Last Updated on July 14, 2021 by Rick Darlinton
While Mac systems are undoubtedly known for their fast processing, they suffer from a lack of internal storage that can easily get exhausted. As a result, it can slow down the processing of your Mac and can make it harder for you to work. Don’t worry – with some smart tips, you can get rid of unwanted things and free up some space on your system. Here I will let you know how to reduce system storage on Mac.
Part 1: Check the System Storage Division on your Mac
Before you learn how to reduce system storage on Mac, you should check what is occupying how much space. For this, you can just click on the Apple icon on the desktop and go to the “About this Mac” feature. As its dedicated window would be launched, go to the “Storage” section.
Here, you can see the bifurcation of your Mac’s storage and check how much space is occupied by photos, videos, apps, documents, and so on.
Part 2: Try these solutions to reduce system storage on Mac
Is your Mac running slowly recently? If this is the case, try these tips to reduce system storage on Mac.
1. Manually Get Rid of any Unwanted Data
After checking the disk space division, you can know what is occupying more space on your Mac. The easiest way to learn how to reduce Mac system storage is by manually getting rid of these files.
All you need to do is go to the Finder and simply browse the storage on your Mac. From here, you can select your photos, documents, etc. that are no longer needed and simply delete them.
2.Empty the Trash of your Mac more Often
Another rookie mistake that Mac users make is not emptying the Trash that can occupy a lot of unwanted files. As you know, when we delete something from our Mac’s storage, it is moved to the Trash instead (where it is saved temporarily).
Therefore, you can just go to the desktop and select the Trash icon from the dock. Now, you can just right-click the Trash icon and choose to Empty it. Confirm your choice and wait as all the data from your system’s Trash would be wiped out.
3. Get Rid of Old Time Machine Backup Files from Mac
You might be wondering that your Time Machine Backup is only saved on the external drive? Well, not really – as your Mac would also maintain its second copy on the system storage that can occupy a lot of storage.
If you would have checked the storage settings on your Mac, then the Time Machine backup can be merged with the “Others” section. That’s why it becomes tough for Mac users to know how much space a backup could be taking. To learn how to decrease system storage on Mac and get rid of an old Time Machine backup, follow these steps:
- To begin with, just go to the Finder and browse to Applications > Utilities to open the Terminal application on Mac.
- Once the Terminal window is launched, enter the command “tmutil listlocalsnapshotdates” to get a detailed list of all the Time Machine backups saved on the local storage.
- Now, you can check the stored backup files with their timestamps and can decide which backup you want to delete.
- To get rid of any Time Machine backup, just enter the command “tmutil deletelocalsnapshots <name of the backup>”. You can get the name of the backup from the previous list (that would have a timestamp).
- Simply press Return and wait as the selected Time Machine backup would be deleted from your Mac’s storage. You can follow the same process to get rid of any other existing backup as well.
4. Optimize Mac’s Storage and Reduce Clutter Automatically
A while back, Apple understood the storage-related issues that its users face and came up with an automatic solution. You can find this option in the storage settings of your Mac that would automatically optimize it to save your efforts. To learn how to reduce system storage on Mac, just follow this simple drill.
At first, go to Finder and click on the Apple logo from the top. Now, click on the “About this Mac” option and visit the “Storage” section. From here, you can click on the “Manage” button on the side to get a new pop-up window.
Here, you can get options like Applications, Messages, Mail, Documents, etc. on the side. You can visit any section to find numerous ways to optimize Mac’s storage. Though, I would recommend visiting the “System” feature and use the following options:
Store in Cloud: This will let you store your important files (like photos or documents) on the cloud, reducing the local storage.
Optimize Storage: The option would automatically remove the TV shows and movies that you have already watched on your Mac.
Empty Trash Automatically: By turning this feature on, the items in your Mac’s Trash folder would automatically be deleted after 30 days.
Reduce Clutter: It will automatically sort various documents and other content on your Mac and delete what is no longer needed.
5. Manually Delete your Mac’s Cache and Log Files
Lastly, if you have been using your Mac for a while, then it can accumulate a lot of unwanted cache data and system log files. The easiest way to learn how to decrease system storage on Mac is by manually removing this data.
To do this, you can access Finder and click on Go > Go to Folder. Here, you can enter “~/Library/caches” to visit the Cache folder on Mac or “~/Library/Logs” to visit the System Logs folder.
Later, you can simply choose all the unwanted cache or system log files and manually delete them from your Mac.
There you go! After going through these steps, you can learn how to reduce system storage on Mac. Since Mac’s storage can be limited, it is important to keep an eye on it regularly. If your system is running slow, then I would strongly recommend following these steps to optimize its storage that would eventually improve the processing of your Mac as well.
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