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Here’s guide on how to check the amount of free space available on macOS Sierra, El Capitan, Maverick and older. Read also: How to Check Computer System Specifications on Mac. Checking Available Hard Drive Space on Mac OS Sierra. Step 1: Click on Apple icon and select the About This Mac option. Aug 30, 2013 When using your Mac, maintaining a small amount of free drive space is required to keep your system running optimally. While nothing stops you from adding files to your drive until it can hold no.

How To Check Free Space On Mac
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Checking your storage on Mac isn't difficult – but managing it can be. One of the more curious storage compartments is the 'other' storage on Mac, which sounds like a catch-all for files that can't be labeled properly.

And that's sort of true! But the other volumes in container can get full, and reduce the Mac storage Other space for your Mac. And keep in mind there's no 'how to get rid of other on Mac' option; the partition isn't there to delete totally. Here we'll show you how to check your other space, and offer guidance on managing it.

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How to Check Storage on Mac

This will be quick! Just follow these directions:

  • Click the Apple logo on the top left of the menu bar
  • Select 'About This Mac'
  • Choose 'Storage'

And there you go! That's the simple way to check the storage available on your Mac. Now, do you see that 'Manage…' button on the right-hand side of the window? Click it!

Depending on how you use your Mac and what apps you run, that 'other' category could be taking up quite a bit of space, and you could free it up very easily — potentially saving yourself from having to buy additional storage.

View and Manage the Other space on Mac

The next window you arrive at shows how Apple manages your system memory. In macOS Sierra, Apple added a default feature named 'Optimize' that helps balance the load between cloud storage and on-device memory use. As you can see in the window (below), 'System' and 'Other' are greyed-out.

This is because the other space is tricky to manage, and required digging into the Library on your Mac. Kid pix deluxe 4. As we cautioned in our article on deleting apps from your Mac, foraging through Library is a tad frightening, so proceed with caution.

But what is other on Mac? In essence, it's caches, plug-ins, and documents macOS wants to keep around. Here's how to open Library, so we can start to discover what 'other' is on Mac:

  • Open Finder
  • Select 'Go' from menu
  • Hold down 'option' key on keyboard; you should see a new option for 'Library'
  • While holding down the option key, select 'Library'

You'll see a Library folder in the list. Click it to see all your apps and associated files. There are also folders with names like 'Caches.'

We can't caution you enough: if you're not sure what it is you're looking for, don't delete it – and remember you can't delete Other on Mac entirely. There's a reason Apple hides the Library; small changes can have deep, lasting effects.

But, if you know what needs deleting, this is where you'll find it. If you're positive an app's files or plugins need to go, this is where you'll find them. Simply right-click the folder or file you want gone, and select 'move to trash.' Then empty the trash can, and you're done. This is how you remove files from the Other storage category. Check info about how to recover files from a hard drive on Mac.

How To Check Free Space On Linux Machine

How

But that's scary stuff. We have a better way

The Best Way to Reduce Other Storage on Mac

Apple's Optimize service is great for Macs with tons of on-board storage, mostly because those machines need very little interaction when it comes to managing files and storage space.

The best option is to find a file manager you can control. ForkLift is a really solid option that brands itself as a replacement for Finder – and it's not wrong. You can connect multiple servers (FTP, SFTP, Amazon S3, AFP, WebDAV, SMB, and NFS), and archive unnecessary files or folders. Like Finder, it has a preview for files you're accessing, and also lets you compare files so you can delete duplicates as needed.

A much more robust method is with CleanMyMacX. This app is almost a must-have for any Mac owner. It managed files, folders, apps, extensions, updates, mail attachments, and the trash bin. But it's core function is to make sure your Mac is optimized, and it does an amazing job.

Reduce storage with CMM X

Install CleanMyMac X and forget about manual storage cleaning. The app wipes away all junk from your Mac in seconds.

With CleanMyMacX, all you have to do is activate its Smart Scan feature. It discovers unnecessary files for you, and optimizes your Mac for speedier performance. It even makes sure your Mac has no malware!

Trusting CleanMyMacX to do its job correctly is never a question, but you can dig deeper if you like. Once a smart scan is complete, you can select 'review details' under the Cleanup task before you select 'run.' In this details log, you'll see two main categories: system junk, and trash bins.

System Junk is where those pesky cache files are, along with log files. You can choose 'show' to see which caches CleanMyMacX is getting rid of, too.

Conclusion

The one thing to remember about other storage on Mac is it's not always going to vanish. Initial d street stage. Your Mac stores all kinds of things there, like application support and font files. You need that stuff – and is again why we caution you not to simply clear out everything in your Library that doesn't immediately resonate.

But you don't always need caches, and cleaning your files manually can take a long time. When you're ready to clear 'Other' on Mac, it's almost always because you want it to run smoother, or stay running at optimal performance levels.

This is why we advocate for apps like ForkLift and CleanMyMacX. Even if you want the more manual controls ForkLift offers, its ease of use makes storage management faster and easier.

We think most will find value in CleanMyMacX, too. Its simple one-click optimization makes system maintenance a breeze!

Best of all, both ForkLift and CleanMyMacX are available free as part of a seven day trial of Setapp. In addition to these apps, you get access to dozens of other handy macOS apps!

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The ability to know how to check up on key maintenance and operational functions on your MacBook Pro can help you understand how your computer works and give you insight into any problems that may arise.

Apple products are designed to allow you to access many key insights that will give you a look into the inner-workings of your computer. Some of this may seem complex at first, but it really is straightforward to figure out.

One of these key insights that are good to know is how to check the storage capacity of your MacBook Pro.

This will let you know how much room you have on your computer to keep any type of file and data you wish. This could be photos, videos, games, apps or any other piece of data that you want to store directly on the computer.

It’s good to keep track of this so you know when you might be running out of disk space.

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Contents

  • How to Check Storage on MacBook Pro

Why is Storage Space Important?

Many of you might not pay that much attention to storage space anymore.

This is probably because you have a very large hard drive that has more than enough space to store anything and everything you want to have on your computer. Storage technology has really improved and now allows us to have very large hard drives and storage capacities on our computers.

This isn’t always the case, however, and some of you might be nearing storage capacity. As you approach storage capacity, your computer may begin to function poorly as all of the files and programs start to eat up CPU and available RAM. You also might try to download a large or important file only to find out that you do not have enough storage space available.

By keeping an eye on your storage space, you will be able to better understand the state of your computer. It’s an easy check-up that you can use to troubleshoot slow performance or glitchy operations.

While you might want to keep every piece of data you have on your computer, you can easily back up files to an external hard drive or to the cloud and free up valuable storage space.

How to Check Storage on MacBook Pro

There are a couple of different ways to check the storage on your MacBook Pro and we will take a look at them here. You can also set up your computer to have storage details always listed on the top of your screen if you wish to do so.

Method 1 – Use the Finder

How To Check Free Space On Macbook Air

  1. Open the Finder on your computer, usually, this is in your Dock.
  2. In the Finder locate your Hard Drive and open it.
  3. Click File in the Hard Drive menu and then click Get Info.
  4. A window will pop up that looks like this and you can see how much storage you have and how much is currently being used:

Method 2 – About This Mac

If you are running a newer macOS, Yosemite or above, you can easily check on storage space using the About This Mac method. This is the method I personally use the most and it is a really easy way to get this information quickly.

  1. Open an Apple menu on the top left-hand corner of your screen and click on About This Mac.
  2. A window will pop up with several options and click on the Storage tab.
  3. This will display a graphic bar of how much memory is being used and how much free space you have available. It will even give you a color-coded breakdown of how much memory is being used for what.

Method 3 – Disk Utility

Another method to finding out how much storage you have on your MacBook is to use the Disk Utility function.

Disk Utility gives you access to a bunch of critical information about your MacBook Pro so it is good to know how to access it. This is not the fastest method to check your storage but is good to know so you can also access the utility for any other reason.

  1. Open the Finder from your Dock or Desktop.
  2. Click on Applications.
  3. Click on Utilities.
  4. Click on Disk Utility.
  5. A window will appear showing you how much storage is being used, how much free space is available and some other insights will be listed.

Method 4 – Storage Status Bar

How to check free space on mac disk

If you want to constantly keep track of your storage, you can put a status bar on the main menu of your Finder that will pop up every time you open the Finder. To do this:

Mac Disk Space

  1. Open the Finder.
  2. Open the View Menu from the top screen.
  3. Select Show Status Bar.
  4. Your storage information will now be listed at all times in the Finder.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there are a handful of different methods to go about checking the storage on your MacBook Pro.

How To Check Free Space On Mac Air

It is easy to do and a good habit to get into every now and then while you are working on your computer. If you have a large hard drive, you may never have to worry about filling it up but if you want to keep a lot of data and have your computer functioning at full speed and capacity, it’s good to keep track of.

How To Check Free Space On Mac Laptop

Have you ever filled up your storage completely?