Mac disk space guides
What fills your Mac, what is safe to delete, and how to do it by hand.
- GuideHow to free up disk space on a MacFree up disk space on a Mac safely: what Storage settings shows, Time Machine snapshots, iPhone backups, app leftovers, caches, and what never to delete.11 min read
- ExplainerWhat is System Data on a Mac, and how do you shrink it?What System Data on a Mac contains according to Apple, why it gets so large, why Finder and Settings disagree, and how to shrink it without breaking macOS.7 min read
- Developer guideHow to clear Xcode DerivedData (and other Xcode caches)Clear Xcode DerivedData with Xcode or Terminal, and learn which other Xcode folders are safe: Archives, iOS DeviceSupport and simulator caches.4 min read
- Developer guideHow to delete old iOS simulators and runtimesDelete old iOS simulators and runtimes with xcrun simctl or Xcode Settings > Components. Covers devices vs runtimes, dry runs and what each command removes.4 min read
- Developer guideDocker.raw is huge on your Mac: how to shrink it safelyWhy Docker.raw looks huge in Finder, how to check its real size, and the safe order to free space with docker system df, prune and Docker Desktop settings.4 min read
- Developer guideHow to clean node_modules and npm, pnpm, Yarn and Bun caches on a MacWhere npm, pnpm, Yarn and Bun keep their caches on a Mac, the official commands to clear them, and how to find and delete old node_modules folders.4 min read
- Developer guideWhere Ollama, Hugging Face and LM Studio keep models on a Mac, and how to delete themWhere Ollama, Hugging Face and LM Studio store models on a Mac, the commands to list and delete them, and which AI coding tool folders are safe to clean.4 min read