Safari's browser cache could be taking up a lot of space on your iPad; all those temporary internet files add up over time. If choose to clear the cache, you will get some storage space back, but. Sep 08, 2019 Apps occupy a lot of storage space on your device, so offloading the ones you donât use is an easy way to free up more space quickly and easily. The Offload feature is convenient because. Jul 31, 2016 This could take up tens of gigabytes of space if you have a lot of emails. On a Mac with a large hard drive, this isnât a big deal. But, on a MacBook with 128 GB of solid-state drive space, this can be a significant waste of space. Check How Much Space Mail is Using. RELATED: 10 Ways To Free Up Disk Space on Your Mac Hard Drive. Mar 23, 2014 The most common offenders when it comes to eating up storage space are media files. Large videos like movies, multiple smaller videos like TV shows or home movies, or even massive amounts of tiny files like music and apps can all add up. One HD movie can take up 4-6GB.
So, your Mac is running out of storage. You try to figure out whatâs taking up your disk space by clicking the Apple logo on the top-left of the screen, selecting About This Mac, and hitting the Storage tab.
To your surprise, you see a yellow bar representing âSystemâ that seems to occupy way more space than you think it should. In the example above, it only shows 207 GB, but take a look at this Apple discussion â some Mac users report that System Storage takes an astonishing 250 GB.
Worse yet, you have no idea whatâs included in âSystemâ storage, because clicking the âManageâ button brings you to this System Information window⦠and the âSystemâ row is greyed out.
Why does my Mac system require so much space?
What does it contain?
Is it safe to remove some of those system files?
How do I regain more storage space?
Questions like these may easily get to your head. Although my Mac now has a good amount of disk space available, Iâm always wary of files that are taking up more space than they should.
I have no idea why âSystemâ is greyed out while âDocuments,â âSystem Junk,â âTrash,â etc. allow you to review the files based on size and type. My hunch is that Apple does this on purpose to prevent users from deleting system files that could lead to serious issues.
What Files Are Included in System Storage on Mac?
During my research, I found many people report that Apple counts iTunes backup files and app caches (e.g. Podcast apps for mac and android phone. Adobe video cache files) in the System category.
Since itâs greyed out and we are unable to click on that category for deeper analysis, weâll have to use a third-party app to assist.
CleanMyMac X is perfect for this kind of analysis. Since I tested the app in our best Mac cleaner review, it immediately came to my head when I saw âSystemâ was greyed out in Storage. Note that CleanMyMac isnât freeware, but the new âSpace Lensâ feature is free to use and it allows you to scan your Macintosh HD, and then show you an in-depth overview of whatâs taking up disk space on your Mac.
Step 1:Download CleanMyMac and install the app on your Mac. Open it, under âSpace Lensâ module, first click the yellow âGrant Accessâ button to allow the app to access your Mac files and then select âScanâ to get started.
Step 2: Soon itâll show you a folder/file tree and you can hover your cursor over each block (i.e. a folder). There you can find more details. In this case, I clicked âSystemâ folder to continue.
Step 3: The file breakdown below indicates that some Library and iOS Support files are the culprits. Mac high sierra messages app high cpu.
The interesting part is that the System file size shown in CleanMyMac is much smaller than the size shown in System Information. This puzzles me and makes me believe that Apple definitely has counted some other files (not real system files) in the System category.
What are they? I have no clue, honestly. But as reported by other Mac users who experienced the same issue, they said Apple also considers app caches and iTunes backup files as System files.
Out of curiosity, I ran CleanMyMac again for a quick scan. That app found 13.92 GB in iTunes Junk. Further review revealed that the junk files are old iOS device backups, software updates, broken downloads, etc.
But even after adding this amount to the original system files returned by CleanMyMac X, the total size is still a bit less than whatâs returned in System Information.
If cleaning the System Storage is still not enough to bring your Mac available disk space to a normal level (i.e. 20% or more), see below.
What Else Can I Do to Reclaim More Disk Space?
There are tons of ways out there. Here are a few of my favorites that should help you get back a decent amount of space quickly.
1. Sort all files by size and delete old large files.
Open Finder, go to Recents and look at the Size column. Click on it to sort all recent files by file size (from large to small). Youâll have a clear overview of what items are eating up a large amount of space, e.g. From 1 GB to 10 GB, and from 100 MB to 1 GB.
On my MacBook Pro, I found a few large videos that could be transferred to an external drive.
Note: If the Size column doesnât show up, click on the Settings icon and select Arrange By > Size.
2. Remove duplicate files.
Donât forget those duplicates and similar files! They can stack up without you being aware of it. Finding them is sometimes time-consuming. Thatâs what Gemini 2 is designed for. Simply select a few frequently used folders (e.g. Documents, Downloads, etc.) in the main zone of Gemini.
It then scans them and returns all the duplicate files that might be worth removing. Of course, itâs always a good practice to review them before doing so. You can also read more from our detailed Gemini review here.
Wrapping It Up
Ever since Apple introduced the Optimized Storage feature, Mac users got the option of saving space by storing content in the cloud. Apple also has several new tools that make it easy to find and remove unneeded files.
That bar under the Storage tab is beautiful. It does allow you to get a quick overview of whatâs taking up the most space on our hard drive. However, it still lacks insights into the âSystemâ category as itâs greyed out.
Hopefully, the guides above have helped you figure out the reasons youâve got so much âSystemâ data, and most importantly youâve reclaimed some disk space â especially for new MacBooks pre-installed with flash storage â every gigabyte is precious!
Owning a new Mac is a great feeling â itâs the fastest itâs ever going to be, there are no scratches or dings on the computer, and you have what seems like an unlimited amount of storage space. Fast forward a few months or years, and you may start finding that youâre running out of storage. For those of you with Macs that can be easily upgraded with a new internal drive from OWC, your solution may be to purchase and install a drive with more capacity. But what if you have something like an older MacBook Air with very limited storage â 64GB â that is much more difficult to upgrade? In this article, weâll show some simple ways to free up storage space on your Mac.
How Much Storage Is Being Used? (The Storage Tab in System Information.)
The first thing youâll want to do is find out how much storage is being used on your Mac, and for what purposes. One way to start looking is to click the Apple menu, then select About This Mac. Click on the Storage tab, and System Information displays how much storage each attached drive contains. Below, you see that I have a lot of space available on my 2 TB Fusion Drive, a 4 TB backup drive thatâs about 2/3 full, and an install disk thatâs wide open.
While hovering your cursor above the various colors and shades listed under each drive capacity shows the type of files taking up space, you may find that some of the labels donât make sense â for example, the red area on the Macintosh HD shows that I have 115.26 GB of iOS files. That sounds like something I may be able to get rid of, but Iâll need to know what theyâre used for.
To get a better idea of how storage space is being used, click the Manage⦠button thatâs located to the right of the drive icon. This initially shows a list of how much space is being used for various things and a set of recommendations like âStore in iCloudâ, âOptimize Storageâ, âEmpty Trash Automaticallyâ, and âReduce Clutterâ. While you can click those recommendation buttons to save some storage space, itâs more instructive to look at the list of apps or files in the left sidebar of this window to see whatâs taking up an unusual amount of space.
(This view shows how much storage is used for specific purposes as seen in the left sidebar.)
As you can see in the screenshot above, iOS Files, Photos, Documents and Parallels VMs (virtual machines) take up the majority of the space on my iMac. Clicking each one of the listed items tells me whatâs actually being stored. In the screenshot below, clicking on iOS Files shows that âdevice backups and software updatesâ are being stored. Sounds like a place where I might be able to clean up some files.
Likewise, clicking on Documents displayed a list of files that are stored in various places on my Mac. I was surprised to find a number of large disk image (.dmg) files in my Downloads folder, all of which were app installers that I could easily delete. Doing so cleared up about 2 GB of storage. Thatâs not much, but if my Mac had only 64 GB of storage like some of the original MacBook Airs, that 2 GB is significant.
iOS Files
Have you owned iOS devices for years? If you ever backed up your iPhone or iPad to your Mac, or used iTunes to search for and install iOS apps, then your Mac is probably using a lot of space to hold old iOS backups and copies of all of your iOS apps.
Things have changed in the iOS world. Backups are best done using the iCloud Backup facility thatâs easy to turn on in iOS by tapping launching Settings, then tapping Apple ID > iCloud, and finally scrolling down until you find iCloud Backup listed. Make sure itâs turned on, and your iPhone is backed up to iCloud each and every night over Wi-Fi.
Likewise, the iOS App Store is no longer available on your Mac in iTunes. Do you really need all of those app updates and backups on your Mac when theyâre easily available with a tap on your iPhone or iPad? For me, it was easy to free up 115.26 GB of storage by deleting two iOS files (one for an iPhone named âMesa Verdeâ, the other for an iPad named âCanyonlandsâ). To delete these files, simply move the cursor to the name of the iOS device and an âxâ in a circle â indicating a delete button â appears. Click it, and youâre asked if you wish to remove the file as the removal cannot be undone. Click the âRemoveâ button that appears and the space is cleared immediately.
Photos
Your Photos Library contains all of the pictures youâve taken and videos that youâve synced with your Mac, so it can be huge. On Macs with limited storage, it may be impossible to store the full Photos Library! Fortunately, thereâs a solution to this dilemma: iCloud Photo Library.
When you enable iCloud Photo Library in the Photos app by selecting Photos > Preferences > iCloud, then checking the iCloud Photo Library checkbox, your entire library is uploaded to iCloud (see screenshot below). This has several benefits: your precious photos and videos are backed up to the cloud, and those photos and videos are accessible from every Apple device you own and through iCloud.com.
(Enabling iCloud Photo Library.)
My Photos Library holds 51,802 photos and 510 videos, yet I can view all of those photos on my iPhone or iPad if I wish â both devices with storage thatâs much more limited than on my Mac. Fortunately, iCloud Photo Library only stores âthumbnailsâ â smaller, lower-resolution versions of the originals â on the devices to optimize storage space on all of my devices. When I wish to look at a full-resolution photo or see a 4K video I shot with my iPhone, itâs downloaded from iCloud to my devices in the best available resolution.
Itâs possible to store your originals in full resolution on your Mac if you have enough space, but choosing to Optimize Mac Storage makes it possible to save a lot of space. That can be very important on laptops with limited storage.
iTunes
Have you ever purchased a movie, TV show or podcast to watch or listen to on your Mac? If so, you may be taking up a lot of storage with those files. Clicking iTunes on the list of storage requirements displays any movies, TV shows or podcasts that are taking up space, and once again they can be deleted by clicking the âxâ in a circle delete button.
Documents (Listing Document files by size.)
System Information provides three ways of looking at the documents stored on your Mac, all of which may point out files that can be deleted or archived to an external drive. Click on Documents, and youâll see (screenshot below) that it lists Large Files, Downloads, and File Browser.
Large Files is probably the most useful tab, as it can quickly point out single files that are taking up massive amounts of storage. For example, thereâs one QuickTime movie at the top of my list that chews up a whopping 16.5 GB! Thereâs a reason for that: itâs a high-resolution virtual reality movie I shot.
The Downloads tab shows all items that are in your Downloads folder, and theyâre listed by how long theyâve been in the folder. The list can also be sorted by kind (PNG image, PDF document and so onâ¦), by the date the file was last accessed, and by size. My Downloads folder tends to accumulate PNG images and JPGs for screenshots, and I rarely delete them.
Sadly, System Information only allows one document at a time to be deleted, so if you find that you have hundreds of files to get rid of, open your Downloads folder, highlight all of the files you wish to delete, and then delete them all at once.
What About The System Folder? (This 8.2 GB system folder is typical for a Mac running macOS 10.13 High Sierra.)
The Mac System doesnât take up as much space as it used to, but on occasion, users find that it has grown to the point that itâs taking up entirely too much storage. You may note when you have the System Information window open that it does not show a storage requirement for System â it often just displays the progress âspinning gearâ icon. A better way to see whatâs in the System folder is to use a third-party application like OmniDiskSweeper, which is free to download from The Omni Group.
As you can see in the screenshot above from OmniDiskSweeper, the System folder isnât taking up a lot of space â just 8.2 GB. If your System folder has grown to the point that itâs gigantic, then you probably want to take a look in there with this tool to see whatâs chewing up storage.
Apps That Take Up A Lot Of Storage On Mac Download
Common issues that can cause your System Folder to swell include apps that are writing a lot of log files that are not being deleted, and beta versions of macOS that sometimes cause available space to be incorrectly reported. For the former issue, itâs a good idea to use a utility like the free OnyX to go through and delete log files on a regular schedule. The latter problem can be avoided by not installing beta software on your primary Mac â instead, use a test or virtual machine to try out the beta.
If you do encounter the âgrowing System Fileâ issue, it may be time to re-install macOS. The best way to do this is to back up everything, then do a clean install. Once your files are restored from your backup, you have an operating system that is as clean as the one youâd get with a new Mac.
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