How to Free Up Space on Mac: 12 Safe Ways to Reclaim Storage

Your Mac says the startup disk is almost full, macOS won’t update, or apps are slowing down because there’s no room to work. Here’s how to free up space on Mac using the tools Apple already built in, starting with the biggest and safest wins.

You don’t need to install anything. Every method below works on macOS Ventura and later, including macOS 26 Tahoe and macOS 27.

Check what’s using your storage

1. Choose Apple menu › System Settings.
2. Click General in the sidebar.
3. Click Storage.

Give the bar at the top a minute to finish calculating. Below it you’ll see recommendations, and below those, a list of categories such as Applications, Documents, iCloud Drive, iOS Files, Photos, Trash, Developer, macOS and System Data. Click the ⓘ button next to a category to see what’s in it and, in many cases, delete items directly.

Note: On macOS Monterey and earlier, choose Apple menu › About This Mac › Storage › Manage instead. The options are similar but laid out differently.

Use Storage recommendations

Apple’s recommendations appear at the top of the Storage pane. Each one is reversible.

Store in iCloud

This moves your Desktop and Documents folders to iCloud Drive, your photo library to iCloud Photos and your messages to iCloud. When space runs low, your Mac keeps only recently opened files locally and leaves the rest in iCloud, downloading them again when you open them.

It’s the single biggest saver for many people, but it depends on how much iCloud storage you pay for. Your files must fit in your iCloud plan.

Optimize Storage

This removes Apple TV movies and shows you’ve already watched and keeps only recent email attachments on your Mac when space is needed. Both can be downloaded again.

Empty Trash Automatically

This erases items that have been in the Trash for more than 30 days. You can turn it off later in Finder › Settings › Advanced › Remove items from the Trash after 30 days.

Optimize iCloud Drive and Photos individually

If you already use iCloud, make sure optimization is on:

• iCloud Drive: Choose System Settings › your name › iCloud and turn on Optimize Mac Storage. On newer versions of macOS, the switch is inside the Drive (or iCloud Drive) settings on that page.
• Photos: Open Photos, choose Photos › Settings › iCloud, and select Optimize Mac Storage. Full-resolution originals stay in iCloud and your Mac keeps smaller versions.

Tip: A Photos library is often the largest single item on a Mac. If you don’t use iCloud Photos, consider moving the library to an external drive by quitting Photos, dragging the library to the drive, then opening it from there. Keep a backup before you move it.

Empty the Trash

Files you delete keep taking up space until the Trash is emptied.

1. Click the Trash in the Dock.
2. Click Empty in the top-right corner, or choose Finder › Empty Trash.

Some apps, like Photos and Mail, have their own trash. In Photos, check Recently Deleted. In Mail, choose Mailbox › Erase Deleted Items.

Find and delete large files

1. In Storage settings, click ⓘ next to Documents.
2. Review Large Files, which lists files sorted by size.
3. Select files you no longer need and click Delete.

You can also do it in Finder. Press ⌘ Command + F, change Kind to File Size, choose is greater than, and enter something like 1 GB. Old disk images, video exports and ZIP archives are common culprits.

For a visual map of every folder on your disk, a disk space analyzer for Mac is faster than hunting through Finder.

Clean out Downloads

The Downloads folder quietly collects installers (.dmg and .pkg files), ZIPs and duplicates for years.

1. Open Finder and press ⌘ + ⌥ Option + L to jump to Downloads.
2. Choose View › as List and click the Size column to sort.
3. Delete installers for apps you’ve already installed and anything you no longer need.

Delete apps you don’t use

1. In Storage settings, click ⓘ next to Applications.
2. Sort by Size or Last Accessed.
3. Select an app and click Delete.

Games, video editors, older versions of Office and old macOS installers (like “Install macOS Sequoia”) are often several gigabytes each. Our guide to deleting apps on Mac covers removing leftover files too.

Remove old iPhone and iPad backups

If you’ve ever backed up an iPhone or iPad to your Mac, those backups can be tens of gigabytes each.

1. In Storage settings, click ⓘ next to iOS Files.
2. Select backups for devices you no longer own, or old ones you don’t need.
3. Click Delete.

You can also manage backups in Finder with the device connected: select it in the sidebar, click General, then Manage Backups. Apple’s guide to locating and managing iPhone and iPad backups has the details.

Warning: A deleted backup can’t be recovered. Make sure the device is backed up to iCloud or has a newer backup before you delete an old one.

Trim Messages attachments

Photos, videos and stickers from years of conversations are stored on your Mac and count toward the Messages category.

1. In Storage settings, click ⓘ next to Messages.
2. Sort by size and delete large attachments you don’t need.

To stop them piling up, open Messages › Settings › General and change Keep messages from Forever to 1 Year or 30 Days.

Warning: Changing Keep messages permanently deletes older conversations and their attachments. If you use Messages in iCloud, the deletions sync to your other devices too.

Remove music creation libraries

If you’ve ever opened GarageBand or Logic Pro, you may have several gigabytes of downloaded instruments and loops. Click ⓘ next to Music Creation in Storage settings to remove them. You can download them again from the app if you need them later.

Developers: clear Xcode and simulator data

If you use Xcode, the Developer category in Storage settings can be huge.

• Click ⓘ next to Developer to delete Xcode caches and project build files.
• Old iOS simulator runtimes can be removed in Xcode › Settings › Components (called Platforms in older versions of Xcode).
• With Xcode quit, the contents of ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData are safe to delete. They’re rebuilt on the next build.

Clear caches

Browsers and apps keep caches that can add up to several gigabytes. They’re safe to clear if you do it the right way, from each browser’s settings and folder by folder in your user Library. Follow our step-by-step guide on how to clear cache on Mac.

Delete Time Machine local snapshots

When Time Machine is on, macOS keeps local snapshots on your startup disk. They’re normally removed automatically when space runs low, but they can make your disk look fuller than it is, often inside System Data.

To see them, open Terminal and run:

tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

To delete one, copy its date (the part that looks like 2026-10-27-101530) and run:

sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2026-10-27-101530

Enter your login password when asked. Only local snapshots on your Mac are deleted. Backups on your Time Machine drive are not affected. Our guide to System Data on Mac explains snapshots in more detail.

Shrink Mail attachments

Mail keeps downloaded attachments in its own storage, which counts toward the Mail category.

• Turn on Optimize Storage (above) so older attachments are removed locally when space is low.
• For an IMAP account like iCloud or Gmail, attachments stay on the server, so removing local copies doesn’t lose anything.
• Delete large messages you don’t need: search for messages with attachments, sort by size, and remove the biggest ones. Then choose Mailbox › Erase Deleted Items.

Warning: Don’t delete folders inside ~/Library/Mail by hand. That’s your actual mail database, and removing files there can corrupt it or lose messages that only exist locally.

Move big files to external or cloud storage

Things you want to keep but don’t need every day, such as finished video projects, music libraries, raw photo archives and virtual machines, are good candidates for an external SSD. Copy them over, check that they open from the external drive, then delete the originals.

Check your real free space

Finder and Storage settings don’t always agree on how much space is free, and both can lag behind. For the most accurate number, open Disk Utility (in Applications › Utilities) and select your startup volume. Some of the space may be listed as purgeable: data like caches and snapshots that macOS will remove on its own when it needs room.

Restart your Mac

A restart clears temporary files and swap space that build up while your Mac runs. It also lets Storage settings recalculate. If you’re trying to make room for a macOS update, Apple notes that starting up in safe mode temporarily clears certain system caches. See Apple’s Free up storage space on Mac for more.

What not to do

• Don’t delete files in /System, /Library or /private to “clean up.” macOS manages these, and many are protected.
• Don’t delete the macOS category items. That’s the operating system itself.
• Don’t run Terminal commands you found online that use rm -rf on system folders.
• Be careful with cleaner apps that delete large batches of files automatically. Review what they select before you confirm.

If your disk is still full after all this, the gray System Data bar is probably the reason. Read what System Data on Mac is and how to reduce it safely. And if you want to see which apps are worth keeping, our list of the best Mac apps is a good starting point.