Free up storage space for email accounts in Mail on Mac. If your email account exceeds the storage limits set by the account’s provider, you can take some actions in Mail to free up space on the account’s mail servers. Open Mail for me. Free Up Storage Space on Mac. The next sections will help you free up disk space on your Mac and Macbook. Click on the Apple Menu located on the upper-left part of your Mac or Macbook’s screen. From the drop-down menu that shows up, click on About This Mac. The screen shows details of your Mac device. 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.
Posted December 22, 2018 by Leomar Umpad in Apple Mac
Are you running out of storage space on your Mac? We know how frustrating it is not to be able to install apps nor save files on your device just because of your Mac’s limited storage capacity. We feel you – that’s why we made this article for you to learn how to free up storage space on Mac.
Your Mac has all the utilities to help you manage and maximize your storage space. A mac running on macOS Sierra and later can automatically store rarely-used files to the cloud so you’ll get more physical storage space on your device. Some of the storage-saving actions are automatically done in the background while others need your manual intervention.
Free Up Storage Space on Mac
The next sections will help you free up disk space on your Mac and Macbook.
1. Click on the Apple Menu located on the upper-left part of your Mac or Macbook’s screen.
2. From the drop-down menu that shows up, click on About This Mac.
3. The screen shows details of your Mac device. Tap on Storage.
4. The screen shows details of your Mac Storage, click on the Manage button to view recommended storage optimization actions.
5. The screen shows the list of recommendations to help optimize and manage your storage. Click on the button for each recommendation to see its options. Take note that if an option is already turned ON, then it is no longer shown on your screen.
Store in iCloud
Store in iCloud allows you to store rarely-used files and photos in iCloud. When storage space is needed, only recently-used files and optimized photos on your device are kept. Store in iCloud has the following options:
• Desktop and Documents. Your Mac will automatically store the files in Desktop and the Documents folder into the iCloud when there is a need for more storage space on your device. However, the recently-used files will remain on your device. When files are saved in the iCloud, a download icon replaces the files saved. You can click on the icon to download the file.
• Photos. Except for those optimized (for storage) photos, all photos and videos are saved in the iCloud whenever your Mac runs out of storage. You can download the said images and videos by opening them.
Optimize Storage
You can save more space on your Mac by automatically removing watched movies and TV shows. Optimize Storage has the following options:
Empty Trash Automatically
You can free up storage space on Mac by automatically erasing your Trash items after 30 days. Empty Trash Automatically do not have additional options. You can only either Turn it ON or OFF. Since our purpose is to free up space, we recommend that we leave the option as ON.
Reduce Clutter
You can free up storage space on Mac by reviewing files stored on your Mac. Click on the Review Files button to the files that you can delete to free up space on your Mac. You can choose from these tabs – Large files, Downloads, and File Browser.
Why Should I Update My macOS?
You should always update your Mac to the latest operating system available. Aside from the things that you manually do, macOS Sierra and later operating systems automatically do these things in the background to save storage space on Mac:
• Automatically detects and deletes duplicate downloads in Safari
• Removes unused system files such as old fonts, languages, and dictionaries.
• Automatically clears data (caches, logs, etc) when there is a need for extra storage space.
• Automatically reminds you to delete used app installers.
FAQS
Q: When files are deleted from my Mac and stored to iCloud, will the files be removed on their location in my Mac?
A: Files that are “removed” from your Mac and stored to iCloud will remain on the last saved location. A download icon replaces the regular icon to indicate that the file is in iCloud. Opening the file will download it to your Mac.
Q: Will the storage used for all of these automated storage actions deduct to my storage allocation?
A: Files and documents saved in the iCloud through the tutorials in this article are part of the iCloud space allocaion. You can always buy additional storage space to increase your iCloud storage capacity.
You just learned how to free up storage space on Mac. Do you have other tips in freeing up the storage space in Mac? We would love to heat them!
If you have questions about any of the steps above, let us know in the comments section.
If you think this article is helpful, you may want to check on these related articles:
How to Adjust Image Color in Mac Preview
Mac: How to Use Multiple Desktops
Change Siri’s Voice in macOS Sierra
Automatically Login into a Mac without Password
OS X: How to View Log Files
OS X: Edit a file using TextEdit as root or superuser
How to Back up Your Mac How to Backup Your Mac With Time Machine
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The Optimized Storage features of your Mac help you save storage 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.
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.
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
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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. Android emulator for mac big sur pc. You can manually download any attachments at any time by opening the email or attachment, or saving the attachment to your Mac. El capitan iso image.
Optimizing storage for movies, TV shows, and email attachments doesn't require iCloud storage space.
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. Fl studio 12 serum plugin free. 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
Free Storage On Macbook Pro
- 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, Other, 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.
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