Cleaning Out Old Apps On Mac

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So, your Mac is running out of storage. You try to figure out what’s taking up your disk space by clicking the Apple logo on the top-left of the screen, selecting About This Mac, and hitting the Storage tab.

To your surprise, you see a yellow bar representing “System” that seems to occupy way more space than you think it should. In the example above, it only shows 207 GB, but take a look at this Apple discussion — some Mac users report that System Storage takes an astonishing 250 GB.

Worse yet, you have no idea what’s included in “System” storage, because clicking the “Manage” button brings you to this System Information window… and the “System” row is greyed out.

Cleaning

Why does my Mac system require so much space?

Quit the app that you were using with the file and then empty Trash. Restart your Mac and then empty Trash. Start your Mac in safe mode by holding down the Shift key while your Mac starts up. Then empty Trash and restart your Mac normally. For more information, see Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac. May 26, 2020  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.

There are three ways that you can remove the apps: Just right-click on the app’s icon and select Move to Trash option. Drag-and-drop the app’s icon to the Trash in the Dock. Click the LaunchPad icon, and hold down the app’s icon till it begins to jiggle, then click the small X button to delete an app.

What does it contain?

Is it safe to remove some of those system files?

How do I regain more storage space?

Questions like these may easily get to your head. Although my Mac now has a good amount of disk space available, I’m always wary of files that are taking up more space than they should.

I have no idea why “System” is greyed out while “Documents,” “System Junk,” “Trash,” etc. allow you to review the files based on size and type. My hunch is that Apple does this on purpose to prevent users from deleting system files that could lead to serious issues.

What Files Are Included in System Storage on Mac?

During my research, I found many people report that Apple counts iTunes backup files and app caches (e.g. Adobe video cache files) in the System category.

Mac

Since it’s greyed out and we are unable to click on that category for deeper analysis, we’ll have to use a third-party app to assist.

CleanMyMac X is perfect for this kind of analysis. Since I tested the app in our best Mac cleaner review, it immediately came to my head when I saw “System” was greyed out in Storage. Note that CleanMyMac isn’t freeware, but the new “Space Lens” feature is free to use and it allows you to scan your Macintosh HD, and then show you an in-depth overview of what’s taking up disk space on your Mac.

Step 1:Download CleanMyMac and install the app on your Mac. Open it, under “Space Lens” module, first click the yellow “Grant Access” button to allow the app to access your Mac files and then select “Scan” to get started.

Step 2: Soon it’ll show you a folder/file tree and you can hover your cursor over each block (i.e. a folder). There you can find more details. In this case, I clicked “System” folder to continue.

Step 3: The file breakdown below indicates that some Library and iOS Support files are the culprits.

The interesting part is that the System file size shown in CleanMyMac is much smaller than the size shown in System Information. This puzzles me and makes me believe that Apple definitely has counted some other files (not real system files) in the System category.

What are they? I have no clue, honestly. But as reported by other Mac users who experienced the same issue, they said Apple also considers app caches and iTunes backup files as System files.

Out of curiosity, I ran CleanMyMac again for a quick scan. That app found 13.92 GB in iTunes Junk. Further review revealed that the junk files are old iOS device backups, software updates, broken downloads, etc.

But even after adding this amount to the original system files returned by CleanMyMac X, the total size is still a bit less than what’s returned in System Information.

If cleaning the System Storage is still not enough to bring your Mac available disk space to a normal level (i.e. 20% or more), see below.

What Else Can I Do to Reclaim More Disk Space?

There are tons of ways out there. Here are a few of my favorites that should help you get back a decent amount of space quickly.

1. Sort all files by size and delete old large files.

Open Finder, go to Recents and look at the Size column. Click on it to sort all recent files by file size (from large to small). You’ll have a clear overview of what items are eating up a large amount of space, e.g. From 1 GB to 10 GB, and from 100 MB to 1 GB.

On my MacBook Pro, I found a few large videos that could be transferred to an external drive.

Note: If the Size column doesn’t show up, click on the Settings icon and select Arrange By > Size.

2. Remove duplicate files.

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Don’t forget those duplicates and similar files! They can stack up without you being aware of it. Finding them is sometimes time-consuming. That’s what Gemini 2 is designed for. Simply select a few frequently used folders (e.g. Documents, Downloads, etc.) in the main zone of Gemini.

It then scans them and returns all the duplicate files that might be worth removing. Of course, it’s always a good practice to review them before doing so. You can also read more from our detailed Gemini review here.

Wrapping It Up

Ever since Apple introduced the Optimized Storage feature, Mac users got the option of saving space by storing content in the cloud. Apple also has several new tools that make it easy to find and remove unneeded files.

That bar under the Storage tab is beautiful. It does allow you to get a quick overview of what’s taking up the most space on our hard drive. However, it still lacks insights into the “System” category as it’s greyed out.

Hopefully, the guides above have helped you figure out the reasons you’ve got so much “System” data, and most importantly you’ve reclaimed some disk space — especially for new MacBooks pre-installed with flash storage — every gigabyte is precious!

Best Free Mac Cleaner App

Your Mac's desktop is where you do a lot of your work. Many of us have a tendency to use it to keep files we access frequently, piling them on until your desktop becomes a hot mess. Do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to clean up your Mac desktop, then use these tips to keep it tidy in the future.

How to organize desktop items into folders on Mac

Rather than just leaving every file on the desktop, group them into folders. Folders make it easier to keep track of related items.

  1. Right click any blank space on your desktop background.

  2. Click New Folder. You can also use the Command-Shift-N keyboard shortcut.

  3. Click on the new folder that just appeared.
  4. Hit enter on your keyboard.

  5. Type a name for the folder.

Now you can drag any items you want into that new folder.

How to align and sort desktop items automatically on Mac

If you feel you need some sort of structure to the way your folders and files are placed, your Mac can help you automatically sort your files into a nice and tidy grid by specific types of files.

  1. Right click any blank space on your desktop background.

  2. Click on Clean Up By.

  3. Choose the option you want. Your options are as follows:

    • Name
    • Kind
    • Date Modified
    • Date Created
    • Size

    • Tags

How to keep all your desktop files in a grid formation on Mac

If you find your desktop has lost all structure and files are in every corner, you can easily snap all the files and folders back into a grid formation at any time.

  1. Right click any blank space on your desktop background.
  2. Click on Sort By.

  3. Click Snap to Grid.

Now, until you change it, all your files will always snap to a grid. If you want to reverse it, you can follow the same steps listed above.

How to adjust the size of desktop icons on Mac

If you think the icons on your screen are too small or too big, you can easily change their size.

  1. Right click any blank space on your desktop background.
  2. Click Show View Options.

  3. Adjust the icon size with the slider.

How to change the grid spacing on the desktop on Mac

  1. Right click any blank space on your desktop background.
  2. Click Show View Options.

  3. Adjust the grid spacing with the slider.

Questions?

Want to know anything else? Let us know in the comments below!

Originally published June 2015. Updated Nov 2016 to reflect changes in macOS

macOS Catalina

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