Jun 10, 2020 Choose Apple menu About This Mac and 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. This button is only available in macOS Sierra or later. Is the storage almost full message still appearing? If so, you’ll probably need to free up more storage space. Continue reading for more tips. Scenario 2: iPhone Does Not Have Enough Space (9 Tips to Free Up More) First things first — in case anything goes wrong, I highly encourage that you back up your iPhone data before proceeding. Other Apps: If other apps like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. Are occupying your iPhone storage space, you can delete the iPhone Apps you no longer use to create more space for your important files. By the foregoing 6 tips, I believe you have learned how to clear iPhone to get enough storage. You think which one is the best?
So, your Mac is running out of storage. You try to figure out what’s taking up your disk space by clicking the Apple logo on the top-left of the screen, selecting About This Mac, and hitting the Storage tab.
To your surprise, you see a yellow bar representing “System” that seems to occupy way more space than you think it should. In the example above, it only shows 207 GB, but take a look at this Apple discussion — some Mac users report that System Storage takes an astonishing 250 GB.
Worse yet, you have no idea what’s included in “System” storage, because clicking the “Manage” button brings you to this System Information window… and the “System” row is greyed out.
Why does my Mac system require so much space?
What does it contain?
Is it safe to remove some of those system files?
How do I regain more storage space?
Questions like these may easily get to your head. Although my Mac now has a good amount of disk space available, I’m always wary of files that are taking up more space than they should.
I have no idea why “System” is greyed out while “Documents,” “System Junk,” “Trash,” etc. allow you to review the files based on size and type. My hunch is that Apple does this on purpose to prevent users from deleting system files that could lead to serious issues.
What Files Are Included in System Storage on Mac?
During my research, I found many people report that Apple counts iTunes backup files and app caches (e.g. Adobe video cache files) in the System category.
Since it’s greyed out and we are unable to click on that category for deeper analysis, we’ll have to use a third-party app to assist.
CleanMyMac X is perfect for this kind of analysis. Since I tested the app in our best Mac cleaner review, it immediately came to my head when I saw “System” was greyed out in Storage. Note that CleanMyMac isn’t freeware, but the new “Space Lens” feature is free to use and it allows you to scan your Macintosh HD, and then show you an in-depth overview of what’s taking up disk space on your Mac.
Step 1:Download CleanMyMac and install the app on your Mac. Open it, under “Space Lens” module, first click the yellow “Grant Access” button to allow the app to access your Mac files and then select “Scan” to get started.
Step 2: Soon it’ll show you a folder/file tree and you can hover your cursor over each block (i.e. a folder). There you can find more details. In this case, I clicked “System” folder to continue.
Step 3: The file breakdown below indicates that some Library and iOS Support files are the culprits.
The interesting part is that the System file size shown in CleanMyMac is much smaller than the size shown in System Information. This puzzles me and makes me believe that Apple definitely has counted some other files (not real system files) in the System category.
What are they? I have no clue, honestly. But as reported by other Mac users who experienced the same issue, they said Apple also considers app caches and iTunes backup files as System files.
Out of curiosity, I ran CleanMyMac again for a quick scan. That app found 13.92 GB in iTunes Junk. Further review revealed that the junk files are old iOS device backups, software updates, broken downloads, etc.
But even after adding this amount to the original system files returned by CleanMyMac X, the total size is still a bit less than what’s returned in System Information.
If cleaning the System Storage is still not enough to bring your Mac available disk space to a normal level (i.e. 20% or more), see below.
What Else Can I Do to Reclaim More Disk Space?
There are tons of ways out there. Here are a few of my favorites that should help you get back a decent amount of space quickly.
1. Sort all files by size and delete old large files.
Open Finder, go to Recents and look at the Size column. Click on it to sort all recent files by file size (from large to small). You’ll have a clear overview of what items are eating up a large amount of space, e.g. From 1 GB to 10 GB, and from 100 MB to 1 GB.
On my MacBook Pro, I found a few large videos that could be transferred to an external drive.
Best lighting control software for mac. Note: If the Size column doesn’t show up, click on the Settings icon and select Arrange By > Size.
2. Remove duplicate files.
Don’t forget those duplicates and similar files! They can stack up without you being aware of it. Finding them is sometimes time-consuming. That’s what Gemini 2 is designed for. Simply select a few frequently used folders (e.g. Documents, Downloads, etc.) in the main zone of Gemini.
It then scans them and returns all the duplicate files that might be worth removing. Of course, it’s always a good practice to review them before doing so. You can also read more from our detailed Gemini review here.
Wrapping It Up
Ever since Apple introduced the Optimized Storage feature, Mac users got the option of saving space by storing content in the cloud. Apple also has several new tools that make it easy to find and remove unneeded files.
That bar under the Storage tab is beautiful. It does allow you to get a quick overview of what’s taking up the most space on our hard drive. However, it still lacks insights into the “System” category as it’s greyed out.
Hopefully, the guides above have helped you figure out the reasons you’ve got so much “System” data, and most importantly you’ve reclaimed some disk space — especially for new MacBooks pre-installed with flash storage — every gigabyte is precious!
If you have a Mac, you have likely managed to fill the memory sometimes, especially if you use a MacBook with 128 or 256 GB of storage. When the storage on your Mac is almost full and and you don't know how to get more storage on Mac, then you may consider buying a new computer with more memory, but is it really necessary? Actually, there are tricks that will help you a lot to save the little space you have. We'll show you some useful solutions for getting more storage for your MacBook.
What’s Filling up My Storage on Mac
Before answering the question “How to get more storage on my Mac”, it is better to understand the storage on Mac. Almost all of us have installed on our Mac those applications that occupy enough space in our precious hard disk, but we usually do not use them. So in the end, every time the system warns us that it is running out of space, it is when we check everything we have installed wondering what is filling up our storage.
In the latest versions of the macOS operating system (Sierra 10.12 onwards), a new tool has been added to Mac's information window that allows us to increase more storage.
In About this Mac> Storage, we can see the Mac storage characterized in different groups: Photos, Apps, iOS Files, Music Creation, System, etc. System Storage is complicated, which makes it harder to know what's inside. Usually, the files in the System Storage can be anything that cannot be categorized into an app, movie, image, music or document, for example:
Your Mac Storage is Not Enough! Try These 8 Tips to Get More
It is time to answer the question “How to get more storage on mac”. There are various ways to manage storage on Mac and we going to consider 8 of them.
Tip 1: Automatically Clean Up Your Hard Drive of Mac
A better way to do Macbook storage expansion is to use a third-party software that is reliable and efficient. And The best software in the market for this type of task is the Umate Mac Cleaner. This third party software boasts of amazing features to clean up your hard drive.
The app automatically scan and detect unneeded files, unused apps and more. You can safely remove them without consideration. This is how you delete files and other unnecessary items. It will significantly free up 40% disk space for your Mac. In just a few seconds you will get a more lighter Mac hard drive with more storage.
Compared to those manual ways to clean up hard drive, Umate Mac Cleaner stands out because of these reasons.
Here are simple steps to effectively using Umate Mac Cleaner:
Step 1.Download Umate Mac Cleaner, then install and launch it on your Mac.
My Mac Says More Storage Used From Apps Iphone
Step 2.Select Clean Up Junk to locate those unneeded files on Mac.
Step 3.Choose those junks you want to remove and hit the Clean button to get more Mac storage space.
Tip 2: Storage Management Options that MacOS Provides
Another way to optimize storage space on Mac is by making use of the storage management options provided by MacOs. To get to this place all you have to do is go to About this Mac in the menu, then click on storage and then manage. Using these management tools provides us with four solutions.
You can choose one of them to perform according to your needs, however, these storage management options are not so effective on releasing more storage on Mac. You can turn to more tips below.
Tip 3: Remove Rarely Used And Memory-Hogging Applications
Obviously, as with any operating system, applications take up space. Some more than others, so you should see which ones you use and delete the ones you don't need. With 128 GB of storage, keeping several apps that you don't use is an unnecessary luxury and that you can't afford.
My Mac Says More Storage Used From Apps For Sale
In this way, you can increase Macbook storage, being able to know at all times how much the applications you install occupy and being able, directly from this window, to eliminate those that you no longer use. Umate Mac Cleaner can also do this job efficiently. It supports to uninstall unused apps along with their associated files and will show apps by Install Date, Size and Use Frequency, so that you can remove them accordingly.
If all of your apps are important and you don't want to delete them, then turn to Bonus Tip.
![]() Tip 4. Delete Old Large Files
If you get rid of large old files that of no more use to you, you can clear away plenty of space. For example, if you still have countless videos that you do not even look at, or you have apps lying around that you do not need. Sort them by file size to find the biggest space wasters. The Finder on Mac has a built-in function to locate large files on Mac with the search function, so you can find and delete those large files by yourself.
Tip 5. Delete Downloads Files
Downloads files are one of the real sources of storage depletion. Sometimes we download files to use it once and forget all about them. These will end up eating a large chunk of our Mac's little space. Deleting this folder will increase storage on Mac efficiently. You can locate those downloaded files in default Downloads folder on your Mac, and then select the targets you want to delete for deletion.
Umate Mac Cleaner can also delete download files with Deep Clean mode. It will find those unneeded downloads for you and you can selectively delete the scanned files and keep those important ones.
Tip 6. Remove Old or Duplicate Photos
Depending on the camera, every digital photograph today takes between 2 megabytes of smartphone images and 50 megabytes of RAW files in high-definition SLR and system cameras. That quickly adds up to several gigabytes of useless wasted space. So go through your photo folders and the Photos / iPhoto / Aperture / Lightroom libraries and remove what you no longer need or duplicates. Do not forget to empty the trash afterwards.
Tip 7. Empty iOS Backup Folder![]()
Now it's time to get used to it: iTunes is a waste of space on Mac. It is not just about the content that is visible in the media library, but also all stuff that is stored in the background. These include, for example, huge iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch backups that iTunes invokes on every sync unless you use the iCloud backup feature. Delete them under ~ / Library / iTunes / Mobile Backups and let the iCloud do the backup.
Tip 8. Upgrade Your SSD for Mac
One of the best MacBook storage expansion methods is by getting a new and bigger SSD for your Mac. You can get a 1TB SSD or get the largest you can afford. This will be a huge boost in terms of storage space for your Mac and it will provide you with more space to store your files.
My Mac Says More Storage Used From Apps FreeBonus Tip: If All of Your Files or Apps are Important, Here's What to Do
If all of your files or programs are important, you can try this way to get more storage. To reduce the storage space used by files without deleting them, you can also create zipped files. Just compress them together. In this way, they will occupy less and will remain 100% available.
My Mac Says More Storage Used From Apps Download
Compressing file on Mac is an easy task, just follow these steps and you are done:
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After zipping you can go ahead with deleting the original file as the zipped file contains the exact information as the original file but with much lesser size.
Conclusion
There are lots of ways to add more storage to Macbook but the recommended way is the use of a third-party software, and the Umate Mac Cleaner stands out among these softwares. It completely removes any unwanted file thereby increase Mac storage efficiently. You can download the free trial of the app to test it first.
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