How To Clean Mac Hard Drive Free

Summary: Still worry about your insufficient Mac storage? Want to speed up Mac but don't know how? Get the 6 free Mac cleaners to clear disk space, clean junk or duplicate files to free up your Mac.

Ways to free up disk space on a Mac. Before we show you how to clear disk space on your Mac, a word of caution is in order. Hard drive cleaning requires time and, in some cases, expertise. So, when in doubt, use a professional cleaning app. Now, let’s make some room for the files that truly deserve space on your Mac.

Many of us know exactly how to clean Windows computer or Android phone, but when it comes to cleaning Mac, few people know about it. Many Apple users think that, there is no need to clean Mac.

However, with more and more junk files occupying your Mac storage, your Mac will slow down and offer a bad performance. You have to rely on some Mac cleaner software to remove all useless data.

Best Free Mac Cleaners

With so many Mac cleaner tools offered on the market, which one you should use? Do you know how to choose a great Mac cleaner? We have tested more than 20 Mac cleaners and select the 6 best ones for you to choose from. You can pick your preferred Free Mac cleaner to speed up your Mac easily and quickly.

  1. Jul 21, 2021 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.
  2. The good news is that freeing up storage space on a Mac is something anyone can do. Let’s take a look at some of the best ways to clean up your Mac hard drive and also improve its overall performance. Finding Large Files. One of the quickest ways to fill up your Mac hard drive is having too many large files.

No.1 Free Mac cleaner: CCleaner - Free junk file cleaner

CCleaner is one free and top Mac cleaner to delete cookies, search history, temporary files and junk files from Mac. The specific functions are below:

1. Find and remove useless/junk files with the click of a button so your Mac can run faster. Speed up boot times with easy management of Startup items.

How

2. Clear up your recycle bin, temporary files and folders, broken permissions and others. If you want to remove installed programs, just click one button.

3. Erase your browser search history and cookies so you can browse any Internet confidentially and your identity remains anonymous.

No.2 Free Mac cleaner: Disk Inventory X – Free disk cleaner for Mac

Disk Inventory X is one disk cleaning software and disk usage utility for Mac. With this free Mac cleaner, you can know where your disk space has gone and clean it safely. Just see more about Disk Inventory X.

1. Disk Inventory X shows the sizes of files and folders in a special graphical way.

2. With this Mac cleaner, you can see different files marked with different colors, to help you easily find what you want to delete.

No.3 Free Mac cleaner: AVG Cleaner – Free hidden clutter cleaner

AVG Cleaner is one free Mac cleaner to clean hidden clutter and forgotten duplicates. You can see the detailed information below:

1. Clear more hidden garbage, log, download history and trash bin for freeing up more space on your Mac.

2. Search more duplicate files, including images, music, videos and folders.

3. Created for Mac and easy to use.

4. There is an anti-virus software called AVG AntiVirus for Mac, you can use it to protect Macs on your and your families.

Mac

No.4 Free Mac cleaner: OmniDiskSweeper - Free hard drive cleaner

OmniDiskSweeper is one free Mac cleaner to find and delete big files that taking up hard drive space and also it can help you recover lost disk space.

1. OmniDiskSweeper helps you sort every file on your Mac by size and you can identify the biggest file to delete it.

2. After deleting, remaining space and folders are recalculated.

No.5 Free Mac cleaner: Dr. Cleaner – Free memory, disk, system cleaner

Dr. Cleaner is one free Mac cleaning app to offer Memory Optimization, Disk Cleaning and System Monitoring to keep your Mac optimized for the best performance.

Clean

1. Smart and accurate selection for duplicates scan and remove on Mac with OS X 10.6.6 or later.

2. Scanned big files and junk files will be deleted easily from your Mac.

3. You can easily view real-time network usage and CPU usage in the Menu bar.

No.6 Free Mac cleaner: Disk Drill

Disk Drill is one very popular free Mac cleaner app. Actually, it is a professional data recovery tool for Mac, which carries some disk cleaning functions. It has the capability to analyze Mac storage space, locate unused, large, and duplicate files and so on. In this way, it enables you to free up your Mac storage effortlessly.

1. Monitor the health of your Mac storage and offer timely alerts.

2. Find and remove duplicate files in multiple locations on Mac.

3. Analyze disk space, locate unused files and space hogs, free up storage.

Professional Mac cleaner recommendation:

With the best 6 Mac cleaner apps above, you can handily remove some junk files and optimize your Mac performance. But some of them only offer trial features. Here you are recommended to directly choose the professional Mac cleaner below:

Mac Cleaner
  • Scan and delete junk files including cache data and logs, email attachments, unwanted iTunes backup and app localization.
  • Delete large and old documents and selectively remove worthless files.
  • Clean duplicated files or folders on Mac.
  • Uninstall apps and clean associated files safely.
  • Monitor Mac system in disk utilization, battery status, memory performance and CPU usage.
  • Compatible with iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook (Air/Pro) in the latest macOS Monterey.

FAQs of Free Mac Cleaner

How do I clean and optimize my Mac?

Download and install Aiseesoft Mac Cleaner. Click Cleaner and you can clean up your Mac by cleaning system junk, iPhoto junk, email junk, similar photos, iTunes junk, trash bin, large & old files and more.

Why is my Mac so slow?

How To Clean Up Mac Hard Drive For Free

The reason that why is your Mac so slow may includes there is no enough hard drive or RAM on Mac. Or there is too many startup items or icon clutter on desktop. Perhaps your macOS is outdated and you should update it.

Does Catalina slow down your Mac?

No. Catalina won’t slow down an old Mac. You can check to make sure if your Mac is compatible with macOS Catalina.

By now, 6 free Mac cleaners have been shared here. You can choose your preferred Mac cleaner according to your need. Please share it in comment if you have any better Mac cleaner recommendation. Check ere if you want to speed up your slow iPhone.

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December 29, 2020 17:50 / Updated by Louisa White to Mac Cleanup

A hard drive choc full of excess files is going to slow your computer down – meaning you'll have a harder time using applications, running updates, and generally just using it. If your computer has been feeling a bit sluggish recently, it might be time to clean your hard drive.

But don't worry! Cleaning your hard drive isn't as daunting as it sounds. In fact, if you regularly clean your hard drive, you'll be helping to keep your computer running quickly and smoothly. In this guide, we'll run through the cleaning process, as well as a few tips and tricks!

How to clean a hard drive

Clean Mac Hard Drive Free Software

Here we go through the steps you need to take in order to clear your hard drive on both Windows and Mac machines.

How to Clean your hard drive on Windows

If you're a Windows user, you can follow along with the steps below to clean up your hard drive. Bear in mind that the process may vary depending on which version of Windows you're using, but not by much.

  1. Type 'disk cleanup' in the search box, which can be found on the taskbar.
  2. Click Disk Cleanup.
  3. Next, you'll need to select the drive you'd like to tidy up. This is usually your C drive, so pick it out of the list and confirm your choice by clicking OK.
  4. You can now choose which file types to remove, under Files to delete.
  5. Confirm your choice again, and hit OK.
  6. Navigate back to the main Disk Cleanup menu and click on Clean up system files.
  7. Once more, pick the files you'd like to remove.
  8. Hit OK.
  9. You're all set! The cleaning process will now begin.

How to clean hard drive on Mac

Mac users can also manually tidy up the hard drive, and it's just as simple to do it!

  1. Open the Apple menu.
  2. Click on About this Mac.
  3. Then, select Storage. You'll be able to see the remaining free space on your device here.
  4. Select Manage.
  5. From here, you can review your Mac's space saving recommendations.
  6. You can decide which files to store in iCloud, delete media content you've already watched to optimize your storage, configure your recycle bin to empty every 30 days, and sift through your clutter settings via Reduce Clutter.
  7. From the Reduce Clutter menu, you'll be able to delete files directly, or open specific apps to determine which files to remove from inside it.

Why you should clean your hard drive

How To Clean Mac Hard Drive Free Software

Cleaning might not be everyone's idea of a good time, but it's necessary – think how much more difficult it'd be to get about your day-to-day routine if your house was full of clutter and rubbish. It's the same with your hard drive!

Frequently cleaning your hard drive can drastically improve your computer's performance. But that's not all – we've listed some additional benefits below.

Keep your device running smoothly

As we mentioned, a computer with a hard drive approaching its capacity is going to be slower than a shiny new one. Free up some space to see an improvement in speed, better app performance, as well as easier downloads and installations.

Stay secure

How to clean my mac hard drive for free

You might not think that there's a link between tidying your hard drive and your security, but there is! Hard drives often accrue old files and documents, and these can contain sensitive personal information – the sort you wouldn't want falling into the hands of a cybercriminal. If you're not actively using these documents, it's better to get rid of them or back them up elsewhere rather than leave them lying around.

Purge temporary files

Your computer makes use of temporary files quite frequently, but contrary to their name, they can hang around until you decide to get rid of them. And you should – these files can take up a shocking amount of space in your hard drive! Your Chrome browser cache may contain these files, and redundant Windows system files can linger after system updates. Additionally, Windows uses temporary files to hold onto information whilst you're making modifications – like editing a Word document or using a printer.

You'll also see temporary files if you download a lot of things from the web. Temporary files are created automatically when you do, and again, will hang around uninvited.

Clear out the clutter

Clean Mac

Ask yourself honestly – how many of the apps on your computer do you actually use? Probably not all of them, right? Especially the ones that come preloaded. These programs and applications can consume valuable hard drive space that you might need elsewhere, or want to free up for improved performance. Fortunately, it's possible to see which apps are taking up the most space and delete them manually.

Do you really need those files?
Didn't think so...

Windows users can navigate to the Apps & Features menu via Settings, then Apps, and view a list of what's currently installed on the device. You can filter these apps by size, and click Uninstall on any you think are superfluous.

Mac users are able to delete junk apps from Finder or Launchpad. To do so via Launchpad, you'll first need to open it from the Applications folder. From this folder, you can drag apps to the Bin – though you might be asked to confirm your choice by providing an administrator's permission.

Enjoy an organized device

You might be the sort of person who knows exactly where all their files should go. You might not leave a single Word doc, photo, or app in the Downloads folder for a moment longer than necessary! Or, you might use it as a sort of dumping ground. It's worth combing through your device to see just what's inside the various folders. Is your Downloads folder full? Could you delete anything in your Documents folder? Are there duplicate holiday snaps in with your Pictures? There's no better time than now to establish an organizational method for the things you download and create in order to prevent junk from accruing again. Oh, and don't forget to check what's in your Recycle Bin, too!

Don't worry about defragmentation

If you're cleaning your hard drive in order to free space, then defraging is not going to help. The defragmentation process reorganizes the data on your hard drive, but it won't actually remove files, and is an outdated function now that most computers use SSDs.

How to clean your Conclusion

So, now you know how to clean up your hard drive and the steps to take to do it! It's well worth putting aside a little time to tidy up your device – you'll see an improved performance, be better secured, and have a more organized computer at the end of it.

In fact, cleaning your hard drive is such a worthy endeavor that it even has its own day. You don't have to wait until the second Monday in February to get stuck in and toss out some useless files and apps, however!

For more information about cloud storage, be sure to check out our guide titled 'how secure is cloud storage'. In this guide we look at the main providers - Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive and iCloud to decide whether or not cloud storage is secure.

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