Free up storage space on Mac

During the computer, more and more files are placed on the Mac. They are stored on the hard disk. This drive has limited storage space. This can cause the hard disk to become full. In that case, get started with the tips below to make room again.

First of all, it is useful to gain insight into the storage space of the Mac. See how much storage space there is in total on the computer and how much space is still available.

• Click the Apple logo in the top left.
• click on About this Mac.
• Click on the tab Storage. Under ‘Macintosh HD’ you can see how much space of the total is still available.

It is smart to manually look at large files on the computer. See which documents take up a lot of space. Do you no longer need these files? Then delete them from the Mac. Please note, only delete files that you are sure are no longer needed.

• Click on the Apple logo > About this Mac.
• click on Storage > Management.
• Click behind ‘Clean up documents’ on View files.
• Click on the tab Large files.
• Click on a file.
• Not sure what file it is? First click on Show in Finder and view the file.
• Delete the file? Then click on Delete.
• Click again to confirm Delete.

The trash can fill up with (large) files unnoticed. Therefore empty it regularly. In order not to have to worry about it, set the recycle bin to empty automatically. After 30 days, the files in it will be deleted.

• Click on the Apple logo > About this Mac.
• click on Storage > Management.
• Click behind ‘Empty Trash Automatically’ on Switch on.
• Click again Switch on.

The Optimize Storage feature looks at the Apple TV and Mail apps. From the Apple TV app, the feature removes the already watched movies and TV shows. In the Mail app, the feature searches for old email attachments. These will be removed from the computer, but can still be downloaded manually by opening them via the original email.

• Click on the Apple logo > About this Mac.
• click on Storage > Management.
• click on Optimize.
• The question arises whether you want to optimize the storage of films and TV programs. click on Optimize.

Finally, we look at the possibility to store files, photos and messages in iCloud. iCloud is Apple’s free online storage service. Read more about this in the article ‘What is iCloud?’. The Save to iCloud feature offers three options:

• Desktop and Documents: Store all files from these two locations in iCloud Drive. Recently used files are on the Mac. On older files, click first to download them again.
• Photos: All original photos and videos are stored in iCloud Photos. On the Mac, the photos are in a lower resolution. By clicking on such a photo, the original format is downloaded.
• Messages: All sent messages and attachments from the Messages app are stored in iCloud.

In this step, we assume that you are already using iCloud. Isn’t that the case yet? Then first get started with the article ‘Working with iCloud Drive on Mac’. Turn on the ‘Save to iCloud’ feature as follows:

• Click on the Apple logo > About this Mac.
• click on Storage > Management.
• By default, the three options have a check mark. Remove such a check if you do not want to use one or more of the options.
• click on Save to iCloud.