But how much storage space should you keep free on your Mac? We’ve covered the numbers for you below.
How Much Storage Space Should You Keep Free on Your Mac?
You should keep a significant portion of your Mac startup disk empty, anywhere from 5 to 20 percent of the total storage size of the drive. The percentage depends on your Macs’s usage. You’ll need to keep more storage space free if you use your Mac for processor-heavy tasks, such as video processing, gaming, and so on.
For example, if you have a 256GB SSD drive in your Mac, you should keep at least 13GB free at all times, preferably more.
Why Is It Essential to Have Free Storage Space on Your Mac?
There are various reasons to keep extra storage free on your Mac. Most importantly, this will prevent your Mac from slowing down due to insufficient storage space and will leave space for any temporary files that macOS needs to create. This becomes even more important when you’re working with graphic-intensive apps such as Adobe Premiere Pro.
Similarly, upgrading your Mac to a new version of macOS will be easier with more space, since you won’t be limited when trying to download the 12GB installer. You’ll also get fewer startup problems with your Mac, and loading times should be vastly improved.
How to Check the Free Storage on Your Mac
You can check the free storage on your Mac by selecting About this Mac from the Apple menu in the top-left corner of your screen. Click on Storage to see a breakdown of your Mac’s storage usage.
Free Up More Space on your Mac
Freeing up storage on your Mac is usually easier said than done, since there is so much data you might want to keep! Fortunately, it is easy to offload data onto an external disk or use iCloud Drive to keep your data in the cloud. You can also use third-party solutions, such as Dropbox, to keep your data secure in another location, freeing up storage on your Mac.
