• (Lucas's MacLifeHacks #23)Is your Mac startup disk full? Here's the quick fix to free up space! Reclaim the space eaten up by 'Other'.Subscribe for more life.
• To summarize, we listed all possible solutions to free up startup disk: 1. Use iCloud storage 2. Empty your trash bin 3. Delete unwanted apps 4. Remove duplicate files 6. Delete old backups It would take quite some time and a lot of effort to do all the things above.

Summary: This guide will help you free up hard drive space on a Mac or MacBook. No matter what kinds of macOS you are using (macOS Sierra and later, or the macOS X El Capitan and earlier), you can discover a workable way to get more free storage in macOS from this page. Just scroll down and check.

4) Optimize Your System. If your Mac gets sluggish when you try to multitask or is slow to boot up, you probably need to optimize your system. Start by repairing disk permissions to stop your Mac from freezing, lagging or crashing when you try to use one of the apps you decided to keep.

See also:

When your startup disk is full on MacBook or iMac, you may be prompted with a message which asks you to delete some files to make more space available on your startup up disk and free up Mac space. Please stop fixing startup disk full problem manually as you can complete the task in a more time-saving and effective way. Let's see how to deal with it in details.

How to Manage Storage on Mac (For macOS Sierra and Later)

If you are using macOS Sierra and later, you can manage the Mac data and free up space on Mac startup disk easily with the built-in Optimized Storage feature. The gist for this method is to save files to cloud and remove the useless files on your MacBook or iMac.

But how to check what's taking up space on Mac? Actually, it is very easy to find them out. Just go to the Apple menu on your computer and choose 'About This Mac > Storage'. Then you will see an overview of the free space as well as the occupied space. The storage is divided into different categories: Apps, Movies, Photos, Audio, Backups, the undescriptive category-Purgeable and so on.

See what's taking up Mac. Then you can click on the Manage button to optimize your computer.

What is Purgeable on Mac storage?

'Purgeable' is one of the storage categories on Mac computers with macOS Sierra. When you enable the Optimize Mac Storage feature, you may probably find out a category called Purgeable, which stores the files that will move to iCloud when storage space is needed, and the caches and temporary files are also included.

What is Other on Mac storage?

'Other' category is always seen in macOS X El Capitan or earlier. All the files that are not categorized as any other category would be saved in the Other category. For example, the disk images or archives, plug-ins, documents, and caches would be as recognized as Other.

Now, you can begin to manage storage and free up disk space on your Mac. Click on the Manage button and you are able to see the interface as below.

You are allowed to delete files from startup disk and optimize the storage space on the left pane under the 'Recommendations' menu, or you can also start managing with the options of Store in iCloud, Optimize Storage, Empty Trash Automatically and Reduce Clutter.

Store in iCloud: You are able to store the files from Desktop and Documents locations to iCloud Drive. For all of the full-resolution photos and videos, you can store them in iCloud Photo Library. When you need an original file, you can click on the download icon or just open it to save them on your Mac.

Optimize Storage: You can easily optimize storage for iTunes movies, TV shows and attachments. For example, it can't be easier when you are looking for a way in how to delete movies from Mac. Or, you're able to clean up 'Other' storage on Mac with this option.

Empty Trash Automatically: If your files have been in Trash for more than 30 days, they would be permanently deleted.

Reduce Clutter: You are allowed to delete files that are useless in different apps. Just click on the “Review Files” button and choose the item you want in the sidebar to start optimizing.

How to Manage Storage on Mac (For all macOS versions)

Though the Optimized Storage feature in macOS Sierra makes it easier to manage storage and free up space on MacBook Air/Pro or iMac, you may find out the fact that it takes a pretty long time for the job as you need to manage and remove the useless files one by one. Besides, if you are using the macOS X El Capitan or earlier, you will find out that there is even no manage button on Mac storage. It's true as only the macOS Sierra and later carries the Optimized Storage feature.

To fix the issues, you are recommended to use the Macube Cleaner(opens new window) program, an all-in-one Mac app that aims to monitor the system status including the battery state, CPU usage, memory usage, etc., scan out junk file and clean it up effectively. So why don't you download and install the Macube Cleaner app on your computer to have a try?

You are able to see there are many different options including System Junk, Trash Bin, Large & Old Files, Duplicate Finder, Uninstaller, Eraser, Similar Images Finder, Extensions, and Privacy, which indicate that the program is very powerful and you can optimize the storage in a deeper way. To see more details about how to free up storage space on your Mac, you can head to this page: Guide to Optimize Your iMac/MacBook(opens new window).

Macbook Startup Disk Full

You can also refer to a video guide to optimize and manage your Mac. But please notice that the app's interface in the video guide differs from the one which is posted here. Tha's because the Macube Cleaner has been updated. But never mind, you can still check this video guide as the functions of it never get changed.

That is how to optimize storage space and speed up a Mac. If you have any problem about this guide, please drop us a comment and let us know!

How to free up disk space on Mac?

Many Mac users will inevitably get the 'Your startup disk almost full' prompt, with a vague note to let you delete some files for getting more available space on Mac.

Even though you are able to ignore the prompt for a while, it will show up again shortly.

While you delete some files, your startup disk will quickly fill up and the prompt will show again. Thus, you should consider this issue when you see the 'Your startup disk is almost full' prompt. Something else to bear in mind, once you get such prompt message on your Mac, the computer is going to be a little difficult in doing some tasks like downloading app updates, using virtual memory, handling Photos and iCloud data, and so on.

It's time to free up the startup disk space. We'll cover some useful tips on how to quickly find out what's eating up the Mac disk space, as well as how to free up disk space on Mac to resolve an almost full Mac.

Get an Overview of How Much Disk Space You Have

To begin with, let's check how much disk space you have on Mac. Navigate to Disk Utility from going to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility, then click your disk and check info:

Check to See What's Using Up Mac Disk Space

Mac users are also able to see what's using up disk space via the system Storage summary. In this way, you can get a clear idea of what you should do next and where to look for mac disk cleanup.

1. Open the Apple menu and go to 'About This Mac'.

2. Click the 'Storage' tab. For older versions of OS X, you need to click on 'More Info' first and then choose Storage tab.

3. From here, you can get a clear overview of the storage usage and see what is taking up space. Then you will know where you should pay attention to lightening up some storage capacity.

From the storage overview, sometimes you'll find the Mac disk space has many files you want to save, however. For example, 'Photos' or 'Movies' takes up much space of local disk, but you don't want to remove those files. In this case, you can consider to moving them to an external drive or iCloud.

Install System Updates to Free Up Mac Disk Space

You may probably download the System Updates, but haven't installed them all yet. Thus, they may be just quietly storing somewhere on your Mac disk space. They are taking up many gigabytes and you need to install System Updates before doing other cleanup on Mac.

Track Down and Manage Large Files on Mac to Free Up Disk Space

We are likely to download and save some capturing rich files like high-quality photos or HD/4K UHD videos on Mac. With the increasing collection of large files, the Mac will be running slower than before. To free up disk space on Mac, you'd better track down and manage large files on Mac, in addition to videos or photos.

One option for you is iCloud Drive or an external drive. You can move these large-sized files to them to regain much disk space on Mac.

Here we will show you how to fast locate large files on Mac.

1. Click the Apple sider menu and click 'About this Mac'. If you previously remove this option from the sidebar, you can go to Finder > Go > All My Files.

2. Click the gear icon > Arrange By > Size. You will see all your files ranged from the largest to the smallest in size.

Notes: One point you should know, All My Files will include local files and files on iCloud Drive, Dropbox etc. When you want to check the location before deleting data, ensure the option 'Show Path Bar' is activated. Use discretion to determine whether or not you can delete some of the large files and items. You can delete most large apps, .ipa files from iOS app backups, disk image .dmg files, zip archives, etc.

3. You can send large-sized items directly from this search window by directly dragging and drop them into the Trash can on the Mac desktop or by pressing Command+Delete after highlighting them.

There is one great program you should pay attention to, Mac Cleaner.

• Support to clean junk files, delete browser cookies, empty trash, and uninstall applications with ease.
• Free up space to speed up your Mac and protect your privacy.
• Monitor Mac status, such as disk utilization, battery status, memory usage and CPU usage.
• Compatible with iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro.
• Works on Mac OS 10.10 or above (Mac OS X Yosemite, Mac OX El Capitan, macOS High Sierra included).

How to use Mac Cleaner for Mac Cleanup

Note: before running any cleaning tool, you should make sure that all of your important data is backed up, just in case.

1 Launch Mac Cleaner on your Mac

Download Aiseesoft Mac Cleaner and launch it. You are able to check system status of your Mac in the interface.

2 Scan Mac large and old files

Choose the module from the left side like Large & Old Files. Click the Scan button to scan your Mac files.

3Click Review Button

When the scanning done, you can click Review button on the right bottom of the window to review the scan results. Or you can hit 'Re-scan' to scan your Mac computer again.

4 Review and select items

Quickly, you will find all large and old files displayed in the Mac Cleaner interface. With this program, you are able to optimize and free up Mac space in one click.

Free Startup Disk Space Mac Laptop

5Cleaning done

Immediately, those large and old files are deleted from your Mac.

Use Storage Tool to Optimize Mac Disk Space

For users whose Mac computers are running MacOS Sierra or MacOS High Sierra, the Storage tool is helpful. Click the 'Manage' option in the About this Mac > Storage window. Once you click 'Manage' button, there is a recommendation tab with options to optimize your Mac disk space as well as tabs for looking more closely at various programs, files and the option to delete without leaving the window.

Store in iCloud - this feature enables you to store your Desktop, Photos, Documents and videos in iCloud and Apple will automatically save local space as needed.

Optimize Storage - After you turn on this feature on Mac, movies and TV shows in iTunes that you have already watched will be automatically removed once storage space is needed. And only recent email attachments in Mail will be kept on your Mac.

Empty Trash Automatically - Apple will automatically delete items sent to the Trash after they are there for 30 days.

Delete Items You No longer Use and Empty the Trash

Also pay attention to some applications, like iPhoto, iMovie and Mail, have their own Trash. So you may want to empty their trash too.

• Mail: click Mailbox > Erase Deleted Items > In All Accounts, and Mailbox > Erase Junk Mail.

• iPhoto: click iPhoto > Empty iPhoto Trash. If you want to find back the deleted photos on Mac, just visit: recover deleted photos on Mac.

• iMovie: click File > Move to Trash or File > Move Rejected Clips to Trash.

That's not finished. You need to empty the Trash. This may be a often overlooked step. Data in Trash is still taking up the Mac space. Just sending anything to the Trash doesn't mean to delete it. You can still restore the data from it. For complete deletion, you have to empty the Trash. Right-clicking (or a control+click) on the Trash icon and selecting the option 'Empty Trash'.

Uninstall Mac Apps to Free Up Disk Space

Another good way to free up disk space on Mac is to uninstall any Mac applications you don't use any longer. Generally, you can go to the /Applications/folder and uninstall apps you just don't need, or you are able to optionally delete from Launchpad the apps that have come from the App Store, much like you do in iOS. Obviously, that is time-consuming to remove programs from Mac in this way. Mac Cleaner. Is highly recommended here for uninstalling a Mac app.

Investigate & Clear the Downloads Folder

The user Downloads folder can immediately accumulate all kinds of stuff you downloaded, and most of them are no longer used. This should be a main location where the aforementioned large files collected over time. Sorting the directory in List view by File Size is often quite helpful in narrowing down the bloat:

Again, user discretion is going to be necessary to determine if you can or can't delete stuff in the Downloads folder, so if something is necessary to save or gets a lot of items you won't want to remove it, whereas large-sized .dmg files, old combo updates or disk images and zip files that have been extracted or used already are often saved to remove.

Check here to delete downloads on Mac.

Restart the Mac and Check Storage Again

After you clear space on Mac, you should reboot the Mac. This is always necessary, as a simple restart can often free up quite a bit of Mac disk space by clearing out the temporary files and the /private/var/folder cache. This will slowly fill up any clutters. Rebooting Mac will also be helpful as it is able to clear out virtual memory, which takes up disk space, and sleep image files.

Go to the Apple menu and choose Restart, when the Mac boots back up you can return to the Apple menu and choose 'About This Mac' and the Storage tab to again review what your disk situation is like, chances are good at this point you will have tackled the space hogs and storage waste to do away with the 'full disk' alert message on the Mac.

You may be interested in: How to defrag a Mac

More Tips for Freeing Up Storage Space on a Full Mac Disk

• Compress large items instead. Select Finder > Go > Home > File > Find and then open the Kind menu, finally choose Other. Now check the checkbox for File Size. Now enter a file size like 50MB and find files that are larger than 50MB. To compress items, simple choose a file to compress and press control+click, and then click Compress.

• Messages attachments on Mac can eat up much space after you send and receive a lot of audio, pictures, videos between contacts.

Clear Up Space On Macbook

• Delete previous iOS backups in iTunes that you will never use again.

• Manually delete user caches in Mac computer, which will save a large amount of space.

• Advanced users can delete default Mac apps like Mail and Safari, and even delete iTunes, but we do not recommend this tip unless you really need the extra space and there are nothing else to delete. Removing system apps can lead to various issues.

• Regularly clear history on Mac, including Safari's, Google Chrome's, etc.

In this post, we mainly show you some best tips to let you free up disk space on Mac. If you have any other good idea to clean your Mac, welcome to tell us.

What do you think of this post?

Excellent

Rating: 4.8 / 5 (based on 134 ratings)

Free Startup Disk Space Mac Air

July 03, 2018 13:08 / Posted by Amanda Brown to Mac Cleanup

How To Free Startup Disk Space On Macbook

• How to Wipe Macbook Pro and Reset to Factory Settings

  Want to erase all data on Macbook Pro and reset your Mac to factory settings? Learn how to wipe a Macbook Pro in this post.

• How to Get Rid of Malware to Rescue Your Mac

  What is malware? How to remove malware from Mac? Find the best Apple malware removal to get rid of malwares in this post.

• How to Clear Cookies on Mac

  How do you delete cookies on a Mac? This post shows you how to clear browser cookies on Mac, including Safari, Firefox, Chrome and Opera.