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How To Check My Mac Disk Space

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  1. How To Free Up Storage On Mac
  2. Checking Storage On Mac
  3. How To Check My Mac Disk Space Analyzer
  4. How To Check My Mac Disk Space Download
  1. You can also view your free disk space from your Mac's Disk Utility app. Open Spotlight by clicking the magnifying glass in the upper-right corner of the screen, then type Disk Utility in the.
  2. Your Mac may be miscalculating disk space or holding onto cached files even when the space is needed for something else. In the case there's lots of Hidden Space showing in DaisyDisk and your Mac won't let you copy any more files to it, running Disk First Aid via the built in Disk Utility may rectify the issue.
  3. Further, some apps use some disk space for temporary storage. Thus, you need to keep a certain amount of your storage open and free to keep your Mac running speedy. It's hard to know exactly how much you need, but many experts recommend approximately 15 percent remain free. So, let's check Mac disk space.
  4. Dec 20, 2019 Open Disk Utility, and it will launch into a view of the volume(s) on your Mac, which also shows how much space is used, and how much is free. (Keep in mind Disk Utility is meant for power users who want to manage their storage, and is a bit of overkill for most users.).

Disk Drill does all the hard work for you. It will check hard drive space on Mac and build a disk map with a list of your files with the largest ones first. That way you can see which files are taking up the most space and decide whether to delete them, move them to another drive, or leave them where they are.

If your Mac is running low on disk space or you've seen that scary 'startup disk is full' message, you know it can be frustrating to free up storage. To deal with this problem, many people resort to external drives and juggle their files continuously between the disks.

While you can manually track available storage space, we'll show you how to check disk space on a Mac using some disk analyzer apps. They offer unique visual experiences and let you take actionable steps to free up valuable disk space.

How to Check Hard Drive Space on Mac

There are multiple ways to check the storage space on your Mac. Choose Apple menu > About This Mac and click Storage for the most basic one. Hover your pointer over the colored blocks to see what kind of content is using disk space.

For more info, open Disk Utility by searching for it with Spotlight (Cmd + Space). Select your startup volume from the left panel to check the amount of used space in the volume.

Then, click the Info button in the toolbar to show more details like Purgeable space and Available space (Purgeable + Free).

Mac

For another method, right-click the Macintosh HD disk icon on the left sidebar in Finder and select Get Info. You'll get details on Used versus Available capacity, along with the space macOS considers purgeable.

What Is 'Other' in Mac Storage?

On some Macs, you'll notice that the Other storage category takes up a lot of disk space. Denied 1 4 0. This includes macOS system files, user Library folders, cache folders, and more. The majority of these folders are not normally visible.

If you mess with these directories, it could result in an unstable system, loss of data, or even prevent your Mac from booting up. Find out more about macOS folders you shouldn't touch and how to handle them if they use a lot of space.

Why You Should Use a Mac Disk Space Analyzer

Why would you use a third-party app when there are multiple built-in ways to check the disk space on your Mac? https://cooltfil798.weebly.com/maya-2019-1.html. Here are some reasons:

  • Finder might incorrectly interpret hard links as another copy of the file. Although hard links take no actual disk space, Finder counts them (at least) twice as distinct files, resulting in inaccurate estimation of folder sizes.
  • Your Mac's file system, APFS, uses space-efficient clones while copying a file within the same volume. Instead of duplicating the data, it updates the metadata, and the on-disk data gets shared. Finder does not understand this mechanism and wrongly estimates free and used disk space.
  • The APFS snapshot feature works differently. When Time Machine creates local snapshots, the file system is aware of the changes. But neither Finder or About This Mac shows the space taken by snapshots. As a result, it may show the System category taking a lot of space.
  • In APFS, every disk is a container that can hold multiple volumes and shares the same pool of free space. If your startup disk consists of at least four separate volumes, you might notice a reduction in space available to Macintosh HD.

Now that you know why we recommend you use third-party apps, let's explore the best Mac disk space analyzers to inspect and analyze disk space.

1. GrandPerspective

GrandPerspective is a utility app that uses a treemap structure for visualizing disk space. Upon launch, it asks you to select a folder or drive you want to analyze. A view window shows the contents in colorful rectangle blocks.

Hover your mouse pointer over a block to display the file name and size at the bottom of the view window. You can move the selection from a file to one of the folders and vice-versa by changing the focus. Press Cmd + [ and Cmd + ] to move up and down in the file hierarchy.

Click a block to lock the selection. Then, you can take action directly on that item. Press Space to take a quick look and click the Reveal button to show the selected file/folder in Finder.

What Makes GrandPerspective Unique?

  • You can change the sorting criteria by creation date, extension, file type, or folder and even choose a different color palette.
  • Select from the list of recently scanned folders to save time. Or select Load Scan Data to create a new view with older scanned data.
  • Create new filters for refining the view and perform filter tests to mix them in different ways. You can choose from audio, hard-links, images, app package contents, and more.
  • The app lets you rescan a folder with different settings. Afterward, open those results in a separate window to compare with the last results.

3defy software free download. Download:GrandPerspective (Free)

2. OmniDiskSweeper

OmniDiskSweeper is another disk space analyzer for Mac. Upon launch, select a drive from the list and click Sweep Selected Drive. A new window opens with folders and files displayed in a column view. Once the scanning process completes, click on a folder and navigate to any file that takes up significant disk space.

The app uses different colors to group files by size and to show the status of an item. File sizes marked in green are the smallest files. As the size gets larger, this changes to dark green, dark purple, and light purple for huge files. Double-click on an item to open it in Finder.

What Does OmniDiskSweeper Offer?

  • It lets you sweep external and disk drives located on your network. If you share a folder located on a PC, the app can even scan that folder.
  • The bottom window provides you detailed information of a file, its size, and packages it belongs to in the file system. You should focus on files that are not part of packages.

Download:OmniDiskSweeper (Free)

3. Disk Inventory X

Disk Inventory X is a utility app that gives you an overview of the space taken by different file types. Open the File menu and select any drive or a folder you would like to analyze. Once the scanning process finishes, the app creates a graphical treemap for visualizing storage space.

The left panel helps you sort the file list based on the colors associated with a particular file type, size, number of files, and file format. Click on any element in the graph to help you identify and locate the biggest files.

Unique Features of Disk Inventory X:

  • Any selection you make in the treemap graph gets synchronized with the finder-like view. This helps you find the major culprits, no matter where they are on the disk.
  • The app sorts file types in descending order. Each file type has a color used in the treemap graph and throughout all open folders.
  • You can view package contents, zoom into folders, and hide free space to analyze disk space in different ways.

Download:Disk Inventory X (Free)

4. DaisyDisk

DaisyDisk is a beautifully designed disk analyzer that uses a sunburst map to show you a disk overview. Upon launch, it displays all mounted volumes with different color styles. Green means that at least half of your disk is empty, while red denotes that it's time to take action.

Click the Scan button, and within a few seconds, you'll see the map with a brief overview on the sidebar. Place your mouse over any segment to see its contents on the sidebar. When you want to navigate to the parent folder, click in the center of the disk map.

Key Features of DaisyDisk

How To Free Up Storage On Mac

  • The sunburst map helps you separate the huge files from smaller ones. Drill down and find out which items are consuming the most disk space.
  • If you scan the disk as an administrator, it can reveal more data about files hidden on other volumes, space taken by local snapshots, and details on purgeable space.
  • You can preview any file from the sidebar, send them to a collector panel, then delete them at your convenience.

Download:DaisyDisk ($9.99, free trial available)

5. NCDU

Checking Storage On Mac

NCDU is a command line disk analyzer with a ncurses interface. It's based on the du command, but it's much faster and easy to use on your Mac and remote servers. To get started, you'll need to install the app through Homebrew. To do this, see how to install Mac apps using Homebrew.

Once installed, open Terminal and type in ncdu / to start scanning your drive. Use the arrow keys to navigate across items. Then, press i to view the details of the selected item.

Unique Features of NCDU

  • You can use different options to enhance the disk-related information. Navigate to the NCDU man page for more details.
  • It's easy to export all the information to an output file. You can then use file comparison apps to better analyze your disk usage.

Download:NCDU (Free)

Stay on Top of Your Mac's Free Space

Getting accurate details about free and used space on your Macis tricky. While there are many built-in techniques, most of them are unreliable for detailed use. Use Disk Utility and these apps to inspect and analyze your storage space in detail.

For more help, make sure to check our big list of tips for creating free space on your Mac.

Read the full article: The 5 Best Free Apps to Check Disk Space Storage on Mac

From the all-in-one solution of disk space analyzers to macOS' own built-in offering, we've found the best ways to keep your system in tip-top condition.

How to check disk space on Mac

Most of the things that take up disk space on Mac can't be seen from a top-level overview, but it's worth keeping a close eye on how much space you have available. You can do this by clicking on the Apple icon in the top-left corner of the screen and selecting 'About This Mac.' Select 'Storage', and you'll see where space is being taken up.

If disk space is at a premium, turn to the following apps to get rid of the things you no longer need, using a Mac disk cleanup. Disk space analyzers are fantastic tools for finding out what is taking up so much space on my Mac.

Before you take action, ensure none of your files will disappear when you clear disk space. Download Disk Drill for free and stop worrying.

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How to clear disk space on Mac

1. Clear disk space on Mac with CleanMyMac X

CleanMyMac is the go-to disk space analyzer for over three million people worldwide, particularly for those who want to know how to free up space on your Mac?

And for good reason — it does all the heavy-lifting for you, leaving you with the simple task of clicking a single button to free up space. The app uses a 'Smart Cleanup' feature to perform a deep scan of your Mac, analyzing the System, Large and Old Files, Mail, iTunes, Photos, and Trash bins, freeing up 64GB of space on average. Without an effective disk cleanup Mac, you could end up with too much junk taking up too much space.

Using the CleanMyMac Dashboard, you can check the disk space and free up RAM, ensuring your Mac runs smoother and faster.

How to make free space on Mac with CleanMyMac

The simplicity of CleanMyMac is its outstanding feature. To clear disk space, all you need to do is:

  1. Launch CleanMyMac X (download it for free here).
  2. Click on Smart Cleanup from the sidebar menu.
  3. Click on Scan and then Clean.

That's it!

In the sidebar menu, there are options to scan and clean applications individually using the same 'Scan' and 'Clean' method.

2. Clean up duplicate disk folders on Mac with Gemini

Duplicate files such as edited documents, photos, or Photoshop files can accumulate rapidly. But they're hardly ever needed. How to erase data from mac. Rather than trawl through your system trying to perform a disk cleanup manually or risking the loss of potentially useful files in a blanket cleanup, use Gemini to find and delete files safely.

Like CleanMyMac, Gemini has its own 'smart' scan and cleanup feature to speed up the process. The app works through your photos, iTunes, documents, and files to find duplicates that can be removed. It also picks out similar files that probably don't warrant two copies.

Everything that Gemini finds is placed in a neat interface where you can examine individual files to decide which to keep and which to purge. If something is deleted in error, you'll still be able to find it in amongst recently deleted files for quick restoration.

3. Visualize disk space with Disk Drill

'The storage option is useful, but what is really taking up space on my Mac?'

Disk Drill can see how to check disk space on Mac.

Disk Drill does exactly what its name suggests: drills down into your disk to analyze and help you visualize what's hogging space. From a familiar Mac-like interface you can delve into files and delete anything that isn't needed in a few clicks.

There's also a useful feature that lets you clean up local folders that are synced with your Google Drive or Dropbox accounts, as well as the ability to identify and remove duplicate files à la Gemini.

If you want to keep a close eye on system performance and carry out a Mac disk cleanup as soon as available space is under threat, Disk Drill includes a feature called S.M.A.R.T. Once enabled, S.M.A.R.T monitoring tracks space, performance, and drive temperature from an icon on your desktop.

4. Use macOS Sierra's Optimized Storage to see what is taking up space on your Mac

Finally, to make sure things keep on ticking over nicely, make use of macOS' own Optimized Storage feature. This is another way to see how to check free space on Mac.

Granted, this feature doesn't offer the heavyweight cleaning capabilities of a CleanMyMac, but it's useful nonetheless.

By clicking on Details from within Storage, you'll have access to four features: Store in iCloud, Optimize Storage, Empty Trash Automatically, and Reduce Clutter.

While emptying the trash and reducing clutter are simple ways to free up a small amount of space, Store in iCloud is the outstanding feature. This allows you move items from local storage and save them to your iCloud account.

From Store in iCloud, simply check the boxes for Store files from Desktop and Documents in iCloud Drive and Store photos and videos in iCloud Photo Library. All of your files will then be synced to the cloud. You can then use a Mac disk cleaner to get rid of the locally stored duplicates.

The Optimize option is also useful if you happen to have movies or TV shows that you've watched on iTunes. By enabling Optimize, previously watched media will be automatically removed from your computer and kept in iTunes where you can download them again if you get the urge to give a show a rerun.

How To Check My Mac Disk Space Analyzer

Keep your disk space under control

A full hard drive results in a slow running, overheating Mac. The best way to keep your system running smoothly with plenty of room for files is to keep on top of disk space. Use these apps to analyze disks and perform routine cleanups.

How To Check My Mac Disk Space Download

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