Beginner’s guide to freeing up space on a Mac

In this text we are going to make a small guide for people with little experience in the matter on how to recover space in a Mac in a safe and efficient way.

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At times, Mac computers start sending storage full alerts, or even function more slowly when opening applications. This is an unmistakable sign that it’s necessary to free up space on the hard drive. And it’s that, although these types of devices manage storage efficiently, over time they start to accumulate files, applications, and system data that occupy very valuable gigabytes.

In this text, we’re going to create a small guide for people with little experience in the field on how to recover space on a Mac in a safe and efficient way, improving the overall performance of the equipment.

Analyze your Mac’s storage

The first thing to do to free up space is to understand what’s occupying it inside the Mac. This can be done by going to the Apple menu, selecting “About this Mac,” and then going to the “Storage” tab. There, you’ll find a breakdown of how much space elements like applications, documents, photos, or music occupy, among other things. Normally, the “System Data” category will have a weight even greater than the user might imagine.

Understanding this distribution will allow for more informed decisions about which files to delete and move to another device.

Safely delete system data

Going back to the topic of deleting system data, it’s clear that we’re dealing with the main causes of the lack of space on Macs. This category includes temporary files, system caches, logs, and other elements necessary for the Mac’s functioning. Despite this, in many cases, they can accumulate and grow unnecessarily.

To delete them, you need to follow specific steps. The first one is to restart the Mac in safe mode, which will eliminate some caches and temporary files. Then, you can use the “Optimize Storage” tool in the “Storage” tab to delete large or duplicate files. Finally, you can manually clean the “~/Library/Caches” folder, as well as other temporary ones, although this should always be done with caution and the security of knowing what you’re deleting.

• All these management tasks help to free up gigabytes and make the Mac function more smoothly.

Other ways to free up storage

• There are three other ways to free up space on your Mac that can be effective.

Uninstall unused applications

Sometimes, applications are downloaded and used only once. Checking if the Mac has any of these and deleting them is a quick way to free up space. To do this, simply drag the application to the Trash or use the uninstallation tool to also eliminate residual files present in the system.

Clean up large and duplicate files

Another effective method is to search for large files, such as videos, presentations, or old backups that are no longer necessary and delete them. On the other hand, elements like duplicate photos often occupy a lot of space, and fortunately, there are specific applications that scan the disk and detect them.

Consider cloud storage

Finally, if you work with many heavy files, it’s a good idea to store part of the information in the cloud. Services like iCloud, Google Drive, or Dropbox allow you to free up local space without losing access to your important files.