Are you tired of having to restart your Mac every 20 minutes when it becomes too slow to operate? Do you feel as if you’re wasting space on your Mac with apps, photos, and files you no longer use? If so, then you need to learn all that you can about clearing space on Mac devices.
Mac storage is a fickle beast. Without taking the time to clear space every so often, it can quickly eat away at your Mac’s loading speed.
See below for an in-depth guide on how to clear space on your Mac, get access to extra storage, and have a fully functioning desktop once again.
1. Bite the App-le
Terrible puns aside, it’s important for you to rid yourself of any apps on your Mac that you no longer use.
This can be difficult for some people to do. We’re collectors at heart, and—believe it or not—develop an emotional attachment with the apps that we use.
For that reason, we have two tiers of apps for you to get rid of. First, run through all the apps on your launchpad and delete any apps that you haven’t used in the past three months. Those should be easy to dispose of because you don’t use them anyways; they’re literally wasting space on your computer.
After that, assess your current short-term and long-term goals before you take a second run through your launchpad. If you see any apps that don’t align with those goals, delete them. That means disposing of all games or apps you aren’t currently using (outside of the default Apple apps like Garageband, iMovie, etc.
Deleting those apps will help open up a ton of extra storage on your Mac. You’ll have built some serious momentum heading into the next step of this process…
2. Delete Files on Your Mac
As you might expect, deleting the files on your Mac can be a bit overwhelming at times. It requires you to go through file by file and determine whether or not you actually need it anymore. This can prove to be exhausting.
Fortunately, Macs have several ways to delete your files. For an in-depth tutorial on how to do this, be sure to visit
First, you can delete a file by simply clicking on the file from your desktop and dragging it down to the trash icon that’s located at the very right of your Apple dock.
You can also click on the file, then hold down the Command key and Delete key at the same time. Lastly, you can get rid of it by placing your cursor on the file, right-clicking, and then choosing the “move to trash” option.
If you wish to skip the trash entirely and permanently delete a file you know you’ll never use again, simply click on the file, then hold down “Option”, “Command”, and “Delete” at the same time. Make sure that you’re 100-percent sure you won’t need that file again, since it can’t be reversed.
Larger files are a bit more complex, so you’ll want to visit the link we mentioned above for an in-depth explanation.
3. Delete the Downloads
Downloads can stockpile on your Mac quite quickly. However, you have very little need for them once they’ve sat in your storage for more than a few days.
Generally speaking, if the downloads are of importance, you’ve already saved them and placed them in an important folder. If the download wasn’t important, then it’s just sitting in your “downloads” folder for no reason.
Either way, they should be deleted. All you have to do is go to “Finder”, click on the “downloads” folder, click on a file in the folder and then hold down “Command” and the “A” key. This will highlight all of the files within the folder. After that, right-click and choose “Move to trash”.
Once all of those items are in your trash, right-click on the trash icon and select “empty trash”. This will permanently delete those files.
4. Delete Duplicate Photos
Photos have the ability to take up a lot of storage space. If you have duplicate photos and videos on your Mac, it’s just taking up unnecessary space.
Be sure to go through your photos and search for any duplicates, then delete them. This should only take around 10 minutes with a moderate amount of photos.
If you have thousands of photos on your Mac, then you may want to consider a tool like PhotoSweeper, which can pinpoint duplicates and clean them up for you.
5. Use an External Hard Drive for Storage
When you really think about it, there’s no reason for you to keep long-term storage items on your Mac. Things like photos and videos, which you’re holding on to for memorial purposes, belong on an external hard drive.
take the time to invest in a high-quality external hard drive with as much space as possible. Then take the time to move over any valuable files to it, thus freeing up your Mac’s storage.
Simply open the external hard drive’s window and drag any file into it. This will automatically make a copy of the file.
Use These Tips for Clearing Space on Mac
Now that you have seen an in-depth guide on clearing space on Mac and how to do so efficiently, please use this information to your advantage.
Take the time to browse our website for more articles on Mac storage capabilities, as well as many other helpful topics that you will enjoy.
