My MacBook Pro's 256GB SSD went from comfortable to "startup disk almost full" in two years. Mostly because of stuff I didn't know existed. Here are the 9 ways to free up space that actually work, ranked by typical recovery amount.
Combined, these freed 80GB on my Mac. Yours will vary based on what you have stored.
Empty the Trash
Always step one. Right-click the Trash in your Dock. Pick Empty Trash. Confirm.
If you delete a lot but never empty, this alone can free several GB. The Trash holds everything indefinitely until you empty it.
Use Apple's storage recommendations
Apple Menu > About This Mac > Storage > Manage. The window shows where your space is going by category.
Click Recommendations in the sidebar. Apple suggests specific actions – store in iCloud, optimize storage, empty trash automatically, reduce clutter. Each is a one-click button.
Reduce Clutter is the best starting point – shows files over a certain size that you might not need.
Delete big apps you don't use
In the same Storage window, click Applications in the sidebar. Sort by Size at the top.
Adobe apps, Xcode, GarageBand, video editing apps – any of these can be multiple GB. If you haven't used them in months, click them and pick Delete.
Xcode alone is 30+ GB if you have iOS simulators installed. Huge recovery if you don't need it.
Clean Downloads folder
The Downloads folder accumulates installers, ZIP files, PDFs you opened once. Open Finder > Downloads. Sort by Date Modified.
Anything older than a month is usually safe to delete. Highlight, hit Cmd + Delete to send to Trash. Empty Trash after.
Most people have 5-20 GB in Downloads they don't need. Quick win.
Move Photos library to external drive
Photos can take 50-200 GB if you've had your Mac for years. Move the library to external storage.
Plug in an external drive. Open Finder > Pictures. Drag the Photos Library file to the external drive. Wait for it to copy (can be slow with large libraries).
Open Photos while holding Option to pick the new library location. Pick the one on the external drive. Use this from now on. Delete the original on internal storage to free up space.
Enable iCloud Drive Optimization
System Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > iCloud Drive > Options. Toggle on Optimize Mac Storage.
iCloud now keeps the full file copies in the cloud and only puts files on your Mac as needed. Older files become "cloud only" with a small download icon next to them.
Requires you to be paying for iCloud storage with enough space. Worth it – $0.99/month gets 50 GB, $9.99 gets 2 TB.
Clean caches and temp files
System and app caches accumulate. Most are safe to delete:
- Open Finder. Press Cmd + Shift + G.
- Type ~/Library/Caches and hit Enter
- Select everything in the folder
- Drag to Trash
- Empty Trash
Repeat for /Library/Caches (system caches) but be more careful – leave anything system-related alone, only delete app-specific cache folders.
Delete language files
macOS apps include localizations for dozens of languages you'll never use. Tools like Monolingual (free) remove them.
Download Monolingual. Run it. Pick which languages to keep (English plus any others you actually use). Click Remove.
Typically frees 1-3 GB. Don't go crazy – removing English by mistake breaks apps.
Check Mail downloads folder
Mail.app downloads every attachment from every email and stores them locally. If you have years of email, this is huge.
Open Finder. Press Cmd + Shift + G. Type ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Mail Downloads and hit Enter.
Delete everything in this folder. Mail will redownload attachments if you re-open the original email. About 5-15 GB recovered on most Macs.
Empty browser caches
Safari, Chrome, Firefox all cache web content. Several GB combined typically.
Safari – Safari menu > Settings > Privacy > Manage Website Data > Remove All. Chrome and Firefox have similar options in their privacy settings.
You'll be logged out of some sites but performance often improves too.
Use CleanMyMac or DaisyDisk for visualization
Third-party tools that scan your entire disk and show what's taking space:
- DaisyDisk – $10 one-time. Beautiful visualization, quick scans, very reliable.
- CleanMyMac X – $40/year. More features but more aggressive cleanup options (some unsafe).
- OmniDiskSweeper – free, lists files by size, ugly but works
I use DaisyDisk. Find the big files and folders you forgot about. Manually delete what you don't need.
How much free space do you currently have and what's your goal? Tell me both numbers – I'll pick the best method order for you.