If you are seeing this notification, you surely need to know how to manage mac storage. MacBooks come with small hard drives that fill up quickly. However, there are several ways you can use to manage mac storage. But why do we need to manage mac storage? We need to manage storage on mac or on any other device for the smooth functioning. If we don’t keep mac clean it will not function properly and your work and task will slow down automatically. Not many of us know how to manage mac storage, so we are here to help you out. Listed below are the ways that you can use to manage storage on your MacBook. So here we go:
Use CleanMyMac3
This is the easiest way to clean you MacBook. The app will basically let you can temporary files that are taking a lot of space on your mac. It comes with both free and paid versions. This will help to clean up extra language files, uninstall applications, find big attachments stored in mail and get rid of them, and do much more.
Search and remove duplicate files
Duplicate files take up a lot of drive space especially, if you are using your MacBook since long. There are a lot of ways to find out these duplicate files. You can always use apps to make your work easier. Gemini2 is the similar app which you can use to find and delete duplicate files. The app is available on App store also, Apple had this app as their Editors’ Choice. However, if you want to enjoy the free trial version get the app from Apple’s website. There are several other apps on Apple store, you can choose any one of them.
Uninstall the unused applications
Applications you install on your Mac usually takes a lot of space. We have a habit of installing the apps we think we will use, but those apps remain unused. This is the major reason your Mac storage is getting filled up. To manage Mac storage easily, choose the apps you don’t use anymore and delete them one by one. You just need to open Finder window and select applications in the sidebar and drag-and-drop the application’s icon to the trash can on your dock.
Empty your trash cans
As there is recycle bin on Windows, similarly Mac has Trash option. If you don’t want to delete your files permanently you can add it to your trash cans. These files can be restored whenever you wish to have them back. In order to permanently delete your files, you need to empty your trash as well. This is how you can empty your user account’s main trash can:
Ctrl-click or right-click the trash icon at the bottom-right corner of the dockNow select Empty trashThis will delete the files sent to the trash can
Clear up the iTunes backups of your iPad & iPhone
In case you have backed up your iPad and iPhone to you MacBook using iTunes, your Mac must be filled with massive backup files. If you want to delete these files manually, look for the backup folder on your Mac. These folders will have random names, you can delete the folders found inside. To make it easier and much safer use ClanMyMac. This app will convert the confusing folder names into actual backup names. This will help you to easily decide which backup folder you want to delete.
Find out the files taking much space
If you want to manage storage, it is must to know about the files that are using disk space more. To do so you can use hard disk analysis tool like Disk Inventory X. this will scan your MacBook’s hard disk and show you the files and folder taking much space. You can hen choose and deleted these large files. For saving the important files you can just move them to external media.
Clear up Mac mail’s big attachments
Mac mail attachments take a lot of space. To avoid downloading these large attachments you can choose not to download attachments automatically. To do so, first go into mail> preferences> accounts> account information, after this change the drop-down for ‘download attachments.’ Either select ‘recent’ or ‘none’. If you want to delete the attachments manually follow these steps:
Open mail and select the folder that you wish to find and delete attachments forAlways sort by size to find the large attachmentsChoose message> remove attachments
NOTE: If you are using IMPA, this will not delete the attachment from the mail server
Use storage tools in macOS High Sierra
The latest version of macOS Sierra has a new tool that lets you clear the junk out of your Mac. You just have to go to the menu and select “About This Mac” and look for the storage tab. Choose the settings you wish to opt for and enable the ones that may help you. The 4 options you will get will be:
Store in iCloudOptimize StorageEmpty Trash AutomaticallyReduce Clutter
Remove language files
MacBook applications come up with several language files for every language they support. This let you change Mac’s system language according to your choice. For sure, we all use only one language and the rest in our MacBook are just taking up the space for no good reason. Simply remove the extra language files if you want to free up space and manage storage on your Mac. To remove the files, you can use Monolingual or CleanMyMac. These language files don’t affect the functioning of you MacBook so there is no harm keeping them. But yes, for having extra space you can always remove them. You can also check your Mac storage and we will tell you how to check storage on Mac.
How to check storage on Mac
If you have already decided to free up some space from your MacBook, it always good to check your storage details first. This is how you can view your storage details:
First click on the Apple iconLook for “About This Mac”Under this you will find storageUnder this you will get all the storage details
Through this article we have helped you to know how to manage Mac storage. As managing Mac storage is necessary for the proper functioning of you MacBook, you can use the above-mentioned ways to do so. If you know some other methods to manage Mac storage, you can comment down in comment section.
