How to find the largest files on a Mac, three ways
Finder, Terminal and a disk map each find large files differently. The exact steps for all three, and which to use when.
There are three ways to do this on a Mac and they give different answers, which confuses people. Finder searches what Spotlight has indexed, Terminal walks what is actually on disk, and a disk map shows folders rather than files. Each is right for a different question.
1. Finder, for documents you own
- In Finder, press Command F to start a search.
- Set the scope to This Mac.
- Change the first criterion to File Size, then is greater than, then enter 500 MB.
- Sort by Size, and add the Size column in List view if it is not shown.
This is the fastest route and it has one important limitation: it searches the Spotlight index, which excludes hidden folders, system locations and anything in an excluded volume. It finds your videos; it will not find a 6 GB cache.
2. Terminal, for everything
find ~ -type f -size +500M -exec ls -lh {} + 2>/dev/null \
| sort -k5 -h | tail -20That lists every file over 500 MB in your home folder, largest last, including hidden folders. To search the whole disk rather than your account, run it against /System/Volumes/Data with sudo, and expect system files in the results.
du -xh -d 1 ~ 2>/dev/null | sort -h | tail -20The second command answers a different question: which folder rather than which file. On most Macs the answer to a full disk is a folder of many medium files rather than one enormous file, which is why this is the more useful of the two.
3. A disk map, for the shape of it
A map shows proportion, which is the fastest way to understand a drive you have not looked at before. It is also the only one of the three that shows folders and files together in a way you can navigate. The free options are covered in every free Mac storage tool compared.
Which to use
| Question | Best tool |
|---|---|
| Where are my big videos | Finder search |
| What is using my disk | du in Terminal, or a map |
| What is in this specific folder | du with a depth of 1 |
| Why is System Data so large | A map, or the System Data guide |
| Which app owns this folder | A tool that knows about apps |
If the answer turns out to be a folder you cannot account for, the disk is full and there is nothing to delete covers the four places that hide space on every Mac.
Common questions
How do I find large files on a Mac?
In Finder, press Command F, set the scope to This Mac, and add a File Size criterion greater than 500 MB. For hidden and system folders, use find in Terminal, which walks the disk rather than the Spotlight index.
Why does Finder not find my large cache files?
Because Finder searches the Spotlight index, which excludes hidden folders and many system locations. A Terminal command walks the file system directly and finds them.
What is the best command to find big files on a Mac?
find ~ -type f -size +500M piped through sort finds large individual files, and du -xh -d 1 ~ sorted by size finds large folders. The second is usually more useful for a full disk.
Should I look for large files or large folders?
Folders first. On most Macs the space is in a folder of many medium sized files, such as a cache or a photo library, rather than in one enormous file.