Your MacBook might show you that the startup disk is almost full if the device runs out of storage. As a result, you might be curious about the space left on your MacBook. So, how to check MacBook storage?
Learning to check the remaining MacBook storage can be handy under different circumstances. If your MacBook is about to run out of the estimated storage space, then you can optimise it by removing selected files. Let’s check out how you can keep track of disk storage on your Mac, shall we?
How to Check MacBook Storage?
MacBook offers a few ways to check its storage. We have mentioned all the popular and easy ones. You can opt for any one among the below methods to continue with how to check MacBook Storage:
1. Try ‘About This Mac’
Later macOS versions, such as Yosemite or higher ones, let you check the MacBook storage through About This Mac. Go through the steps below to learn how to check storage on MacBook Air:
- Navigate to the Apple menu from the top-left corner of your MacBook.
- Next, select the option called ‘About This Mac’.
- Go to the Storage tab and check out the remaining disk space available compared to the total disk space. If you use OS X Mavericks or Mountain Lion, then click on More Info under About This Mac. Then, click on Storage.
2. Use Finder
Your MacBook’s Finder can help you figure out how to check storage on MacBook Pro. Follow the instructions to dig into storage information on your MacBook:
- Explore a Finder window from Dock on your MacBook. Then, locate the storage device. If you can’t find the storage device there, look at the left panel of the Finder window. You can locate storage devices under the section named Devices.
- Select the storage device after that.
- Now, press the spacebar from your Mac’s keyboard.
- This should open up a window illustrating the total capacity and remaining storage space left on the storage device.
- Click the X icon or press the spacebar to quit the window. Or, you can use the keyboard shortcut of Command + W to close the window.
Alternatively, you can use a Finder window and the following guidelines to look at available MacBook storage quickly.
- Explore Finder on your Mac computer from the Dock.
- Now, navigate to the View menu. Choose the Show Status Bar option.
- You can observe files and other items in the currently chosen folder. If you view a folder on your hard drive, a readout will pop below the screen, stating how much storage space is available.
3. Check out Disk Utility
How to check MacBook storage other than using Finder or About This Mac? You can use Disk Utility to keep track of available storage space on your MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, etc. Here’s what you need to do:
- Click on the Applications folder from the right side of the Dock. Alternatively, open a Finder window and select the Applications folder from the left pane of the screen.
- Next, scroll down until you come across the Utilities folder. Click on Utilities to explore the folder.
- Select Disk Utility, and a window will appear. You can notice a bar graph that depicts how much storage your MacBook has used up till now and how much storage is still available.
4. Use System Settings
Does your MacBook have macOS Ventura? Then, navigate to System Settings to learn how to check McBook storage. Here are the steps in detail you need to follow:
- Click the Apple icon and open the corresponding menu.
- Afterwards, click on System Settings followed by General from the sidebar. Scroll down the sidebar if necessary.
- Now, choose the Storage option from the right panel of the screen.
- Continue with clicking All Volumes.
Next, you can notice a bar graph that tells which category occupies what amount of storage on your Mac hard drive. Move your mouse pointer over those coloured bars to get a precise idea about the storage space every category utilises. The light grey space indicates the free or available space on your Mac device.
How to Manage Storage on Your MacBook?
Probably, your MacBook keeps flashing a warning about a full disk now and then. Deleting a few files and folders might save you for now, but all you need optimised storage management for the long run.
As you have already seen how to check MacBook storage available, the following points might help you get uninterrupted processing on your Mac computer. After all, congested storage can impact the performance and processing capacity of your MacBook.
Delete Data
This might take a considerable amount of time but trust us. You will eliminate all your unnecessary yet storage-consuming data from your MacBook. How to clear system storage on Mac, and what should you delete to make additional space available? For instance, you can delete the following files that you won’t need any longer:
- Erase media files, such as movies, music, podcasts, etc., that you have watched and will hardly watch again.
- Delete unwanted files under the Downloads folder.
- Remove Junk Mail from your Mailbox on your MacBook.
- In addition, uninstall those apps that you merely use.
- Have you backed up your iPhone or iPad to your Mac? Trash older backups from your MacBook.
- Delete multiple users from your Mac if you set up your computer that way. Additionally, delete shared files that you no longer use.
If you have nothing to delete or haven’t obtained sufficient storage space by deleting data, then proceed to the following procedures.
Use Integrated Optimisation Tool for Mac’s Storage
How to manage storage on Mac computers? macOS offers a dedicated tool to optimise your device storage. It also lets you see what items are using up your Mac’s disk space. Moreover, it can analyse the data and suggest a few actions to optimise the storage space.
For example, you can delete TV shows and movies you have already watched, erase duplicate files, upload files to iCloud, and more. Follow the guidelines to use the storage optimisation feature on macOS:
- Start by opening the Apple menu from the top-left corner of your Mac screen.
- Choose ‘AboutThis Mac’.
- Now, click on Storage, followed by the Manage button.
- Check out recommended actions in the sidebar for optimised results.
Upload Files to iCloud
MacBooks come up with limited storage space. To free up some storage space on your MacBook Air or Pro, you can opt for iCloud storage. With active and syncing cloud storage, you need not worry about running out of available disk space. Upload your Desktop and Documents folder to iCloud storage and make sufficient storage available.
Here’s how to clear system storage on Mac and transfer those items to iCloud:
- Follow the path: Apple icon → About This Mac → Storage.
- Next, click on the Manage button.
- You can see a list of Recommendations that you can execute to make more space on your Mac storage.
- Opt for the ‘Store in iCloud’ option.
- Now, check every item that you want to upload on iCloud.
- After that, click on the Store in iCloud button.
Voilà! You have successfully set up the iCloud storage and uploaded the required items to your iCloud account.
Empty Trash on Your MacBook
Apart from knowing how to check MacBook storage, you must remove all items in Trash. Pushing more and more files to Trash and not emptying it might put pressure on the overall Mac storage. That’s why you should empty Trash regularly and especially after deleting or dragging large files to Trash.
Here’s how you can empty Trash on your Mac computer:
- Go through the following path: Apple icon → About This Mac → Storage tab → Manage.
- Turn on the ‘Empty Bin Automatically’ option.
- Confirm the Turn On prompt again.
Besides turning on the automatic feature of emptying Trash, you can also manually remove all stored items from Trash. Just click the Empty button from the top right corner of a Finder window.
Use External Drives
The available storage space on your Mac might need to be more satisfactory. Check out if your MacBook is open to hardware upgrades such as RAM or SSD upgrades. However, newer Macs don’t offer such upgrades, as you can’t solder them to the logic board.
As an option, you can try using an external drive on your Mac to store large files that you are not ready to erase. On the other hand, you can store your iPhone or iPad backups and Time Machine backups on that external drive.
Before you use an external drive with your Mac, you need to format it to be on the safe side. Check out available space after utilising steps about how to check MacBook storage and then format the required external drive:
- Insert the external USB drive into your MacBook.
- Now, explore Applications and click on Utilities.
- Select the external USB drive from the sidebar.
- After that, click on the Erase button.
- Name the drive and choose a compatible format so your Mac can read from it or write on it. Opt for ExFAT if you will use that drive on non-Mac systems too.
- Select Erase, and the drive is ready for use on the Mac.
Contact Macbook Repair India for the Best Results
Do you still need help with how to check MacBook storage and manage the space? Hire certified and licensed technicians from Macbook Repair India for a quick and guaranteed solution. Their experts will diagnose the issue and upgrade your iCloud storage if required. Contact them immediately to resolve storage complications.
