Reading the Mac storage bar, category by category
The coloured bar in Storage settings is a summary, not a map. Here is what each segment counts, and why Documents is usually the misleading one.
582 guides
Mac storage, explained.
What fills your disk, where it hides, and what is safe to remove. Every guide gives you a way to check it on your own Mac.
Purgeable space, and why deleting files frees nothing
You removed fifty gigabytes and the Mac reports the same free space. Purgeable space is usually why, and local snapshots are usually the cause.
The safest order to free 100 GB on a Mac
Reclaiming real space is a sequence, not one action. This is the order that gives back the most for the least risk, with what to expect at each step.
A GrandPerspective alternative, and when to keep GrandPerspective
GrandPerspective is a good free treemap and worth keeping for what it does. Here is what it covers, what it does not, and when to want something else.
Where did my Mac storage go, and how to actually find out
macOS tells you storage is full but not what is filling it. Here is how to find the real occupants of your drive, in the order that reclaims the most space.
You have more node_modules than you think, and they are all still there
Every JavaScript project leaves a node_modules folder behind. Across a few years of work that is routinely 30 to 80 GB of code you will never run again.
Xcode quietly keeps 50 GB you will never look at
DerivedData, archives, device support files and simulator runtimes accumulate with nothing ever clearing them. Here is what each one is and which are safe to remove.
Dragging an app to the Trash does not uninstall it
macOS removes the app bundle and leaves everything else. Support files, caches and preferences from software you deleted years ago are still on the drive.
System Data is not a category, it is everything macOS could not label
System Data is often the largest bar in Mac storage and it means almost nothing. Here is what is actually inside it and which parts are safe to clear.
Other Volumes in Container, and why it looks like your disk is lying
Disk Utility shows Other Volumes taking hundreds of gigabytes. It is usually not lost space at all, and here is how to read what it is telling you.
Docker says it is empty and your Mac says it is full. Both are right
Docker Desktop stores everything in one growing disk image that does not shrink when you delete containers. Here is how to reclaim the space properly.
Android Studio quietly keeps 100 GB across four folders
Emulator images, Gradle caches, SDK platforms and build output accumulate with nothing ever clearing them. Here is what each is and what is safe to remove.