Today, we're showing you how to clean your Apple Computer to make it run faster and free up disk space. If your Mac is running slow, this video is for YOU! How to Clean Your Mac for Free - The Easiest Way to Clean Up Mac in 2020. If you are like me, then you are looking for some very helpful tips to clean up my macbook pro. Macos mojave 10 14 6. I was running a Macbook Pro that was in pretty bad shape but all of a sudden the battery died and now I need to clean up my Macbook Pro.
- How To Clean Up Macbook Air So It Runs Better
- How To Clean Up Macbook Hard Drive
- How To Clean Up Macbook Pro
- How To Clean Up Macbook Computer
- How To Clean Up Macbook Pro Storage
- How To Clean Up Macbook
It’s recommended that you keep at least 15-20% of your Mac’s memory free to keep it running smoothly. Optimizing storage is an efficient way to do this. But there are also several other steps you can take to free up space on MacBook Air, Pro, or any other macOS device. Doing these routinely will ensure you don’t face any storage issues and are able to make the most of your system. So let’s have a look.
How to Clean Up a Mac: A Mac Cleaner App. There are two ways to approach cleaning up your computer. You can use a Mac cleaning app to help identify and fix things for you. Or you can do it all manually. First, let’s look at my preferred method: Using a Mac cleaner app to automatically clean up your computer. How to Clean Mac - Best Software to Clean Up Your Mac. While searching the web for How to Clean Mac, I found some of the major mistakes users make.However, I realized that there are also some great tips that will help you get the job done right.
12 Easy Ways to Free Up Space on MacBook Air or Pro Running macOS Catalina
#1. Delete Large Files on your Mac
Instead of deleting a hundred small files and images, first of all, let us go for the big fish.
- Click on the Apple logo from the upper left and select About This Mac.
- Now, click on Storage and then click on Manage.
- Click Documents. Mostly, this is where the big files are. Here you will see the video files, ZIP/RAR files, etc. By default, the biggest files are at the top. Select one or hold the command key and select multiple files
- Finally, click on Delete from the bottom right and confirm.
#2. Remove iOS and iPadOS Backups
- Click on the Apple logo from the upper left and select About This Mac.
- Now Select Storage tab and click on Manage.
- Click iOS Files from left sidebar
- Select and
Related:How to Find iPhone Backup Location on Mac & Windows
#3. Delete Unwanted Applications
You can delete Mac applications in various ways. You may follow the above steps, click on Applications, and remove the large ones.
#4. Clear Cache to Free Up Space on Mac
- Be in Finder and click on Go from the top menu bar
- Click Go to Folder.
- Type or copy-paste ~/Library/Caches
- Delete the files from here that are taking the most space. You may even delete everything. With normal usages, these files and folders will be recreated by macOS.
- Next, click on Go again and then Go to Folder. Now type or copy-paste /Library/Caches
- You may delete files from here too. After this empty the trash and restart you Mac
#5. Remove Old Downloads
This comes down to what you are willing to keep and what you are happy to let go of. Nowadays everything is online in the cloud. Thus there is no point in storing too may videos, music, etc. on the local storage.
- Click on the Finder icon (leftmost) from the Dock
- Click Downloads and remove unnecessary files from here, by right-click and selecting Move to Trash.
You may also right-click and sort by size to quickly locate and delete the biggest files first.
#6. Compress Folders and Files
If you have many images and word files that you rarely use, but can not delete, then it is a handy idea to compress them. Here is how to zip and unzip files on Mac.
#7. Empty Trash Automatically
- Right-click on the Trash icon in the dock (the rightmost option)
- Click Empty Trash and confirm
To empty Trash automatically:
- Click on the Apple logo from the upper left and select About This Mac.
- Now, click on Storage and then click on Manage.
- Click on Recommendations from the top of the left sidebar
- Click Turn On for Empty Trash Automatically.
Many times, GBs of files pile up and are stored in the Trash, thus occupying significant space. It is better to empty it regularly.
How To Clean Up Macbook Air So It Runs Better
#8. Use iCloud to Store Documents
It is best to use iCloud to Store docs etc. on Mac if you have a paid iCloud plan that gives you more than 5 GB of online storage. Here is how to use iCloud to Store Documents.
- Click on the Apple logo from the upper left and select About This Mac.
- Now, click on Storage and then click on Manage.
- Click on Recommendations from the top of the left sidebar
- Click Store in iCloud.
- Review what all will be stored. Uncheck if you wish to exclude photos, messages, desktop, and documents. Finally, click on Store in iCloud.
You may also, enable iCloud Photos from System Preferences → Apple ID → iCloud → Photos or the Preferences of the Mac’s Photos app.
#9. Optimize Storage Automatically
- Click on the Apple logo from the upper left and select About This Mac.
- Now, click on Storage and then click on Manage.
- Click on Recommendations from the top of the left sidebar
- Click on Optimize next to Optimize Storage. Now, all the movies and TV shows you have watched will be automatically removed.
#10. Delete Attachments from Mac Mail App
Following these steps, you can delete the attachments that have been saved locally on the Mac from the mail app. Depending on the number of emails you receive, this data can be huge.
- Be in Finder and press and keep holding the Option key. Now click on Go from the top menu bar
- Click Library.
- Now, Click on Containers.
- Go to com.apple.mail.
- Click on Data.
- Select Library.
- Now, click on Mail Downloads.
- Select all folders and delete them. Or open the individual folders, see the content, and delete the unnecessary ones.
Even if you delete from here, the attachments are still in your email that you can view or download anytime. Further, you may also choose to stop the Mac Mail app from downloading attachments.
#11. Remove Duplicate Files using Third-Party Apps
Duplicate files are a big headache and unnecessarily occupy space. We have a list of some of the best mac cleaner apps that can help you delete duplicate files on your Mac.
#12. Use External Drives for Large Infrequently Used Files
Do you have data that you do not use much but can neither delete them nor store them in the cloud? Ilock 2 0 1 download free. Well, consider investing in an external drive and move infrequently used large files to it.
Signing off…
These were some of the easiest ways to free up space on your MacBook Air. It’s a good idea to do these steps every now and then to keep your system performing well. Are there any other Mac tips you’re looking for? Let us know in the comments below and we’ll help you out.
You may also like to take a peek at:
The founder of iGeeksBlog, Dhvanesh, is an Apple aficionado, who cannot stand even a slight innuendo about Apple products. He dons the cap of editor-in-chief to make sure that articles match the quality standard before they are published.
How To Clean Up Macbook Hard Drive
- https://www.igeeksblog.com/author/dhvanesh/
- https://www.igeeksblog.com/author/dhvanesh/
- https://www.igeeksblog.com/author/dhvanesh/
- https://www.igeeksblog.com/author/dhvanesh/
Clean up MacBook Step by Step
The first thing you should do when you find your MacBook to be sluggish and slow is cleaning it up. Over the time, the junk files, app leftover, user junk, internet junk, slow down your MacBook. Here is the step by step process to clean up your MacBook.
- Clean up Cache
The major reason to slow down the speed of the MacBook is the cache that builds over the time. These can include the system cache, library cache, browser cache, app cache and many more. If you’re the typical Mac user then you must know that cache gets accumulated over the time. Well, caches are temporary files that provide the quick access when you load the data again. These files are although smaller but may rise to gigabytes over the passage of time. Best apps for macbook air. This seriously affects the Mac functionality. There are many tools to remove the cache easily by providing the one-stop solution to all the cache files.
How To Clean Up Macbook Pro
- Removing the Apps Completely
If you’re just dragging the app to the trash and thinking that it has been deleted then you are absolutely wrong. You will surprise to know that doing this practice, leave gigabytes of junk on the hard drive of the MacBook. When you uninstall the app, you should search the in-depth of the system files on your Mac. To remove the apps completely navigate to the folders mentioned below and remove them one by one.
- Applications files are located in ~/Library/Application
- Plugins can be found in ~/Library/Address Book Plug-Ins/
- Binary and dock icons located in /Applications/
- Support Caches can be found in /Library/Caches/ and ~/Library/Caches
- The library can be located in ~/Library/
- App preferences are located in ~/Library/Preferences/
- Crashes are located in ~/Library/Application Support/CrashReporter/
- App states are found in ~/Library/Saved Application State/
There are some hidden files that prevent you to delete them. Keep your due diligence while removing anything from the Mac. For knowing the details of the cleanup, you can refer https://macpaw.com/how-to/clean-up-mac.
- Remove Mail Attachments
Whenever you open the email through PDFs, Images, word documents, there is a chance that you double click and download them. This gets save in the mail download folder and occupy the space. You can easily delete them by using spotlight. By pressing command+space, you can search the mail documents and you can delete the files. Make sure to check every year or so.
- Empty Trash
Once you delete the files, they reside in trash bin taking a lot of storage space in your MacBook. If you want back your precious hard disk space back then remove the files from there. Click and hold the trash can icon in the dock. There appears the popup, select the empty trash.
How To Clean Up Macbook Computer
- Find and Remove Large Files
To find the large files on your Mac’s hard drive, the easy and quick way is to use the Finder. Open a new Finder window. Enter a space asterisk in the search field which will ensure that all items are included. Click on the little + icon located below the search field. Go to filter #1 for file size and filter #2 for the greater than. Enter the size and you will get the files matching your criteria. You can also apply MB or GB in the filter #3. When you locate the large files, you can compress, delete, and copy them to the external drive.
- Compress and Archive Old Files
If you have any files that are too large and old can be compressed or deleted. The process of compressing reduces the disk space that is needed. It depends on the type of file. The images and movies take a lot of space whereas text documents take less space. Fortunately, Mac OS X has the zip facility. You simply need to select the files and folders you want to compress. You should right click and choose the compressed items to create the zip file. Then you can delete the uncompressed original files.
- Delete Duplicate Files
You may get a lot of duplicate files in your MacBook. This includes the iTunes content and other media as well as files having different names. There are few ways to remove the duplicates.
- Download from Mac app store a third party app
- Use Finder
- Use a command or script terminal
8. Delete the DMGs and IPSW
Disk images (DMGs) and iPhone software bundles (IPSW) often take the unnecessary space on your MacBook. You should eliminate them completely.
Deleting DMGs- After you mount the disc image and install an app, you are free to eject and trash your DMG. For this simply send them to trash.
How To Clean Up Macbook Pro Storage
Deleting IPSW- Follow the path Library>iTunes>iPhone Software Updates and find the unused software bundles.
How To Clean Up Macbook
These are step by step process to clean the Macbook. Follow them and stay worried free with superpower speed of your MacBook.