Space, Space, Space! Mac OS

If you have been using your Mac for a long time, then it’s time to clean up the mess to get more disk space. macOS includes several ways to help you find out how much disk space you have left on your computer, without the need for a third-party app to be installed on your device.

  • The most basic way to check free disk space on a Mac is by using Finder. Open a new Finder window by pressing Command+N or selecting File New Finder Window in the menu bar. (You can also use a little-known shortcut to open one from anywhere.) The Best Tech Newsletter Anywhere.
  • Also in the Storage tab, not only you will find out the free space you have, but you could also see which type of files are taking up the most of your hard disk space. Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard or Earlier. For Macs running Mac OS 10.6 or earlier, the procedure is a little longer than the one described above. Click on the Finder icon from the dock.

In reality, photos, videos, and files tend to build up over time, taking up a large amount of your computer’s disk space. If you are looking for a simple way to check your Mac’s free hard drive space, then we are here to help.

How to check Mac’s hard drive space

  1. Using the Finder

The Finder has been an essential part of macOS since the launch day, allowing you to locate and organize your documents, folders, and media. The macOS Finder also gives you an overview of your Mac’s hard drive space. The process is pretty simple and here is how.

Step one: First off, select the storage device on your Mac and then hit the spacebar button (if you don’t see your storage device, head to the Finder, then select Preferences from the pull-down menu and select Show these items on the Desktop option

Note: If it’s been fewer than 10 days since you upgraded to Windows 10, your previous version of Windows will be listed as a system file you can delete.If you need to free up drive space, you can delete it, but keep in mind that you'll be deleting your Windows.old folder, which contains files that give you the option to go back to your previous version of Windows. These two will also help you free up some space on your Mac and be able to upgrade to the latest Mac OS. PowerMyMac also helps you scan and analyze the network status of your device. The next time you will experience, latency or apps slowing down, use PowerMyMac to check and determine what is really going on with your device.

Step two: Once you press the spacebar button, you should see a window that gives you an overview of your disk’s storage space

MacOS also allows you to get a status of your disk’s storage space right from your Finder. This comes in handy, as it eliminates the need to go into the Settings on your Mac.

To turn on the Finder’s status bar, open the Finder window on your Mac > View > Show Status bar. Once you are done, you should see how much storage space you have left at the bottom of the Finder window.

  1. Get Info

If you find the above-mentioned method annoying, then you can use the Get Info window to check how much disk space you have left. However, the process might be unknown to many folks. With that in mind, we are here to help.

Step one: Locate your hard drive in the Finder and then select it

Step two: Click the File menu at the top and then select Get Info from the pull-down menu

Step three: Once you are done, a window should show up and gives you all information about your disk, including kind, date of creation, version, and capacity.

  1. About box

With a modern version of macOS, you can use the About box to check your Mac’s disk space. The process is pretty simple and we will show you how in the section below.

Step one: Click on the Apple menu at the top of the display and then select About This Mac from the drop-down menu

Step two: Once you are in, make sure you select the Storage tab. When you are in, you should see how much space you have left on your Mac.

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Alternatively, you can use your Mac’s Disk Utility to check your Mac’s disk space. To do this, open Disk Utility, and then select the hard drive from the list.

Also read: How to uninstall a Mac app

Got any questions? Let us know in the comments below.

How to free disk space on mac

Most of us are keen to update to a new version of macOS as soon as it is available. macOS Big Sur has been out since November 12, still, many users couldn't update their Macs straight away. It’s very frustrating if you see a message telling you that you don’t have enough space to install the new macOS. Don’t worry, though. There are lots of things you can do to fix it. We’ll show you what they are in this article.

How much space do you need for Big Sur?

While the installer for Big Sur takes up less than 16GB of space, you should make sure that you have at least 20GB of free space on your startup disk before you try to download and install it. The more free space, the better. Your Mac uses disk space to store temporary files and provide storage for active apps and tasks (which is what RAM does), so you should never be running with almost no disk space left.

CleanMyMac X makes it very easy to free up disk space on your Mac by identifying junk files and allowing you to get rid of them with a click. It can also detect large and old files and show you the files taking up most space and uninstall applications.

How to free up space for macOS Big Sur?

Complete the following steps to ensure your Mac is ready to update to Big Sur.

1. Backup your Mac

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Back up all files and data that are stored on your Mac. Preferably twice to different locations. While upgrading to Big Sur is safe, you never know when something might go wrong. If you use Time Machine or another backup tool, run a manual backup just before you upgrade. And, if you can, clone your startup disk to an external drive, too.

2. Free up disk space using CleanMyMac X

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If you don’t already have CleanMyMac X installed, download it for free here. This tool will help you clear some space and delete large and old files quickly.

  1. Launch CleanMyMac X.
  2. Choose System Junk in the sidebar and press Scan.
  3. When it’s finished, press Clean to free up space, or Review Details to find out more.

3. Get rid of large and old files

Media files usually gobble up a large amount of disk space. And the worst thing is they are scattered around Mac’s folders, making it difficult to find and remove them. CleanMyMac X proves to be useful here:

  • Choose Large & Old files in CleanMyMac X’s sidebar.
  • Press Scan.
  • When it’s finished, use the middle column to filter files by type.
  • Check files that you want to delete.
  • Press Remove.

4. Use Apple’s built-in storage management tool

Apple has provided a method for you to manage storage by showing you what is taking up disk space and making recommendations for deleting. It’s not as quick and easy as CleanMyMac X, but it can help you save disk space. Here’s how to use it.

  1. Click on the Apple menu and choose About this Mac.
  2. Select Storage and press Manage.
  3. In the Recommendations section, review each section in turn.
  4. Now go through each of the sections in the sidebar.
  5. Delete files or take further action, depending on what you choose.

5. Delete local Time Machine snapshots

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There is one other thing you can try if you keep getting a message telling you that you do not have enough space to install Big Sur. You should only try it if you are sure there is enough space on your startup disk and that the message is wrong. And it will only work if you use Time Machine to back up your Mac.

Time Machine stores local snapshots on your Mac. Your Mac is supposed to count the space used by snapshots as free space, which is why it looks like you have enough space for the installation.

However, it seems that the installer may not realize the space is free. The solution is to delete the snapshots. This won’t remove backups on your backup disk, just snapshots on your Mac.


Open Time Machine from System Preferences. Uncheck Back Up Automatically and wait some time till Time Machine deletes snapshots. Then you can turn Time Machine back on.

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If you’re familiar with Terminal, you can try deleting local snapshots manually.

  1. Go to Applications > Utilities and launch Terminal.
  2. Type: tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
  3. You will see a list of snapshots that look like this: com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-10–09-002010.local
  4. To delete a snapshot, type: sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots
  5. Then type the date part of the snapshot name. For example: sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2020-10–09-002010
  6. Type Return and repeat for each snapshot you want to delete.

Hopefully, this helped you free up some space and update your Mac to the latest OS. If you're just preparing your Mac for the upgrade, don't forget to back up your data before you start clearing space. So you won't be afraid of losing anything important.