Clean Up For Mac Os X
Optimized Storage in macOS Sierra and later* can save 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
Keeping track and organizing all files and folders on your Mac may become quite time-intensive and complicated, especially if you let them pile up. It knows which files are useless, how to find them and remove completely. CleanMyMac has everything to finish the 3-hour task of a Mac cleanup in under 5 minutes. It will even clean up the junk you didn’t know about and give your computer a speed boost. How to clean up system storage on Mac with CleanMyMac X: Download CleanMyMac X for free here.
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. This button is available only in macOS Sierra or later.
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
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, then choose from these options.
- Automatically remove watched movies and TV shows. When storage space is needed, movies or TV shows that you purchased from the iTunes Store and already watched are removed from your Mac. Click the download icon next to a movie or TV show to download it again.
- Download only recent attachments. Mail automatically downloads only the attachments that you recently received. You can manually download any attachments at any time by opening the email or attachment, or saving the attachment to your Mac.
- Don't automatically download attachments. Mail downloads an attachment only when you open the email or attachment, or save the attachment to your Mac.
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 to 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. You can also control those settings directly within each app.
- If you're using macOS Catalina, 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. Then click Options next to iCloud Drive: Store in iCloud turns on the Desktop & Documents Folders setting. To turn off iCloud Drive entirely, deselect iCloud Drive.
In 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, 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 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 of Sierra or later, 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
- 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, 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.
Published On: , by MacSoftAdmin
Everyone faces the problem of system slow-downs, sooner or later. It may be caused by lack of space on the hard disk (which is often the most obvious reason) or other problems connected with the technical side of the device. We will try to help you solve the first problem as you can do it yourself. So, there are two main ways of how to clean Mac OS X Yosemite: manually and automatically.
If you want to go the easiest way, then choose one of the popular programs such as MacFly Pro which can quickly and efficiently clean your Mac OS. The app works 24/7 and removes unnecessary files that pile up and slow down the work of your MacBook. However, if you want to do everything on your own, check out the following info on how to clean Mac OS X.
Cleaning up your Mac
In this paragraph we offer you three points you should check first of all:
- restarting of your Mac
- operation system upgrades
- apps
Try to restart your computer. And now stop laughing and restart your computer. Please! We know that this way is too easy and even children would do that, but you will be surprised how many people forget to do it when they face a problem of how to clean my Mac OS X. And this simple action could have solved many of their problems actually. So do not be sarcastic and try to restart your iMac before checking other things that may cause slow-downs of the system.
Next, look for upgrades for your OS. Our info and plan assume that you have installed the latest Mac OS Sierra. If you have not, then we highly recommend upgrading. Otherwise, our tutorial will just make no sense because your operating system will be not that efficient and secure. The upgrade is free and is usually done automatically, but it will be good to double check. You can upgrade manually clicking Apple Menu > About This Mac > Overview > Software Update.
If going manual, then it will be also useful to remove unnecessary apps which may greatly impact the speed of your system processes. To view the list of apps, click on Finder, then Applications. Compared to Windows, macOS does not have a function of removing the associated files, so you should check the app folder to make sure core files are deleted.
Keep going with manual cleaning
So once these three methods are checked, we could go to more serious recommendations. Let’s start with the clearing of the hard drive. It is an essential part when it comes to cleaning Mac OS X because it can help the overall maintenance. There are no particular rules here: just search for files that you do not need and delete them. Start from large files and especially duplicates: agree, many of us are sometimes too lazy to check if we already have this file in other folders or not.
Macs have the built-in option of identifying such files. Click Apple Menu > About This Mac > Storage > Manage > Recommendations and check what the system recommends you get rid of. You may ask what you should do with all these files if they are important to you: first, keep them in iCloud if you have a good understanding of how it works. If not, then you would better keep your photos, favorite movies, music albums and other meaningful things elsewhere: at least, it will be safer for you. Offloading will help you speed up your Mac and free some space. Keep in mind that all the files you deleted are still in the Trash. Do not forget to empty it pressing Delete Immediately button.
Clean up automatically
If all this cleaning stuff is too hard for you or you are just too busy to keep an eye on Mac updates and temporary files, we recommend you using one of the popular apps for Mac OS cleaning. MacFly Pro keeps an eye on it 24/7 removing login items and cache, app files and searching for duplicates. It reduces the usage of your memory by apps and safely uninstalls them – it is easy and quick, so definitely worth trying.
Why not finish your efforts by cleaning up the outside? You will feel much better organizing thing around your Mac and clean the external parts of the device of dust and trash (agree, you like this thing because it looks gorgeous). Make sure that when cleaning you unplugged it and stay away from all openings. We are sure you will do everything to speed up the work of your Mac!
Clean Up Mac Os X Disk Space
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