Clean Mac System Storage

Unfortunately, those files take a lot of space on your Mac, and instead of speeding things up, they slow your computer down. Therefore, if you want to give your system a boost, clean your Mac from the cache files. There are two ways to do that: you can delete them manually or use a MacBook cleaner like CleanMyMac X to do the job for you. System storage consists of two type of files: (a) system files that are necessary for operating the core system of the device and (b) temporary system files: system settings, backups, logs, caches and other files. To check your device’s current “System” Storage size, on your iPhone or iPad, go to Settings General iPhone or iPad. Find out how much storage is available on your Mac Choose Apple menu  About This Mac, then click Storage. Each segment of the bar is an estimate of the storage space used by a category of files. Move your pointer over each segment for more detail.

Mac System Storage High
Clean Up Macbook System Storage
Cleaning Up Mac Storage
Clean Up Mac System Storage

/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:

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 Is System Storage on 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 on how to clear system storage on Mac 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 Mac system storage cleanup tool that you can use to reduce system storage on Mac.

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 left side that allow you to clean up system storage on Mac. 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, 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

From there, 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. 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 the easy way on how to clear system storage on Mac with just a few clicks using 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. Apple tv deezer apps. 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 storage. 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. Let's check the steps on how to clear system storage on Mac below:

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

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 free up system storage on iPhone.

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What Is a Startup Disk?

The startup disk is simply the hard drive that contains all your important system files, as well as your operating system. This makes it the most important disk in your Mac. So, when you encounter any error message related to the startup drive, it only means that your primary disk drive is running out of space and that is one bad news.

At first, your Mac will start to perform slowly. No matter how many times you delete junk and unwanted files with a Mac repair tool, your system will still respond slowly. Eventually, you will run out of storage space entirely.

Pro Tip: Scan your Mac for performance issues, junk files, harmful apps, and security threats
that can cause system issues or slow performance.

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For your startup disk to perform efficiently, it requires at least 10% of the disk space to be free. If there is not much storage space, you are definitely headed for bigger problems.

But what if you have deleted tons of files on your startup disk but it is not freeing up space? What should you do?

What to Do If You Have Deleted Files but the Disk Space Still Shows as Full?

If you have deleted the files from your disk but it still shows as full, there are two solutions to try: optimize your Mac and create a backup.

Optimize Your Mac

The first thing you should do is to ensure you have optimized or freed up the storage space on your Mac the right way. Don’t worry because there are new tools and technologies that are designed to make it easier for you to find and remove unwanted or large files.

To begin with, go to the Apple menu and select About This Mac. From there, click Storage. You should then see an overview of your disk’s free space and the total space consumed by other file categories, such as documents, photos, and apps.

Next, click the Manage button to see recommendations on how to optimize your storage space. The general recommendations include the following:

1. Store in iCloud.

Mac System Storage High

If you click the Store in iCloud button, you will be presented with the following options:

Desktop and Documents. This allows you to store files from the Desktop and Documents locations on the iCloud drive. When storage space is limited, only the files that you have recently accessed are kept on your Mac. This way, you can work easily while offline.
Photos. This option allows you to store full-resolution media in the iCloud Photos location. If you have limited storage space, only the optimized versions of photos and videos are made accessible to your Mac.
Messages. This allows you to store attachments and messages in the iCloud Messages location. When there is a shortage of storage space, only the attachments and messages that you have recently opened are saved on your Mac.

Storing files in your iCloud will use up the storage space you have available in your iCloud storage plan. As soon as you exceed your storage limit, you will need to purchase more iCloud storage space or manually delete unnecessary files. An iCloud storage plan starts at $0.99 per month. It already comes with 50GB of storage space.

2. Optimize Your Storage Space.

This recommendation suggests that you optimize your storage space. If you click on the Optimize button, you can access the following options:

Automatically Remove Watched iTunes Movies and TV Shows. This option removes the iTunes TV shows and movies you have already watched on your Mac.
Download Only Recent Attachments. By default, your Mail app automatically downloads the attachments that you receive. But with this option, you can choose to manually download the attachments at any time convenient for you.
Don’t Automatically Download Attachments. This option allows you to download an attachment only if you open the email or the attachment itself.

3. Empty Your Trash Automatically.

Emptying your trash automatically will permanently delete the files that have been in the Trash for a month.

Create a Backup

If you have optimized your Mac but the issue persists, the next solution you can try is to check if Time Machine is enabled on your computer.

To check if Time Machine is enabled, go to System Preferences and select Time Machine. If it is enabled, get your backup drive, connect it to your computer, and make a backup. The reason you have to do this is that your operating system is probably making local snapshots and they are all waiting to be backed up before they can be completely deleted from your computer.

As soon as you have created a backup, restart your Mac and check if it has freed up the disk space.

Other Ways to Clear the Startup Disk

Whether you like it or not, your Mac will create junk every time you use it. But you should not hate it for doing that. Your Mac is only doing its job. Like other operating systems, your Mac will create caches and temporary files for it to perform efficiently. As soon as these files have done their part, they will only consume space for no reason.

Here’s good news, though. You can remove all these futile files and free up gigabytes of space. How? Try these tips:

1. Delete iTunes Backups.

Sure, you love iTunes. But it loves to create backups. Every time you update the app, it will generate a backup of your entire library. This means that with every update, a new one is created. Soon thereafter, you will have loads of them, which you don’t really need.

To delete the unnecessary iTunes backups, follow these steps:

Go to Finder -> Go -> Go to Folder.
Into the text field, input ~/Music/iTunes/Previous iTunes Libraries.
Sort the files by date.
Erase all the files, except for the two most recent backups.

2. Delete Browser Cache.

Every time you visit a new web page, your browser will generate caches. By doing so, the web page will load faster the next time you visit it. Although it only wants to make things faster for you, your browser folder will consume space over time, creating a bigger problem.

So, you have to make deleting browser cache a priority. Here’s how:

Launch your browser.
Navigate to the History tab and click Clear Browsing Data.
Select all the files you wish to remove.
Hit the Clear Browsing Data button.

3. Remove Language Packs.

Most of the apps you have downloaded to your Mac come with language packs, which allow you to change the language preferences in-app. While it’s a useful option to have, let’s admit it: we only need one language. The rest is only a waste of space.

To delete language packs, here’s what you should do:

Go to Applications.
Right-click on an app.
Choose Show Package Contents.
Select Contents -> Resources.
Delete the languages you don’t need.
Repeat steps 1 to 5 for other apps.

Clean Up Macbook System Storage

Summary

Cleaning Up Mac Storage

The next time you find yourself in a situation wherein the Disk Space is not updating, even after deleting files, the first thing you should do is to optimize your Mac. If the problem still persists, try to create a backup. Hopefully, either of the two solutions can resolve your issue. To avoid having Disk Space problems in the future, make it a habit to clear your startup disk regularly.

Which of the solutions above worked for you? Let us know in the comments!

Clean Up Mac System Storage

If you’re running into errors and your system is suspiciously slow, your computer needs some maintenance work. Download Outbyte PC Repair for Windows, Outbyte Antivirus for Windows, or Outbyte MacRepair for macOS to resolve common computer performance issues. Fix computer troubles by downloading the compatible tool for your device.
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