How to Clean Up Mac Storage: What's Safe to Delete in 2026

Before you delete anything

The fastest way to lose a weekend is to start deleting things because a folder name looks unimportant. So this guide is ordered from safest to least safe, and every step says what you are actually removing and what happens afterwards. Most people get 20 to 100 GB back from the first four steps and never need the rest.

Two ground rules. First, measure before you act: open System Settings → General → Storage and note the number, so you can see what each step bought you. Second, move things to the Trash rather than deleting outright, and only empty the Trash at the end. Everything below is reversible until that moment.

Step 1: Empty the obvious buckets

1. The Trash. Files in it still take up space. Right-click the Trash in the Dock and choose Empty Trash. If you use Time Machine, this is often several gigabytes on its own.
2. Downloads. Sort the folder by size (in Finder, View → as List, then click the Size column). Installers you have already run, disk images, zip files you extracted months ago: all of it can go.
3. Mail attachments. In Mail → Settings → Accounts → Account Information, set Download Attachments to Recent or None. Mail keeps a local copy of every attachment otherwise, and for an old account that can be tens of gigabytes.

Step 2: Find what is actually big

Guessing does not work. The folders that feel large (Photos, Documents) are often not the problem, and the ones that are (developer tooling, app caches, virtual machines) are hidden or unfamiliar. You need a picture of the whole disk, sorted by size.

A Mac disk space analyzer like Klarity draws that picture as a treemap: every folder is a rectangle sized by how much it holds, so the two or three that matter jump out in the first second. Scan your Home folder, look for the biggest rectangles, and double-click to drill in. If you would rather not install anything, the built-in alternative is slower but works: in Finder, Go → Home, View as List, then press Cmd + J and turn on Calculate all sizes. Wait for the sizes to fill in and sort by the Size column. There is a longer walkthrough in how to find large files on a Mac.

Whichever tool you use, write down the top five. Everything from here on is about those five.

Step 3: Clear caches and the rest of “System Data”

On most Macs the biggest surprise is the grey System Data bar in Storage settings. It is not one thing; it is a catch-all for caches, logs, snapshots and developer files, and most of it lives in the hidden ~/Library folder. I wrote a full explainer on what System Data on a Mac actually is; the short version:

1. App caches. Open Finder, press Cmd + Shift + G, type ~/Library/Caches. Quit the apps you are about to clean, then move the contents of the largest subfolders to the Trash (not the Caches folder itself). Apps rebuild these on next launch.
2. Xcode leftovers, if you write software. ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData is build output and can go entirely. Old simulator runtimes are removed in Xcode → Settings → Platforms, which is safer than deleting the files by hand. On my own Mac this folder was 91 GB.
3. Local Time Machine snapshots. macOS keeps hourly snapshots on the internal disk between backups and thins them when space gets tight. If you need room right now, open Terminal and run tmutil listlocalsnapshots / to see them, then tmutil deletelocalsnapshots <date> for the old ones.
4. Logs. ~/Library/Logs is safe to empty. It is rarely large, but it is free.

Step 4: Uninstall applications properly

Dragging an app to the Trash removes the app bundle but leaves its support files behind. For most apps that is a few megabytes and not worth chasing. For a few categories it is not:

• Creative suites (Adobe, DaVinci Resolve, Logic) keep libraries, presets and sound packs in /Library/Application Support, often tens of gigabytes. Use the vendor’s uninstaller.
• Virtual machines and containers: Parallels, VMware, UTM and Docker each keep disk images that grow and never shrink. Delete unused VMs from inside the app, and in Docker Desktop use Troubleshoot → Clean / Purge data.
• Games. Steam and the App Store both let you uninstall and re-download later; there is no reason to keep a 60 GB game you finished.
• Apps you forgot you had. Open the Applications folder in list view, sort by Date Last Opened, and look at the bottom.

Step 5: Deal with media and old devices

1. iPhone and iPad backups. Finder → select your device → Manage Backups. Old backups for phones you no longer own are pure dead weight, often 10 to 50 GB each. Delete them here, not by hunting for the folder.
2. Photos. If you use iCloud Photos, turn on Optimise Mac Storage in Photos → Settings → iCloud. Full-resolution originals stay in iCloud and your Mac keeps small versions. If you do not use iCloud, the library is what it is; moving it to an external drive is the honest answer.
3. Screen recordings and exported video. These hide in Desktop and Movies and are almost always the largest individual files on a Mac. Sort by size and be ruthless.
4. Music and podcasts downloaded for offline listening. Both apps have a setting to remove downloaded episodes automatically after you have played them.

Step 6: The built-in recommendations, with caveats

System Settings → General → Storage has an i button next to each category and a set of recommendations at the top. Two are worth using and one needs a careful read:

• Empty Trash Automatically: fine, it removes items after 30 days.
• Optimise Storage: removes watched TV shows and films from the TV app and keeps only recent attachments in Mail. Also fine.
• Store in iCloud: moves the contents of Desktop and Documents to iCloud Drive and keeps only recently used files locally. This works, but it changes where your files physically live and can push you into a paid iCloud tier. Read the dialog before you agree to it.

What not to do

• Do not install a “cleaner” that promises to free up RAM or speed up your Mac. Storage and memory are different problems, and macOS manages memory well on its own.
• Do not delete anything in /System, /usr or /private. The system volume is sealed on modern macOS; if a tool claims it can clean it, it is either wrong or dangerous.
• Do not delete Application Support folders on a hunch. Despite the name, this is where many apps keep real data.
• Do not turn off local snapshots to stop System Data from growing. They are what lets Time Machine restore a file you deleted an hour ago.

The two-minute version

Empty the Trash and Downloads. Scan your Home folder with a disk analyzer and look at the five biggest folders. Clear ~/Library/Caches and Xcode leftovers if you have them. Delete old iPhone backups. Uninstall the VMs and games you no longer use. Empty the Trash again. Check Storage settings and admire the difference.

Klarity does the scanning part, and it moves files to the Trash only after you confirm, with a slide-to-confirm for anything over 1 GB. It is $6.99, one payment, on the Mac App Store. If a step here did not work the way I described, tell me and I will fix the guide.

Questions people ask

Is it safe to delete System Data on a Mac?

Parts of it. App caches in ~/Library/Caches, Xcode DerivedData, old simulator runtimes and local Time Machine snapshots are safe to remove and get rebuilt when needed. Preferences, Keychains, Application Support and app Containers are not caches and should be left alone.

Why is my Mac storage full when I have not downloaded anything?

Usually caches, local Time Machine snapshots, old iPhone backups, or developer tooling growing in the background. None of these show up as files you downloaded. A folder-by-folder scan of your Home folder, sorted by size, finds the culprit in a minute.

Does emptying the Trash free space immediately?

Yes, unless the files are held in a local Time Machine snapshot, in which case the space is reclaimed when macOS thins the snapshots or when you delete them with tmutil. Storage settings can lag a few seconds behind.

Do I need a third-party app to clean up Mac storage?

No. Finder, Storage settings and Terminal can do everything in this guide. A disk analyzer makes the finding step much faster because it shows every folder sized to scale, but the deleting is the same either way.

— Mukul