On new macOS versions, Apple provides the system’s storage optimization feature. With this feature, you can find and remove the largest and most unused files on your Mac. You can find large and old files and folders that you probably no longer need and may have just forgotten about. Removing or moving those files to external storage can recover a lot of disk space. This article explains how to use the Optimize Storage feature to free up storage on your Mac.
Before we start, let’s see the easiest and quickest way to find large files on your Mac. You can do this with a special application called Disk Space Analyzer.
Video Guide: How to find the largest files on Mac
How to find large files on Mac using System Settings
- Open Mac System Settings.
- Click General in the left sidebar.
- Slick Storage in the right panel.
- In the next window, you will see Storage Optimizing recommendations.
- Scroll down to see what’s taking up the most space on your Mac: Applications, Books, Documents, iCloud Drive, Trash etc.
- Click the “i” icon to see the files in each category. You can remove files directly from this window. For this, select the files you want to get rid of and click the Delete button.
The optimizing storage space features of the macOS are a great help to recover disk space on your Mac. However, if you need a more descriptive and professional method of finding the largest files and folders on macOS, you can use Disk Space Analyzer, a special application designed to view disk usage, and find large files and folders.
Disk Space Analyzer is a powerful utility that scans any hard drive and shows the results of disk usage as a sunburst chart. It finds even hidden system files and allows you to remove any file with just one click.
