Regardless of the space, you have on your Mac, “Your disk is almost full” notification can throw you off track for some time. Even if you think there are no apps or programs that might take up a considerable amount of storage space, the large file may be hidden somewhere in your Mac’s memory. In this post, we help you locate such files and delete them for good.
How to find and remove large files on your Mac?
When trying to find and delete big files from your Mac, try to look in the most likely place for them to be such as downloads, documents, and applications. Make sure to check whatever you have on your Mac and delete all the apps, downloads, and documents that you don’t need anymore. Additionally, you need to check your desktop for files you might have dropped and forgotten about. Also, empty your Trash regularly as well as leaving files in there can take up disk space. Mac tends to put miscellaneous files like PDF and cached data into a category called ‘Other’. So, periodically make sure to delete “Other” storage on Mac to get back some disk space. To automate the process, you can use a file cleaner for Mac. If possible, do check for large files in other Mac user profiles. You can delete files from other people’s profiles only if you have the ‘rights’. However, if you have too many accounts on your Mac, we recommend that you log into them and find large files.
Different ways to find and delete large files on Mac
Using Finder
Open the Finder window and select the location you want to find
Make sure to be on the list view
Next, go to View > Show View Options or you could press Cmd + J.
Click on the check box next to “Calculate all sizes”
Now, you can see the sizes of folders, so you can sort them and find the largest file.
Using Storage Management
The recent versions of macOS come with a Storage Management feature that helps users find big files and delete them. Here’s how.
Click on the Apple logo and select “About This Mac”
Click on “Storage”
To open the Storage Management, click on the “Manage” button.
Next, go through the suggestions provided and see if they are useful to you.
Find large files and delete them using the categories on the left-hand side.
Using MacKeeper
MacKeeper is a great feature that can help clear out junk and unnecessary files that may spread out across your Mac and make some disk space. Additionally, it features a Smart Uninstaller that deletes unwanted apps without leaving any old and unwanted files behind.
Open MacKeeper and run Safe Cleanup (or any other scan)
Select any category from the scan results
Next, tap on the sort button at the top right
If not selected already, choose Size and Descending
Using CleanMyMac X
You can use CleanMyMac X to speed up the process of finding and deleting large files. It comes with a Large & Old feature that helps you find large files on your Mac and delete them completely. Put simply, this tool helps you remove all unnecessary files quickly and make space for important documents.
Download CleanMyMac X and open the app once it’s installed.Tap on the Large & Old files tab.Run a scanThe app will show you all the files stored on your Mac. Sort the files based on their size, type, and access date. This can help you find the large files and remove them.Click on the checkboxes for the files you want to delete and then tap on Remove.
Tip: CleanMyMac X also comes with a tool called Space Lens which shows the interactive map of your drive helping you find the files that take up too much space.
Using Terminal
The terminal is yet another way to find large files on your Mac. While some users find commands complicated, if used correctly, you can find the biggest file on your Mac easily.
Open Terminal under Utilities
Execute find command. To locate files bigger than 1G under the/home directory, type, for example, find /home -size 1G.
To delete files: find /home -type f -name *.avi -size +2G -exec rm {}, this will remove all the AVI files that are greater than 2GB under the /home directory.
You can also limit your search and set size filters using this command. The command will look like this: find /home -size +30M -size -100M. It will help you find all files that are larger than 30MB but less than 100MB. Conclusion By deleting large files on Mac, you can make some space for more important files, however, some large files you may want to keep.In such cases, you can think about saving them on an external hard drive or to a cloud service. Whether you decide to keep the files or delete them, the above-mentioned tips can help you find the largest file on your Mac easily and quickly.
