How To Free Up Space On Mac Air

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. This is often the case if you normally use Time Machine to back up your Mac, but haven’t done so in a while. Emptying trash on Mac will completely remove them and free up the disk space. However, Mac OS has multiple trash cans, so you may need to empty more than one. To empty main trash of your user account: Step 1: CTRL-Click or right click on the trash icon at the bottom right corner. Step 2: Now, choose empty trash. It will delete all the files.

How To Clear Space On Mac
Mac Disk Cleaner
How To Free Up Space On Macbook Air El Capitan
Free Up Disk Space On Macbook Air

/Mac Cleaner /How to Free up Space on Mac -- Complete Guide in 2021

Our Mac is one of the most useful devices that we tend to use in our everyday life, especially for people who run a business, working person, or a student. However, as time goes by, your Mac will be filled with the files and other things that you no longer need. These files can actually make your Mac run slow and can eat up your space.

In this article, we are going to show you how to free up space on Mac in both the easy way and the manual way. The fact that MacBook Air only comes with 128 gigabytes of storage doesn't make it any easier for you to conserve more space. It fills up even faster. If you have a MacBook Air, here are the same ways on how to free up space on Macbook Air.

Article GuidePart 1. How to Check Storage on Mac?Part 2. How Do I Free Up Disk Space on My Mac?Part 3. How to Free up Space on Mac Using Terminal?

Part 1. How to Check Storage on Mac?

So, how to know what files are taking up storage space on your Mac? Follow these steps:

Click the Apple menu then choose “About This Mac'.
Click the Storage then you will view different file types are displayed in different colors.

This shows you the size of each folder on your Mac so you can see how much space everything takes. At this point, you will know what files are eating up your storage and manage them.

Cleaning your Mac will definitely take a lot of your time especially if there are a lot of files or junks that are stored in it that you do not actually use and need. However, there is definitely a way for you to clean it up the easiest and in the fastest way possible. This is by using a Mac Cleaner that has powerful functions. And with that, we have the best cleaner that you can use. This is the iMyMac PowerMyMac.

It has the ability to get rid of all the junk files that you have stored on your Mac. It can also remove all the email attachments, iTunes backup, and the multi-languages on your Mac. It also has the ability to find and then completely remove your Large and Old Files and all of your duplicate files.

By doing all this, the PowerMyMac will be able to speed up your Mac and as well as to free up space. This way, you will still have enough space to install other applications that you need and files that are more important.

Part 2. How Do I Free Up Disk Space on My Mac?

Here, we are going to show you some ways on how to free up space on Mac so that you will be able to save more apps and files that you need. You can do that manually or let PowerMyMac do the favor for you.

1. Check Out Your Disk To See What is Taking Up Space and Locate Files

If you would want to know how to free up space on Mac, then it is a good way for you to see which is actually taking up your disk space. This way, you will be able to know what to delete from your Mac and what not.

You can use a certain tool that will help you in finding all the things that are taking up space on your Mac the most. Then that is the time that you can delete all of the things that you no longer need that is taking up a huge space on your Mac.

2. Locate and Remove Duplicate Files

One of the most common things that we tend to have on our Mac is having duplicate files that we are not aware of. This usually happens if you are using your Mac for a very long time. Here are the steps to remove duplicate files:

Launch Finder then click the File option.
Choose the 'New Smart Folder' then click the '+' button.
Search for different files types like photos, songs, or documents.
Check if the file is duplicate then move to the Trash.

You can also use PowerMyMac's Duplicate Finder to remove these duplicate files on your Mac easily.

Launch PowerMyMac then choose the Duplicate Finder.
Let PowerMyMac Scan all the files on your Mac and it will show the duplicates in different file types.
Select the duplicate files you want to remove then press the Clean button.

3. Uninstall App That You No Longer Use

There are instances that you have installed Applications on your Mac that you do not really need and it is actually taking up a lot of space on your Mac. With this, you should go ahead and uninstall it if you do not need it. For you to remove these applications that you no longer need, here is what you need to do on how to free up space on Mac:

Go ahead and launch Finder on your Mac.
And then choose Applications located at your sidebar.
After that, go ahead and drag the application that you no longer need and drop them in your trash bin icon on your Mac’s dock.

Now if you want to know which of the applications that you have installed on your Mac that you do not likely use, all you have to do is to do the following. This way, you will have an idea on which of your Apps you do not really need.

Go ahead and launch Finder on your Mac.
And then go ahead and click on Applications.
After that, go ahead and choose “Show Items on the List” on the toolbar.
Then, goa head and click on the Size heading for you to be able to sort out your Applications by size.

If you want to uninstall apps completely with all the related files, PowerMyMac should help you a lot:

Launch PowerMyMac then choose the Uninstaller module.
Let PowerMyMac Scan all the apps on your Mac and it will list them as well as the related files.
Select the apps you no longer need to delete then press the Clean button.

4. Get Rid of Large and Old Files

Large and old files are useless and taking lots of space on your Mac, just follow the steps below to get rid of them:

Launch Finder and locate the search field.
Choose “This Mac”
Make the 'File Size' settings to 'is greater than' ## MB.
Then you can remove files that are large as you want.

PowerMyMac's Large & Old File can also help you to remove those big files to get more space back.

5. Clean Up Your iTunes Backup of Your iPhone/iPad on your Mac

Backing up your data is one of the best ways to keep them safe. This way, you will have a way for you to get them back if ever you have lost your iPhone device or if you have damaged it.

However, as you make more backups of your data on your Mac, it is actually one cause of eating space on your Mac. This is because every time you back up your data, these backup files will actually pile up on your Mac over the time.

Now, the best way on how to free up space on Mac is to remove all those backup files that you no longer need:

Operate 'Finder > Go > Go to Folder'
Copy and paste “~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/”
Move to Trash.

Delete a specific backup:

After connecting your device to Mac, go to Finder.
Select your device under the Locations.
Click Manage Backups then right-click the name of the backup and choose the “Show in Finder”.
Press the Delete button to remove that backup.

If you think these steps on how to free up space on Mac are complicated, PowerMyMac would be the best helper to remove the iOS backups for you.

Apowersoft screen recorder espanol. 6. Remove All of Your Temporary Files

The Mac that you are using also contains some temporary files that you actually do not need. These temporary files also cause Mac system taking up too much space. Removing the temporary files that you have on your Mac will not make it run faster but it will definitely free up your space.

There are several temporary files that you have on your Mac. And you will be able to see them once that you access your Finder and Go and then Go to the folder of the menu and use ~/Library/Caches. This command will be able to lead you to the cache folder of your Mac. And you will be surprised to see a lot of folders in that section.

7. Remove The Language Files on Your Mac

All the applications that you have on your Mac actually come up with language files that they actually support. This way, you will be able to switch the system language on your Mac and then you will be able to use that application on the language that you have selected.

However, you do not need most of these language files your applications have. Well, you may need some if you are able to speak and understand that language, but if not, they might as well remove them. However, this is may be a problem to locate these language files. Thus, you need PowerMyMac to find out these files for you to remove.

Besides language files, PowerMyMac can locate and remove other files like caches, logs, iOS backups, system junks, and even empty Trash. All these can be done via its “Master Scan” module:

Click on the “Scan” button, then the PowerMyMac will start scanning all the junk files on your Mac.
Wait until the program is done with the scanning process. PowerMyMac will then show you all the junk files that it has found on your Mac. These junk files will be listed by category.
From the list of categories shown on your screens such as Application Cache, Photo Cache, Email Cache, System Cache, and more, go ahead choose a category that you want to clean up.
Choose the items that you would want to remove. Once that you are satisfied with the items that you have selected, go ahead and click on the “Clean” button.

You see, isn't it the easiest way on how to free up space on Mac startup disk with PowerMyMac?

8. Delete Downloads Folder

There’s usually a default folder where all downloads such as zip files, TV shows, videos, and photos are stored. If you no longer need these downloads, then it's time to delete some files in your Downloads folder:

Access to the Downloads folder via Dock or Finder.
Select the files you want to delete. Then right-click on them to choose to Move to Trash.
Empty Trash then the files will permanently be deleted.

9. Empty Your Trash Bin

Most people would think that once that you have put a certain file in the trash bin, then that means that the file was actually deleted. Well, that is wrong. The truth is, once that you have put a file on the trash bin, it just sits there and still eats up space on your Mac.

How to free up memory on Mac completely? To achieve this, you can go ahead and simply empty your trash bin. All you have to do is to press on the Ctrl button + right click on the trash bin icon located at the bottom of your screen. Then after that, go ahead and choose Empty Trash option. Then all the files that it contains will be completely deleted from your Mac and that you can no longer recover them.

Part 3. How to Free up Space on Mac Using Terminal?

If you are familiar with the Terminal command line, here are some quick tips to free up space with Terminal:

Command to Remove Duplicates: find . -size 20 ! -type d -exec cksum {} ; | sort | tee /tmp/f.tmp | cut -f 1,2 -d ' ' | uniq -d | grep -hif – /tmp/f.tmp > duplicates.txt
Remove System Logs: sudo rm -rf /private/var/log/*
Delete Cache Files: rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/*
Remove Speech Voices: sudo rm -rf Voices/*

Now you have learned how to free up space on Mac with auto and manual ways. There are really several other ways that you can clean up your Mac and that you will be able to free up some of your space. You can either do this process by going all through this one by one.

Well, if you want to save time and do this in the fastest, easiest and yet very efficient way, then the PowerMyMac is the tool that you should use. Just have its free trial to get more space on your Mac now!

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How to check storage on Mac

It’s good to check your storage details before we get down to deleting things. For example, this my disk space structure:

Documents: You have too many downloads and media files on your drive
Apps: There are probably tons of hidden and forgotten apps on your Mac
System: Your OS + caches, temporary files, and app localizations that waste space

To view your storage details, click on the Apple icon > About this Mac > Storage

How the full hard drive affects your Mac?

If your drive reaches about 80% of its capacity, your Mac will get noticeably slower. Partly, this is because of the so-called fragmenting. When there is only so much space left on disk, your Mac will split every new file into pieces or fragments and fit them into available slots elsewhere on your Mac. This slows down how your Mac processes these files. Also, some amount of your RAM (virtual memory) will be taken out to compensate for the loss of disk space.

According to MacWorld magazine, nearly full hard drives performed 17% slower in the test.

So, how do you free up space on your Mac?

Free up disk space on Mac

1. Find large files you don’t need

Potential space reclaimed: 2-5 GB

Go to your desktop and press Command + F
Choose “This Mac”
Select Other in the dropdown menu
Under the Search Attributes menu, tick File Size and File Extension

Well done! Now you can type in different file extensions and sort the results by size. I recommend starting with the .DMG files or application installers. They are just dead weight and you can live without them. The same goes for .ZIP archives

Macbook Pro Free Up Space

2. Delete your system junk

Potential space reclaimed: 2-5 GB

There are tons of articles written about system junk and some Mac users claim the system junk is pure evil and slows your Mac down. In my view, it’s only an excess burden to have on your machine — outdated files, browser caches, app localizations, and old-time machine backups.

To delete system junk manually, would be a hot mess, even for an experienced user. So if you want to free up space on Mac quickly, just run CleanMyMac X once, and forget it. This app, unlike some supposed 'Mac-Saviours', is actually notarized by Apple so you’re safe running it.

Run CleanMyMac X — download the app’s free edition here
Click the System junk tab.

After you run the Scan, review the files and click Clean.

What else can you delete with this tool:

Time machine backups
Temporary documents versions
Outdated system logs
App localization files

3. Remove unused apps and all their leftovers

Office 2016 for mac repair. Potential space reclaimed: up to 5 GB

Did you know there are 3 ways of deleting apps on Mac? One is dragging them straight to the Trash from Applications, the other involves Launchpad. And, finally, you can use a third-party Uninstaller tool, which also makes sense because the first two methods leave parts of old apps on your drive.

Delete apps via Launchpad

Still, I prefer deleting apps via Launchpad because it’s more fun. Open Launchpad from your Dock. Now, press the Command key and hold any app icon until they start shaking. You will see the [X] symbol above the icon — click it to delete the app.

Delete your unseen apps

That was easy but here’s the deal. Every Mac has apps that don’t show up anywhere. They may have installed themselves as parts of other apps or be small supporting applications that programmers call “Launch agents” or “Daemons.” In total, they may eat up a whole lot of disk space.

In my experience, of all app cleaners, CleanMyMac X still tops the list. My personal record — 30 GB I was able to clear up on my Mac that had been taken by unused and suspicious programs. So what can you do

Download CleanMyMac X free edition here
Click the Uninstaller tab.

Macbook Air How To Free Up Space

From there you can delete apps on a massive scale - simply select the ones you don’t need. Make sure to check the Leftovers section. These are parts and pieces of your old apps that you can’t otherwise access.
Microsoft train simulator iso free download.

4. Delete your duplicate files

I often download an app twice by clicking on it several times or double-save a track to my iTunes library, which creates quite a mess. So if your Mac has started to run out of storage, there is a way to put an end to it. At first, you can try to find duplicates manually, but it can take you way too long with little to no result.

There is a good app called Gemini 2 - the duplicate finder. It allows you to clean out many gigabytes of duplicates in a few clicks. Plus, it allows you to check what would be deleted and deselect items you want to keep.

So, if your Mac is suffering from the invasion of the duplicates, give this software a try.

5. Remove browser cache

If you are a heavy internet user (like I am) your Mac’s drive is full of the browser cache. These are kinds of bookmarks left on your drive by every site that you visited. What’s your primary browser? Here are the solutions for Chrome and Safari.

To clear Chrome cache

While you are in Chrome,

Click the three-dot icon at the top right
Click More tools > Clear browsing data
Choose a time range to clear the browsing data
Also, clear “Cached images and files.”

To clear Safari cache

Click Develop in the top menu
Click Empty caches

6. Use Optimized Storage

Since the arrival of macOS Sierra Apple introduced the storage management tools that come pre-installed on your macOS.

Click on the Apple logo > About this Mac Click the Storage tab > Manage.

How to manage storage on Mac with built-in options

First, inspect the tabs in the sidebar on the left. Your largest files will most likely be stored in Documents. Go inside this category to find files you can scrap. A quick tip: You can mass-select and delete screenshots on your Desktop right from here.

Then, click Recommendations in the top left corner.

Here Apple offers you 4 options, more generic than practical, really. The first option “Store in iCloud” is self-explanatory. Is iCloud paid? Yes, if your storage needs exceed 5 GB which in 2020 is laughably small. The second option “Optimize Storage” will remove your already watched content from iTunes and the old attachments in Mail. This may help you free up a couple of gigabytes. When you need to clear disk space on Mac, every little helps.

7. Create the map of your drive

This method was shown to me by my programmer friend, who also happens to be a fan of CleanMyMac. There is a tool in CleanMyMac called “Space Lens” that builds a map of your entire drive. You can see all your disk’s contents in the form of interactive bubbles that represent your big and small folders. It’s the most exciting way to clear space on your Mac. Wow!

Here you can spot the folders that hog the most space. You’ll also find your “Russian dolls” folders that are hidden inside other folders.

Get this app here for free.

8. Take out the Trash

This advice is easiest of all. Nevertheless, people forget to do it all the time. We throw things down the Trash and think they are over with. But that’s just moving things from one pocket to another. To free up Trash, Command + click the bin icon. Then, choose Empty Trash.

How to empty the Trash automatically on Mac

If you don’t like to empty the Trash every time, there is a scheduled option. Your Mac will auto-delete Trash every 30 days if you tell it so.

Click on Finder > Preferences (in the upper menu).
Now choose Advanced.
Check this box “Remove items from Trash every 30 days.”

How To Clear Space On Mac

9. Delete extra language files

Potential space recovered: 1 GB

There are 180+ languages in the world and most of your Mac’s applications can operate in these languages. However beautiful the language diversity is, people usually use just one or two. When you need to clear space on Mac, extra localization files are another target. How to see your language files? Language files end with “lproj” extension, which stands for “language project”. Unfortunately, finding them manually is problematic. Still, if you want to recover 1 GB of free space out of thin air, get hold of CleanMyMac X. It deletes extra localizations automatically.

Mac Disk Cleaner

Get CleanMyMac X here — a link to a free edition
Click System Junk and Scan.
Then press Review Details.

After you click Review Details you’ll see the tab called Language Files. As one can see, each of those files takes up about 30 MB. You can only guess how much more will it be with 180+ languages.

10. Clear your Desktop

Desktop may not seem a big deal in terms of storage space but only because people rarely visit it. It’s a well-known fact that a messy desktop wastes tons of space — and most importantly — slows your Mac down.
To see your Desktop, press Command + F3
On a MacBook with a Touch Bar, press Fn + F11
If you running macOS Mojave or Catalina, you can click anywhere in the middle of the Desktop and then choose “Use Stacks” in the window that appears. Everything there will be neatly sorted by categories like Screenshots. Now you can delete all the thousands of screenshots that most of us have.

If you are using macOS High Sierra, or older, you can clear disk space on your Mac Desktop manually.

Click Finder > Desktop.
Under View, choose the 3-line icon

Now you can sort all items by size and delete the largest files.

11. Compress your files

Archiving or compressing files is a nice alternative to permanent deletion. Not all file types compress similarly well, though. For example, documents and presentations can be substantially reduced in size by compression, while movies are harder to shrink.

Luckily, you don’t need a third-party solution to zip things up — your macOS has its built-in tool.

Did you know
Zip is the lossless compression format that keeps file quality intact.

How to free up disk space on Mac using compression?

Open Finder and go to your Documents.
Command + click on a folder (or multiple folders).
Choose Compress.

Be aware that macOS leaves the original file untouched, so once you have the archive, the original folder can be deleted. After you’re done, you may transfer the newly-created archive onto an external drive.

Well done, you’ve just saved some space!

12. Slim down Time Machine snapshots

If you have Time Machine set up properly, it creates backups of your whole system in any given time. I’m not recommending you to delete these backups completely but to trim down their size. This doesn’t affect your user-created data. I’ll show you how to do it with a free version of CleanMyMac, the tool I mentioned in the previous section.

Get a free edition of CleanMyMac X
Click the Maintenance tab.
Choose 'Time Machine Snapshot Thinning'.

Here you are after you click Run you will successfully reduce the size of backups on your Mac.

13. Trash the old iPhone backups

Potential space reclaimed: 10-20 GB

Outdated iPhone backups may take enormous space. Once your iPhone is synchronized with iTunes, iTunes will be backing up your data without your knowledge. So, it makes sense to check your drive for the outdated backups before they grow out of proportion.

If you have macOS Mojave or older macOS:

Click Finder > Go to Folder…
Paste in: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup
Move the insides of the folder to the Trash and that’s it.

If you have macOS 10.15 Catalina you can do it even easier.
Open Finder > Preferences > General.
Click Manage Backups.

Right-click the name of the backup to see “Show in Finder” command. Move the backup someplace else or delete it using the Delete option.

Free Up Space On Macbook Air

Note: do this only if you are 100% sure you don’t need your iPhone backed up.

14. Get rid of your junk Mail

Potential space reclaimed: 50 MB

Everyone hates junk email. Apparently, Apple hates it too because they included automatic junk mail deletion to their Mail app. Junk mail doesn’t weigh much but still, deleting it is good for the hygiene of your Mac.

Open Mail app.
Click on the Mailbox tab.
Choose Erase Junk.
Beware that this operation cannot be undone.

Other great tips to automatically reduce clutter

Use Safari. Starting version 10 it automatically removes duplicate downloads.
Backup your pictures to Photos.Google.com — it offers unlimited storage. Really.
Delete extensions in browser — you can use a free version of CleanMyMac X.
Delete desktop apps for services that offer online analogues, like Figma.

Okay, I’ve told you my favorite ways to free up disk space on your Mac. You can bookmark this article and revisit next time when the annoying “Your disk is almost full” message pops up. Decluttering your Mac can add a fresh spark to your digital life — so try it today.

Most of us are keen to update to a new version of macOS as soon as it is available. macOS Big Sur has been out since November 12, still, many users couldn't update their Macs straight away. It’s very frustrating if you see a message telling you that you don’t have enough space to install the new macOS. Don’t worry, though. There are lots of things you can do to fix it. We’ll show you what they are in this article.

How much space do you need for Big Sur?

While the installer for Big Sur takes up less than 16GB of space, you should make sure that you have at least 20GB of free space on your startup disk before you try to download and install it. The more free space, the better. Your Mac uses disk space to store temporary files and provide storage for active apps and tasks (which is what RAM does), so you should never be running with almost no disk space left.

CleanMyMac X makes it very easy to free up disk space on your Mac by identifying junk files and allowing you to get rid of them with a click. It can also detect large and old files and show you the files taking up most space and uninstall applications.

How to free up space for macOS Big Sur?

Complete the following steps to ensure your Mac is ready to update to Big Sur.

1. Backup your Mac

Back up all files and data that are stored on your Mac. Preferably twice to different locations. While upgrading to Big Sur is safe, you never know when something might go wrong. If you use Time Machine or another backup tool, run a manual backup just before you upgrade. And, if you can, clone your startup disk to an external drive, too.

2. Free up disk space using CleanMyMac X

If you don’t already have CleanMyMac X installed, download it for free here. This tool will help you clear some space and delete large and old files quickly.

Launch CleanMyMac X.
Choose System Junk in the sidebar and press Scan.
When it’s finished, press Clean to free up space, or Review Details to find out more.

3. Get rid of large and old files

Media files usually gobble up a large amount of disk space. And the worst thing is they are scattered around Mac’s folders, making it difficult to find and remove them. CleanMyMac X proves to be useful here:

Choose Large & Old files in CleanMyMac X’s sidebar.
Press Scan.
When it’s finished, use the middle column to filter files by type.
Check files that you want to delete.
Press Remove.

4. Use Apple’s built-in storage management tool

Apple has provided a method for you to manage storage by showing you what is taking up disk space and making recommendations for deleting. It’s not as quick and easy as CleanMyMac X, but it can help you save disk space. Here’s how to use it.

Click on the Apple menu and choose About this Mac.
Select Storage and press Manage.
In the Recommendations section, review each section in turn.
Now go through each of the sections in the sidebar.
Delete files or take further action, depending on what you choose.

5. Delete local Time Machine snapshots

There is one other thing you can try if you keep getting a message telling you that you do not have enough space to install Big Sur. You should only try it if you are sure there is enough space on your startup disk and that the message is wrong. And it will only work if you use Time Machine to back up your Mac.

Time Machine stores local snapshots on your Mac. Your Mac is supposed to count the space used by snapshots as free space, which is why it looks like you have enough space for the installation.

However, it seems that the installer may not realize the space is free. The solution is to delete the snapshots. This won’t remove backups on your backup disk, just snapshots on your Mac.

Macbook Free Up Space

Open Time Machine from System Preferences. Uncheck Back Up Automatically and wait some time till Time Machine deletes snapshots. Then you can turn Time Machine back on.

How To Free Up Space On Macbook Air El Capitan

If you’re familiar with Terminal, you can try deleting local snapshots manually.

Free Up Disk Space On Macbook Air

Free Up Space On Macbook

Go to Applications > Utilities and launch Terminal.
Type: tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
You will see a list of snapshots that look like this: com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-10–09-002010.local
To delete a snapshot, type: sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots
Then type the date part of the snapshot name. For example: sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2020-10–09-002010
Type Return and repeat for each snapshot you want to delete.

Free Disk Space Mac

Hopefully, this helped you free up some space and update your Mac to the latest OS. If you're just preparing your Mac for the upgrade, don't forget to back up your data before you start clearing space. So you won't be afraid of losing anything important.