Where Is My Disk Space Mac

If you want to check a Macs disk space and disk usage, this is one of the simplest ways to do so: From anywhere in Mac OS, choose the  Apple menu item and select 'About This Mac' At the general ‘About This Mac window', click on the 'Storage' tab (or if you're running an earlier Mac OS X version, click on 'More Info' button). The sneaky shortcut way to do that is to hold down the Control key on your keyboard and click on the current directory name in the title bar. A little menu pops up that shows you the exact path from the top of the file system to that directory. Disk Analyzer Pro is one of the best tools to analyze disk space on Mac. It shows you the drive space consumption report categorized by file size, file types, ownership, file date and attributes and frees up drive space in the blink of an eye. Disk Analyzer Pro is a flagship product that de-clutters your Mac with unmatched speed. 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. This will free up disk space on your Mac while still keeping your important data safe. Simply connect an external data source to your Mac. Most likely, you can see its icon on the desktop from where you can access the storage.

This functionality works in 10.5, it's not some great new discovery.
Also, the status bar at the bottom of Finder windows shows the available space for a volume, and has done for YEARS.

But not in QuickLook, as this hint is about.

Wrong. This hint does work in 10.5 with QuickLook. Typing this from a 12' PowerBook G4 running 10.5.8, and the 'QuickLook on hard drive' functionality is identical to my 17' MacBook Pro running 10.6.1.

I think you're right, I just assumed it was about desktop items but I guess it doesn't actually say that. However, the hint is given for the purpose of viewing available disk space, and if you have a finder window open then you most likely do not need quick look to accomplish this since the space shows up in the windows (assuming the window is showing a folder on the drive in question.) I know that has already been mentioned here many times, I am just using this to support the argument that the hint is probably about desktop icons.

Free space is also always listed at the bottom of any finder window, assuming you've got the sidebar/window chrome showing..

Or: right-click the desktop, select Show View Options, check Show Item Info. Size and free space will be listed under volumes.

OR (since 10.4 as far as I know) click on the desktop, open the view options (cmd-J) and activate the checkbox 'show object info': So you will see the available disk space anytime below the volume name.

If you are going to click on the drive icon anyway, why not just right-click (control-click) and then choose 'Get Info' from the pop-up menu? You will see more info than Quick Look provides.

Because you also have to close the get info window afterwards. With this hint it's a simple (slow) double tap of the space bar.

Great find. I'm glad you noticed this.
Using Quicklook is much faster and easier than going through the bother of pressing Option-click, navigating to the Show Info item, then having to close the window again. Just clicking on the icon and pressing SPACE twice is far more efficient, especially if you're using a trackpad.
This is just what I was looking for to improve my workflow.

Erm, you're saying 'keyboard shortcuts is quicker than menus'. But there are already keyboard shortcuts available.
Tapping space twice is only barely quicker than Command-I, Command-W. Notice those keyboard shortcuts have been available right from the very start of Macintosh System.

To the poster of this tip, please ignore the mean comments. I liked this hint. To everyone who states a different way, thank you. But the hint is still valid. Most of the other way listed (aside from the status bar), take more steps then pressing the spacebar.

Even the status bar option takes more effort, as you have to open a finder window to do it. This works from the desktop.
Showing the item info on the desktop works well, so long as your icons are huge and so there's enough space.
Great hint. Thanks. Microsoft excel 2016 for mac.

While you have the window open you can click on another drive and it will switch and show that drives info. Nice hint.

Yeah guys seriously, read the hint before commenting- I actually mention the other ways of finding disk space; so stop yapping.

Great hint. Yes, it worked in 10.5 also, but I never saw it hinted before.
I've already voiced my frustration several times with negative commenters (I affectionately call 'snobs') on this site as of late. Please please people just ignore them. They don't realize this isn't a contest, but rather a collective knowledgebase site. Even if it's not 'some great new discovery,' I love seeing it documented.
Snobs be gone.

I don't think anyone is being a snob — the reason I (and I presume many other members) love this site so much is the high quality of the information here. Whenever I see misinformation in a hint, I feel obliged to point it out so that Rob will hopefully add a correction to the hint (or at least readers of the hint will have a chance to be informed by the comments, assuming they read that far…). I've been reading the site for nearly a decade (has it really been around that long?) and it does seem like the quality of the hints has taken a distinct downward turn this last year or so.
This particular hint contains a lot of misinformation. The claim that the behavior is new to 10.6. The (implied) claim that the author has mentioned all the other ways to get the information (which they fell far short of doing, as is obvious from all the 'mean' comments). For such a short hint, it really packs a lot of misinformation punch!
All that being said, I acknowledge that a lot of the corrective comments could have been phrased more tactfully. I'd suggest the rudeness is just an emotional (possible subconscious) reaction to a perception of a recent flood of questionable hints on the site.

Rubbish! I agree the quality of (some of) the hints here has dropped, but this isn't an example of that. The ONLY misinformation in the hint is the idea that it's new to 10.6, which anyway I'd regard more as the editor's job to check for than the hinter's. While of course the hinter should strive to be as accurate as he can, he can normally only go by what he remembers of the previous version, as by definition he can't check now. The editors on the other hand have other resources to call upon, presumably.
There is no requirement whatsoever for any hinter to point out the alternative ways of achieving the same thing. He's not writing an OS X manual, he's pointing out one handy thing he's found that people might not have noticed. If others use other methods to do the same thing, great, and it's good if they list them in the comments, but the first reply in particular was stupid and unnecessary.
I know, lets get all the people who post convoluted ways to do things through Terminal include the much simpler UI methods in their hints shall we, before they're accepted? Who cares that some people may prefer to work that way, I don't, so will start to insult the hinter for daring to suggest I should.

I think the drop in 'quality' you've noticed has several causes. One, the volume of hints has increased significantly due to the popularity of the site and the OS, so robg can't test everything, and two, many more novices are feeling like they can contribute. Both of these are good things. I prefer to look at the hints not as 100% rock solid take it to the bank info, but rather as points of experimentation and discussion. The 'snobs' see it differently. They like to show their prowess by pointing out the flaws in other people's hints, and presume they know every possible thing about every possible thing, in every possible configuration, with every possible peripheral, etc etc. It's not what they say, but how they say it. Often rude and superior. They put the hinter on the defensive. I'm really getting sick of it. I've been reading and contributing to this site for over six years, and one thing has changed for sure, the quality of the commenters.
This hint is a great example. It's a fine hint, but not 100% accurate. I've never seen it here before, and so it's fair game. Who should test it? We, the readers! And we should report back in a professional and respectful manner. That's how we get all the facts, not by taunting and degrading.

And this perceived drop in quality is as all perceptions involving comparisons over larger time periods skewed by the biased nature of human memory. Humans tend to forget the bad things and remember the good things, that is how our psyche manages to make life bearable.

People, this is definitely new to 10.6, this was one of my biggest frustration in 10.5, and when I noticed that a lot of new stuff started showing up in QL windows (such as copyrights on apps) I decided to check HDs.

I've used Report and although its great, I've had better luck with WheresTheFreeSpace. It is Modeled after a PC application that is very popular called Treesize (but its for Mac).

Today in 2021, MacBooks are more spacious than ever. The new MacBook Air comes with a 256-GB hard drive. But no amount of storage seems to be enough as the ever-inflating digital media is taking over our hard drives. Cloud servers are only a partial answer to that. They aren't getting cheaper and consume insane amounts of the world's electricity. So if you want to take a load off your drive and help the planet, you should teach yourself a couple of storage-keeping tricks. Let's go.

What's causing low disk space on your Mac?

Before you begin to free up disk space, let's identify what's taking it up. From the Apple Menu in the upper left-hand corner of your screen, select About This Mac and then click the Storage tab in the window that opens. You'll get a handy, color-coded graph that looks like this:

In the above example, you can see that apps, audio files, and 'other' (for details on what this 'other' category consists of, look here) are taking the most significant amount of space.

It's nice to see what's stored on your Mac, and even nicer to be able to browse the folders that contain the files themselves. Now that you've identified what's on your drive let's free up some space.

How To Check Disk Space Mac

How to increase disk space on your Mac

There are several options here, so let's go through a few.

1. Remove large and old files

Often the files that end up taking the most space are tucked away in 'cold storage' on your computer. These are big movies, photos, or the like that you rarely look at but can't part with, either. In this case, archiving the files and moving them to an external drive is a good way to free up storage space on your Mac.
Locating huge neglected files can be a pain, but it gets super easy with the CleanMyMac X app. It has a dedicated Large & Old File finder. It will help you find massive files and sort them by size to define the largest ones quickly.

You can download the free version of CleanMyMac X here.

As the name suggests, it finds files that occupy a lot of space on your disk but haven't been opened for a long time. You can quickly review these files right in the app and decide which ones you want to remove. It's a really handy feature if you have a lot of heavy stuff piled up.

Where Is My Disk Space Macbook Pro

2. Empty Trash

Review your Trash bin's contents one last time before you empty it. Press Command and right-click the Trash folder on your Trash icon. Then, click Empty Trash to remove everything.

Use Command-Option-Delete to delete any folder immediately, bypassing Trash.

3. Clean up the Downloads folder

Files love to hide in your Mac's Downloads folder. Old disk images, random photos, unused extensions, ZIP files… they're all in there, not making a sound. Hiding. ? Go to Finder and browse what's sitting in your Downloads, wasting space on your disk. Anything unnecessary can be dragged to the Trash.

4. Delete duplicate folders and files

How many times do we copy or download things twice? Like many users, I would prefer to have a backup twin of my important files. But that often ends up in my files being quadrupled…or what do they call a 4th or 5th copy of the same folder?

To effectively remove duplicate files and make space on Mac, you can use Gemini 2. This is how this app looks.

You can download this little duplicate finder here.

Gemini 2 analyzes potential duplicates by many criteria, not just the name of the file. It searches for:

• Duplicate folders
• Duplicate movies
• Similar images

5. Learn to use Optimized Storage

Optimized Storage is the built-in feature of the macOS. It's a sorting algorithm that shows different categories of files on your Mac for review and removal.

1. Click the Apple Menu > About This Mac > Storage.
2. Choose 'Manage…'

By far, the most-space demanding of your files will be Applications.

Using the quick tabs above, you will decide what is there you can toss away. Mac teddy lipstick. Make sure also to check Recommendations (on top of the list). There are a couple more space-saving options there.

6. Uninstall unused applications

If you're like me, you often try an app '..just to see what it does'. While that's fun, it frequently results in a slew of forgotten apps. It's a good practice to set a reminder to review your Applications folder and clean out the ones you no longer use. However, note that simply dragging an app into your Mac's trash doesn't eliminate all of its related files.

CleanMyMac X's Uninstaller feature, on the other hand, leaves no leftover pieces behind, which means more available space on your Mac. CleanMyMac X finds every app-related document and file, no matter where it has been tucked away and deletes it from your Mac.

And speaking of setting up a reminder, CleanMyMac's scheduler will handle that task for you, too. Just tell it how often you'd like to be prompted to give your Mac a good cleaning and leave the rest to the app.

7. Delete your Desktop screenshots

Mac's Desktop is where you keep screenshots by default. With a feature called 'Stacks,' you can organize your Desktop into clearly labeled folders. One of such folders will be Screenshots, which you can later remove in one sweep.

1. Go to your desktop.
2. Right-click somewhere in the middle of your Desktop.
3. Select 'Use Stacks'

Now you should see the Screenshots folder with all your screengrabs neatly stuffed inside. Drag this folder to the Trash and empty it.

8. Get rid of system junk

It's not just your files that are hogging disk space — it's also useless system files like logs, cache, unused binaries, old iOS backups and installers, and what not. Fortunately, CleanMyMac can find and eliminate them all to make low disk space a thing of the past, at last.

System junk is comprised of:

• User cache files
• Application cache
• Broken downloads
• Unused .DMG installers

As you can see, the 'User cache' category alone can recover about 3 GB of space. So the best way to free up space on Mac is to start with this type of files.

With just a few clicks, you'll discover what's where and what's ripe for deletion. The best way to free up hard drive space is to run CleanMyMac X and wave goodbye to space-hogging files. Don't worry. You won't miss them. Hopefully, you managed to clear a lot of disk space — drop by for more Mac housekeeping tips. 😉

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