, and click on “About This Mac.”

Next, click on “Storage.” The window opens and displays a storage bar that shows the used and available storage space estimates.

It also displays several color-coded segments representing various file categories.

After that, click on the Manage button just above the right upper end of the storage bar.

This will open the storage management window.

this is done, the system will display several storage optimization options as displayed below;

Depending on what you prefer, you can select the Optimize Storage, Reduce Clutter, or Empty Trash Automaticallyoption to free Up storage space. You can even choose all the options.

After this is done, check the amount of “available space” at the top of this window or in “About This Mac” to monitor your progress.

If this method doesn’t yield enough storage space, try either of these methods.

  • Uninstall or remove apps that are not in use – Click on Finder, on your home screen. Then select the Applications option, right-click all unused or useless apps and empty them into the trash. You can use Launchpad or a cleaning utility like MacKeeper to delete unused Apps.
  • Compress files that you don’t use often.
  • Delete unnecessary or duplicated files and media, such as music or movies, or podcasts.
  • Delete unwanted or unused files in the Downloads folder.
  • Delete unnecessary emails in the Mail app.
  • With Mac set up for multiple users, remove users that you no longer want to have access to your Mac. You can also ask them to optimize their storage space following these steps.
  • Finally, empty your trash can.

Using any of these methods can help optimize your Mac storage and remove any unnecessary files.

Ori Otokpa

Ori is a medicine major, realtor, and content writer with over 5+ years of working experience. Through years of in-depth tech research and writing she has garnered sufficient knowledge to teach and help people find their way around tech. Ori’s goals are to broaden her expertise, travel the world, and go on as many adventures as possible.

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