The Optimized Storage features of your Mac help you save storage space by storing your content in iCloud and making it available on demand:
- When storage space is needed, files, photos, movies, email attachments, and other files that you seldom use are stored in iCloud automatically.
- Each file stays right where you last saved it, and downloads when you open it.
- Files that you’ve used recently remain on your Mac, along with optimized versions of your photos.
If you haven't yet upgraded to macOS Sierra or later, learn about other ways to free up storage space.
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Find out how much storage is available on your Mac
Choose Apple menu > About This Mac, then click Storage. Each segment of the bar is an estimate of the storage space used by a category of files. Move your pointer over each segment for more detail.
Click the Manage button to open the Storage Management window, pictured below.
Manage storage on your Mac
The Storage Management window offers recommendations for optimizing your storage. If some recommendations are already turned on, you will see fewer recommendations.
Store in iCloud
Click the Store in iCloud button, then choose from these options:
- Desktop and Documents. Store all files from these two locations in iCloud Drive. When storage space is needed, only the files you recently opened are kept on your Mac, so that you can easily work offline. Files stored only in iCloud show a download icon , which you can double-click to download the original file. Learn more about this feature.
- Photos. Store all original, full-resolution photos and videos in iCloud Photos. When storage space is needed, only space-saving (optimized) versions of photos are kept on your Mac. To download the original photo or video, just open it.
- Messages. Store all messages and attachments in iCloud. When storage space is needed, only the messages and attachments you recently opened are kept on your Mac. Learn more about Messages in iCloud.
Storing files in iCloud uses the storage space in your iCloud storage plan. If you reach or exceed your iCloud storage limit, you can either buy more iCloud storage or make more iCloud storage available. iCloud storage starts at 50GB for $0.99 (USD) a month, and you can purchase additional storage directly from your Apple device. Learn more about prices in your region.
Optimize Storage
Click the Optimize button to save space by automatically removing watched movies and TV shows. When storage space is needed, movies or TV shows that you purchased from Apple and already watched are removed from your Mac. Click the download icon next to a movie or TV show to download it again.
Your Mac will also save space by keeping only recent email attachments on this Mac when storage space is needed. You can manually download any attachments at any time by opening the email or attachment, or saving the attachment to your Mac.
Optimizing storage for movies, TV shows, and email attachments doesn't require iCloud storage space.
Empty Trash Automatically
Empty Trash Automatically permanently deletes files that have been in the Trash for more than 30 days.
Reduce Clutter
Reduce Clutter helps you identify large files and files you might no longer need. Click the Review Files button, then choose any of the file categories in the sidebar, such as Applications, Documents, Music Creation, or Trash.
You can delete the files in some categories directly from this window. Other categories show the total storage space used by the files in each app. You can then open the app and decide whether to delete files from within it.
Learn how to redownload apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books.
Where to find the settings for each feature
The button for each recommendation in the Storage Management window affects one or more settings in other apps. You can also control those settings directly within each app.
- If you're using macOS Catalina or later, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Apple ID, then select iCloud in the sidebar: Store in iCloud turns on the Optimize Mac Storage setting on the right. To turn off iCloud Drive entirely, deselect iCloud Drive.
- If you're using macOS Mojave or earlier, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click iCloud, then click Options next to iCloud Drive. Store in iCloud turns on the Desktop & Documents Folders and Optimize Mac Storage settings.
- In Photos, choose Photos > Preferences, then click iCloud. Store in iCloud selects iCloud Photos and Optimize Mac Storage.
- In Messages, choose Messages > Preferences, then click iMessage. Store in iCloud selects Enable Messages in iCloud.
- If you're using macOS Catalina or later, open the Apple TV app, choose TV > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Files. Optimize Storage selects “Automatically delete watched movies and TV shows.”
- In you're using macOS Mojave or earlier, open iTunes, choose iTunes > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Advanced. Optimize Storage selects “Automatically delete watched movies and TV shows.”
- In Mail, choose Mail > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Accounts. In the Account Information section on the right, Optimize Storage sets the Download Attachments menu to either Recent or None.
Empty Trash Automatically: From the Finder, choose Finder > Preferences, then click Advanced. Empty Trash Automatically selects “Remove items from the Trash after 30 days.”
Other ways that macOS helps automatically save space
With macOS Sierra or later, your Mac automatically takes these additional steps to save storage space:
- Detects duplicate downloads in Safari, keeping only the most recent version of the download
- Reminds you to delete used app installers
- Removes old fonts, languages, and dictionaries that aren't being used
- Clears caches, logs, and other unnecessary data when storage space is needed
How to free up storage space manually
Even without using the Optimized Storage features described in this article, you can take other steps to make more storage space available:
- Music, movies, and other media can use a lot of storage space. Learn how to delete music, movies, and TV shows from your device.
- Delete other files that you no longer need by moving them to the Trash, then emptying the Trash. The Downloads folder is good place to look for files that you might no longer need.
- Move files to an external storage device.
- Compress files.
- Delete unneeded email: In the Mail app, choose Mailbox > Erase Junk Mail. If you no longer need the email in your Trash mailbox, choose Mailbox > Erase Deleted Items.
Learn more
- The Storage pane of About This Mac is the best way to determine the amount of storage space available on your Mac. Disk Utility and other apps might show storage categories such as Not Mounted, VM, Recovery, Other Volumes, Other, Free, or Purgeable. Don't rely on these categories to understand how to free up storage space or how much storage space is available for your data.
- When you duplicate a file on an APFS-formatted volume, that file doesn't use additional storage space on the volume. Deleting a duplicate file frees up only the space required by any data you might have added to the duplicate. If you no longer need any copies of the file, you can recover all of the storage space by deleting both the duplicate and the original file.
- If you're using a pro app and Optimize Mac Storage, learn how to make sure that your projects are always on your Mac and able to access their files.
List of best Mac cleaner software that will help you boost your Mac speed. Select the top Mac cleaner tool from the list.
Apple has some of the best state-of-the-art features. One of them is a solid-state drive which allows you to access your files faster, but the only dropback is not much storage space.
Most SSD has storage of 128GB or 256GB and most of the time you might get the error to clean storage. For that, you need the best Mac cleaner software.
In this article, we are going to talk about some of the best free Mac cleaner software and also some paid Mac cleaners with advanced features.
Recommended: Best PC Cleaner Software
Best Mac Cleaner Software [Free or Paid]
Contents
- 1 Best Mac Cleaner Software [Free or Paid]
Apple’s Macintosh came with pretty much every single tool you need. The operating system is very advanced and everything is automated, so the user doesn’t need to do anything.
However, they lack a good cleaner, a Mac cleaner which can remove the system junk, old redundant files, olds OS backup and more.
We have compiled a list of best Mac cleaner which has good reviews, easy system interface and all in one cleaning capability.
#1. MacBooster Mac Cleaner Software
This Mac cleaner is a utility tool that can clean up 20 types of junk files from your Mac. It also helps you improve the performance of your Mac and keep the malware and viruses away. It can boost your Mac by optimizing the hard disk.
It has the ability to search deep into your Mac SSD and clean out the system junk file, large files, and duplicate files as well. It has a turbo boost, memory clean and startup optimization tool to speed up the Mac. Also, it can protect your Mac from viruses, Malware and help you protect your privacy.
#2. CleanMyMac X Mac Cleaner Software
Website: https://cleanmymac.com/
One of the most reputable Mac cleaner which helps you manages your space. It has a one-click optimization program that helps you clean up your Mac in just one click. This tool is simple and sophisticated and doesn’t require many directions to run the advanced Mac cleaner.
This tool is also an advanced Mac cleaner virus as well. Mac doesn’t have much of a virus problem but they can too infect with malware and ransomware. This tool can take care of this problem. This best Mac cleaner also clears the ram, uninstall apps and more. It will improve your Mac performance.
#3. Gemini 2 Mac Cleaner Software
Website: https://macpaw.com/gemini
Gemini 2 is basically the duplicate finder allowing you to free up GB of storage as well s organize your files. It effectively and rapidly scans all corners of your Mac. Subsequently, it removes the unnecessary copies. Whether the file type is doc, image, music, etc., it can work on all.
After the scan completes, you can easily discard the duplicates through a single click. Moreover, you can go through the results to ascertain that nothing significant gets removed.
In case you deleted something accidentally, it is easy to recover with one click. To make sure such cases do not happen again, you can remove specific folders and files from the scan.
#4. Disk Drill Mac Cleaner Software
Website: https://www.cleverfiles.com/
Disk Drill is essentially a data recovery software and also works as a Mac file cleaner tool. The dual functionalities and high efficiency make it popular in the market. It includes an unlimited free cleanup module letting you effortlessly recognize and visualize those files that occupy excess space.
Instantly, you can get rid of unnecessary files. If you are concerned that some important files can come between the junk files, it is possible to filter the scan results. You can filter based on file type, file size, keywords, and different other criteria. Moreover, you can manually validate that the files you decide to delete are actually useless.
It comes with infinite Mac clean-up tools. For ease of use, the user interface is made intuitive. The software is frequently updated.
#5. iMobie MacClean Software
Website: https://www.imobie.com/macclean/
MacClean is a reliable and efficient tool when it comes to restoring your Mac Pc. As an alternative to clearing out all junk files at once, MacClean provides 5 different cleanup options. The names of these options are System Junk, Malicious Cookies, Internet Junk, Privacy Issues, and Security Issues.
Mostly, you will use the first option since it discards system and user junk. It also discards needles development files. To get rid of the duplicate files, you can choose among Cleanup Tools under utilities. Besides, this software includes a duplicate finder. There are multiple methods to discard junk files from your Mac PC.
#6. Dr. Cleaner Mac Cleaner Software
Website: https://dr-cleaner.en.softonic.com/mac
One of the best Mac cleaner software is also free on iTunes as well. This all-in-one tool can help you clean up all the junk in your Mac and speed up the performance too. it can clean all the catch files, clean browser catch, clean the trash and remove anything left behind after uninstalling an app.
One of the most positive reviews of freeware Mac cleaner has also other tools too. one of them is Mac Memory Optimizer and this tool will help you clean all the unwanted processes and make you available the free memory. It can speed up your process and your Mac would run smoother.
#7. CCleaner Mac Cleaner Software
Website: https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner-mac
No matter the OS, CCleaner is best everywhere when it came to cleaning. This is a free Mac cleaner tool that helps you clean out all the unnecessary files in your SSD. CC Cleaner for Mac is useful when you want to delete the web browsing history and catches it with just one click.
This tool also has many other features like uninstall the app and remove it from the startup. You can also wipe out the whole drive as well. This is one of the best free Mac cleaners so far which is useful in many ways.
#8. Drive Genius Mac Cleaner Software
Website: https://www.prosofteng.com/drive-genius-mac-protection-software/
This is more than just Mac cleaner but it goes way beyond that. It has all the features of cleaning your Mac and gets rid of those unwanted files in your system. It can also repartition your hard drive to make it more efficient. Drive Genius also finds duplicate files, clone files, large files and much more.
It has also a built-in security feature that can take care of all the antivirus systems. It has malware check tools; Bootwell tools which help you with booting of your system, check, repair and rebuild facility is also available in this tool. Also, it will help you with speeding up the system by defragmenting and system performance checks.
#9. DaisyDisk
Website: https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/30689/daisydisk
Who could have thought that Mac cleaner could be this much beautiful? One of the best looking cleaning apps for Mac also has one of the best interfaces which even a new user understands and operates. It can help you determine the whole space optimization of your drive and let you delete anything.
It has many other features as well and also many positive reviews too. Once you click the scan, it will show you the color full graph of your hard disk and all the large files are in different colors as well. It can also give you real-time information about mounted disks on your Mac. You can preview your file before deleting it and all of this is happening at lightning speed.
#10. OnyX Mac Cleaner Software
Website: https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html
This is one of the best free Mac cleaner software out there. First, it’s a free tool and it has lots of positive reviews as well. This Free Mac cleaner is a multifunction utility tool that can help you clean up the browsing catch, system junk and optimize the speed of your Mac.
It is also known as one of the best Mac cleaning tools for professionals as it has a little difficult UI than others. Also, you need to download this tool specific to your OS, otherwise, it won’t work. This Best Mac Cleaner tool has lots of functions to read the guidance before using it.
#11. Trend Micro Cleaner One Pro
Website: https://www.trendmicro.com/en_us/forHome/products/cleaner-one-mac.html
If you are looking for Mac cleaner software that can free up your disk space and do some other advanced tasks, then cleaner one pro by TrendMicro is the name you can check.
This tool can visualize, manage and free up your disk space in one click. It takes few seconds to remove all unnecessary files from your Mac. In addition, it can manage all the apps on your Mac and keep your device up to date all the time.
If you are not sure what’s causing high disk space usage, you can find it using this software. Also, it recommends what to do next if you are completely blank about what to do next. The toolbar will monitor your Network Usage, CPU Usage, and Memory Usage while scanning and deleting Junk Files. It means you have complete control of your Mac with one click.
It can clean junk files, including temporary files and hidden leftover files. Cleaner one pro, delete all the big files that consume your disk space, and free the storage space. It also removes duplicate files and similar photos. The disk map feature analyzes your storage usage and gives you a visual and interactive map of usage.
The file shredder feature gives you 100% privacy protection. It erases all the hidden leftover files from trash and deleted apps. In short, it will make them unrecoverable by applying the Secure Erase Setting.
Best Free Software To Clean Mac
I also like its application manager function. The software manages startup apps and services and speeds up the boot time. As a result, it will enhance the performance of your system.
Free Cleanmymac Software
It can view and manage app and remove them if it finds apps unwanted. There is an option of batch removal of multiple apps as well. Cleaner One Pro charges $14.99/device with a 1-year subscription plan. If you are looking for up to 5 devices, the charges are $29.99 with a 1-year subscription plan.
Conclusion
We hope that after reading this article on the best Mac cleaner software, you might find the solution to your problems. There are many tools in this list that are free to use and can be upgraded for better performance and others are freeware. If you need any more help regarding Mac cleaner, you can ask us in the comment section.
Ice Clean Mac
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