How to free up disk space on a Mac: 12 safe ways

Every step below uses tools that macOS already includes, and works on any MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini or Mac Studio running a recent version of macOS. Work from the top: the first steps are the safest and often free the most space.

Check what is using your Mac storage

Before you delete anything, find out where the space went. Choose Apple menu, then System Settings, then General, then Storage. macOS draws a bar for your disk and lists each category, such as Applications, Documents, Photos and System Data, with its size.

Click the info button next to a category to see what it holds. Note the two or three biggest categories. They tell you which of the steps below will help most.

Quick wins that free space in minutes

1. Empty the Trash

Files in the Trash still use disk space. Control-click the Trash in the Dock and choose Empty Trash. To stop it building up again, turn on Empty Trash Automatically in Storage settings. macOS then removes items that have sat in the Trash for 30 days.

2. Clear your Downloads folder

Downloads quietly collects installers, archives and videos. Open it in Finder, choose View, then as List, and click the Size column to put the largest files first. Old .dmg and .pkg installers are safe to remove once the app is installed.

3. Turn on the Storage recommendations

Storage settings offers a few built-in helpers at the top of the page:

• Store in iCloud keeps older files and photos in iCloud and downloads them when you open them.
• Optimize Storage removes Apple TV films and shows you’ve watched, and keeps only recent email attachments.
• Empty Trash Automatically clears the Trash after 30 days.

Find and remove large files

4. Search for large files in Finder

Open a Finder window and press Command-F. Click the Kind menu, choose Other, then select File Size. Set it to is greater than 1 GB. Finder now lists every large file, including old video exports, disk images and virtual machines you may have forgotten.

5. Remove large message attachments

In Storage settings, click the info button next to Messages. macOS lists photos, videos and files from your conversations, largest first. Select the ones you no longer need and click Delete.

6. Delete duplicate photos and files

The Photos app finds duplicate photos for you. Open Photos and choose Duplicates under Utilities in the sidebar, then merge each set. For other files, duplicates are harder to spot by hand, because two copies often have different names.

Clean up apps and their leftovers

7. Uninstall apps you no longer use

In Storage settings, click the info button next to Applications. Sort by size, select the apps you don’t use and click Delete. Games, video editors and design suites often take tens of gigabytes each.

8. Remove files that deleted apps leave behind

Dragging an app to the Trash removes the app, but not its support files. In Finder, choose Go, then Go to Folder (Shift-Command-G), and check these folders for names of apps you have removed:

• ~/Library/Application Support
• ~/Library/Containers
• ~/Library/Caches

Delete only folders that clearly belong to apps you have already uninstalled.

Clear caches and System Data

9. Clear app caches

Apps store temporary files in ~/Library/Caches, and they can grow to several gigabytes. Quit the app first, then delete the contents of its folder inside Caches. Leave the Caches folder itself in place. The app rebuilds what it needs the next time it opens.

10. Remove local Time Machine snapshots

If you use Time Machine, macOS keeps local snapshots on your disk and counts them under System Data. It removes them automatically when space runs low, but you can clear them sooner. Open Terminal and run tmutil listlocalsnapshots / to see them, then sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2026-10-28-120000, using a date from the list.

11. Restart your Mac

A restart clears temporary files and swap files that macOS creates while it runs. If System Data looks unusually large, restart before you go hunting for anything else.

Clear developer files

If you write code on your Mac, developer tools are often the biggest hidden user of space.

12. Delete build files and unused tool data

Xcode

Delete ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData. Xcode rebuilds it on the next build. Run xcrun simctl delete unavailable to remove simulators for iOS versions you no longer have installed.

Node.js projects

Every project keeps its own node_modules folder. Delete it in projects you aren’t working on. Running npm install brings it back when you need it.

Docker

Run docker system prune to remove stopped containers, unused networks and dangling images. Docker lists what it will delete and asks you to confirm first.

The faster way: one scan with MyMacStorage

The steps above work, but they take time, and each one shows only part of your disk. MyMacStorage does all of it in one scan. It names everything inside System Data, lists your biggest files, finds duplicates byte for byte and groups caches, developer files and app leftovers so you can clear them in a click.

Nothing is deleted outright. Every cleanup goes to the Trash, and Undo puts it back. Learn more about MyMacStorage, the disk cleanup app for Mac. It costs $19.99 once, with no subscription.

Frequently asked questions