#CAN YOU DO A DISK CLEANUP ON MAC HOW TO#
#CAN YOU DO A DISK CLEANUP ON MAC INSTALL#
#CAN YOU DO A DISK CLEANUP ON MAC UPGRADE#
#CAN YOU DO A DISK CLEANUP ON MAC FREE#
#CAN YOU DO A DISK CLEANUP ON MAC MAC#

Open Finder and select Applications from the sidebar to view all the apps installed on your Mac. Select any backups you don’t want to keep, then click Delete to get rid of them.From the sidebar, select iOS Files to view all your iOS and iPadOS backups.

#CAN YOU DO A DISK CLEANUP ON MAC MAC#

Click the Apple icon and select About This Mac from the top-left of the menu bar.

If you don’t need these backups anymore - which might be the case if you now back up to iCloud - you can delete them using the About This Mac window. You may also find that a lot of storage is being used by local iOS or iPadOS backups. When this happens, your Mac saves numerous Time Machine snapshots to your startup disk, which it transfers to your external drive the next time you complete a backup.Īll you need to do is connect your external Time Machine drive and go to System Preferences > Time Machine > Back Up Now. This is often the case if you normally use Time Machine to back up your Mac, but haven’t done so in a while. If the About This Mac windows says a lot of space on your Mac is used up by System, Other, or Backup files, you might be able to get rid of them by simply backing up your Mac.

#CAN YOU DO A DISK CLEANUP ON MAC HOW TO#

If so, you might want to learn how to tell your Mac to automatically empty the Trash every 30 days.

#CAN YOU DO A DISK CLEANUP ON MAC FREE#

You should find that this creates much more free space on your startup disk.

Now open the Trash from the Dock and click Empty.

Review your downloaded files and drag any files you don’t need to the Trash.

Open Finder and select the Downloads folder from the sidebar.

The solution, of course, is to delete downloads you don't need. And unless you empty it, the Trash keeps everything you ever deleted.ĭon’t be surprised if these two folders waste gigabytes of space on your startup disk. The Downloads folder keeps everything you’ve ever downloaded. Here are all the best methods you can use to free up your startup disk.īoth the Trash and the Downloads folder on your Mac regularly fill up with useless files over time. It’s time to clear out some of that space. You should now have a clear idea of how much space is left on your startup disk and what kinds of files are using up your storage. How to free up space on your Mac startup disk Ideally, you want to keep about 20GB of storage space available. Hover your cursor over the chart to find out how much space each category is using, then hover over the white section on the right to see how much free storage space is still available.

Click Storage and wait for the chart to loadĪt the top of this screen you’ll see the name of your Mac’s startup drive - usually Macintosh HD - followed by a breakdown of the total storage and how it’s currently being used.

Click the Apple logo in the top-left corner of your screen.

Here’s the easiest way to check the free space on your Mac: How to check the free space on your startup diskĮven if your Mac hasn’t warned you that the startup disk is almost full, you should regularly check how much free space you’ve got left so you can fix any problems as they develop. So if your Mac’s startup disk is full, the only way to fix it is to clear out various files to create more free space.

#CAN YOU DO A DISK CLEANUP ON MAC UPGRADE#

Unfortunately, most modern Macs don’t let you upgrade the startup drive to give yourself more storage.

#CAN YOU DO A DISK CLEANUP ON MAC INSTALL#

When you look at it this way, it’s easy to see how your Mac’s startup drive can become full as you install more apps, upload more photos, and create more documents over time. This means your documents, movies, music, downloads, and other files are all probably saved to your startup disk, alongside macOS and every other app installed on your computer. And unless you set up an external drive, it’s probably also the place where all your other local files are stored. For most people, this is the built-in drive on their Mac.

The startup disk is the hard drive or SSD that holds the operating system for your Mac. If your Mac popped up with a “Your disk is almost full” message, it was almost certainly referring to your Mac’s startup disk.

What is a startup disk and how is it full?

Just install MacKeeper and enable the Auto-scan feature to let it start freeing up gigabytes of space on your startup disk automatically. You can use MacKeeper for this thanks to its Safe Cleanup, Duplicates Finder, and Smart Uninstaller features. The best way to prevent your startup disk getting full is by keeping your Mac clean on a regular basis. This guide will show you everything how to check if your startup disk is full and how to free up essential space on your Mac. The result? An annoying 'Your disk is almost full' message and possible poor performance.ĭon’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Everyone keeps their house clean, but surprisingly, many Mac users neglect cleaning their Mac startup disks.

Can you do a disk cleanup on mac