With today’s high-quality videos, photos, and ‘heavy’ applications constantly fighting for space, it’s easy for your Mac’s hard drive to get cluttered, resulting in performance slowdowns and frustration. There are lots of things you can do about this, but you can also find yourself asking, “Why is Erase Assistant not supported on my Mac? This can happen for several reasons, among them lacking admin access.
But whatever kind of storage issue you are dealing with, there are ways you can deal with them. In this guide, we’ll show you how to optimize storage space to boost performance on your Mac.
Check Free Disk Space
Before anything, it is essential to check how much free space you have left. To do this, click the ‘Apple’ menu, head to ‘General,’ then ‘Storage.’ After a few seconds, you will see a coloured storage bar displaying the available space. Your storage typically contains categories like apps, documents, system data, and macOS.
Studies indicate that your Mac’s performance slows once your storage space hits 85%. Therefore, you will need at least 10GB of free space for your device to run properly.
Store Files on iCloud
Cloud storage is integral to optimizing your Mac’s hard drive. The Store iCloud feature in Mac devices lets you save space by storing some of your files in iCloud. This is particularly helpful if you need regular access to bulk files and have enough iCloud storage. However, doing so means you need to download huge files when you require them, which is only reasonable if you have a high-speed connection.
So, how do you set up iCloud storage to optimize disk space? On your menu bar, navigate to the Apple icon and select ‘About This Mac.’ Proceed to the Storage tab before clicking Manage, and under Recommendations, click the Store in iCloud button.
Delete Old Videos and Email Attachments
Video files consume a lot of space, but macOS automatically deletes content you’ve already watched if you purchased it from Apple. You can delete all but your most recent email attachments with the aid of the Optimize Storage tool.
Navigate to the Apple menu and open ‘About this Mac,’ then click ‘Storage’ before proceeding to the ‘Manage’ button. Under recommendations, select the ‘Optimize’ button.
Automatically Empty Your Trash Can
Deleting things and forgetting they are still in your Trash Bin isn’t uncommon. For this reason, you should optimize your Mac’s storage by setting it to automatically delete files in your trash that have been there for over 30 days.
Head to the Apple menu to automatically empty your Mac’s trash bin and select ‘About This Mac.’ Next, click the ‘Storage’ tab and select ‘Manage’. Close the ‘Empty Bin Automatically’ tab and click ‘Turn On.’
Use the File Browser
The File Browser is another helpful storage optimization for your Mac. It gives you a sneak peek into the total data type amount in folders categorized by size. You can dig deeper into subfolders and see how much data they contain. This is a beneficial tool when you are trying to determine what is consuming all your disk space.
To use the File Browser, head to the ‘Apple’ icon and click ‘About This Mac’ then ‘Manage’. In ‘Documents,’ select ‘File Browser’ and go through the folders to locate the content you want to get rid of. Once selected, click ‘Move to Bin.’
Reduce Photo Library Size
The photo library is the storage point for all your photos, and if you are a photographer, you probably import lots of your pictures to your Mac. The storage space required can quickly build up and become huge over time. Therefore, try removing unwanted photos from your photo library to prevent your Mac device from running out of storage space. Photos are always great candidates for cloud storage as this will help optimize the hard disk space.
7STARS