How to free up space on Mac

Sooner or later, it’s likely your Mac will experience some issues. A common scenario is your Mac starts to become sluggish, then apps struggle to save or open large documents. It’s around this time you’ll encounter the dreaded “your disk is almost full” warning sign.

But wait, this warning isn’t as bad as it sounds. Mac has built in some fairly easy methods to regain some valuable disk space when your Mac disk is full. There are also some very handy third-party apps available that can do a thorough job of cleaning up your Mac to free up space (e.g. CCleaner for Mac).

This article will cover some step-by-step instructions on how to free up space on Macs, how to clean up your Mac hard drive, and how to get rid of unwanted clutter. So breathe easy, you are minutes away from a faster, more productive computer.

Back up files and apps

Before manually cleaning up your Mac’s hard disk space, it’s worth backing up any files and apps that are on your Mac. The easiest way to do this is using iCloud storage. While iCloud isn’t the cheapest cloud storage option out there, it’s by far one of the easiest for Mac users. To access iCloud, you’ll need an Apple ID which provides 5 GB of free storage. Thereafter, there are monthly subscriptions available in a range of storage sizes.

If you already have your preferred storage method set up, then go ahead and use that.

Check the storage on your Mac

First, it’s a good idea to check how much storage your Mac has. Mac has a great built-in feature that shows you what’s taking up space, including apps, files, media, macOS, and system files. To check on your Mac, follow these steps:

1. Go to the “Apple” menu, then click “About this Mac”
2. In the tabs at the top, select “Storage” which will show how your hard drive storage is being divided up on your Mac
3. To manage your Mac storage, click on ‘Manage’
4. A pop-up box will appear with a number of options available to clean up space on your Mac, including “Reduce Clutter”. Choose an option and follow the steps as noted on the screen.

Reduce clutter on Mac

While the Mac developers have done a pretty good job of creating the built-in cleanup features, the “Reduce Clutter” feature can be a little daunting to navigate and delete files with.

Under the Reduce Clutter tool, the files are divided into a few categories, making it easy to find what files are hogging all the space on your Mac’s hard drive. However, there’s no way to find and delete duplicate files using this built-in feature.

Another issue is that you must manually sort through all of your files and delete them one by one. This is time-consuming and may also lead to issues with deleting files you shouldn’t.

Use a third-party app to free up space on your Mac

If you want to avoid the fiddly and tricky manual approach needed to delete unnecessary files and free up space on your Mac, you can use a third-party app. CCleaner for Mac offers a host of features that are ideal for freeing up space on your Mac.

You can clear unused cache files and other junk files on your Mac, plus remove any unused apps and duplicate files with just a few clicks! It also comes with features that will boost your online privacy and security. You can find out more about what it can do for you on the CCleaner for Mac page and download it in no time.