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Ways to increase storage space for your Mac

July 3, 2025 by
Lewis Calvert

It’s always important to have as much storage space as you can on your Mac. The thing is, you always want to make sure that you boost the storage space in an effective manner, and that can be extremely useful. But how can you do that? There are tons of ways to increase storage space for your Mac. Some are simple and automatic, others require a bit of work. Here’s what you should do.

Remove old files

We all have those old files that we don’t really need at all. The most important thing we can do is to remove those old files now, to reclaim some space. A good idea here is to check the size of those old files and then we go from there. It’s definitely an interesting approach and you can do it manually as well. Or you use a Mac cleanup tool to remove those old files as well.

Empty your trash

If you don’t empty the trash, that’s going to be an issue, and it makes sense to address that adequately. Emptying the trash is a nice idea and it will certainly make the experience better. With that in mind, it also allows you to save space and regain more storage on Mac as well. You can even use the Command+Option+Delete combination to automatically empty the trash without having to click it.

Delete stuff you downloaded

This one is easy, you should go to the Downloads folder and in there you can go and delete everything in there. You can also sort based on the date added, if you want to delete only the older stuff. It’s a nice idea for sure, and you will surely have a better experience in the end. That’s definitely a thing to consider, and you will enjoy the process in the end.

Move stuff to one of your external drives

You don’t always need to delete things in order to save up space. A good approach is to move some of the stuff to the external drive. The idea here is that you still have a backup for the stuff you need, while also ensuring that you free up space on your Mac. It’s the best of both worlds, and it certainly delivers the expected results. 

Use a Mac cleanup tool

It’s the most effective way to free up storage because it removes a lot of stuff that you don’t need. A cleanup tool can delete a lot of unwanted stuff, such as temporary files, caches, but also very old files and duplicates. It’s easy to use and process, and you will find the results to be very good in the end. It will surely help you save a ton of space, which matters the most in a situation like this. The fact that it’s all automated makes things even better, and you should totally check it out. 

Use the Optimized Storage feature

The idea with this feature is that you can enter the Storage settings and in there you will see all kinds of recommendations. That’s a nifty way for you to figure out how you can optimize storage, and it will help make the process more seamless. In the end, that will ensure you have an excellent outcome, and the ROI can be much better than you might expect. 

Remove old backups

Sometimes, various apps create backups without us even knowing. That’s especially true if you have an iOS device and you use iTunes or other backup tools. Removing those can help quite a lot. You can go to the Storage option in the System Settings, check for iOS and then remove any backup you don’t need. A lot of the time, you can end up having a lot of backups, and that’s why you should try to remove some of those if you can.

Move stuff to iCloud

You can also buy iCloud space and just move stuff to iCloud. That is, if you want to keep some of the stuff on your device. You can always delete it or use an external drive. But if you want to keep some of that stuff, it certainly helps, and it’s a great idea to check it out. 

Or, if you want, you can use an SD card in order to store some of the important stuff, especially images and videos. It certainly makes a lot of sense to check it out, and the fact that you have so many different options is what sets it all apart. In the end, we recommend increasing the storage space this way, but remember that some SD cards are slow. Checking their speed can help a lot.

It always helps if you find ways to increase the storage space for your Mac. And there are different avenues to consider here. At the end of the day, we recommend using both manual and automated methods that will help remove unwanted files, because it helps a lot. And if you do that, your Mac will run smoother, not to mention you can obtain the desired results faster!