Asya Karapetyan
Asya Karapetyan
Content marketer, who specializes in Mac how-to guides
22/04/2020
12 minutes to read

If you do not know how to check the storage on Mac, welcome to this guide. Here we will show you the various ways to view Mac disk usage and find out what is taking up so much space on your Mac.

Contents:

  1. How to check hard drive space on Mac
  2. How to find what is taking up so much space on Mac
  3. How to manage space on Mac
#1 Tip to quickly check and free up Mac disk space
If you do not have time to explore what’s occupying your Mac hard drive but you need to quickly free up some disk space, use the special software MacCleaner Pro.
This all-in-one solution will help you to analyze your disk space usage and clean up all unneeded junk with just one click.

How to check Mac disk space usage

Check space on Mac using About this Mac panel

  1. Click on the Apple icon in the Menu bar.
  2. Select About This Mac. menu window About this Mac option selected
  3. Switch to the Storage tab. About this Mac panel showing Storage tab
  4. Here you will find information about the disk space on your Mac occupied by different types of files. Also, in this window, you can check the available space on your Mac hard drive. About this Mac panel with disk usage highlighted

Check storage space on Mac using Finder

Another easy way to see information about Mac disk space is to use Finder.

  1. Launch Finder.
  2. In the Finder’s Preferences make your Hard disk visible in a sidebar. Finder Preferences with Hard disks highlighted
  3. Then right-click on your Macintosh HD and select Get Info. In the General section, you will find all information about your Mac disk: volume capacity, the used space, and available storage space. hard disk info panel

Check Mac hard drive space using Disk Utility

You can also check the hard drive space on your Mac with the help of default Apple application Disk Utility.

  1. Launch Disk Utility from Launchpad. disk utility app in launchpad search
  2. Select your Macintosh HD and view all the information about it. Macintosh HD section in Disk utility

How to find what is taking up so much space on Mac

If you want to go deeper into your Mac disk space, use MacCleaner Pro and find out the disk space-consumers, what files are in the Other category and finally free up disk space.

  1. Launch MacCleaner Pro.
  2. In the Overview section, you will find a more detailed bar with information about your Mac hard drive. Maccleaner window with disk usage panel highlighted
  3. Then we recommend going to the Analyze disk usage section and launch a professional tool Disk Space Analyzer to analyze your disk space usage and get a detailed diagram of your Mac hard drive space distribution. Disk Space Analyzer displays even hidden files and folders that the standard Apple storage window never shows. Also, with Disk Space Analyzer you can analyze any external storage, including cloud-based ones.
  4. So launch Disk Space Analyzer and select your Macintosh HD. Click to start scanning it.
  5. Within a short time (depending on the volume of your hard drive), you will get a detailed diagram visualization of what is occupying space on your Mac disk. diagram visualization of what is occupying space on Mac
  6. You can go even deeper. Click on each section of the diagram to discover what is inside each folder or subfolder. viewing each folder structure with disk space analyzer
  7. Another useful option is to look at the list of Biggest Files on the right. Take a look at them and drop the unneeded biggest items to the special list for further removal. disk space analyzer window with biggest files option highlighted

How to manage space on Mac

Apple provides built-in recommendations to manage disk space on a Mac. Here is how to use them:

  1. Go to the Menu Bar and click the Apple icon. Select About This Mac.
  2. Go to the Storage tab and click on Manage… Macintosh HD panel with Manage button highlighted
  3. Here you will find some simple tips that can help you to recover some disk space. Recommendations section in Manage space window

Apple recommends taking a look at applications and documents and removing the biggest ones or saving space on the Mac hard drive by keeping your files in iCloud. However, these tips are not the only solution. We also recommend using MacCleaner Pro, which allows you to find and clean up all the useless stuff on your computer, such as cache, logs, mail downloads, extensions, duplicates, and other unwanted files.

A few more words about checking storage with MacCleaner PRO

MacCleaner Pro is a professional tool that analyzes disk space usage on your Mac and allows you to clean up your disk from unneeded items. This is an all-in-one solution, that allows you to clean up and speed up your Mac:

  • ✓ Remove junk files (cache, logs, language files, and other system files)
  • ✓ Remove unneeded user files
  • ✓ Uninstall unused applications
  • ✓ Remove service files of apps
  • ✓ Remove unneeded extensions and startup programs
  • ✓ Find and remove duplicate files, duplicate folders, and similar copies of photos
  • ✓ Optimize disk space
  • ✓ Free up inactive memory
  • ✓ Find hidden files and manage them
overview tab in MacCleaner app
This article is based on our expertise in cleaning and optimizing Mac hard drive. We’ve been working 10+ years in developing special disk utilities for making a Mac work smoothly. We regularly explore the latest updates of macOS and update our apps and our articles according to system changes. If you have any questions related to this guide, contact us by email.

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  • How to clear purgeable space on Mac
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