Mac Clean System Storage
I had a large system file using up over 800 GB on my iMac Pro. Which was massively high. But i could not find those files by search 'About this Mac' storage. Download and install iMyMac PowerMyMac on your Mac, then launch it. On the main interface of the program, you will be able to see three different modules at the top, choose.
By Nathan E. Malpass, Last updated: August 27, 2019
Some Macbook users complain that their system occupies so much room on Mac and want to know the methods of how to remove system storage on Mac. If your MacBook or its storage space is relatively small, huge system storage could be quite difficult. Mac has a hard drive that is limited to fast completion, especially if you have plenty of files. Luckily, simple, fast options are available for clearing system storage on mac.
Tips:
Why Should We Clean System Storage
Basically, by removing files or other items you've downloaded, you can space on your Mac freely but usually, it is not sufficient. Most wasteful space on your Mac will be recovered by addressing deeper elements such as duplicate files, language files, attachments, temporary or empty files of your Mac repository.
It is better to know the system storage on Mac before we get to the solution. On Mac and in storage, we can see that Mac storage is divided into several groups, such as photos, apps, iOS files, audio, system, etc. And the storage in the system is confusing and it's difficult to know what is in the system. In general, system files cannot be categorized in the system storage.
If you do not keep the hard drive of your Mac clean, then you eventually get the 'Your drive is nearly full' error so that you can also start up some space now.
How to Clean System Storage Easily
You can use FoneDog PowerMyMac to get rid of temporary files, remove additional language files, uninstall applications; get rid of extra files that are left by the uninstalling of applicants, look for, and get rid of large attachments stored in the e-mail and much else if you are not willing to spend some more time finding and cleaning things manually.
It basically contains all of the cleaning features in one application and naturally, there is a free trial that demonstrates where your free space has gone and can clean some free of charge.
FoneDog PowerMyMac has been developed to clean up your unnecessary caches on your Macbook such as System and Application Cache, System and User Logs to optimize efficiency and free up storage space.
1. Launch the program
Start the program and check the main interface system status.
2. Go to System Junk
On the top side click on Cleaner and then select System Junk
3. Start scanning
Click System Junk and begin scanning System Cache and Application Cache on your Mac. The scanning course can be seen in the left circle.
4. View Results
Look at the items. You can also return to the previous page for re-scan if necessary.
5. Select to begin Deletion
Select and delete desired system files.
6. Deletion process
To remove system junk files on Mac, click the Clean button. All unnecessary files are deleted.
7. Delete confirmation
After you click Clean, please click the Confirm button. Then wait for the cleaning process, be patient.
It will delete system junk files from your device quickly and easily. Note that other tools in the PowerMyMac Cleaner Modul are subject to the same steps.
How to Clean System Storage Manually
Besides the others, using FoneDog PowerMyMac is an efficient way of deleting system storage on mac. You can easily free up space on your device with just a few clicks on your mouse and easy steps.
The MacOS system and its system files were unable to delete, but the rest of the list could be deleted to free system storages. To ensure that the system works successfully on the computer. Most system storage files are difficult to find and the amount of this type of file is huge. We could even mistakenly delete some major files
System Cache and Log Files Deletion
System logs record system applications ' activity and services that take up plenty of space on your Mac. They are useful for debugging the developer but usually are useless to ordinary users. First, you can access/locate system log files on macOS to delete files. It normally involves type in the code on Mac and then delete these files manually in the trash. For users that do not know the macOS system, this could be too complicated.
Mail Attachment Deletion
When you receive them to review offline, every email and its attachment shall be cached on your mac. The build-up of mail attachments will place huge pressure on the storage of the system. You must get rid of attachments you no longer need to reduce system storage on Mac. If you need to remove too numerous attachments as well as the mail cache.
Useless Files from iTunes Deletion
Certain of you can use MacBook to back up iPhone or iPad information via iTunes. Updates of the iOS system may even be done by iTunes, which can make system storage very important for updated files and for iTunes backup. The iPhone backups and iOS updates can deplete stock on Mac to gigabytes without any knowledge. Deleting iTunes is a great way to clean up Mac system storage.
Empty Trash
Dragging the not-needed files in the Trash does not mean that the Mac is completely deleted, but it does. We often forget about the files in Trash and it is very easy to stock and therefore becomes a big part of system storage
Time Machine Backup Deletion
Time Machine operates both with remote and local backup storage devices when backups are done via Wi-Fi. And the local backups will still increase the system storage of your computer. Although macOS purges the Time Machine backup locally automatically if 'not enough storage disk' is available on the Mac, the removal is sometimes behind the storage change. It is thus important to manage the backup of Time Machine. Here we recommend working on how to manually remove backup Time Machine files on Mac. But be aware, although this method can help to delete Mac backup files and to free up more system storage space, you can also wait for the MacOS to delete them in case you are afraid of deleting some important backups alone.
People Also ReadiOS Update Deleted Photos, How to RecoveriPhone Photos Disappeared from Camera Roll.
Conclusion
You have a lot of cleaning on your Mac and FoneDog PowerMyMac does this for you with a simple click. It filters and displays everything in your Mac. Selecting items openly and checking the results by size, time and so on. It selects only documents to be deleted. You only sort the right files, therefore. The PowerMac app has great features so that your Mac gains more space. You can choose to make use of the excellent highlights of PowerMyMac at an affordable cost, like most valuable toolboxes. Here too, the free trial can be seen.
Solid-state storage (SSD) is fantastically fast, but its high cost means that Macs with built-in SSD startup drives have a much lower capacity than their hard disk-based counterparts. This can be a problem if you have a large collection of photos or music files, or if you use your Mac to edit video. And so, if you have an SSD, you probably spend a lot of time checking the Storage tab in About this Mac. One thing you’ll have noticed is that colored bar labeled ‘System’. What is it and how do you clear it? Read on and find out.
Clean My Mac System Storage
What is System storage on Mac?
System storage, obviously, contains the macOS itself but what else is there? Part of this storage includes applications, drivers, volume data, and Library. While the nominal size of the macOS is around 12 GB (for macOS Big Sur), the Library is the real space-hogger. It contains piles of old cache files and supporting data.
Why does the system take so much space on Mac?
Your system is mainly stored in both the System and Library folders. If your system is taking up too much disk space on Mac, explore those two folders and see what's stored in them.
If you’re having a lot of your space allocated for “system,” you may have Time Machine snapshots stored on your Mac. Later in this article, we’re going to explain how to remove Time Machine backups.
How to reduce system storage on Mac
1. Check for unnecessary files in System storage
Much of the storage space used by the OS for system-related tasks is cleared when macOS deletes the files automatically, but sometimes that doesn’t happen, which is why the System category can grow very large. Apple doesn’t explain what comprises this category of storage, but it’s likely that the following are part of it:
- Time Machine backups
- Old iOS backups
- File Vault files
- App cache files
- Unused disk images
Not knowing what files are included in System storage makes finding them tricky. However, it’s far from impossible. My favorite tool for clearing unnecessary system junk from my Mac is CleanMyMac X. It has lots of tools for clearing out junk files, but for our purposes, there’s one that really helps: System Junk. This handy utility scans your Mac and identifies things like temporary files, translation files in apps, broken preferences files, old updates, and system cache files that are no longer needed. You can then remove them with one click. Or you can choose which ones you want to get rid of and remove just those. If you want to give it a go, you can download a free version of CleanMyMac X here.
Once you’ve downloaded and installed it, do this:
- Launch CleanMyMac X.
- Choose System Junk in the sidebar.
- Press Scan.
- Once it’s finished, if you’re happy to remove the files CleanMyMac recommends, press Clean.
- If not, choose Review Details and go through the list of results.
- Uncheck the box next to any items you don’t want to delete.
That will help you to get rid of system storage on Mac.
As you can see from the screenshot, the app offers to remove my Unused Disk Images (the remains of DMG installers), broken downloads, old app updates. If you use Photoshop or other media editor you’ll see the option to delete Document Versions — intermediate edits of your files. In other words, you have many options for freeing up space at your disposal.
2. Manually remove Time Machine backups
Aside from using CleanMyMac X, one of the most straightforward ways to clear system storage on a Mac, is to get rid of Time Machine backups. Wait, what? You thought Time Machine backups were stored on an external or network drive? They are! But macOS also keeps a copy of your backup on your startup drive, in case the external drive isn’t available when you need to restore files. That way you can restore data on a MacBook even when you’re on the move.
macOS should delete Time Machine backups when your Mac runs low on storage, but it doesn’t always work out that way. And besides, you might not want to wait until your Mac is short of space before you delete them. So, here’s how to reduce system storage on a Mac by deleting Time Machine backups. Remember that will delete local copies of your backups, so if you think you might need them, don’t do it.
- Go to Applications > Utilities and launch Terminal.
- When a Terminal window opens, type:
tmutil listlocalsnapshotdates
- Press Return.
You will now see a list of stored Time Machine backups, listed by date.
- Type:
tmutil deletelocalsnapshots xxxxxxx
where ‘xxxxxxx’ is the name of one of the backups listed . This will take the form of a date followed by a text string. - Press Return.
- Repeat steps 1 and 2 for as many backups as you want to remove, checking the Storage tab in About this Mac each time to see how much space you’ve cleared.
3. Optimize your storage
If you’ve faced a cluttered storage situation, there’s another way to fix it. Apple has anticipated such an issue and equipped the macOS with some features to optimize your space.
Go to the Apple menu and select About This Mac. Select the Storage tab and press Manage. In the window that appears, you can see some of the useful suggestions. 'Store in iCloud' lets you transfer all your data to cloud storage and reclaim some GBs on your Mac. The second option allows you to delete the heaviest files, like movies and programs.
Turning on 'Empty Bin Automatically' can be a useful option if you forget to do it regularly.
By pressing Review Files, you will jump into the Documents section. Review the files that are stored on your Mac and pay attention to the Unsupported Apps category. It can contain some programs that can no longer run on your macOS version.
Bonus tip: remove duplicate files
Mac System Clean Up
Aside from the bizarre system files, another thing that nibbles on your storage is duplicates. Remember that track you’ve accidentally added twice? Or a mail attachment you’ve opened several times? All these files just sit on your Mac and take up precious space.
Here’s how you can quickly delete them in a few clicks.
- Download and open Gemini 2
- Choose a folder and click Scan for Duplicates
- Wait for the scan to finish
Now you can Click Smart Cleanup to get rid of detected duplicates and delete system storage on Mac. Or click Review Results if you want to double-check what’s being deleted.
What else can you do to reduce System storage on Mac?
Believe it or not, one thing you can do is wait. When you first choose the Storage tab in About this Mac, macOS seems to allocate quite a lot to System that it then reallocates elsewhere. For example, some users have reported that after waiting for a few minutes, much of the storage that was labeled System, is moved to the iCloud label. So if you wait, you might find that the System isn’t taking up disk space in the huge quantities that it seemed to be at first.
The other thing you can do is investigate what files are designated as ‘System’. We’ve already talked about Time Machine backups, but everything stored in your Mac’s System or Library folders comes under the ‘System’ heading in About this Mac. That is:
/Library
/System
~/Library
~/System
Click on the Go menu in Finder and select Go to Folder, then paste in each of the paths above in turn.
Go through the subfolders in each and press Cmd-I to Get Info and check how much data is in each. You’ll quickly discover where your precious storage has gone.
It’s likely that much of it is accounted for by cache files for apps like Photos and Safari. MacOS caches as much data as it can to avoid having to re-download it, which boosts performance. And it’s smart enough to know that it must delete cache files when you run low on storage.
If you decide that you don’t want to leave it up to the operating system to free up storage, don’t just start trashing cache files or folders randomly, you might delete something you shouldn’t. So be careful
Another way to go about it, is to use a storage analyzer. There are nice apps that search for hidden space on Mac and reveal your largest folders. You can use a free version of CleanMyMac X and inside it, it has a feature called 'Space Lens.'
Those bubbles show your largest folders and you can zoom in and out and delete junk files right from there.
A fun and visual way to delete system storage on Mac.
Clean Mac Os System Storage
System storage can occupy tens of gigabytes of space on your Mac for Time Machine backups and cache files. It should be managed by macOS so you’re never short of space. But if you want to do a system storage cleanup, or just free up more space on your Mac, give CleanMyMac X a go. You might be surprised by how much space you get back.