To begin, choose About This Mac from the Apple ( ) menu, then click Storage. You'll see an overview of your free space and the space used by different categories of files, including apps, documents, and photos: Click the Manage button to see recommendations for optimizing your storage. You'll see fewer options if some of them are already turned on. How to Access iCloud Storage on Mac. If you have run out of iCloud storage for backups of either your Mac or iOS files, you can now easily manage the backups and data for your devices right on your Mac.

• How To Manage Storage In Settings
• How To Manage Storage Mac

How To Manage Storage In Settings

Many years ago, when I moved into my first apartment, I thought that it had an insane amount of closet space for one person. A full-size bed could've fit in the walk-in closet with room to spare, and the coat closet and the linen closet were each bigger than any closet in the house where I grew up. I thought that I could never fill up all that storage space. By the time I moved out a couple of years later, I not only had filled all three closets, but also the basement storage unit that came with the apartment. In the years since, I've never lived anyplace that had that much storage space, and I've been forced to resort to buying under-bed storage containers and additional dressers, and occasionally renting a storage unit. What does this story have to do with a Mac (aside from occasionally running out of room for Mac-related peripherals)?

The thoughts that I had about all that closet space are identical to what many Mac users think when buying a new Mac—it seems to have more storage than they could ever need. But as Macs store more and more of our media (music, movies, photos), the need for storage space continues to grow by leaps and bounds. A decade ago, 20GB seemed adequate for the average user. Today, half of that space would be taken up by Mac OS X and a typical set of applications: Microsoft Office, iWork, iLife, assorted games, maybe some advanced graphics or audio tools. And that doesn't take into account the space required for a typical iTunes or iPhoto library, to say nothing of GarageBand projects and raw footage, as well as completed projects for iMovie. Today all Macs ship with a minimum of 250GB hard drives (with the exception of the ultra-thin MacBook Air), and even that amount of space is easy to fill up in short order. What are Mac users to do when we start running short on storage space?

The options are essentially the same ones I faced after leaving my first apartment: Get rid of things that you don't need, find ways to make things fit into less space, and spend money for extra storage. This article looks at how to apply those techniques to your Mac. TIP Freeing up storage space can have more benefits than simply de-cluttering and reclaiming space for newer and/or larger files. The various system processes of Mac OS X need a certain amount of free disk space to function at their best, and an overfilled hard drive can actually slow down your Mac. Your startup drive should always have at least 10% of its space free. Hotspot shield 3.32 free download. Getting Rid of Things You Don't Need Whether you're cleaning out your closet or your Mac's hard drive, the easiest solution is to get rid of stuff that you don't need anymore.

How To Manage Storage Mac

While it may be easy to look through your closet and pick out the clothes you don't wear, the process of choosing files to remove from your hard drive is a bit more difficult. Two factors can make this type of 'data housecleaning' difficult: • Even if you created most of them, you may not know which files and folders are actually taking up a lot of space. • When you start looking beyond documents and other files you've created or applications that you've installed, it can be difficult to know what you can safely toss, and what you need to keep to ensure that your Mac and applications continue to function properly. Let's tackle each of these issues separately. Finding File and Folders That Take Up Space The first place to begin looking is at things that you've put on the Mac yourself. This category includes music you've downloaded, photos and videos you've captured, various types of other documents that you've either created or added over the years, and applications that you've installed (or, in some cases, ones that came with your Mac). Looking through your home folder, you can probably get a sense of which documents you need or want to keep, which you no longer need at all, and which you need to keep but don't open regularly.