The Clean My Mac app automatically rids your macOS system of junk file and other remnant programs that eat up space in the device. By using the Clean My Mac software, you can clear up space to revamp the speed and operations of your MacBook. Disk Drill is one very popular free Mac cleaner app. Actually, it is a professional data recovery tool for Mac, which carries some disk cleaning functions. It has the capability to analyze Mac storage space, locate unused, large, and duplicate files and so on. In this way, it enables you to free up your Mac storage effortlessly. With a single click, Umate Mac Cleaner will remove all the unwanted files to make storage space on your MacBook with the features - Clean Up Junk. Another feature of the application is Manage Apps and Extensions, it can uninstall unused applications and remove unnecessary extensions on the Mac to make more space available.
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.
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.
- Press Clean.
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
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
- Click Smart Cleanup to get rid of detected duplicates
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. Yahoo mac mail app. 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. The best approach is to use CleanMyMac X’s Smart Scan feature that will tell you what files can be safely deleted.
Ledger wallet app mac. 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.
/PowerMyMac /How to Clear System Storage on Mac Effectively
By this time, you might have been experiencing that you are a sort of running out of system storage on your Mac and you may be looking for ways on how to clear system storage on Mac. And one of the first thing that you would do is to check out your disk space for you to see what are the things that are eating up your Mac's system storage.
And once that you check on it, you will then be surprised to see a yellow bar that refers to your System which is like occupying more of your space on your Mac. And the worst case is that you actually have no idea on what are the things that are included in your system storage.
TIPS:
![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/3/4/1/134147142/197702965.jpeg)
That is why in this post, we are going to show you how to clear system storage on Mac and what are the things that contain your system storage on your Mac so that you will have better knowledge on what are the things that you should be removed from your Mac.
Article GuidePart 1. What Dose System Storage Mean on Mac?Part 2. How Do I Free up System Storage on My Mac Automatically?Part 3. How to Clear System Storage on Mac Manually?Part 4. In Conclusion
Part 1. What Dose System Storage Mean on Mac?
What dose system storage mean Mac? The files that actually your system storage of your Mac contains are all of those junks that you actually do not need on your Mac. This can be your System Cache, Application Cache, System Logs, User Logs, and more.
Why is my Mac system storage so big? These files are stored on your Mac every time that you are making a download, or saving new files on your Mac. This can be your email attachments, iTunes movie, and more. Some of these files are saving large files that is why it can take up your system storage quickly.
Now you know what is system storage, but how to clear system storage on Mac so that you can free up more space to save other files you desired?
Part 2. How Do I Free up System Storage on My Mac Automatically?
There are methods to clear system storage manually we will talk about in the next part, but they surely take more time and effort as you will be needing to go through your Mac one by one.
However, there is a better way for you to free up system storage Mac. You will be able to clear your Mac’s system storage in no time.
All the methods that we have included in the next part can all be done just by one program – the iMyMac PowerMyMac. This program is considered to be a powerful tool that you can use for you to clear your Mac’s system storage.
This tool will surely help you in removing all of the junks that you have on your Mac allowing you to have more space and speed up the performance of your Mac.
Using the iMyMac PowerMyMac will allow you to choose all the junks or files that you no longer need on your Mac and clean them.
It does not only give you the cleaning functionality but it will also help you to decide on which of your files would you want to remove or not. So you will be assured that none of your important files will be deleted without you knowing it. So how to get rid of system storage on Mac with PowerMyMac?
Here is how to clear system storage on Mac with PowerMyMac.
- Download and Install iMyMac PowerMyMac
- Launch the iMyMac Program
- Select A Module
- Choose the Option for Cleaning
- Scan for System Junk
- View the Result
- Choose the Files to Delete
- Cleaning Process
Let's discuss the detailed steps below:
Step 1. Download and Install iMyMac PowerMyMac
First is that you have to download the iMyMac PowerMyMac on your Mac. You can have the program downloaded from the official website at www. imymac.com. Once that you have downloaded the program, go ahead and install it on your Mac.
Step 2. Launch the iMyMac Program
Go ahead and launch the program. On the main interface of the program, you will be able to see your Mac’s system status. You will see your Disk usage, Memory usage, and your RAM usage. With that, you will have an idea of what is happening on your Mac.
Step 3. Select A Module
In the same interface, you will be able to see different modules at the top that allow you to clean up your Mac’s system storage. They're Master Scan, Large and Old Files, Duplicate Finder, Uninstaller, Privacy, and Toolkit.
Step 4. Choose the Option for Cleaning
From that list, go ahead and choose “Master Scan”. This is one of the options that you can use for you to be able to clear your Mac’s system storage. This is where you will be able to clear out your System Cache, Application Cache, System Logs, User Logs, and Localization.
Step 5. Scan for System Junk
After that, the iMyMac PowerMyMac will then ask you to scan all of the junks that you have on your Mac. You can do this by clicking on the scan button. From there, wait until the program is done with the scanning process.
Step 6. View the Result
Once that the scanning process is complete, you can now view the result.
Step 7. Choose the Files to Delete
How to remove top taskbar. From there, the iMyMac PowerMyMac will then show you all the files that it was able to scan. All you have to do from here is to mark all the files that you would want to clean.
Step 8. Cleaning Process
After choosing all the files that you would want to clean, go ahead and click on the “Clean” button. This will then start to remove all of your system junks from your Mac. The iMyMac PowerMyMac will then start to clean up all the files that you have selected earlier. From here, all you have to do is to wait until the program is done with the cleaning process.
So there you have it! You can clear up system storage on your Mac with just a few clicks using the iMyMac PowerMyMac. You can also try the other seven options that the program has under the Cleaner module for you to be able to clean up other things like duplicate photos on your Mac. This will then boost the performance of your Mac and at the same time, you will be able to gain more of your system storage back.
Part 3. How to Clear System Storage on Mac Manually?
Method #1. Clean Up Your Mac's Cache
Caches are one of the biggest culprits as to why your Mac’s system storage is getting full. So for you to be able to delete the system storage on Mac, go ahead and clean up your Mac’s cache:
- Launch Finder on your Mac.
- Then go ahead and click on “Go to folder”.
- From there, go ahead and type in ~/Library/Caches then remove all the files that are taking up most space.
- After that, go ahead and click on “Go to folder”.
- Then type in /Library/Cache and then once more, go ahead and remove all the files that are taking up most space.
Method #2. Remove Your Old iTunes Library Backups
Whenever you make a backup on your iTunes, the more backup file is stored on your Mac. And with that, these backups that you no longer use will be piled up on your Mac and this can cause your system storage to get full as well.
So, for you to remove system storage on Mac, go ahead and remove all those old iTunes Backup that you no longer need:
- Go ahead and launch Finder on your Mac.
- Then go ahead and click on the “Go” button located at the menu bar.
- Then choose “Go to Folder”.
- Then go ahead and enter the following: ~/Music/iTunes/Previous iTunes Libraries
- Once done, you will be able to see all of your iTunes back-ups. The date they were made is also indicated so you can go ahead and choose your old backups and delete them.
Method #3. Take Out All Unused Applications
This method is one of the most common ways on how to clear system storage on Mac. All you have to do is to go through all of the applications that you have on your Mac and sort out which are the ones that you no longer use and uninstall them. You just have to make sure that you are removing them correctly and not just by merely dragging them over to your Trash bin.
You have to make sure that when you uninstall any application on your Mac that you no longer need, you should also find all the files or folders that are associated with that application. If not, then you are still leaving data behind and that will still eat up space on your Mac.
Method #4. Clean Up Your Photo Library
Photos are one of the most common data that we have on our Mac. And keeping them is keeping memories. However, these photos actually take up more space on your Mac’s system status. So you have to make sure that you sort things out.
So how to clear space on Mac system? You can delete all the photos that you think you no longer need and as well as those photos that have more than one copy. You also have the option to transfer them over to another hard drive or USB drive for you to free up space on your Mac.
Method #5. Delete Any Old iOS Backup
Just like your iTunes backup, the old iOS backup that you have on your Mac is also one of the reasons as to why your Mac’s system storage is getting full. That is why it is a good idea that you should also remove your old iOS backup from your Mac to clear system storage.
- Go ahead and launch Finder on your Mac.
- After that, go ahead and click on the “Go” button located at the menu bar.
- From there, go ahead and choose “Go to folder”.
- Then once that you are in, go ahead and type the following: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup
How To Clear Disk Space On Mac
Once that you have opened the window, go ahead and choose all the old iOS backup that you have on your Mac. Dates of the backup are already indicated so that you will be able to know which of them are the old ones.
Part 4. In Conclusion
As you can see, it is an easy thing to do on how to clear system storage on Mac. Though doing this manually will take more time and effort. But all thanks to the iMyMac PowerMyMac, you will be saving more of your time and effort as it will only need a few clicks to do the cleaning process.
Make it a habit of cleaning up your Mac every now and then so that you will not be able to experience having full storage and a slow Mac. Remember, cleaning up all the files and other things that you no longer need will sure be a great help for the performance of your Mac.
Last Tip: If you want to reduce the “system” storage size on your iPhone or iPad, just turn to the provided link to check how to clear system storage on iPhone.
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