Sep 28, 2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions

1. How To Find Your App Storage On Mac Computer
2. How To Find App Store
3. How To Find Mac Address
4. How To See Storage On Mac

Truth to be told – this is one of the major queries of almost every Mac user these days. While Mac offers a wide range of features, most of the models suffer from limited storage. Therefore, a lot of people find it hard to manage storage on Mac and seek the assistance of external sources. Though, if you want, you can take some preventive measures and clear up space on Mac. Some several techniques and methods can help you do the same in less time. To make things easier for you, we have come up with several solutions that will clear space on Mac and resolve this situation.

Part 1. How to See How Much Space Is Left on Mac

Before you learn how to clear space on Mac, it is important to know about the system's available storage. In this way, you can get a clear idea of how much space in left in Mac and you can clear other content accordingly. Here's how to see how much space is left on your Mac storage.

1. Firstly, launch Finder on your Mac and from its sidebar, go the Devices section, and select the root directory.
2. Here, you can view all the partitions and external devices. Select the Macintosh HD (or Fusion drive). Right-click to get the context menu and go to the 'Get Info' section.
3. A pop-up window will open stating all the essential details of the hard drive. The 'Capacity' section will display the total storage while the 'Available' option will inform you of the total free space on it.

How to See What's Taking up Space on Mac

Options 1 and 2: From the Finder 1. Open a Finder window if you don’t have one open already (click the Finder’s Dock icon or go to File New Finder. Open the View menu and select Show status bar. This will show you how many items are in the current folder, and if. Find and delete files on your Mac. Use the sidebar of the Storage pane to sort through items by category, see how much space is used, and quickly find documents, apps, books, movies, backups, and other files.

In this video we look at various ways to access and find your Applications folder. The Applications folder is where your applications are placed or stored. Google Drive is an online storage solution by Google. It allows you to store and sync data across your devices with its 15 GB of free storage space, while its integration with Google Docs for Mac gives your friends or coworkers access to the files or folders you designate for sharing. In the Activity Monitor app on your Mac, click Memory (or use the Touch Bar) to see the following in the bottom of the window. Memory Pressure: Graphically represents how efficiently your memory is serving your processing needs. Memory pressure is determined by the amount of free memory, swap rate, wired memory, and file cached memory. Sometimes, uninstalling apps is not enough as they can leave residual data on Mac. If you won't remove the leftover app data, then it can consume a lot of storage of your Mac in the long run. Just go to your Mac's Library and visit the folder of the app you have already uninstalled. This shows you the summary of the available storage on your Apple Watch along with the list of Apps and their corresponding storage on your device. Remove Music from Apple Watch to free storage. The Apple Watch is a handy companion to an iPhone, letting users control music playback on their primary device.

After knowing how much space is left on your Mac, you can also take some extra measures as well. For instance, you can know what type of data is accumulating how much space on your system. To get an extensive bifurcation of the storage, follow these steps:

1. Go to Mac's desktop and click on the Apple logo at the top left corner of the screen. From here, go to the 'About This Mac' option.
2. This will launch a dedicated window with details about your system. Visit the 'Storage' section from here.
3. Now, you can view the storage details of your Mac's partition or connected external sources. It would also depict the total and the available space on it.
4. After that, you need to press 'Command + Shift + Period' to toggle to view hidden files.

Eight Solutions to Free Up Space on Mac

1. Downloads Folder

The Downloads folder is the default location on Mac that stores all the content that you have downloaded from the web. If you have been using your Mac for a while now, then the Downloads folder can accumulate a lot of data. Therefore, you should consider visiting the Downloads folder every now and then, and delete the unwanted files from it to clear disk space on Mac.

1. To access your Mac's Downloads, just click on the 'Go' option on Finder and open the Downloads folder.
2. You can also just launch Finder and visit the Downloads folder from the sidebar.
3. On the right, you can view all the files stored in the Downloads folder. Simply select the unwanted data, right-click, and move it to Trash.

2. Unwanted Apps

We all use different kinds of apps on our Mac for numerous purposes. Though, there are times when the system ends up having too many unwanted apps. You can just inspect all the installed apps on Mac and get rid of the programs you no longer want. In this way, you can easily learn how to free up disk space on Mac and boost its processing as well.

1. Just go to Mac's Finder > Applications to view all sorts of apps installed on Mac under various categories.
2. Select the application you wish to delete, right-click, and move it to Trash to get rid of it.
3. If you are removing any important application, then you would get a confirmation prompt like this. Just enter the admin username and password to confirm your choice and delete the app.
4. Apart from that, you can also go to Launchpad to view the programs installed from Mac's App Store. Long press any app to get the delete option (as the icons would start to wiggle).
5. Click on the cross button (delete option) at the top of the app icon and confirm your choice to delete the app.

3. Duplicate Photos and Media Files

This is something that almost every Mac user suffers from. Since we all move our photos, videos, music, and other media files from one place to another, it often results in redundancy. If you wish to free up space on Mac, then check for any duplicate content and get rid of unwanted files.

1. Mostly, users observe the presence of duplicate photos on Mac. To analyze this, go to Finder > Pictures from the sidebar.
2. Here, you can find both the Photos Library and iPhoto Library. You can choose either of these options and import photos from one library to another to get rid of duplicate files.
3. Apart from that, you can take the assistance of iTunes to detect duplicate content as well. Simply launch iTunes and go to its File > Library > Show Duplicate Items.
4. This will display all the duplicate songs, videos, and other media files on iTunes. You can just remove the files of your choice from here.

4. Get rid of Trash

Whenever we delete something from Mac, it is moved to Trash. This lets us recover the files that we have deleted accidentally. Though, if you wish to clear space on Mac, then it is important to wipe the Trash folder as well. In this way, you can delete files from Trash permanently and clear disk space on Mac easily.

1. If you want to empty the entire Trash folder, then select its icon first and go to Finder. Click on the 'Empty Trash' option from here and confirm your choice.
2. In addition to that, you can also select the Trash icon from the dock and right-click. From the context menu, click on the 'Empty Trash' option.

5. iTunes Backup

To make it easier for iOS users to manage their devices, Apple has provided several options in iTunes. Chances are that you must have taken its assistance to back up your iOS device as well. For instance, if you have an iPhone, then you can easily take its backup on iTunes as many times as you want. Though, multiple backups can take a toll on Mac storage and should be checked regularly. If you want to learn how to free space on Mac, then follow this simple drill.

1. Start by launching iTunes on your Mac and go to its iTunes menu > Preferences.
2. As the Preferences window will open, you can go to the 'Devices' section to view the available backup files.
3. Simply select the file you wish to get rid of and click on the 'Delete Backup' button. Confirm your choice and the iTunes backup would be erased from your Mac.

6. Temporary Files

Just like every other leading operating system, Mac also stores temporary and cache data while processing. Ideally, these temp files help us with the processing of certain actions and the overall Mac performance. Nevertheless, they can also accumulate after a while and consume a large chunk of your Mac's storage. Thus, it is recommended to remove temporary files every now and then to free up space on Mac.

How To Find Your App Storage On Mac Computer

1. Since every application can have its own temporary files, you can start by visiting the relevant folders. Visit Finder's Go > Go to Folders and enter '~/Users/User/Library/Application Support/' in the address bar.
2. Once the Application Support folder would be opened, you can visit different files and search for temporary files (with temp or tmp extensions). Subsequently, you can move the relevant files to Trash.
3. Apart from temporary files, you can also check the Cache data on Mac too. Just visit Library > Caches and remove all kinds of unwanted cache from here.

7. Mac Mail Attachments

Mac comes with tons of native apps like Mail that can help us manage our emails and messages in one place. Needless to say, the constant use of the mails and the downloading of several attachments can consume a lot of storage. If you want, you can get rid of individual or bulk attachments in the following way.

1. Firstly, open the Mail app from Finder and go to the mail that has the respective attachment.
2. Once the attachment is loaded, go to the Message option from the Finder and choose to Remove Attachment.
3. If you want to manually delete bulk attachments that are already downloaded on Mac, then go to the ~/Library/Mail folder.
4. Here, you can view all the stored Mac mail attachments. Make the relevant selection and delete the unwanted files.

8. Move Files to an External Storage

While we can delete unwanted content from Mac, there are certain files that we can't get rid of. In this case, you can simply move them to external storage like an SD card, pen drive, or external hard disk. This will free up disk space on your Mac while still keeping your important data safe.

1. Simply connect an external data source to your Mac. Most likely, you can see its icon on the desktop from where you can access the storage.
2. If you want, you can also launch Finder and visit the location of the files you wish to move.
3. Select the respective files, right-click, and cut them from the source. Go to the external source from Finder's sidebar and paste your files here instead.

Part 4. How to Manage Storage on Mac

By following the above-listed techniques, you would be able to clear disk space on Mac. Apart from that, you can also manage storage on Mac more efficiently by following these suggestions:

• Manage iCloud Sync

By default, every Apple ID gets access to 5 GB of free storage on iCloud. If you want, you can even buy more storage as well. You should make the most of it by syncing certain things on iCloud with your Mac. This will maintain a dedicated backup of your data (like Photos) and improve their availability. Simply Go to Finder > System Preferences and launch the iCloud app. Set up your account if you haven't already and enable the syncing option for your photos, contacts, notes, etc.

• Auto Empty Trash

A lot of users forget to empty the Trash after moving files to it. If you want, you can make sure that the data would only be stored for 30 days in Trash. After that, it will automatically be removed from Trash to make more space on Mac. Just go to Finder > Finder Preferences > Advanced. Now, enable the option to remove items from Trash after 30 days automatically.

• Optimize Storage

There are also different ways to manage storage on Mac by optimizing it. To start with, de-clutter your system and try to have an organized hierarchy of the file system. If you want, you can automate this feature as well. Just go to Finder and click on the Apple icon > About this Mac > Storage > Manager. Here, you can enable the Optimize Storage option to remove the iTunes movies and shows that you have already watched.

There is also an option for 'Reduce Clutter' that you can turn on. This will organize your Mac and get rid of the documents you no longer need.

• Delete App Data

Sometimes, uninstalling apps is not enough as they can leave residual data on Mac. If you won't remove the leftover app data, then it can consume a lot of storage of your Mac in the long run. Just go to your Mac's Library and visit the folder of the app you have already uninstalled. From here, you can carefully remove the existing app data that is no longer needed by Mac.

• Organize Mac Partitions

You might already know that Mac lets us create different partitions to logically separate the disk. It is recommended to empty the partition and delete it to defragment the disk space. Once you have taken a backup of your data, go to Applications > Disk Utility and view the existing partitions. Delete the unwanted partitions, create new ones, or merge existing partitions from here to make the most of the provided space.

Part 5. How to Recover Lost Data While Clearing Space

As you can see, there are different ways to learn how to make space on Mac by managing the storage and getting rid of unwanted content. Though, there are times when we end up deleting something by mistake. In this case, you can take the assistance of Recoverit Data Recovery for Mac to get back the lost, deleted, or inaccessible data. Recoverit 8.0 is the latest release of the application that provides a wide range of data recovery features and an extremely simple user interface. Here are some of the new and advanced features of this data recovery tool.

• Recoverit 8.0 runs an extensive scan on Mac through its advanced recovery algorithm. This yields comprehensive results in less time.
• Using Recoverit, you can get back all kinds of lost and deleted data back. The application supports 1000+ different data types for photos, videos, audios, files, documents, etc.
• It is fully compatible with every major file system used in Mac like APFS, HFS+, exFAT, and more.
• You can preview the extracted content on its native interface and pick the type of data that you wish to get back.
• It doesn't matter if you have accidentally deleted something, the storage has been corrupted, or an entire partition has been formatted – Recoverit can handle every scenario.
• Apart from Mac's HD, you can also perform data recovery on SD cards, cameras, external hard disks, pen drives, and all the popular sources.

Since the basic version of Recoverit 8.0 is available for free, you don't have to spend a single dime to have a hands-on experience of the tool first. Later, you can follow these simple steps and restore your lost data from Mac using Recoverit 8.0:

Step 1: Select a Location

Install and launch Recoverit 8.0 on your Mac, whenever you wish to get back your lost files. On its home, you need to select a location to scan. This can be Mac's entire storage, a partition, or even a particular folder. You can browse to a specific location of your choice as well.

Step 2: Scan the Location

As you would click on the 'Start' button, Recoverit will scan the source and extract all the essential files from it. It might take a few minutes for the process to be completed, and hence, it is recommended not to close the application in between.

Step 3: Preview and Recover

When the scan is complete, the interface will let you preview all the extracted data. It will already list everything under different categories. Recoverit 8.0 now also provides a bigger and better preview for photos, videos, and documents. Select multiple files if you want to and click on the 'Recover' button to save them to any location of your choice.

Conclusion

Who knew it would be so easy to manage storage on Mac and even recover lost data from it. To make things easier for you, we have listed eight different solutions on how to free up space on Mac. Furthermore, we have even provided a smart guide on how to see storage on Mac beforehand. In this way, you can see the difference in your Mac storage before and after following the listed suggestions. Additionally, if you have deleted something by mistake, then simply take the assistance of Recoverit Data Recovery. Developed by Wondershare, it is one of the most advanced and reliable data recovery tools for Mac that you should certainly keep handy.

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MacBook storage issue is still a relevant one in 2020. The promised 1 TB of storage — which is the capacity of the upcoming MacBook Air 2020 — will still be not enough for many. We generate more and more content on our devices and use apps that are bursting with cache files. This is what creates the cryptic category of “Other” storage on Mac.

On recent macOS versions this storage category is labeled “other volumes in container”. Which, of course, doesn’t make it any less cryptic. This category contains junk files as well as important ones. That’s why you have to learn to properly check storage on Mac.
So let’s figure out what Other Storage is and how to remove Other from your Mac.

What is Other on Mac Storage?

Simply, Other storage on Mac consists of files that do not easily fall into the clearer category labels like 'Audio.' The types of 'Other' files would include:

1. Documents like PDF, .psd, .doc, etc.
2. macOS system and temporary files.
3. Cache files like user cache, browser cache, and system cache.
4. Disk images and archives like .zip and .dmg.
5. App plugins and extensions.
6. Everything else that doesn’t fit into the main macOS categories.

Like this file:

What’s this? A song? An unknown archive? Why on Earth it weighs 200 MB?

How to check Mac disk space usage

A few years back Apple introduced “Optimized Storage”, a great feature for finding out how your disk space is structured. This is how to check storage on Mac.

1. Open the Apple menu (top right corner)
2. Now, click About this Mac >Storage

Is your disk approaching full capacity? Now, click “Manage.” The sidebar to the left is really enlightening. This is the only place where on your Mac it shows the size of your apps, books, and documents in gigabytes.

Where is Other Storage on a Mac

To show you where it is, let’s look at your Library. This is where your macOS keeps application components, widgets, and various cache archives. This part of your Mac is hidden from view for a reason. Messing up a few folders here may break your Mac. But let’s take a look:
Click on Finder > Go (in the top menu).
Now paste in: Library/Caches

See those small folders? This is where your “Other” storage is. You’ve found it. Now, we'll see what's possible to delete.

How to delete Other Storage on Mac

You can’t entirely get rid of Other on Mac but you can reduce how much storage space it takes up. We’re now going to look at each of the six types of Other files and show you how to clean up your Mac. We’re going to walk you through deleting useless documents, junk system files, system slowing cache files, old backups, and all sorts of other junk.

1. Remove documents from Other Storage space

You might not think that pure text documents take up a lot of space but you may be surprised at the size of some .pages and .csv files. And that’s before you start adding images, downloading ebooks, and creating big presentations. Soon your Other documents can start to get out of hand.

To find and remove large and unneeded documents from Other Storage manually:

1. From your desktop press Command + F.
2. Click This Mac.
3. Click the first dropdown menu field and select Other.
4. From the Search Attributes window tick File Size and File Extension.
5. Now you can input different document file types (.pdf, .pages, etc.) and file sizes to find large documents.
6. Review the items and then delete as needed.

Luckily, there’s a much quicker and more thorough way. By using a CleanMyMac X you are presented with a clear view of all the massive files occupying your Other space.

To locate large hidden files in all folders with CleanMyMac:

1. Open CleanMyMac X and click on Large & Old Files tab
2. Click big Scan button to start the search
3. Now, review the results broken down by different categories: archives, documents, movies etc.
4. Look through your files and delete the ones you no longer need.

What’s great about this method is that you can sort the files by their size and thus free up space most effectively. And there’s a special category for Other files that don’t fit into either category. These files can be also moved to another folder/separate disk or could be removed securely.

In addition to this, you can empty up a few more gigabytes taken up by Dropbox folder and your Trash.

You can download CleanMyMac X here (it's free to download from developer's site).
In the top right bar (where the time and language is displayed) you’ll find a small Mac icon that takes you to the CleanMyMac X’s Menu.

1. Click on CleanMyMac X Menu icon (within the upper bar)
2. Locate windows for Trash and Dropbox
3. Click Empty to instantly free up space

No try it and see how it helps you slim down Other storage on Mac. Deleting your old files alone can recover you tons of space, but there are more space hoggers that fall under the Other data category.

2. Clean up Other space of system and temporary files

Every second your Mac is on, the macOS creates and piles up system files — logs, for example. At some point, the system needs these files, but they quickly become outdated and just sit there wasting your disk space. And guess what, they are in the Other Mac storage category, too.

These files are mostly temporary but they never actually go away unless you do something about it. The difficulty is that Apple hasn’t made it easy to clear out system files. There’s a good reason for this – people often delete things they shouldn’t.

Let's inspect your Library folder

To manually find where a majority of apps temporary files live navigate to ~/Users/User/Library/Application Support/. In this folder you will find your applications and some searching will reveal a lot of space being taken up. For example, your may have gigabytes worth of old iOS backups in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup.

You could delete these manually but a much safer and faster method is to use a specialist cleaning app like CleanMyMac X. It has a System Junk module that specifically looks for useless system files and knows what’s safe to delete.

Here’s how to easily remove system files from Other Storage:

• Go to System Junk in CleanMyMac.
• Hit Scan.
• Hit Clean.

That’s pretty much it. Seriously. If this is the first time you ever cleaned your Mac, you’ll see that the OS X Other storage tab has shrunk considerably after the system junk cleanup.

Using this method I was able to additionally delete 4.75 GB of 'System Junk' from my MacBook.

3. Delete cache files from Other data section

Cache files are not just another invisible storage hog. They are often one of the worst offenders, often taking up gigabytes of precious space. The three main types cache are – browser, user, and system. Cache files are meant to help your system work faster, but over time they get bigger and bigger, eventually slowing your system down.

To manually clear cache files on Mac:

1. Navigate to Go > Go To Folder.
2. Type in ~/Library/Caches and click Go.
3. Click-hold Option and drag the Caches folder to your desktop as a backup in case something goes wrong.
4. Select all the files in the Caches folder.
5. Drag them to the Trash.
6. Empty Trash.

Follow the same steps for /Library/Caches (without the “~”) and ~/Library/Logs. Cache files sit in numerous folders, and with a little patience, you can clean them out manually (read more detailed instruction on clearing cache).

For those who don’t have the time or are worried about deleting the wrong files, CleanMyMac can quickly and safely do the job.

If you already cleaned out system files from step 2, congratulations, in doing so you also cleared out your cache files. If you didn’t, here are the steps again:

• Go to System Junk in CleanMyMac.
• Hit Scan.
• Hit Clean.

This will clear all the cache files on your Mac and considerably reduce Other storage on your Mac.

How To Find App Store

4. Remove app plugins and extensions from Other storage

Another cool way to manage storage on Mac.
While apps are, unsurprisingly, categorized as Apps on the Storage bar, their add-ons are under the Other storage category.Compared to some types of files, app plugins and extensions probably won’t take up as much of your Mac's Other space. Still, every bit counts. Since extensions can sometimes cause other problems on your Mac, why not remove the ones you don’t use to be safe and free up some extra Other storage space at the same time?

Tracking down all your add-ons can be a hassle. Some you’ve forgotten you had (like that nCage extension for Chrome), others you didn’t know of in the first place.

Here’s how to manually remove extensions from Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

To remove extensions from Safari:

1. Open Safari browser.
2. Click on Preferences.
3. Click on the Extensions tab.
4. Select the extension you want to target and uncheck “Enable” to disable or click “Uninstall” to remove.

To remove extensions from Chrome browser:

1. Open Chrome.
2. Click the three dot icon in the top-right corner.
3. Click More tools > Extensions.
4. Disable or remove as you choose.

To remove extensions from Firefox:

1. Open Mozilla Firefox browser.
2. Click on the burger menu in the top-right corner.
3. Choose Add-ons.
4. From the Extensions and Plugins tabs disable and remove whatever you want.

Important! If you’re not sure what a plugin does, don’t rush to remove it. Try disabling it first and see if your apps and your system work as expected. You can always remove that add-on later. Also note that Chrome extensions can’t be deleted automatically. But if you’d like to get rid of them, we’ll list these extensions for you and tell how to do that manually.

5. Clear Other space of disk images and archives

Normally, archives and images are files you keep for a reason. However, if you think you might have accumulated some useless .zip and .dmg files on your Mac, then you should definitely clear them out as well.

You can find these files using Spotlight search:

1. Open Finder.
2. Type DMG/ZIP in the search field.
3. Select Search: This Mac.
4. Sort the results by Size.

Finder will show you all files of the format you’ve specified, sorted by size. You can clean out those you don’t need.

To safely and easily remove all your old unused disk images, CleanMyMac X has a dedicated tool within the System Junk module. Everything is categorized so you have a better understanding of what you’re removing.

1. Go to System Junk module in CleanMyMac X
2. Click Scan and when it’s done, click Review Details

Now you get a detailed overview of some ultra-specific categories of files that are normally invisible to you. Among those you’ll see Unused Disk Images (another name for DMG installations). Then, there’s Old Updates — you would like to remove those too. Old Updates are past versions of update packages that you already got installed.

Do you often use use graphic editors like Photoshop or Sketch? Then, you’ll probably be fascinated by Document Versions feature. If you click on Document Versions tab (System Junk > Scan > Review Details), you’ll be able to see how much of your space is taken by large document re-edits. Imagine a 60 MB Photoshop file cloned 10 times with just slight differences. In CleanMyMac X you can delete these intermediate revisions. And, handy enough, the program keeps just the original file and its final revision on the drive.

6. Get rid of everything else from Other disk space

Even Other storage space has its own “other” files and no, the irony of that statement is not lost on us.

Other storage on Mac can also include:

• Files in your user library (screen savers, for example).
• Files Spotlight search doesn’t recognize.

Typically, they won’t be as big of a share of Other data on your Mac as cache files and other items we’ve cleared out. However, if you’re determined to clean out as much Other Mac storage as possible, here’s how you can delete screensavers:

1. Open Finder.
2. In the Menu bar, select Go > Go to Folder.
3. Type this: ~/Library/Screen Savers and click Go.

You’ll see the screen saver files now — they are lightweight, but for the sake of being thorough, you can trash them as well.

How To Find Mac Address

As for files Spotlight doesn’t recognize, they are rare. They could include files like Windows Boot Camp partitions or virtual machine hard drives. If you don’t recall putting anything like that on your Mac, you probably have nothing to look for.

7. See your disk contents through a Space Lens

Some apps, like Daisy Disk or CleanMyMac create a visual map of your entire drive. It’s an amazing way to see your Mac as it is under the hood — with bubbles of different sizes representing each file category. But what’s most important, you can delete your useless files right from there. It's so cool you can manage storage on Mac in a visual way:

• Run the Space Lens tool in CleanMyMac X — A link to a free version from developer’s site
• Explore the bubbles
• Delete files you don’t need

How much can you expect to delete from Other storage on Mac?

You’ll never remove Other data section from Mac entirely, nor should you want to. It’s perfectly fine to have space taken up by necessary files, whatever category label they have. What is not okay is valuable storage space being wasted.

How To See Storage On Mac

Download CleanMyMac and follow the steps in this guide to clean gigabytes off Other storage on your Mac.
Your lighter and faster Mac will love you for it. =)

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