Mac users may occasionally find themselves wanting to clean install macOS Big Sur onto a Mac. A clean installation of macOS Big Sur basically means the entire hard drive – including the system itself, all data, all apps, user accounts, literally everything – is erased, and then a fresh clean install of macOS Big Sur is installed onto the Mac. However, Other Storage does not always mean junk files, as there are also some useful files kept in this category. You should regularly clean up unneeded files from Other Storage. Having a low free disk space on Mac usually makes the system work slowly. You should be very careful when removing service files.
Over time, your Mac probably accumulates a lot of cruft. Old applications you no longer use, data you have no use for, a desktop full of icons (only four of which you actually ever use)…you know what I mean. With so many people working from home lately, the problem has only gotten worse.
Now is as good a time as any to tidy up your Mac, freeing up storage space and probably CPU cycles and RAM in the process. Here are a few tips to make quick work of your Mac 'spring cleaning.'
Optimize Storage
Open the Storage Management app, either by using Spotlight (Command-space) or by clicking the Apple logo in the upper left of the menu bar, choosing About This Mac, clicking the Storage tab, then Manage.
In the Recommendations tab you'll see a number of useful options, like Store in iCloud and Empty Trash Automatically. The Optimize Storage solution will get rid of things like old TV shows you've already watched and old email attachments when you're low on storage space.
Take a look at your Applications and Documents
While you're in the Storage Management app, click on the Applications tab in the left column. You can see all your installed applications here and sort them by size, easily deleting apps you haven't used in ages.
Then, click on Documents in the left tab. There are several sections here, like Large Files and Unsupported Apps, that are worth perusing. Big library files (for apps like Lightroom or Final Cut Pro) are likely to show up here, and you might not want to mess with them. But you may have old large files and documents, or apps that no longer even work on your version of macOS, that you can safely remove.
Get your desktop under control
If your desktop is littered with icons, you should probably tidy things up a bit. Right-click (two-finger tap on a trackpad) any open space and choose Clean Up to get things arranged neatly, or Clean Up By to sort them as well. Consider the Use Stacks feature to automatically stack-up files of the same type into a single icon. Just click on that icon to open the stack. This can really tidy up your desktop!
Try DaisyDisk
Power users that really want to clean out their Mac's storage may want to check out a third party app like DaisyDisk ($9.99). It's a simple and clear way to see everything on your Mac, or any other attached storage device or drive. It can do things like dig into the mysterious 'Other' category and help you clear out what you don't need.
It may seem unnecessary to pay money for an app that just helps you delete stuff from your Mac's storage, but there's a lot of value in disk analyzers like this. It can really be eye-opening to see exactly what's filling up your Mac's SSD.
Most of us are keen to update to a new version of macOS as soon as it is available. macOS Big Sur has been out since November 12, still, many users couldn't update their Macs straight away. It's very frustrating if you see a message telling you that you don't have enough space to install the new macOS. Don't worry, though. There are lots of things you can do to fix it. We'll show you what they are in this article.
Mac users may occasionally find themselves wanting to clean install macOS Big Sur onto a Mac. A clean installation of macOS Big Sur basically means the entire hard drive – including the system itself, all data, all apps, user accounts, literally everything – is erased, and then a fresh clean install of macOS Big Sur is installed onto the Mac. However, Other Storage does not always mean junk files, as there are also some useful files kept in this category. You should regularly clean up unneeded files from Other Storage. Having a low free disk space on Mac usually makes the system work slowly. You should be very careful when removing service files.
Over time, your Mac probably accumulates a lot of cruft. Old applications you no longer use, data you have no use for, a desktop full of icons (only four of which you actually ever use)…you know what I mean. With so many people working from home lately, the problem has only gotten worse.
Now is as good a time as any to tidy up your Mac, freeing up storage space and probably CPU cycles and RAM in the process. Here are a few tips to make quick work of your Mac 'spring cleaning.'
Optimize Storage
Open the Storage Management app, either by using Spotlight (Command-space) or by clicking the Apple logo in the upper left of the menu bar, choosing About This Mac, clicking the Storage tab, then Manage.
In the Recommendations tab you'll see a number of useful options, like Store in iCloud and Empty Trash Automatically. The Optimize Storage solution will get rid of things like old TV shows you've already watched and old email attachments when you're low on storage space.
Take a look at your Applications and Documents
While you're in the Storage Management app, click on the Applications tab in the left column. You can see all your installed applications here and sort them by size, easily deleting apps you haven't used in ages.
Then, click on Documents in the left tab. There are several sections here, like Large Files and Unsupported Apps, that are worth perusing. Big library files (for apps like Lightroom or Final Cut Pro) are likely to show up here, and you might not want to mess with them. But you may have old large files and documents, or apps that no longer even work on your version of macOS, that you can safely remove.
Get your desktop under control
If your desktop is littered with icons, you should probably tidy things up a bit. Right-click (two-finger tap on a trackpad) any open space and choose Clean Up to get things arranged neatly, or Clean Up By to sort them as well. Consider the Use Stacks feature to automatically stack-up files of the same type into a single icon. Just click on that icon to open the stack. This can really tidy up your desktop!
Try DaisyDisk
Power users that really want to clean out their Mac's storage may want to check out a third party app like DaisyDisk ($9.99). It's a simple and clear way to see everything on your Mac, or any other attached storage device or drive. It can do things like dig into the mysterious 'Other' category and help you clear out what you don't need.
It may seem unnecessary to pay money for an app that just helps you delete stuff from your Mac's storage, but there's a lot of value in disk analyzers like this. It can really be eye-opening to see exactly what's filling up your Mac's SSD.
Most of us are keen to update to a new version of macOS as soon as it is available. macOS Big Sur has been out since November 12, still, many users couldn't update their Macs straight away. It's very frustrating if you see a message telling you that you don't have enough space to install the new macOS. Don't worry, though. There are lots of things you can do to fix it. We'll show you what they are in this article.
Free Up Space Mac Os
How much space do you need for Big Sur?
While the installer for Big Sur takes up less than 16GB of space, you should make sure that you have at least 20GB of free space on your startup disk before you try to download and install it. The more free space, the better. Your Mac uses disk space to store temporary files and provide storage for active apps and tasks (which is what RAM does), so you should never be running with almost no disk space left.
CleanMyMac X makes it very easy to free up disk space on your Mac by identifying junk files and allowing you to get rid of them with a click. It can also detect large and old files and show you the files taking up most space and uninstall applications.
How to free up space for macOS Big Sur?
Complete the following steps to ensure your Mac is ready to update to Big Sur.
Mac Os Desktop Spaces
1. Backup your Mac
Back up all files and data that are stored on your Mac. Preferably twice to different locations. While upgrading to Big Sur is safe, you never know when something might go wrong. If you use Time Machine or another backup tool, run a manual backup just before you upgrade. And, if you can, clone your startup disk to an external drive, too.
2. Free up disk space using CleanMyMac X
If you don't already have CleanMyMac X installed, download it for free here. This tool will help you clear some space and delete large and old files quickly.
- Launch CleanMyMac X.
- Choose System Junk in the sidebar and press Scan.
- When it's finished, press Clean to free up space, or Review Details to find out more.
3. Get rid of large and old files
Media files usually gobble up a large amount of disk space. And the worst thing is they are scattered around Mac's folders, making it difficult to find and remove them. CleanMyMac X proves to be useful here:
- Choose Large & Old files in CleanMyMac X's sidebar.
- Press Scan.
- When it's finished, use the middle column to filter files by type.
- Check files that you want to delete.
- Press Remove.
4. Use Apple's built-in storage management tool
Apple has provided a method for you to manage storage by showing you what is taking up disk space and making recommendations for deleting. It's not as quick and easy as CleanMyMac X, but it can help you save disk space. Here's how to use it.
- Click on the Apple menu and choose About this Mac.
- Select Storage and press Manage.
- In the Recommendations section, review each section in turn.
- Now go through each of the sections in the sidebar.
- Delete files or take further action, depending on what you choose.
5. Delete local Time Machine snapshots
There is one other thing you can try if you keep getting a message telling you that you do not have enough space to install Big Sur. You should only try it if you are sure there is enough space on your startup disk and that the message is wrong. And it will only work if you use Time Machine to back up your Mac.
Time Machine stores local snapshots on your Mac. Your Mac is supposed to count the space used by snapshots as free space, which is why it looks like you have enough space for the installation.
However, it seems that the installer may not realize the space is free. The solution is to delete the snapshots. This won't remove backups on your backup disk, just snapshots on your Mac.
Open Time Machine from System Preferences. Uncheck Back Up Automatically and wait some time till Time Machine deletes snapshots. Then you can turn Time Machine back on.
If you're familiar with Terminal, you can try deleting local snapshots manually.
- Go to Applications > Utilities and launch Terminal.
- Type:
tmutil listlocalsnapshots / - You will see a list of snapshots that look like this:
com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-10–09-002010.local - To delete a snapshot, type:
sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots - Then type the date part of the snapshot name. For example:
sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2020-10–09-002010 - Type Return and repeat for each snapshot you want to delete.
Hopefully, this helped you free up some space and update your Mac to the latest OS. If you're just preparing your Mac for the upgrade, don't forget to back up your data before you start clearing space. So you won't be afraid of losing anything important.
