If you are here, it means you have experienced the frustration of not having enough storage space to download more items or upgrade macOS software. When Mac’s storage is almost full, the system’s performance is also affected, which can impede your workflow.
Maybe there’s not enough room for new downloads, or the macOS update is failing because of a lack of space. Here are some effective methods to overcome this crisis.

Delete The Files You Don’t Need

It is essential to occasionally scan your Mac and remove files you no longer need. Think of all the outdated email attachments and documents or movies you have watched several times. You may have downloaded several wallpaper images or meme images. You may not even think of them anymore, but they take up space on your Mac.

Here’s how to delete a document on Mac:

• Click the file you want to delete with your cursor, then drag and drop it onto the Trash icon in the Dock.
• Right-click on any file and select Move to Trash from the menu.
• You can also use the Command + Delete shortcut to remove files from your Mac.

But once you have followed these methods and deleted the files, they are not completely removed from your computer. Instead, they are sent to the Trash and stay there until you empty it. Therefore, after removing files from your Mac, you must target the Trash. Open it and right-click on specific files to permanently delete them.

You can also set Trash to automatically clear itself every 30 days by going to Finder > Preferences > selecting the Remove Items from the Trash after 30 days option.
Suppose you wish to avoid the fuss and directly delete the files without sending them to the Trash, press Option + Command + Delete. However, please double-check the files before permanently deleting them. You won’t be able to retrieve these files.

Compress Files

Seeking an alternative to permanent deletion? Compressing or archiving files is a nice alternative. However, all types of files cannot be compressed. For instance, presentations and documents can be significantly reduced in size by compression, but movies and other media files might be harder to shrink.

When compressing files, you don’t need any third-party tool. Instead, macOS comes with in-built tools that you can use to zip things up.

Open Finder > go to Documents > Command + click on a folder > select Compress. Then, delete the original file, as macOS leaves those files untouched.

Transfer Photos To Cloud Storage Or An External Drive

If your Mac’s storage still feels full after deleting and compressing files, you must audit your media files.

Images and videos are much more than files. They have captured memories. Therefore, a better option for these files would be to keep them in an external drive or iCloud.

You can transfer your images to iCloud by going to the Apple menu > About This Mac > More Info > Storage Settings > click Store in Cloud and select what you want to store > click Store in Cloud again.

You must remember that iCloud’s free plan offers 5GB of storage space. If you want to transfer more to the cloud storage, you must buy a paid storage plan. Or you can transfer media to an external drive.

To transfer media to an external drive, go to the Finder menu > click Go > Home > select the Pictures folder > drag it to a location on your external drive. Then, delete the original Photo library and free space.

Remove Browser Cache

Are you a heavy Internet user? Don’t answer that because every day is dependent on the Internet nowadays. Be it for work or entertainment purposes, and you need the Internet.
As you browse hundreds of websites daily, your Mac’s drive becomes full of browser cache. You must remove the browser cache to free up storage space.

• Safari cache is removed by launching Safari > going to Settings > selecting Show Develop menu in the menu bar > going to the Develop option > selecting Empty Caches.
• Chrome cache must be removed by launching the browser > clicking the three-dot icon > navigating to More Tools > and selecting Clear Browsing Data. Select a time range to clear the browsing data, and you can also check Cached Images and Files and select Clear Data.
• Mozilla Firefox cache is cleared by going to the browser’s Settings > Privacy & Security > choose Cookies and Website Data > Clear Data > marking Cached Web Content and clicking Clear.

Kudos, you have saved some space on your Mac!

These are effective ways to clear storage space on your Mac so you can continue downloading more items and not face obstacles when installing macOS software updates. It is essential to frequently scan your computer to ensure you don’t have redundant files taking up a lot of space on your device. Best of luck!