How to Free Up Disk Space on Your Mac

Updated October 21, 2026 · MintDisk team

When your Mac says its disk is almost full, the fastest fix is rarely one big delete. Space usually goes to a handful of things: files you downloaded once, media libraries, old device backups, apps you stopped using and caches that keep growing. This guide shows how to free up disk space on Mac with the tools macOS already includes, in the order that tends to recover the most space for the least risk.

Every step that deletes something comes with a warning first. If you are not sure about a file, leave it, or make a Time Machine backup before you remove it.

Check what is using your storage

Start by looking before you delete. macOS has a storage overview that groups your disk by category and shows how much each one uses.

On macOS 13 Ventura and later, choose Apple menu > System Settings, click General in the sidebar, then click Storage.
On macOS 12 Monterey, choose Apple menu > About This Mac, click Storage, then click Manage.
Wait until every category has finished calculating. Apple notes that the totals are only accurate once the calculation is done.
Click the Info button (i) next to a category, such as Applications, Documents or Trash, to see the items inside and delete the ones you no longer need.

System Settings, General, Storage: a coloured bar of used space by category and the Store in iCloud, Optimize Storage and Empty Trash Automatically recommendations — Storage settings on macOS 13 and later: the bar shows each category, and the recommendations sit below it. Example with demo sizes.

The bar at the top shows used and available space by type of file. Available space can be larger than free space, because it also counts purgeable files, such as caches that macOS can remove on its own when it needs room.

If the biggest bar is labelled System Data, read the section on what not to delete below. Apple says you can't manage that category directly from Storage settings.

Turn on the built-in storage recommendations

Above the category list, Storage settings offers a few recommendations. They are worth a look because they work in the background once enabled.

Store in iCloud keeps your Desktop and Documents folders, photos and messages in iCloud, and keeps only recently opened files on the Mac when space is needed. It uses your iCloud storage plan, so check how much room you have there first.
Optimize Storage removes Apple TV movies and shows you have already watched, and keeps only recent email attachments on the Mac.
Empty Trash Automatically erases items that have been in the Trash for more than 30 days.
On macOS 12, Reduce Clutter lists large files, apps, books and movies so you can decide what to delete.

macOS also clears some caches and logs that are safe to delete by itself, such as interrupted downloads and staged updates. That is why the amount of free space can change without you doing anything.

Empty the Trash

Moving a file to the Trash does not give you the space back yet. The space only becomes available once the Trash is emptied, so this is often the quickest win.

Items you empty from the Trash are permanently deleted. Open the Trash first and use File > Put Back for anything you still need.

Click the Trash icon in the Dock to open it and check what is inside.
To delete one item only, Control-click it and choose Delete Immediately.
To delete everything, click Empty in the top-right corner of the window, or choose Finder > Empty Trash.

If you want this to happen on its own, open Finder > Settings, click Advanced and turn on Remove items from the Trash after 30 days. On older versions of macOS the menu is called Finder > Preferences.

Clear out Downloads and old installers

The Downloads folder collects disk images, installer packages, archives and videos that are only needed once. After an app is installed, its .dmg or .pkg file can usually go.

Open the Downloads folder in Finder and switch to list view (View > as List).
Click the Size column header to sort the largest files to the top. If folders show no size, select a folder and choose File > Get Info (Command-I).
Select the files you no longer need and press Command-Delete to move them to the Trash, then empty the Trash.

Check before you delete installers for apps you might need to reinstall offline, and archives you have not unpacked yet.

Move large media libraries and old mail attachments

Photos, music, video and mail are often the largest categories. You don't have to delete them to get space back.

Apple suggests moving your Photos or iMovie library to an external drive if you want to keep it but don't need it on the internal disk.
Delete movies, music and podcasts you can stream or download again from their apps.
In Mail, choose Mailbox > Erase Junk Mail, then Mailbox > Erase Deleted Items.
Compress files you rarely open: select them in Finder and choose File > Compress.

Delete old iPhone and iPad backups

If you ever backed up an iPhone or iPad to your Mac, those backups can take tens of gigabytes. In Storage settings, open the iOS Files category with its Info button to see each backup with its date and size.

A deleted device backup cannot be restored. Keep at least the latest backup of a device you still use, unless it also backs up to iCloud.

Remove apps you no longer use

The Applications category in Storage settings lists apps by size and shows when you last used them. Large apps you tried once are an easy target. Quit an app before you remove it, and use its own uninstaller if it came with one.

Apps can leave caches and settings behind in your Library folder. Our guide on how to uninstall apps and check for leftovers walks through that step by step.

Find big folders with Terminal (optional)

If you are comfortable with Terminal, du (disk usage) shows how much space each folder in your home folder uses. This command only reads; it does not change anything.

du -h -d 1 ~ | sort -h

Terminal running du -h -d 1 ~ | sort -h, listing home folders from smallest to largest — The largest folders end up at the bottom of the list. Example output with demo files.

-h prints readable sizes, -d 1 lists one level of folders, and sort -h puts the largest at the bottom. You may see "Operation not permitted" for some folders; that is macOS privacy protection and can be ignored. Repeat the command on a large folder, such as ~/Library, to look one level deeper.

What not to delete

Some files look large and unused but are needed by macOS or by your apps. Removing them by hand can break an app or simply waste time, because they come back.

System Data holds logs, caches and virtual memory files. Apple says this category can't be managed from Storage settings; macOS cleans parts of it on its own.
Anything inside /System or the macOS volume is protected and needed to start up your Mac.
Folders in ~/Library you don't recognise. If you want to clear app caches, our guide on how to clear cache on Mac explains which ones are safe.
Files you have not backed up. If in doubt, turn on Time Machine first.

Starting your Mac in Safe Mode also clears some system caches, which macOS recreates as needed. Apple describes this as a temporary way to make room, for example for a macOS update.

See everything in one place with MintDisk

If you would rather not click through each folder, MintDisk scans your disk read-only and shows what fills it in a treemap, lists your largest files and exact duplicates, and finds caches that apps can rebuild. Scanning is free. Files you delete from its file lists go to the Trash by default, and nothing is removed until you confirm.

MintDisk Overview with a 74% used disk ring and a ranked list of what to look at first — MintDisk's Overview after one scan: how full the disk is, and what to look at first.

Disk space analyzer for Mac Download MintDisk

Sources

First published October 21, 2026. Commands and menu paths were checked against the sources above on the update date.