

I'll show you how to check what's weighing your Mac down and share 10 great, easy-to-follow tricks for freeing up space and optimizing your device for smooth performance. If your Mac is struggling to install new macOS updates or perform simple tasks, it's time to take some action. These days, modern Macs come equipped with powerful and fast SSDs (solid state drives) but compared to the older HDDs (hard disk drives), there's no denying they can be limited in capacity. It's a sharp reminder that things will begin to get uncomfortably slow unless you start to free up some disk space, and it's a warning message you shouldn't ignore for too long. There's nothing worse than seeing the "your disk space is almost full" message.

Then expand them when you need to use them again.ĭid you empty the Bin? When you move a file to the Bin, its storage space doesn't become available until you empty the Bin.Learn how to free space on Mac with these 10 tried and tested tips, and uncover what's really weighing your system down. If you don't want to delete certain files, you may be able to save space by compressing them. Check the Users folder on Macintosh HD for any shared files that you no longer need to share.If your Mac is set up for multiple users, delete users who no longer need access to your Mac. Or ask them to follow the steps in this article after logging in to their user account. Also check the Users folder on Macintosh HD for any undeleted data belonging to deleted users.If you use your Mac to back up your iPhone or iPad, you can delete old backups.Also choose Mailbox > Erase Deleted Items.

If you use the Mail app for your email, choose Mailbox > Erase Junk Mail from the menu bar in Mail.Delete files in your Downloads folder. Open this folder from the Dock, or by choosing Go > Downloads from the menu bar in the Finder.Delete music, films, podcasts or other media, especially if it's media that you can stream or download again as needed.You can also delete files you no longer need.

If you have another storage device, such as an external drive connected to your Mac, you can move files to that device. Media files such as photos and videos can use a lot of storage space, so you can take steps such as these:
