4 Tips for Freeing up Disk Space on Your Mac
Although Mac hard drives are getting bigger with a lot of the work shifting online, it is odd that you get a message from your Mac saying the disk is almost full. This is confusing, stressful, and perplexing because you have to ask the question full of what?
So let’s try and find the answer to this question of things.
If the disk is full real problems occur with the Mac slowing down performance. To see what your disk is full of, do the following:
- Click the Appleicon, About This Mac
- Click (Older Macs this may be under More Info).
You’ll see how much space you have and what you’re storing. If your space is low you can move files to an external drive or install a new drive. If there is nothing obvious that’s eating the space try the following tips.
Delete the Cache
Cache is like a superpower in that it is a blessing and a curse. When working well web pages load faster, apps run smoother, the sun shines, and you feel good. Once web pages and apps update, the cache becomes redundant and your web pages go on a go-slow, your apps don’t work properly, it rains and you feel miserable. So let’s get rid of the pesky cache and free up some space so you turn that frown upside down!
To do this:
- Go Finder, Go, Go to Folder.
- Type ~/Library/Caches. Hit Enter.
- You’ll see a list of folders, back these up.
- Go into each folder and delete the cache files one by one.
Restore the backup if problems occur.
That takes care of app cache, now you have to do the same with the system cache. The fun never stops when it comes to freeing up disk space on a Mac!
- Go Finder, Go, Go to Folder
- Type /Library/Caches. Hit Enter(This is the same as before but with the ;~; removed.)
- You’ll see a list of folders, back these up.
- Go into each folder and delete the cache files one by one.
Restore the backup if problems occur.
Just when you thought the day was done, your next step is to delete browser cache. This is slightly different by happily straightforward for each individual browser. Generally, you go into history and delete the cache by selecting a tick box.
Delete Trash
One area that eats into your hard drive is the Trash. The files build up there and are just as complete as when you delete them. Happily, this can be deleted at a button push, so push that button for a better Mac life.
But wait, apps have their own trash folders too. So go into each one and delete what’s in it for the win!
Remove Time Machine Backups
Time Machine is great because it makes good backups of our work. Somewhat ironically, once a new backup has been made the others go out of date. We can remove these backups, ‘snapshots’ and free up space.
- Go Systems Preferences, Time Machine
- Uncheck ‘Back Up Automatically’
Hopefully, these tips will help you free up space on your Mac.