A How-To Guide on Freeing up Space on your MacBook etc.
A How-To Guide on Freeing up Space on your MacBook
Even today, Macs come with tiny hard drives that fill up quickly. Fortunately, there are hassle-free ways to free up space and continue using your system without a glitch.
Look at the guide below to avoid seeing the dreaded ‘your disk is almost full’ error.
Convert Image Files from HEIC to PNG
The HEIC format enables users to click high-resolution photos, but they can take up a lot of space on your computer. Even if you transfer them to iCloud, they may take up a lot of cloud storage space and prompt you to purchase more storage. Also, the HEIC format isn’t universally accepted. Therefore, you may have to convert the files before you can use them.
One way to reduce the size of your image files is to convert them from HEIC to PNG. This way, you don’t have to delete the pictures on your Mac and also have enough space to snap more photos. To know how to convert, click https://setapp.com/how-to/convert-heic-to-png.
Uninstall Apps
If your Mac is overflowing with applications you don’t use, it is time to uninstall them. The installed applications are taking up unnecessary space on your system. Find these apps by opening a Finder window and choosing Applications in the sidebar. Then, drag and drop the apps into the trash can on the Dock.
If you want to find out which apps are taking up a lot of space, open the Finder window > select Applications > click the Show items in a list option > click Size.
Empty the Trash
The Trash is where all the files, documents, and mail attachments you have deleted go, and you can restore the deleted files if you change your mind. Therefore, the files aren’t entirely removed from your device and continue to occupy a significant space on your computer. To remove the files permanently, you have to right-click the Trash icon and choose Empty Trash. The files will be deleted permanently. Also, you can choose to empty the Trash automatically after thirty days.
It is important to note that Macs have multiple trash cans. For example, Mail, iMovie, and iPhoto have their individual trash cans. Therefore, you must empty trash cans if you have deleted files within these apps.
Remove Language Files
Mac apps come with language files for every language they support. Users can switch their system’s language and use the apps in that language. Mostly, users use a single language on their devices. Therefore, the language files are redundant and uselessly take up a lot of space on your device for no reason. If you want to squeeze as many files on your Mac device as possible, you must remove those unnecessary language files.
You can remove the extra language files by going to System Junk > Language Files. Delete the files you don’t need and use the extra storage space for something useful.
Remove Temporary Files
Your Mac’s hard drive is probably overrun with temporary files you don’t use. These files can take up a lot of storage space for no reason. Whenever you delete apps or media files, they leave behind residual or temporary files on your system. These sneakily take up a lot of disk space and prevent you from making the most of the hard drive. Clearing these files manually might take a lot of time. Instead, you can install a Mac cleaning application and let the app find and remove these temporary files.
You must also focus on removing cache files and other browsing data saved on your device whenever you open the web browser to surf the web. These caches contain files from web pages that you have visited so your browser can quickly load them in the future. As you browse, your browser will rebuild the cache, slowing down the loading time of the web pages. These files can also take up a lot of space on your computer.
There are other temporary files on your system as well, and you can find them by going to Finder > clicking on the Go to Folder option on the menu and typing ~/Library/Caches. You will get to the cache folder and can delete the files.
Besides these, you need to find and delete the large files taking up space on your system and look for duplicate files. The Downloads folder is the best place to look for such files.
The Bottom Line
Running out of storage space causes more issues than simply not letting you store more files and documents or download media files and mail attachments. You’ll notice performance issues when your system’s hard drive is almost full. Your device may slow down, and finishing regular tasks might take ages. Also, apps may start to hang. Therefore, follow the methods mentioned above to quickly clean your Mac and make space so you can save more pictures, documents, files, movies, videos, etc.