Video fills a Mac faster than anything else, and most of it is derived
Source footage, proxies, render caches and exports, and a workflow that keeps the internal drive from being the bottleneck.
830 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.
A developer Mac setup that does not fill up every three months
Shared caches, an external drive for the right things, and four settings that stop the recurring cleanup entirely.
A student Mac on 256 GB, and the four things that fill it
Coursework is small, everything around it is not. What actually fills a student's Mac and the free storage most students already have.
The Android SDK keeps a system image for every API level you tried
Platforms, build tools and system images accumulate per API level. Which command lists them and which removes them.
OmniDiskSweeper alternatives, and when the plain list still wins
OmniDiskSweeper still downloads and still works, and its page does not say so. What the sorted list is best at, where it stops, and what to use instead.
Disk Inventory X on a current Mac, and what to use instead
Disk Inventory X last shipped in 2019 and is Intel only. What that means on an Apple silicon Mac, and the treemaps that replaced it.
AppCleaner alternatives, and the one thing it cannot do
AppCleaner is free and it works. It also cannot help with apps you already deleted, which is where most of the leftover space actually is.
What the macOS storage screen shows you, and what it hides
macOS has a storage tool built in and it is genuinely useful for four things. Here is exactly where it stops, and how to tell if you need anything else.
CCleaner for Mac alternatives, and what the Mac version actually is
CCleaner on a Mac is a different product from the Windows one people remember. What it cleans, what it cannot, and the free ways to do the same job.
OnyX alternatives, and the jobs OnyX is genuinely the answer to
OnyX is a free maintenance utility, not a disk map. What it is good at, what it will not tell you about storage, and what to pair it with.
Gemini 2 alternatives, and when a duplicate finder is worth paying for
Gemini finds duplicates on a subscription. Here is what duplicate finders can and cannot know, and the free checks that cover most of it.
How much free space should a Mac have, and what happens when it does not
The honest answer is a range and a reason, not a number. What macOS needs the space for, and the point where a full disk starts causing problems.