Clean Up System Storage Mac

How to check what's taking up 'Other' storage on Mac. To discover what's taking up space on your hard drive (including in the 'Other' category): Open the Apple menu; Choose About This Mac; Click Storage; Here you'll see an overview of all the available storage on your hard drive, along with the space taken up by various file types.

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. System junk files, cached data, partial downloads, and useless items like old backups, duplicate photos can eat up a lot of hard drive space on your Mac. Hence, delete them with the best Mac cleaner apps shared here to clean up your Mac & improve its performance. Your Mac can be storing up to 62 GB in the junk. Scary, isn’t it?

Solid-state storage (SSD) is fantastically fast, but its high cost means that Macs with built-in SSD startup drives have a much lower capacity than their hard disk-based counterparts. This can be a problem if you have a large collection of photos or music files, or if you use your Mac to edit video. And so, if you have an SSD, you probably spend a lot of time checking the Storage tab in About this Mac. One thing you’ll have noticed is that colored bar labeled ‘System’. What is it and how do you clear it? Read on and find out.

7.Clean up temporary files, system caches and logs You may clean up a variety of System logs and temporary files to increase your Mac’s disk space. Use third party utilities like MainMenu or similar others can help you. My Mac uses all the space in system storage and when I delete anything from mac, system storage is imediatelly full again. I cannot download and install any cleaning app due to low space.

What is System storage on Mac?

System storage, obviously, contains the macOS itself but what else is there? Part of this storage includes applications, drivers, volume data, and Library. While the nominal size of the macOS is around 12 GB (for macOS Big Sur), the Library is the real space-hogger. It contains piles of old cache files and supporting data.

Why does the system take so much space on Mac?

Your system is mainly stored in both the System and Library folders. If your system is taking up too much disk space on Mac, explore those two folders and see what's stored in them.

If you’re having a lot of your space allocated for “system,” you may have Time Machine snapshots stored on your Mac. Later in this article, we’re going to explain how to remove Time Machine backups.

How to reduce system storage on Mac

1. Check for unnecessary files in System storage

Much of the storage space used by the OS for system-related tasks is cleared when macOS deletes the files automatically, but sometimes that doesn’t happen, which is why the System category can grow very large. Apple doesn’t explain what comprises this category of storage, but it’s likely that the following are part of it:

Time Machine backups
Old iOS backups
File Vault files
App cache files
Unused disk images

Not knowing what files are included in System storage makes finding them tricky. However, it’s far from impossible. My favorite tool for clearing unnecessary system junk from my Mac is CleanMyMac X. It has lots of tools for clearing out junk files, but for our purposes, there’s one that really helps: System Junk. This handy utility scans your Mac and identifies things like temporary files, translation files in apps, broken preferences files, old updates, and system cache files that are no longer needed. You can then remove them with one click. Or you can choose which ones you want to get rid of and remove just those. If you want to give it a go, you can download a free version of CleanMyMac X here.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed it, do this:

Launch CleanMyMac X.
Choose System Junk in the sidebar.
Press Scan.
Once it’s finished, if you’re happy to remove the files CleanMyMac recommends, press Clean.
If not, choose Review Details and go through the list of results.
Uncheck the box next to any items you don’t want to delete.

That will help you to get rid of system storage on Mac.

As you can see from the screenshot, the app offers to remove my Unused Disk Images (the remains of DMG installers), broken downloads, old app updates. If you use Photoshop or other media editor you’ll see the option to delete Document Versions — intermediate edits of your files. In other words, you have many options for freeing up space at your disposal.

2. Manually remove Time Machine backups

Aside from using CleanMyMac X, one of the most straightforward ways to clear system storage on a Mac, is to get rid of Time Machine backups. Wait, what? You thought Time Machine backups were stored on an external or network drive? They are! But macOS also keeps a copy of your backup on your startup drive, in case the external drive isn’t available when you need to restore files. That way you can restore data on a MacBook even when you’re on the move.

macOS should delete Time Machine backups when your Mac runs low on storage, but it doesn’t always work out that way. And besides, you might not want to wait until your Mac is short of space before you delete them. So, here’s how to reduce system storage on a Mac by deleting Time Machine backups. Remember that will delete local copies of your backups, so if you think you might need them, don’t do it.

Go to Applications > Utilities and launch Terminal.
When a Terminal window opens, type: tmutil listlocalsnapshotdates
Press Return.

You will now see a list of stored Time Machine backups, listed by date.

Type: tmutil deletelocalsnapshots xxxxxxx where ‘xxxxxxx’ is the name of one of the backups listed . This will take the form of a date followed by a text string.
Press Return.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 for as many backups as you want to remove, checking the Storage tab in About this Mac each time to see how much space you’ve cleared.

3. Optimize your storage

How To Clean Up My Mac

If you’ve faced a cluttered storage situation, there’s another way to fix it. Apple has anticipated such an issue and equipped the macOS with some features to optimize your space.

Go to the Apple menu and select About This Mac. Select the Storage tab and press Manage. In the window that appears, you can see some of the useful suggestions. 'Store in iCloud' lets you transfer all your data to cloud storage and reclaim some GBs on your Mac. The second option allows you to delete the heaviest files, like movies and programs.

Turning on 'Empty Bin Automatically' can be a useful option if you forget to do it regularly.

By pressing Review Files, you will jump into the Documents section. Review the files that are stored on your Mac and pay attention to the Unsupported Apps category. It can contain some programs that can no longer run on your macOS version.

Bonus tip: remove duplicate files

Aside from the bizarre system files, another thing that nibbles on your storage is duplicates. Remember that track you’ve accidentally added twice? Or a mail attachment you’ve opened several times? All these files just sit on your Mac and take up precious space.

Here’s how you can quickly delete them in a few clicks.

Download and open Gemini 2
Choose a folder and click Scan for Duplicates
Wait for the scan to finish

Now you can Click Smart Cleanup to get rid of detected duplicates and delete system storage on Mac. Or click Review Results if you want to double-check what’s being deleted.

What else can you do to reduce System storage on Mac?

Believe it or not, one thing you can do is wait. When you first choose the Storage tab in About this Mac, macOS seems to allocate quite a lot to System that it then reallocates elsewhere. For example, some users have reported that after waiting for a few minutes, much of the storage that was labeled System, is moved to the iCloud label. So if you wait, you might find that the System isn’t taking up disk space in the huge quantities that it seemed to be at first.

The other thing you can do is investigate what files are designated as ‘System’. We’ve already talked about Time Machine backups, but everything stored in your Mac’s System or Library folders comes under the ‘System’ heading in About this Mac. That is:

/Library

/System

~/Library

~/System

Click on the Go menu in Finder and select Go to Folder, then paste in each of the paths above in turn.

Go through the subfolders in each and press Cmd-I to Get Info and check how much data is in each. You’ll quickly discover where your precious storage has gone.

It’s likely that much of it is accounted for by cache files for apps like Photos and Safari. MacOS caches as much data as it can to avoid having to re-download it, which boosts performance. And it’s smart enough to know that it must delete cache files when you run low on storage.

If you decide that you don’t want to leave it up to the operating system to free up storage, don’t just start trashing cache files or folders randomly, you might delete something you shouldn’t. So be careful

Another way to go about it, is to use a storage analyzer. There are nice apps that search for hidden space on Mac and reveal your largest folders. You can use a free version of CleanMyMac X and inside it, it has a feature called 'Space Lens.'

Those bubbles show your largest folders and you can zoom in and out and delete junk files right from there.

A fun and visual way to delete system storage on Mac.

System storage can occupy tens of gigabytes of space on your Mac for Time Machine backups and cache files. It should be managed by macOS so you’re never short of space. But if you want to do a system storage cleanup, or just free up more space on your Mac, give CleanMyMac X a go. You might be surprised by how much space you get back.

“My storage on Mac is taking up crazy amount of space for some reason. What I don't understand is why does my Mac require so much space? I want to clear some storage files. Any solutions? Any help is appreciated.“

As shown above, a lot of Mac users complains that their Mac has become slow for having not enough storage. With each passing day, it is becoming lazy and slow. Instead of buying a new one, they do want to know the efficient ways to clean up storage. How can you improve your Mac’s running speed and make it more reliable? If you are looking for these answers, then here is the right place for you. In this article, we will discuss some useful ways on how to clear storage on Mac.

Understanding System Storage and Other Storage on Mac

Firstly, you need to understand what is system storage and other storage on Mac. Apple usually considers files like movies, applications, images, and documents as system storage. There are various files included in the System category, including:

Cache from web browsers, models and other third-party applications
Mac operating system used for multiple functions and app launching
Any trash files and unused and temporary file
Duplicate files

Now I will give a brief idea on other storage. Other storage in Mac includes a wide variety of files and documents, and it is not necessarily unnecessary data and files which are as follows:

Files, Documents including DOC, PSD files and PDF files
Extensions, different Plugins, and Applications extensions
Archive and Compressed files and images
iCloud used files

In simple words, other files are usually those who do not fall into a more specific category like “Video” or “audio”.

3 Most Commom Ways to Clear Storage on Mac [Not Effective]

Most of system storage and other storage files are useless that can be removed. You can clear up storage on Mac for regaining more free space. And how to get this done? Next we will introduce most common ways to clear storage files. They are also some recommendations that macOS has provided to their users.

1. Store your files in iCloud

Storing your files like ducuments, messages or photos on the icloud can help you save more space on your Mac. Whenever you want to check the files you can simply log in the icloud accound and access them. Just follow these simple steps:

Click on storage on the Mac.
Click on Manage option.
Click on Store in iCloud.

2. Optimize your storage files

You can also use the Optimized Storage option on the Mac to manage your storage files. And it will present you with these options below when you click on the Optimize button.

Delete iTunes movies and TV shows that you've already watched.
Keep only recent email attachments.

3. Empty trash frequently

Empty trash bin on your Mac frequently and try to flush out the files that are already in Recycling so that you may clear up more space. Many files occupy ample space, so keep in mind not emptying the trash can cause your Mac to run slowly. So keep a close check on your Recycle Bin. At least clear it once in 30 days.

The most common ways we have discoussed above can be easily accessed on your device, however, they are not so effective on clearing storage. You need a more deeper clean up to release more space. And we will tell you an easy way as to delete storage on Mac in one smooth move by using powerful Mac cleaner app. One of the most popular ones is called Umate Mac Cleaner. It comes with all-in-one package, which can efficiently and completely clean up your Mac compared to the above operations.

Clear Storage on Mac with Umate Mac Cleaner in 2 Steps [Fast & Easy]

Umate Mac Cleaner comes with many powerful features, including clean up, speed up your Mac, erase private data and manage apps and extensions. And “Clean up Junk” is the core feature of the app, which can help to clear storage on Mac with single click. It contains two steps: Quick Clean & Deep Clean.

1. Quick Clean: Automatically detects useless files on your Mac and show you what is safe to clear, like system junk, app cache, iTunes junk and installation packages. It will firstly scan your Mac and all the files that are safe to be deleted will be automatically detected . You can click the “Clean” button to clean up all the junk files.

2. Deep Clean: Scans and delete specific types of unnecessary files (like iOS junk, downloads and large files) for deeper cleaning. After quick cleaning, it is clear that how much more space can be deep cleaned. If you want to do a more in-depth cleanup, then choose “Deep Clean” part to continue. Choose those items you do not require and click the 'Clean' to Clear more storage on Mac.

Below are some of the advantages and benefits that it offers.

100% Safe to Use: Automatically detects unnecessary junk files for safe removal.
Time-saving Removal: Enables you to remove junk files with just one click instead of doing manually.
Release up to 40% free space: Free space reclaimed from storage files can up to 40%.
2x Greater Performance: Greatly improve your Mac's performance after cleaning up.
Trustworthy with good reputation: The developer of Umate Mac Cleaner (iMyFone) is highly recommended by famous technology websites, like Cult of Mac, Macworld, techradar, etc.

10 Additional Ways to Clear Mac Storage

There are also some other common ways to clear up storage and free up more space. As you will have to do all the work manually, so it is a somewhat complicated and not productive method. You can also delete some of your essential files by mistakes. Anyway, here are the simple introcution on how to delete storage on Mac:

Way 1. Remove large files

Store your massive documents and data in the Mac this will also prevent an additional burden on the hard disk. If you have unused large files that are of no use for you delete it.

Way 2. Delete downloaded files

Deleting any unnecessary downloads will get rid of those burdensome files that are no longer needed but still consuming ample space. Try to move the data required and downloads to the external drive, and you can use cloud drive as well.

Clean Up Mac System Files

Way 3. Clean cache files

Your Macintosh stores a lot of information as a cache that reduces the speed of Mac and makes it work slowly. These files, unfortunately, consumes a lot of space, causes your Mac to slow down. So these cache files must be clear to get your Mac in right working conditions.

Way 4. Unisntall unused applications

Applications installed On Mac may occupy a lot of disk space. With these memory-eating apps, your Mac begins to work slowly. Removing the app that are raraly used is definitely an efficient way on how to get rid of storage on Mac.

Way 5. Clean up temporary files

When your Mac is running, the system itself will creates and piles up some temporary files. These files are useless and they are taking up your disk space on your Mac. If you do nothing about these outdated temporary files, they will become one of the reasons for your slow Mac.

Way 6. Remove plugins and extensions

Most of plugins and extensions on your Mac are useless. They just sit on the hard disk and occupys some space on the device. What's worse, these unneeded plugins and extensions will cause some problems on the Mac and you can delete them for releasing some extra storage.

Way 7. Clean up iOS backups

Clean Up System Storage On Mac

There are a bunch of iOS device backup files on your Mac and they are taking up a large amount of space. You can follow the path to delete those annoying backup folders.

Way 8. Delete mail attachments

You email account is also a good place to clear storage on the Mac. There are lots of email attachments on the Mail application and they are memory-hogging on your disk. However, it is a complex process if you want to delete them manually. A much eaiser way is to run a cleanup software to get rid of them.

Way 9. Delete photos and videos

Try to store all the pictures and videos in iCloud photos drive. It will not only make back up for your vital images and videos but will also be available without occupying additional space in Mac drive. Try to delete those photos which are useless to you and empty from the trash as well.

Way 10. Upgrade your hard disk drive

If you still need more space after using the methods above, then you should consider upgrade your hard disk drive to a larger one with more space. That will be definitely an efficient way to increase your storage on the Mac.

Conclusion:

How To Clean Up System Storage On Mac Mojave

How to clean up Mac storage? I think you have got the answer. You can clean up system storage files as well as other no longer needed by Umate Mac Cleaner quickly and securely. As discussed although you can do it manually as well, it will not be safe as you can mistakenly delete your important files as well in the process. So we will recommend Umate Mac Cleaner for your Mac.