Macos System Storage Cleanup

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Compatibility: macOS (OS X) 10.10 Yosemite and higher versions Free Version: Available (Mac App Store) AVG Cleaner is one of the best Mac cleaner apps that one can rely on any day of the month. It has a clean interface with two crucial features. The first one is ‘Disk Cleaner’ which scans the hard drive for junk files and then removes them.

Price: $29.95 per system per year. Device Compatibility: MacOS 10.13, MacOS 10.12, Mac OS X 10.11, 10.10, 10.9, 10.8, 10.7. Cleaner One Pro. Cleaner One Pro is designed to free up valuable space and de-clutter disk storage in just one click. You can use this advanced Mac cleaner software to speed up system performance significantly. Check the storage usage in your Mac Choose About This Mac from the Apple () menu, then click Storage, then you will find the storage usage of Apps, photos, audio movies, backups and other. To remove some junk files manually on the mac (it needs macOS 10.13 and later). Methods to clear system storage on Mac.Download CleanMyMac X free edition here:How to clean up Mac OS system storage:1.

Macos System Storage Cleanup

Optimized Storage helps you save storage space space by storing your content in iCloud and making it available on demand:

  • When storage space is needed, files, photos, movies, email attachments, and other files that you seldom use are stored in iCloud automatically.
  • Each file stays right where you last saved it, and downloads when you open it.
  • Files that you’ve used recently remain on your Mac, along with optimized versions of your photos.

If you haven't yet upgraded to macOS Sierra or later, learn about other ways to free up storage space.

Macos System Storage Cleanup

Find out how much storage is available on your Mac

Choose Apple menu  > About This Mac, then click Storage. Each segment of the bar is an estimate of the storage space used by a category of files. Move your pointer over each segment for more detail.

Cleanup

Click the Manage button to open the Storage Management window, pictured below.

Manage storage on your Mac

The Storage Management window offers recommendations for optimizing your storage. If some recommendations are already turned on, you will see fewer recommendations.

Store in iCloud

Click the Store in iCloud button, then choose from these options:

  • Desktop and Documents. Store all files from these two locations in iCloud Drive. When storage space is needed, only the files you recently opened are kept on your Mac, so that you can easily work offline. Files stored only in iCloud show a download icon , which you can double-click to download the original file. Learn more about this feature.
  • Photos. Store all original, full-resolution photos and videos in iCloud Photos. When storage space is needed, only space-saving (optimized) versions of photos are kept on your Mac. To download the original photo or video, just open it.
  • Messages. Store all messages and attachments in iCloud. When storage space is needed, only the messages and attachments you recently opened are kept on your Mac. Learn more about Messages in iCloud.

Storing files in iCloud uses the storage space in your iCloud storage plan. If you reach or exceed your iCloud storage limit, you can either buy more iCloud storage or make more iCloud storage available. iCloud storage starts at 50GB for $0.99 (USD) a month, and you can purchase additional storage directly from your Apple device. Learn more about prices in your region.

Optimize Storage

Click the Optimize button to save space by automatically removing watched movies and TV shows. When storage space is needed, movies or TV shows that you purchased from Apple and already watched are removed from your Mac. Click the download icon next to a movie or TV show to download it again.

Your Mac will also save space by keeping only recent email attachments on this Mac when storage space is needed. You can manually download any attachments at any time by opening the email or attachment, or saving the attachment to your Mac.

Optimizing storage for movies, TV shows, and email attachments doesn't require iCloud storage space.

Macbook System Storage Cleanup Reddit

Empty Trash Automatically

Empty Trash Automatically permanently deletes files that have been in the Trash for more than 30 days.

Reduce Clutter

Reduce Clutter helps you identify large files and files you might no longer need. Click the Review Files button, then choose any of the file categories in the sidebar, such as Applications, Documents, Music Creation, or Trash.

You can delete the files in some categories directly from this window. Other categories show the total storage space used by the files in each app. You can then open the app and decide whether to delete files from within it.

Learn how to redownload apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books.


Where to find the settings for each feature

The button for each recommendation in the Storage Management window affects one or more settings in other apps. You can also control those settings directly within each app.

  • If you're using macOS Catalina or later, choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, click Apple ID, then select iCloud in the sidebar: Store in iCloud turns on the Optimize Mac Storage setting on the right. To turn off iCloud Drive entirely, deselect iCloud Drive.
  • If you're using macOS Mojave or earlier, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click iCloud, then click Options next to iCloud Drive. Store in iCloud turns on the Desktop & Documents Folders and Optimize Mac Storage settings.
  • In Photos, choose Photos > Preferences, then click iCloud. Store in iCloud selects iCloud Photos and Optimize Mac Storage.
  • In Messages, choose Messages > Preferences, then click iMessage. Store in iCloud selects Enable Messages in iCloud.
  • If you're using macOS Catalina or later, open the Apple TV app, choose TV > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Files. Optimize Storage selects “Automatically delete watched movies and TV shows.”
  • In you're using macOS Mojave or earlier, open iTunes, choose iTunes > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Advanced. Optimize Storage selects “Automatically delete watched movies and TV shows.”
  • In Mail, choose Mail > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Accounts. In the Account Information section on the right, Optimize Storage sets the Download Attachments menu to either Recent or None.

Empty Trash Automatically: From the Finder, choose Finder > Preferences, then click Advanced. Empty Trash Automatically selects “Remove items from the Trash after 30 days.”

Other ways that macOS helps automatically save space

With macOS Sierra or later, your Mac automatically takes these additional steps to save storage space:

  • Detects duplicate downloads in Safari, keeping only the most recent version of the download
  • Reminds you to delete used app installers
  • Removes old fonts, languages, and dictionaries that aren't being used
  • Clears caches, logs, and other unnecessary data when storage space is needed

How to free up storage space manually

Even without using the Optimized Storage features described in this article, you can take other steps to make more storage space available:

  • Music, movies, and other media can use a lot of storage space. Learn how to delete music, movies, and TV shows from your device.
  • Delete other files that you no longer need by moving them to the Trash, then emptying the Trash. The Downloads folder is good place to look for files that you might no longer need.
  • Move files to an external storage device.
  • Compress files.
  • Delete unneeded email: In the Mail app, choose Mailbox > Erase Junk Mail. If you no longer need the email in your Trash mailbox, choose Mailbox > Erase Deleted Items.

Learn more

  • The Storage pane of About This Mac is the best way to determine the amount of storage space available on your Mac. Disk Utility and other apps might show storage categories such as Not Mounted, VM, Recovery, Other Volumes, Free, or Purgeable. Don't rely on these categories to understand how to free up storage space or how much storage space is available for your data.
  • When you duplicate a file on an APFS-formatted volume, that file doesn't use additional storage space on the volume. Deleting a duplicate file frees up only the space required by any data you might have added to the duplicate. If you no longer need any copies of the file, you can recover all of the storage space by deleting both the duplicate and the original file.
  • If you're using a pro app and Optimize Mac Storage, learn how to make sure that your projects are always on your Mac and able to access their files.

Summary: Still worry about your insufficient Mac storage? Want to speed up Mac but don't know how? Get the 6 free Mac cleaners to clear disk space, clean junk or duplicate files to free up your Mac.

Many of us know exactly how to clean Windows computer or Android phone, but when it comes to cleaning Mac, few people know about it. Many Apple users think that, there is no need to clean Mac.

However, with more and more junk files occupying your Mac storage, your Mac will slow down and offer a bad performance. You have to rely on some Mac cleaner software to remove all useless data.

Best Free Mac Cleaners

With so many Mac cleaner tools offered on the market, which one you should use? Do you know how to choose a great Mac cleaner? We have tested more than 20 Mac cleaners and select the 6 best ones for you to choose from. You can pick your preferred Free Mac cleaner to speed up your Mac easily and quickly.

No.1 Free Mac cleaner: CCleaner - Free junk file cleaner

CCleaner is one free and top Mac cleaner to delete cookies, search history, temporary files and junk files from Mac. The specific functions are below:

1. Find and remove useless/junk files with the click of a button so your Mac can run faster. Speed up boot times with easy management of Startup items.

2. Clear up your recycle bin, temporary files and folders, broken permissions and others. If you want to remove installed programs, just click one button.

3. Erase your browser search history and cookies so you can browse any Internet confidentially and your identity remains anonymous.

No.2 Free Mac cleaner: Disk Inventory X – Free disk cleaner for Mac

Disk Inventory X is one disk cleaning software and disk usage utility for Mac. With this free Mac cleaner, you can know where your disk space has gone and clean it safely. Just see more about Disk Inventory X.

1. Disk Inventory X shows the sizes of files and folders in a special graphical way.

2. With this Mac cleaner, you can see different files marked with different colors, to help you easily find what you want to delete.

No.3 Free Mac cleaner: AVG Cleaner – Free hidden clutter cleaner

Macos system storage cleanup free

AVG Cleaner is one free Mac cleaner to clean hidden clutter and forgotten duplicates. You can see the detailed information below:

1. Clear more hidden garbage, log, download history and trash bin for freeing up more space on your Mac.

2. Search more duplicate files, including images, music, videos and folders.

3. Created for Mac and easy to use.

4. There is an anti-virus software called AVG AntiVirus for Mac, you can use it to protect Macs on your and your families.

No.4 Free Mac cleaner: OmniDiskSweeper - Free hard drive cleaner

OmniDiskSweeper is one free Mac cleaner to find and delete big files that taking up hard drive space and also it can help you recover lost disk space.

1. OmniDiskSweeper helps you sort every file on your Mac by size and you can identify the biggest file to delete it.

2. After deleting, remaining space and folders are recalculated.

No.5 Free Mac cleaner: Dr. Cleaner – Free memory, disk, system cleaner

Dr. Cleaner is one free Mac cleaning app to offer Memory Optimization, Disk Cleaning and System Monitoring to keep your Mac optimized for the best performance.

1. Smart and accurate selection for duplicates scan and remove on Mac with OS X 10.6.6 or later.

2. Scanned big files and junk files will be deleted easily from your Mac.

3. You can easily view real-time network usage and CPU usage in the Menu bar.

No.6 Free Mac cleaner: Disk Drill

Disk Drill is one very popular free Mac cleaner app. Actually, it is a professional data recovery tool for Mac, which carries some disk cleaning functions. It has the capability to analyze Mac storage space, locate unused, large, and duplicate files and so on. In this way, it enables you to free up your Mac storage effortlessly.

1. Monitor the health of your Mac storage and offer timely alerts.

2. Find and remove duplicate files in multiple locations on Mac.

3. Analyze disk space, locate unused files and space hogs, free up storage.

Professional Mac cleaner recommendation:

With the best 6 Mac cleaner apps above, you can handily remove some junk files and optimize your Mac performance. But some of them only offer trial features. Here you are recommended to directly choose the professional Mac cleaner below:

Mac Cleaner
  • Scan and delete junk files including cache data and logs, email attachments, unwanted iTunes backup and app localization.
  • Delete large and old documents and selectively remove worthless files.
  • Clean duplicated files or folders on Mac.
  • Uninstall apps and clean associated files safely.
  • Monitor Mac system in disk utilization, battery status, memory performance and CPU usage.
  • Compatible with iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook (Air/Pro) in the latest macOS Big Sur.

FAQs of Free Mac Cleaner

How do I clean and optimize my Mac?

Download and install Aiseesoft Mac Cleaner. Click Cleaner and you can clean up your Mac by cleaning system junk, iPhoto junk, email junk, similar photos, iTunes junk, trash bin, large & old files and more.

Why is my Mac so slow?

The reason that why is your Mac so slow may includes there is no enough hard drive or RAM on Mac. Or there is too many startup items or icon clutter on desktop. Perhaps your macOS is outdated and you should update it.

Does Catalina slow down your Mac?

No. Catalina won’t slow down an old Mac. You can check to make sure if your Mac is compatible with macOS Catalina.

Macos System Storage Cleanup Free

By now, 6 free Mac cleaners have been shared here. You can choose your preferred Mac cleaner according to your need. Please share it in comment if you have any better Mac cleaner recommendation. Check ere if you want to speed up your slow iPhone.

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How To Clean Up System Storage On Mac

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Macos System Extensions

December 29, 2020 17:50 / Updated by Louisa White to Mac Cleanup