What’s taking up space on my Mac?
Short answer: open System Settings → General → Storage for an overview by category. To see which folders are responsible, search Finder by file size, run a quick Terminal command, or scan with a disk map such as DiskTree, which draws every folder to scale.
1. Get an overview in Storage settings
On macOS Ventura and later, choose Apple menu → System Settings → General → Storage. Wait for the bar to finish calculating, then hold the pointer over each colour to see a category’s size. Click the info button beside a category, such as Documents or Applications, to review and delete individual items. On earlier versions, choose Apple menu → About This Mac → Storage.
Storage settings is good at totals and recommendations, such as Optimize Storage and emptying the Trash automatically. It doesn’t show which folders make up a category, and some categories, including System Data, can’t be opened at all.
2. Search Finder by file size
- In Finder, press ⌘F and choose This Mac.
- Change the first criterion from Kind to Other…, then tick File Size.
- Set it to “is greater than” 1 GB.
- Switch to list view and sort by Size.
This finds big single files. It misses folders full of small files, such as a project’s dependencies or an app’s cache, which often add up to more.
3. Ask Terminal for folder sizes
These commands only read sizes; they don’t change anything. Open Terminal from Applications → Utilities and paste one:
du -sh ~/* 2>/dev/null | sort -hThat lists everything in your home folder, smallest to largest. To look inside your Library, where caches and app data live:
du -h -d 1 ~/Library 2>/dev/null | sort -h | tail -15Terminal can’t read some protected folders unless you give it Full Disk Access, so a few totals may be low. du reports space used on disk, so its numbers can differ from Finder’s.
4. See everything at once with a disk map
A disk space analyzer scans a folder or a whole drive and shows the result as a picture. In DiskTree’s treemap every file and folder is a rectangle sized by the space it uses, nested inside its parent and coloured by kind: code, toolchains, caches, git data, synced folders, media and documents. The biggest culprits stand out immediately, including folders full of small files that a size search misses.
Scanning, exploring and revealing items in Finder are free with no time limit. If you decide to clean up from inside the app, Move to Trash is a one-time $14.99 purchase. Try the example map
See exactly what’s using your space
DiskTree is free to download and explore. For Apple silicon Macs, macOS 11 or later.
The usual suspects
On most Macs the space goes to a handful of places. Paths are for current macOS versions; apps can change them.
| What | Where | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Photos library | ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary | Manage photos in the Photos app. Don’t delete files inside the library in Finder. With iCloud Photos, Optimize Mac Storage keeps smaller versions locally. |
| iPhone and iPad backups | ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup | In Finder, select your device and choose Manage Backups to delete old ones. |
| Videos and exports | ~/Movies, ~/Downloads | Old exports and screen recordings are often the biggest single files. Move them to an external drive if you need to keep them. |
| Xcode build data | ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData | A build cache. Xcode rebuilds it, so it’s safe to move to the Trash while Xcode is closed. |
| iOS simulators | ~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator | Run xcrun simctl delete unavailable, or remove simulator runtimes in Xcode’s settings. |
| Docker | Inside ~/Library/Containers/com.docker.docker | One large disk image holds all images and containers. Use docker system prune or Docker Desktop’s settings, not Finder. |
| App caches | ~/Library/Caches | Apps rebuild caches, so clearing them often frees space only briefly. Look for one oversized cache rather than clearing everything. |
| Project dependencies | node_modules, target and similar folders | Delete them in projects you’re not working on; your package manager restores them. |
| Local Time Machine snapshots | Not a folder. List them with tmutil listlocalsnapshots / | macOS removes them automatically when space is needed. |
Developer Macs fill up in their own ways. See freeing up disk space on a developer’s Mac. For the mysterious System Data category, see what’s in System Data.
Before you delete anything
- Leave system folders alone. Don’t remove items from
/System,/Libraryor/private; macOS manages them. - Synced folders delete everywhere. Removing something from iCloud Drive, Dropbox or a similar folder can remove it on your other devices too.
- Use the Trash, then check. Moving items to the Trash lets you change your mind. Space comes back when you empty it.
- Back up first if you’re unsure what something is.