The Optimized Storage features of your Mac help you save storage space by storing your content in iCloud and making it available on demand:
Introduction to our Top 10 Mac Repair Software. Did you know there are several Mac disk repair. Free space, and others. If you have access to another Mac, with suitable OS X running. In it, you could see if the present one with problems could be seen in Target Disk Mode. And the hard disk drive inside, repaired by another Mac's disk utility; perhaps unlikely. However a Mac User Group in your area or an independent Apple service provider. Utility software is a program/app that helps your computer work better. There are a lot of types of utility software, depending on what part of your computer it focuses on: the operating system, data storage, hardware and so on. There are apps that clean up your junk files from your Mac and free up the space on your hard drive.
- When storage space is needed, files, photos, movies, email attachments, and other files that you seldom use are stored in iCloud automatically.
- Each file stays right where you last saved it, and downloads when you open it.
- Files that you’ve used recently remain on your Mac, along with optimized versions of your photos.
If you haven't yet upgraded to macOS Sierra or later, learn about other ways to free up storage space.
Find out how much storage is available on your Mac
Choose Apple menu > About This Mac, then click Storage. Each segment of the bar is an estimate of the storage space used by a category of files. Move your pointer over each segment for more detail.
Click the Manage button to open the Storage Management window, pictured below.
– Send messages, photos, and videos to any user. While we can’t discuss every reason, here is a list of some of the most popular features and aspect of using WhatsApp to stay in touch:.
Manage storage on your Mac
The Storage Management window offers recommendations for optimizing your storage. If some recommendations are already turned on, you will see fewer recommendations.
Store in iCloud
Click the Store in iCloud button, then choose from these options:
- Desktop and Documents. Store all files from these two locations in iCloud Drive. When storage space is needed, only the files you recently opened are kept on your Mac, so that you can easily work offline. Files stored only in iCloud show a download icon , which you can double-click to download the original file. Learn more about this feature.
- Photos. Store all original, full-resolution photos and videos in iCloud Photos. When storage space is needed, only space-saving (optimized) versions of photos are kept on your Mac. To download the original photo or video, just open it.
- Messages. Store all messages and attachments in iCloud. When storage space is needed, only the messages and attachments you recently opened are kept on your Mac. Learn more about Messages in iCloud.
Storing files in iCloud uses the storage space in your iCloud storage plan. If you reach or exceed your iCloud storage limit, you can either buy more iCloud storage or make more iCloud storage available. iCloud storage starts at 50GB for $0.99 (USD) a month, and you can purchase additional storage directly from your Apple device. Learn more about prices in your region.
Optimize Storage
Click the Optimize button to save space by automatically removing watched movies and TV shows. When storage space is needed, movies or TV shows that you purchased from Apple and already watched are removed from your Mac. Click the download icon next to a movie or TV show to download it again.
Your Mac will also save space by keeping only recent email attachments on this Mac when storage space is needed. You can manually download any attachments at any time by opening the email or attachment, or saving the attachment to your Mac.
Optimizing storage for movies, TV shows, and email attachments doesn't require iCloud storage space.
Empty Trash Automatically
Empty Trash Automatically permanently deletes files that have been in the Trash for more than 30 days.
Reduce Clutter
Reduce Clutter helps you identify large files and files you might no longer need. 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. Other categories show the total storage space used by the files in each app. You can then open the app and decide whether to delete files from within it.
Learn how to redownload apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books.
Where to find the settings for each feature
The button for each recommendation in the Storage Management window affects one or more settings in other apps. You can also control those settings directly within each app.
- If you're using macOS Catalina or later, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Apple ID, then select iCloud in the sidebar: Store in iCloud turns on the Optimize Mac Storage setting on the right. To turn off iCloud Drive entirely, deselect iCloud Drive.
- If you're using macOS Mojave or earlier, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click iCloud, then click Options next to iCloud Drive. Store in iCloud turns on the Desktop & Documents Folders and Optimize Mac Storage settings.
- In Photos, choose Photos > Preferences, then click iCloud. Store in iCloud selects iCloud Photos and Optimize Mac Storage.
- In Messages, choose Messages > Preferences, then click iMessage. Store in iCloud selects Enable Messages in iCloud.
- If you're using macOS Catalina or later, open the Apple TV app, choose TV > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Files. Optimize Storage selects “Automatically delete watched movies and TV shows.”
- In you're using macOS Mojave or earlier, open iTunes, choose iTunes > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Advanced. Optimize Storage selects “Automatically delete watched movies and TV shows.”
- In Mail, choose Mail > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Accounts. In the Account Information section on the right, Optimize Storage sets the Download Attachments menu to either Recent or None.
Empty Trash Automatically: From the Finder, choose Finder > Preferences, then click Advanced. Empty Trash Automatically selects “Remove items from the Trash after 30 days.”
Other ways that macOS helps automatically save space
With macOS Sierra or later, your Mac automatically takes these additional steps to save storage space:
- Detects duplicate downloads in Safari, keeping only the most recent version of the download
- Reminds you to delete used app installers
- Removes old fonts, languages, and dictionaries that aren't being used
- Clears caches, logs, and other unnecessary data when storage space is needed
How to free up storage space manually
Even without using the Optimized Storage features described in this article, you can take other steps to make more storage space available:
- Music, movies, and other media can use a lot of storage space. Learn how to delete music, movies, and TV shows from your device.
- Delete other files that you no longer need by moving them to the Trash, then emptying the Trash. The Downloads folder is good place to look for files that you might no longer need.
- Move files to an external storage device.
- Compress files.
- Delete unneeded email: In the Mail app, choose Mailbox > Erase Junk Mail. If you no longer need the email in your Trash mailbox, choose Mailbox > Erase Deleted Items.
Learn more
- The Storage pane of About This Mac is the best way to determine the amount of storage space available on your Mac. Disk Utility and other apps might show storage categories such as Not Mounted, VM, Recovery, Other Volumes, Other, Free, or Purgeable. Don't rely on these categories to understand how to free up storage space or how much storage space is available for your data.
- When you duplicate a file on an APFS-formatted volume, that file doesn't use additional storage space on the volume. Deleting a duplicate file frees up only the space required by any data you might have added to the duplicate. If you no longer need any copies of the file, you can recover all of the storage space by deleting both the duplicate and the original file.
- If you're using a pro app and Optimize Mac Storage, learn how to make sure that your projects are always on your Mac and able to access their files.
When you decide to backup your Mac, it’s important to choose the right way to do it. While using Time Machine is a great option, sometimes it helps to consider all your options.
For example, if you’re looking to replace your MacBook’s hard drive, consider creating a disk image of your hard drive and store it on an external drive. You can do it by using Disk Utility.
Creating a backup of your Mac will allow you to make an exact copy of your current hard drive and restore all of the information when you get a new drive installed. Having a backup copy of your startup disk also removes the risk of losing your data while performing system updates.
Prepare to Backup Your Mac
Before you begin backing up your Mac, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.
- Disk Utility is free and included with macOS. You can find it in Applications > Utilities.
- Before you start the Mac backup, make sure you have an internal or external hard drive ready. It needs to be large enough to store the data you have on your current startup disk and that it doesn’t have anything you want to keep on it. The backup process will erase the receiving drive.
- The destination drive also needs to be properly formatted. Especially if you’re using an external hard drive or an external SSD to back up your data, as most of them don’t come pre-formatted for Macs.
- Check the destination drive for errors before you begin the process.
- Finally, the whole process will take anything between half an hour and several hours, depending on the data you’re backing up. So make sure your computer is plugged in and you won’t need to use it in the next couple of hours.
Verify the Destination Drive Using Disk Utility
If your destination drive has any errors, it might cause issues with your backup, and you won’t have a reliable copy of your startup drive.
Kik messenger download for mac. We recommend using Disk Utility to verify the destination drive before you start the backup process. In order to do that, follow these steps:
- Open Disk Utility.
- From the device list, select the destination drive.
- Click First Aid in the top of the app. Then choose Run.
This will start the verification process that shouldn’t take longer than a few minutes.
If Disk Utility shows verification errors, you’ll need to repair the disk before moving on. To do that, click the First Aid button in Disk Utility again to repair the disk. If you get a confirmation message in the end, you’re good to go.
On the contrary, if there are still errors listed after you’ve repaired the disk, you’ll need to repeat the whole process until the disk is fully repaired and you get the Disk Utility confirmation message.
Start The Mac Backup Process
Apple Disk Utility Repair
Now that your destination drive is ready, you may begin the cloning process and create a copy of your startup disk. To do that, follow these steps:
- In Disk Utility, select your startup disk.
- From the Disk Utility menu, choose File >New Image > Image from “name of your drive”.
What to Do if The Option to Create an Image is Greyed Out
Sometimes the option to create an image from the current disk will be greyed out. That happens because some macOS versions have rather complex file system arrangements. Disk Utility will sometimes only show you volumes and not all available devices.
In order to fix that, open the View menu in Disk Utility and choose Show All Devices. You will then see a different file structure. To create an image of your internal disk, you’ll need to choose it under “Internal” and then repeat the process FIle > New Image > Image from “name of your disk”.
- Before starting the backup, you can change its name. If you’re only using that disk for backup purposes, we recommend choosing something like Mac Backup to help you remember it in the future.
- Select your destination drive.
- For general use, choose the default options: “compressed” under Format and “none” under Encryption.
- Click Save. This will start the backup.
Disk Utility will require some time to create the backup of your Mac depending on the amount of data you have on your startup disk. Once it’s finished, Disk Utility will notify you. Then you’ll have a complete copy of your hard drive which you can use to restore your data later on.
Use Boot Manager To Check Your Copy
One extra precaution that you can take is checking your backup to see if it works as your startup disk. After your Mac backup is complete, you’ll need to restart your computer and see if it can boot from the backup copy. You can do it using the Mac’s Boot Manager.
- Shut down all applications.
- Click on the Apple menu and choose Restart.
- When your screen turns black, hold down the Option key until your screen turns gray and you see icons of bootable hard drives.
- Choose the backup copy you just created.
Your Mac will now boot from the backup you just made. To return to your startup disk, you’ll need to restart your computer once again.
Macbook Pro Disk Utility Startup
If you don’t want to lose your data, taking a backup of your Mac should become a habit for you. If you can’t remember when was the last time you’ve made a copy of your files, it’s safe to say it’s time to do it again.
There are many different ways to backup your iOS and macOS devices. You can choose the one that suits your needs best, or even better – use different methods for different types of data. Aside from Disk Utility, try using iCloud for backing up your photos, and Time Machine for creating copies of larger files.