Software To Clean Up Mac Hard Drive

13.09.2020by

Nobody likes when their MacBook Pro starts to run slow. It can be a real pain waiting for files to load or dealing with the spinning beach ball when you are in the middle of an important project or just trying to watch a movie. Apple MacBooks are typically really fast and reliable but sometimes they can start to act up.

Cleaning up the hard drive on your MacBook Pro can help speed up performance and allow your laptop to seem new again, depending on your MacBook’s specs though. If you have an older model computer or just want to make sure yours is operating at the best of its abilities, take a look at how you can clean up the hard drive and what a difference it can make.

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Note: by saying “hard drive”, we mean a hard disk drive and solid-state drive (SSD) that’s equipped inside your MacBook Pro.

Symptoms of a Cluttered Hard Drive

If you are not sure that your MacBook Pro needs a clean up, here are a few symptoms that often mean your hard drive is a mess and is due for an easy tune-up. A cluttered hard drive is pretty normal, especially if you’ve had your computer for a while so don’t worry if any of this is happening to your machine.

If your MacBook Pro is running slower than usual, i.e. programs and apps are taking a long time to load, web pages crash or don’t load, or your screen freezes often, it’s a good sign that your hard drive might need to be cleaned. It’s pretty obvious when a nice computer like a MacBook Pro starts to slow down, so if you think it’s acting slow, there’s a good chance it is.

Clean up mac hard drive

High quantities of large and old files such as photos and music can take up a lot of room on your hard drive and over time lead to slow performance. Items left in the trash bin but not fully deleted can also take up a lot of space. Then you have system junk and junk leftover by commonly used apps that might take up a lot of space without you even knowing it. Old email attachments and old system files also add to poor performance.

  • Apr 24, 2020  How To Clean up Mac Hard Drive Using CleanMyMac Here are the steps on how to clean mac hard drive Using CleanMyMac tool, You can follow the below steps to clean mac hard drive Using CleanMyMac tool. CleanMyMac will scan and clean the System, Photos and Itunes junk files that the Mac contains and it will even scan the large files that make the.
  • There are a few applications to clean up Mac computers, but, the only one that’s professional and highly recommended for cleaning, and speed boosting is Detox My Mac. It’s a complete cleaning software for Mac that allows you to clean junk files, log files, and all the other unwanted things that slow down your machine and risk your online and offline privacy.

How to Clean Up a MacBook Pro Hard Drive the Easy Way

There are a few different ways to go about cleaning up your MacBook Pro hard drive and the easiest way is to purchase and download software that cleans up the hard drive for you. We will look at some steps to cleaning up your hard drive manually but for convenience and if you are not too computer savvy, purchasing a program that takes care of everything is a quick and easy option.

One of the most well known and common software programs that help to clean up a MacBook Pro hard drive is CleanMyMac X. This program is really easy to use and after it is installed, you simply open the program, run the system check and it goes through an in-depth process of cleaning out old files and other junk, along with a few other important scans to clean up everything and get your computer running like new again.

These Mac hard drive cleaning programs do cost money, but the time they can save you and the ability to keep everything on your computer running quick and clean is easily worth the price. A quick scan and clean by one of these programs can have your MacBook Pro running fast again in a matter of minutes while doing it yourself can take several hours.

Other good options for MacBook Pro hard drive cleaning software are Drive Genius and CCleaner.

How to Clean Up A MacBook Pro Hard Drive the Hard Way

Software To Clean My Mac

If you don’t want to spend the money on a MacBook Pro clean-up software program, it is possible to clean up the hard drive yourself. It takes some time and know-how to do the job right so some research and further instruction outside of this quick guide might be needed. If you are comfortable with your MacBook and know how to access back-end aspects of its operating system, you will be able to clean up your own hard drive.

Here are some easy steps to cleaning up your hard drive:

  1. Delete old and unused files – go through all of your system files and delete any that you no longer use or don’t know what they are. Duplicate files can also be deleted if you find any during your search.
  2. Clean up your cache – clearing up web caches can be an easy and effective way to improve performance but is somewhat involved so check out this link on how to go about it.
  3. Uninstall Any Unused Apps – Apps can take up a ton of space and memory so getting rid of any that are installed on your computer that you don’t use can speed things along in the long run.
  4. Remove Old Mail Attachments – We all get thousands of emails a year and a lot of these come with images and attachments. If you double click on these, they are saved to your computer. Go through and get rid of these old attachments to help your hard drive.
  5. Empty Mac Trash – Once a file is placed in the trash can, it still needs to be permanently deleted. If you have put lots of files in the trash but have not yet deleted, they can take up a bunch of space.

Final Thoughts

Cleaning up the hard drive on your MacBook Pro can be an involved process. Purchasing a software cleanup program can be an easy option but if you want to do it yourself, start with the information above and check out this guide and this link for more tips and a walk-through on how to get your hard drive back up to speed.

What is your favorite Mac cleanup software? Have you ever cleaned up your hard drive manually? Let us know any other tips and tricks, if so!

Our resident Mac Help guru, Peter Cohen, previously told us about the 'Other' storage category on Mac computers and what it catalogs: In short, you're seeing space taken up by plug-ins, documents, and caches stored by OS X.

It's worth noting that these files aren't normally harmful or wasteful to your computer's system; most are intended to help your Mac run efficiently, and ideally, you shouldn't ever have to clear out your Other files. Unfortunately, they can quickly clog up a computer low on storage — especially if you're storing a large number of iPhone or iPad backups.

Whether you're looking to free up space on your hard drive or just want to do some spring cleaning, here are some simple steps to get your Mac free and clear.

A note on what happened to 'Other' space in macOS Sierra and higher

App To Clean Up Mac Hard Drive

When Apple added its storage management feature to macOS Sierra, called Optimize Storage, it reorganized what 'other' storage is and where it's located on the Mac. Much of it has been divided out through other categories so it's easier to find and remove.

The 100GB of Other storage I used to carry on my iMac is whittled down to just 5GB. You can still clean out old and unnecessary content from your Mac with macOS Sierra and High Sierra by using Optimized Storage. It's just a little easier to find those unused files than it was before.

A lot of the features of Optimized Storage remove content from your Mac and store them in iCloud. If you're concerned with how much storage you're using up in iCloud, you can customize or disable some Optimized Storage features to keep a balance between what's on your Mac and what's in iCloud.

What's this 'Purgeable' category all about?

If you check your system storage graph in macOS, you'll probably discover a category called Purgeable. This is part of Apple's Optimized Storage service. When you move your Documents into iCloud (part of the Store in iCloud component) and your hard drive gets low on storage, only recently opened files are kept on your Mac. Older documents are stored in iCloud, while a shortcut icon is kept on your Mac (files are automatically re-downloaded to your Mac as soon as you open them). The Purgeable files are what Optimized Storage will move to iCloud and delete from your hard drive only if your hard drive starts to get full. Purgeable files also include caches and temporary files that used to fit into the Other category, which will also be deleted as your hard drive starts to fill up.

Though your Other storage might have been spread out across categories in macOS Sierra and higher, you can still follow the below steps to manually clean up your Mac and get rid of unnecessary files.

How to check your storage space on your Mac

If you are concerned with how much storage space you have remaining on your Mac computer, you can check its usage folder to see how much space each category is taking up, including Other.

  1. Click on your desktop or the Finder icon from the Dock.
  2. Select the Apple Menu icon in the upper left corner of the screen.
  3. Click on About This Mac.

  4. Select Storage.

Your Mac breaks down its storage categories as follows: Apps, Movies, Photos, Audio, Backups, and — that annoying, undescriptive category — Other.

How to remove cached files

Now that you know how much space your Other files are taking up, it's time to reduce their footprint on your Mac. You can start by removing items you don't need, including caches for your web browser, saved Apple Music streams, and photo previews.

A note on deleting cache folders: You only want to delete old and unnecessary files, as current cache files store your preferences. We strongly recommend only deleting cache files from old apps.

  1. Click on your desktop or select the Finder icon from the Dock.
  2. Select the Go menu in the upper left corner of the screen.
  3. Click on Go to Folder.

  4. Type ~/Library/caches into the text box. A list of caches from active apps will appear on your desktop.

  5. Select the app folder you wish to remove the cache from.
  6. Right-click (or control-click) on the app folder.
  7. Select Move to Trash.

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How to remove downloaded files

Chances are, your Downloads folder is stuffed with Other-type files, including installer packages, documents, and folders you have already made copies of somewhere else. If you want to make some room on your Mac, it may be time to clean out your Downloads folder.

  1. Click on your desktop or select the Finder icon from the Dock.
  2. Select the Go menu in the upper left corner of the screen.
  3. Click on Downloads.

  4. Select the file you wish to remove.
  5. Right-click (or control-click) on the file.
  6. Select Move to Trash.

If you want to save a file from the Downloads folder but don't want it clogging your drive, consider moving it to an external hard drive or flash drive, or uploading it to an online storage option like Dropbox.

How to delete old device backups in iTunes

If you tend to get new iOS devices fairly regularly, you may have unnecessary device backups stored on your computer via iTunes. Backups take up 4-5GB each, on average; there's no need to hold on to older device backups if you no longer have the device or have it stored in iCloud.

Third-party software that can help

While you don't need any third-party app to 'clean' your Mac, there are some very handy system access tools out there that make it easier to regularly remove unwanted files.

CleanMyMac 3

With CleanMyMac, you have easy access to a list of features that help you keep your Mac free of unnecessary junk. It scans your entire system and recommends files you should delete based on how old they are and whether they are considered unnecessary to your workflow. It's a lot like Apple's Optimized Storage, but with a few additional features. My favorite is the recommendation to delete all content related to an application. Sometimes, you'll end up with a couple of files left behind by an app when you delete it. CleanMyMac provides a one-button purge of everything associated with that app.

DaisyDisk

Cleaning Mac Hard Drive

DaisyDisk scans your Mac and gives you a pie chart that makes it easy to see what files are using up the most space. You can identify files that are in the Other storage category and drag them to the delete box.

Best Clean Up Software For Mac Hard Drive

Onyx

Onyx is a robust Mac system access tool that, in-part, can delete caches, logs, temporary items, and other files that find their way into the Other storage category.

Clean Up Macbook Pro Hard Drive

Cocktail

Cocktail is another useful system access tool that you can use to clear caches, purge memory, and manage hidden Apple app settings, which might be automatically sending files into the Other category abyss.

Software To Clean Up Mac Hard Drive

Questions?

Still having trouble with Other? Let us know in the comments.

Updated June, 2018: Updated the section on deleting iPhone and iPad backups in iTunes to direct people to the article about doing that. The rest of these steps are still correct.

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