How to determine if a lot of your disk space is being used by 'System' Purging old snapshots; Comments; Time Machine and local backups. If you run Time Machine for backups over Wi-Fi like I do, then macOS High Sierra will simultaneous use your remote backup disk and your local disk to save backups to.
Image: CNET Recently I was working on my MacBook Pro when I received an error that my SSD was running out of space. 'This can't be!' I said to myself (Upon further reflection, I'm certain I said it very much out loud). The laptop in question was just a few months old and I hadn't saved or generated enough data to fill up a 500 GB HD. So what gives?
I opened up Finder to dig around, but oddly enough I found nothing suspect. And yet, my drive was full, which was a bit disconcerting, considering that I was rendering a video with Final Cut Pro. Would the video rendering complete? Or would it error out? And then it dawned on me. Final Cut Pro still had every project I had completed over the past few months, still available to me.
That had to be the issue. With that in mind, I set out to regain that much-needed hard drive space back. With the help of the macOS Storage Manager. This is an amazing, built-in, tool that allows you to take control and reclaim storage space on your Mac. To make this tool even more attractive, it's incredibly easy to use. First off, there are two ways you can use the Storage Manager.
You can allow it to offer up suggests on how to clear up space, or you can use it manually. As a Linux user, I much prefer the manual method, which is what I'm going to show you. For information on how to use the automatic method, click. To get to the Storage Manager, click the Apple button (top left corner of your desktop) and then click About This Mac. In the resulting window, click the Storage tab. In a few seconds, the storage space will be calculated and you're ready to work ( Figure A).
Permanently deleting files that are no longer needed. To select all of the files, if necessary, click the top entry, hold down the Shift key, and click the bottom entry. To delete all of those files, select them, right click (or two finger tap) the selected files, and click Delete. When prompted, click Remove, and all of those files will be permanently deleted from your drive. Once you've cleaned up the Large Files tab, you can then go through the Downloads and File Browser tab to finish the clean up job. Chances are, however, going through that Large File tab will have the desired results and you will have reclaimed some much-needed hard drive space.
It doesn't get much easier And that's all there is to recovering space on macOS. Hopefully you won't find yourself receiving the warning I did, but if you make use of a tool like Final Cut Pro, your hard drive will fill up very quickly. In that case, having the means to easily reclaim storage space is a must.
Maybe you've been testing macOS Mojave in beta for months. Maybe you wanted to be surprised with all the new features on launch day. Unless something goes wrong, will be available September 24 as a free upgrade.
Get your Mac ready for the big update by checking off everything you need to prepare for a smooth update. Step 1: Make sure your Mac is compatible with macOS Mojave macOS Mojave is compatible with the following laptop and desktop computers:. MacBook (Early 2015 or newer). MacBook Air (Mid 2012 or newer). MacBook Pro (Mid 2012 or newer).
Mac mini (Late 2012 or newer). iMac (Late 2012 or newer). iMac Pro (2017). Mac Pro (Late 2013, plus mid-2010 and mid-2012 models with recommended Metal-capable GPU) There are a few features that won't work with some older devices. You'll have to decide based on what your Mac is compatible with. You can update directly to macOS Mojave if you are running OS X El Capitan (10.11.6) or newer. Just download it from the Mac App Store.
Step 2: Check your app updates Outdated apps on Mac are just as much of a problem as outdated apps on iPhone, sometimes more if you use your Mac for work. Check with app developers via their website or social networking sites like Twitter to make sure they will support macOS Mojave. Some changes to the Mac operating system might make your favorite apps bug out a little (or a lot). If a developer isn't supporting macOS Mojave or hasn't released an update, you can stick with macOS Mojave until it's safe.
You can also and install Mojave alongside your current OS. Step 3: Clean up your Mac macOS Mojave doesn't take up a lot of space, but you should make sure you've got a few GBs of free space to download and install the update with maximum efficiency. If your Mac is bloated with duplicate photos, extraneous files, or unneeded apps, you might want to to make space for the download. Even if you have plenty of space on your Mac, it's never a bad idea to keep it organized and tidy by cleaning up your desktop, clearing out your downloads folder, and emptying your trash. Step 4: Back it up! I can't stress this enough.
You should always back up your data before downloading any major updates. If you don't set up some backup system, you only have yourself to blame if you lose all of your data. If you are running a beta version of macOS Mojave Those installing macOS Mojave for the first time will have the easiest time downloading the update. All you have to do is click the Download button for it in the Mac App Store and follow the instructions to install it. If you've been running the public or developer beta, you should be able to just run the Mojave installer. The final build of macOS Mojave should be the same as the Gold Master beta. You may have to backup, erase, and reinstall the software (another reason why you need to backup!) if something goes wrong.
If you partitioned your hard drive to test macOS Mojave You may have decided to in order to test drive macOS Mojave so as not to mess with your daily driver. If so, you may have built up a number of files that you'd like to save. Make sure you on your secondary partition to make sure you don't lose anything important. It isn't a bad idea to keep a partition, especially if you are a fan of beta testing. But, you might need to free up space on your Mac. If so, you should. Decide whether to do a clean install of macOS Mojave or carry over your current settings.
Some people prefer erasing their hard drive and starting over from scratch. With so many cloud-based storage services, it's much easier than it used to be to do a clean install of an operating system on Mac. But, you have to think about the effect it will have on your immediate workflow before making such a major change.
Questions? Ask now and I'll try to help you before it's too late. Update September 2018: Updated for macOS Mojave.