When you check the free disk space on your Mac, you will get the bad news about the “Disk is Almost Full”. That means a large amount of files are occupying most of the disk space on your Mac. What you need is to delete those junk files and clear disk space on the device.

• How To Clear Disk Space On Apple Mac
• How To Free Up Space On Mac

For your Mac to run efficiently without any problem you need to learn how to free up disk space on Mac safely. This article is aimed at efficiently teaching users how to effectively solve this problem.

The Clean My Mac app automatically rids your macOS system of junk file and other remnant programs that eat up space in the device. By using the Clean My Mac software, you can clear up space to revamp the speed and operations of your MacBook. Clean up both your System and App Junk. May 02, 2019  Select any app, and a new page shows the usage in two parts: the amount of space the app itself uses (in light gray at the top) and the space used by the app's data and documents.

What to Do When 'Your Disk is Almost Full' Message Pops up

It is a major problem when this error message pops up. Unfortunately, it affects how well and how frequently you are able to use your device.

When disk is almost full, there are many observable markers like Mac will begin to operate really slow, Mac may crash in some instances, apps become slow to respond, and the system may become overheated. Therefore, when 'Your disk is almost full' message pops up, you should check your current disk space and start to free up disk space on Mac.

What is Occupying So Much Space on My Mac

It comes as a surprise sometimes that you are really out of free space. If you would like to check out what is taking up space on the Mac (before finding a solution), feel free to check the current space usage on the device.

Photographs, movies or Backups are known to use up the most space. But it often happens that the most important consumers of disk space will be the 'Other' files, including cookies, caches, archives, logs, disc images, extensions, plugins, and the likes. As soon as you realize what is using up your disc space, you can review your folders and find out the files to select for removal.

You can view your storage use by choosing This Mac from the Apple menu and switching to the storage area. You will find just six general classes of information stored on your own Startup Disk. A wider bar is indicative of a larger space consumed. These six classes or categories are documents, photos, movies, audios, documents, Other.

Simply put, you need to clean up unnecessary files because of the absence of free space with which to store more information. Given the technicality of Apple products, there are a few tools out there that can perfectly do justice to this problem. One of the best and most user-friendly is the Umate Mac Cleaner.

How to Clear Disk Space on Mac like A Pro

We are going to be talking about Umate Mac Cleaner since it is the best Mac Cleaner available. The most important is the whole cleanup process can be done with simple cilcks by using this powerful app. When compared to the manual operation this software is more efficient. Clearing disk space with the help of Umate Mac Cleaner can be categorized into two main parts:

Release More Disk Space with Quick Clean & Deep Clean Modes

Quick Clean: Automatically detect various files that can be deleted from your Mac without affecting the proper functions of the Mac. This allows you to do a Mac disk cleanup with just a click of a button, unlike manual removal which are usually tedious and time-consuming.

Deep Clean: If you are interested in knowing how to free up disk space in Mac then we suggest doing a deep clean after the quick clean. As the name suggests this feature goes deeper when searching for files to get rid of. When it comes to scaning and cleaning speed, the app is 3x faster than other 3rd parties Mac cleaner apps. In addition, more than 40 types of files supported to be cleaned up.

The files that can be deleted by using quick clean and deep clean modes are:

How to Perform Quick Clean & Deep Clean

Using Umate Mac Cleaner is a very easy process. All you have to do is:

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Step 1： Install Unmate Mac Cleaner and launch it.

Step 2： Clicks on 'Scan' . After scanning, the software shows you a list of suggested file you can delete safely with Quick Clean and Deep Clean.

Step 3： Click on “Clean” to get rid of the selected files.

Extra Tip: Other 12 Manual Methods to Free Up Disk Space On Mac

The easy way would be to let Umate Mac Cleaner do the job. However, there are other methods that can help further provide solution on how to free disk space on Mac. They are outlined below:

1. Optimize Storage

This is the built-in feature from Mac OS Sierra. They added this feature with the aim of cleaning up your disk from time to time. You can access it by choosing This Mac from the Apple menu and switching to the storage area, then click on Manage Storage. This feature comes with four options. Just choose a desired function as you need.

• Optimize Storage
• Store in iCloud
• Reduce Clutter
• Empty Trash Automatically

2. Empty Trash Bin

Moving files into your trash does not mean they are deleted. The actual amount of hard disk space occupied by information within trash can be surprising. Though transferring data files to trash removes files out of visible folders, they remain saved to the disk.

To completely clear the trash, click on the icon at Dock and choose Recycle Bin, or alternatively you may open the trash and then select certain files that you prefer to delete permanently.

3. Remove Duplicate Files

When you check your hard disk, you could realize that you have just two or even three copies of several documents --maybe you accidentally downloaded a file twice, or perhaps you added songs to iTunes, which already exist inside their unique location. Such duplicate data should be removed and that would be definitely an efficient way on how to get more disk space on Mac.

4. Delete Caches

Caches are files meant to aid the acceleration of certain tasks. These so-called temporary files tend to consume space over time. This is another aspect where the Umate Mac Cleaner is exceptional.

5. Delete Old iOS Backups

If you use iOS devices, try to back up your devices with iCloud. Your mac may end up with multiple backups when you use iTunes for back up. Deleting such old backups will free up some space.

6. Remove Unused Applications

Removing outdated, unused applications is actually a wonderful means to free up disk space. You have to carefully go over your applications and delete the programs you seldom use. Such applications must however be deleted, and not just trashed. Trashing also consumes space. This is one of the reasons Umate Mac Cleaner remains helpful as it can uninstall rarely used apps to free up more disk space efficiently.

7. Delete Temporary And Downloaded Files

There are some programs that are already installed on your computer. Whether or not you use them, they consume space on their own. Such pre-installed apps can occupy a huge amount of disk space unknown to you. You should simply go through your installed programs, preferably according to size. Find the ones you rarely use and are consuming much space. Such programs should be deleted or uninstalled.

8. Clean up Movies, Pictures And Music Folders

This part is straightforward. Whether albums on iTunes you do not listen to or pictures and movies you do not need anymore, they consume space unnecessarily and should therefore be deleted.

9. Clean Up Mail Attachments

For people who have been using the same email address for quite some time, there is usually a build up of email attachments. This takes up so much space over time. For those using more current mail service providers like Gmail, you can set the system to not download attachments automatically or change the number of messages synced. You need to delete them manually by clicking on the messages with the largest sizes (after sorting by size), and then click on remove. The issue of mail attachments can be solved easily using the Umate Mac Cleaner, as it can manage disk space on Mac and delete them with one click.

10. Remove Logs Files

The logs folder on your Mac is also a good place to release extra space. The folder is used for storing some logs files of the Mac system, which are always useless. Try to delete them to get more room for your device. You can easily locate these logs files in the Library folder.

11. Delete Languages Files

The logs folder on your Mac is also a good place to release extra space. The folder is used for storing some logs files of the Mac system, which are always useless. You can delete them without thinking to get more room for your device. Just go to the Resource folder on Mac and find the files you want to get rid of.

12. Move Big And Infrequently Used Files to External Drive

You might need to consider relocating items (for instance, photos, huge files, movies, etc.) to some other storage disk, like cloud storage, USB drive, external disk drive, or DVD.

Conclusion

Whether you are a new Mac user or a diehard fan of Apple devices, one thing is sure. At some point, you will receive space disk-related error messages. “How do I free up disk space on my Mac” is a usual question for a Mac user but effectively getting rid of files is not an easy thing to do, especially without the right tools. Umate Mac Cleaner is a perfect software to effectively remove those junk files that are secretly eating up your disk space.

So, your Mac is running out of storage. You try to figure out what’s taking up your disk space by clicking the Apple logo on the top-left of the screen, selecting About This Mac, and hitting the Storage tab.

To your surprise, you see a yellow bar representing “System” that seems to occupy way more space than you think it should. In the example above, it only shows 207 GB, but take a look at this Apple discussion — some Mac users report that System Storage takes an astonishing 250 GB.

Worse yet, you have no idea what’s included in “System” storage, because clicking the “Manage” button brings you to this System Information window… and the “System” row is greyed out.

Why does my Mac system require so much space?

What does it contain?

Is it safe to remove some of those system files?

How do I regain more storage space?

Questions like these may easily get to your head. Although my Mac now has a good amount of disk space available, I’m always wary of files that are taking up more space than they should.

I have no idea why “System” is greyed out while “Documents,” “System Junk,” “Trash,” etc. allow you to review the files based on size and type. My hunch is that Apple does this on purpose to prevent users from deleting system files that could lead to serious issues.

What Files Are Included in System Storage on Mac?

During my research, I found many people report that Apple counts iTunes backup files and app caches (e.g. Adobe video cache files) in the System category.

Since it’s greyed out and we are unable to click on that category for deeper analysis, we’ll have to use a third-party app to assist.

CleanMyMac X is perfect for this kind of analysis. Since I tested the app in our best Mac cleaner review, it immediately came to my head when I saw “System” was greyed out in Storage. Note that CleanMyMac isn’t freeware, but the new “Space Lens” feature is free to use and it allows you to scan your Macintosh HD, and then show you an in-depth overview of what’s taking up disk space on your Mac.

Step 1:Download CleanMyMac and install the app on your Mac. Open it, under “Space Lens” module, first click the yellow “Grant Access” button to allow the app to access your Mac files and then select “Scan” to get started.

Step 2: Soon it’ll show you a folder/file tree and you can hover your cursor over each block (i.e. a folder). There you can find more details. In this case, I clicked “System” folder to continue.

Step 3: The file breakdown below indicates that some Library and iOS Support files are the culprits.

The interesting part is that the System file size shown in CleanMyMac is much smaller than the size shown in System Information. This puzzles me and makes me believe that Apple definitely has counted some other files (not real system files) in the System category.

What are they? I have no clue, honestly. But as reported by other Mac users who experienced the same issue, they said Apple also considers app caches and iTunes backup files as System files.

Out of curiosity, I ran CleanMyMac again for a quick scan. That app found 13.92 GB in iTunes Junk. Further review revealed that the junk files are old iOS device backups, software updates, broken downloads, etc.

But even after adding this amount to the original system files returned by CleanMyMac X, the total size is still a bit less than what’s returned in System Information.

If cleaning the System Storage is still not enough to bring your Mac available disk space to a normal level (i.e. 20% or more), see below.

What Else Can I Do to Reclaim More Disk Space?

There are tons of ways out there. Here are a few of my favorites that should help you get back a decent amount of space quickly.

1. Sort all files by size and delete old large files.

Open Finder, go to Recents and look at the Size column. Click on it to sort all recent files by file size (from large to small). You’ll have a clear overview of what items are eating up a large amount of space, e.g. From 1 GB to 10 GB, and from 100 MB to 1 GB.

On my MacBook Pro, I found a few large videos that could be transferred to an external drive.

Note: If the Size column doesn’t show up, click on the Settings icon and select Arrange By > Size.

2. Remove duplicate files.

Don’t forget those duplicates and similar files! They can stack up without you being aware of it. Finding them is sometimes time-consuming. That’s what Gemini 2 is designed for. Simply select a few frequently used folders (e.g. Documents, Downloads, etc.) in the main zone of Gemini.

It then scans them and returns all the duplicate files that might be worth removing. Of course, it’s always a good practice to review them before doing so. You can also read more from our detailed Gemini review here.

Wrapping It Up

Ever since Apple introduced the Optimized Storage feature, Mac users got the option of saving space by storing content in the cloud. Apple also has several new tools that make it easy to find and remove unneeded files.

Media Player 10 and DirectX8 or something better than that must also be lodged in your windows. Ip camera finder software mac 2017.

How To Clear Disk Space On Apple Mac

That bar under the Storage tab is beautiful. It does allow you to get a quick overview of what’s taking up the most space on our hard drive. However, it still lacks insights into the “System” category as it’s greyed out.

How To Free Up Space On Mac

Hopefully, the guides above have helped you figure out the reasons you’ve got so much “System” data, and most importantly you’ve reclaimed some disk space — especially for new MacBooks pre-installed with flash storage — every gigabyte is precious!