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How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here's How to Do It

Christopher Nolan
Christopher NolanOriginal
2025-03-06 11:41:10198browse

High Sierra Mac lacks storage space? Don't worry, the following methods can help you easily retrieve your precious storage space:

  1. Empty the trash can.
  2. Delete unnecessary programs.
  3. Use iCloud and other cloud drives.
  4. Delete temporary files.
  5. Clean the download folder.
  6. Check whether the system disk usage is too large.
  7. Clear local backup through terminal.
  8. Configure automatic storage optimization.

Insufficient storage space of Mac can slow down the system and make it difficult to download files and install applications. Follow our guide and your High Sierra system will have plenty of storage space.

Non-High Sierra system? Check out our universal guide on how to free up Mac storage space.

How to check the available space for Mac High Sierra

Checking the storage space of Mac in macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) is very simple. Please follow the steps below:

  1. In the Findor, click the Apple icon in the menu bar, and then click About this machine.
  2. Click on the "Storage" tab and macOS will display a quick summary of Mac disk space usage.

How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

Why need to optimize Mac storage space on macOS High Sierra

When Mac disk space is about to be full, the reasons you need to take action are as follows:

  • macOS uses disk space as virtual memory, which means your Mac may be slowed down.
  • Your Mac requires clearable storage for cache, iCloud storage, and Time Machine backups.
  • You may not have enough storage space for downloads, large projects, and new applications.

How to free up disk space on macOS High Sierra

If you find that you lack storage space, you can clean up the space on your High Sierra Mac in a few ways:

  1. Empty the trash can

  2. Delete unnecessary programs

  3. Using iCloud and other cloud drives

  4. Delete temporary files

  5. Clean the download folder

  6. Check whether the system disk usage is too large

  7. Clear local backup through terminal

  8. Configure automatic storage optimization

  9. Empty the trash can

Mac's trash can will be filled quickly, and it only takes a moment to empty the trash can:

  1. Click the Trash can in the dock, and then click in the Finder window to clear . Or, right-click Trash can
  2. and select
  3. Empty . You can also press Cmd Shift Backspace
  4. . In all cases, click
  5. Empty the trash can to confirm your selection.

How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do ItDelete unnecessary programs

  1. It's very easy to delete unwanted applications to clean up space on Mac running High Sierra:

Go to

Apps
    and drag any unwanted apps to the trash.
  1. You can also right-click an app and select Move to Trash Can
  2. .
  3. Or you can select an application and press Cmd Backspace
  4. .

How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do ItUsing iCloud and other cloud drives

  1. You can use iCloud storage to free up disk space on macOS running High Sierra:

Select

Apple
    >
  1. About this unit. Then select Storage > Manage. Click Save in iCloud
  2. .
  3. Select the content you want to delete and click Save in iCloud
  4. .
  5. You can also use other cloud services such as Google Drive
  6. ,
  7. Box and Dropbox) to store files.

How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do ItDelete temporary files

  1. Your Mac stores various temporary data, such as cookies, in the user cache. Here are the ways to find and delete them:
    1. Press Cmd Shift G, enter ~/Library/Caches/, and then press Return.
    2. You will see many folders. These are caches for different applications on your Mac. Delete folders to clear these caches.

    How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

    How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

    It takes a long time to manually delete temporary files and you need to know what to delete. Use MacKeeper's "Safe Cleanup" tool to find and delete cached data in seconds:

    1. In MacKeeper, open Safe Cleanup, and then click to start scanning.
    2. After the scan is complete, make sure Cache is selected, and then click Clean junk file.
    3. Click Empty the trash can .

    How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

    How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

    How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

    1. Clean the download folder

    No matter your Mac specifications, you need to clean the download folder regularly:

    1. In the Filesor, go to your Download folder.
    2. Press and hold the Cmd key and select the content you want to delete.
    3. Send everything to the trash can and empty the trash can.

    How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

    How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

    How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

    1. Check whether the system disk usage is too large

    The following is a way to check whether the system data occupies storage space:

    1. In the menu bar, go to Apple > About the unit and click Storage.
    2. Click System to view the space being used.

    How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

    How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

    The system usage is too high, which may be caused by local Time Machine snapshots, but High Sierra should automatically delete these snapshots.

    1. Clear local backup through terminal

    If the storage space is insufficient, you can manually delete the Time Machine backup:

    1. Open Terminal from Application > Utility. Type tmutil listlocalsnapshotdates and press Return.
    2. View the backup list and note the date of the backup you want to delete.
    3. Type tmutil deletelocalsnapshots followed by the date. Press Return.
    4. Perform the same operation on any other backups you want to delete.

    How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

    How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

    How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

    How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

    1. Configure automatic storage optimization

    The quick way to clear storage space is to use High Sierra's automatic optimization feature:

    1. Select Apple > About this unit. Then go to Storage and click Manage. Click Optimize next to Optimize.
    2. Click Optimize. This will optimize email attachments as well as iTunes movies and TV shows.

    How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

    How to Free Up Space on Mac High Sierra? Here’s How to Do It

    Keep the storage space of Mac on High Sierra free of garbage

    If your Mac has insufficient disk space, it can also be caused by malware or a serious technical failure, in extreme cases, you may need to factory reset your Mac to get the storage space back to normal. Read our guide to learn how to create a High Sierra bootable USB to learn more. If you can't install macOS High Sierra, we can also help.

    Generally speaking, insufficient storage space is not serious, and it can be managed through the following methods:

  • Delete old installer and download files
  • Uninstall unused applications
  • Offload file storage to cloud service
  • Move files to external storage
  • Delete TV shows and movies you have watched
  • Compress archived data

You can also save a lot of space using MacKeeper's "Safe Cleanup" . With just a few clicks, you can clear gigabytes of space and delete all kinds of unnecessary junk files.

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