The Easiest Way to Free Up Disk Space on Your Mac

If your Mac's close to running out of space, don't ignore the problem. These machines can run into issues when their storage is 100% full: Updates may struggle to install; the machine may slow down; apps might not work well; and you may notice that some stop backing up their data to the cloud, too. To avoid all of these issues, free up space. It's not as daunting as it seems.

Use built-in tools to free up space on your Mac

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Apple gives you plenty of easy tools to start clearing unwanted files from your computer. To get started, you should identify where the problem lies. Click the Apple logo in the top-left corner of your Mac's screen and go to System Settings > General > Storage. Wait until all the loading signs disappear, and you'll see why your Mac is running out of space. The Recommendations section offers an easy way to start the cleanup process. Here, you can quickly offload unused apps, delete local copies of files stored in iCloud, automatically delete old files from Trash with a click, among other useful functions. 

Once you've followed these steps, you should have some breathing room, but you can take it even further by clicking the i buttons next to each item in the list below the Recommendations section. For instance, you can click the i button next to Applications to see a full list of installed apps sorted by size, and quickly delete apps you don't use. Once you're through with this, you should've reclaimed a lot of space.

Use DaisyDisk to clean up your Mac

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Apple's built-in method is usually quite good at getting you started, but if you want to get every last unwanted bit of data out of your Mac, consider using the excellent DaisyDisk ($10). This app has been around for well over a decade and has earned itself a reputation for making it easy to free up space. Once you open the app, you can run a scan to see which apps are taking up storage space. Once that's done, you can easily browse through various folders and drop things in the collector area, which is like a shopping cart for things you want to delete. DaisyDisk lists all of your folders by size, and finds files that the built-in tool misses. In my case, I discovered 80GB of data in WhatsApp—files shared in a large group that I'd muted long ago and forgotten all about. 

Once all files are collected, you can click the Delete button to erase them quickly. 

Try Hyperspace to clear out the stragglers

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Hyperspace should be the last stop in your Mac cleanup process. It clears up storage space without deleting any files. Here's how it works.

Apple Filesystem (APFS) has a neat space-saving feature that lets multiple files share a single copy of data. For instance, if you duplicate a 1GB file on macOS, you'll notice that a copy is created instantly. Try to copy the same file to an external drive and no matter how fast the drive is, it'll take a while to copy it over. This happens because APFS just creates a new file with fresh metadata and doesn't actually create a second copy of the data underneath. This saves you a lot of space.

Hyperspace uses this APFS feature to locate identical files and converts them into clones of each other. This means that you will continue to see the same number of files in the same original locations, but the app will use the APFS feature to free up space. 

The explanation is slightly complex, but this app does seem to work. Hyperspace is a free download, and you can also scan your folders without paying. If these scans show the app can save you a significant amount of space, you can then pay to clear those files. The app costs $10 per month, $20 per year, or a one-time purchase of $50.

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