“No matter what I do, my Mac is still slow”, an average tech-consultant hears this phrase multiple times a day. Give a person even the most powerful computer, and pretty soon it will be cluttered with apps, extensions, and things that are too much for it to handle. To reverse it, one has to go back and сlean up the mess, removing memory agents one by one. Prepare for a fight — every byte of memory is at stake. So let’s put your Mac on a diet and get it more free RAM to breathe freely.
- How To Clear Space On Mac
- Best Way To Free Up Space On Macbook Air
- Best Way To Free Up Space On Mac Computer
- Best Way To Free Up Space On Macbook
- Best Way To Free Up Space On My Mac
Here are the best ways to back up your Mac. There are a lot of ways to ensure your files don’t get lost, and almost all of them involve keeping a copy of your files somewhere else. Even better is keeping one copy somewhere handy for problems like lost files or failing equipment and another copy somewhere offsite. Easy way to clear space on your PC or Mac. The latest trends and the info you need to live your best digital life. You can clear your cache folder to free up space as well. 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 may display storage categories, such as Not Mounted, VM, Recovery, Other Volumes, Other, Free or Purgeable. So the best way to free up space on Mac is to start with this type of files. With just a few clicks, you’ll discover what’s where and what’s ripe for deletion. The best way to free up hard drive space is to run CleanMyMac X and wave goodbye to space-hogging files.
First, remove desktop clutter. Get a combination of Setapp apps that clear away unneeded desktop files.
Download Declutter Free“Your system has run out of application memory”
How do you know your Mac is low on memory? Floating “rainbow wheels” aside, you may notice your Mac now takes ages to load. You’ll also see many browser applications crashing. You’ll be also thrown warning messages as “Your system has run out of application memory”. To help it, you should first visit the Activity monitor to see memory usage on Mac.
How to check RAM usage on Mac
Go to Applications and type in Activity Monitor in the search bar. This invokes a good old Activity Monitor that should tell how much free memory you’ve got left.
A shortcut to open Activity Monitor:
Press F4 and start typing Activity Monitor in the search bar.
I’ve attached a screenshot from my Mac and as you can see my memory usage almost reached full capacity. Here’s what it all means:
App memory: taken by apps and processes
Wired memory: reserved by apps, can’t be freed up
Compressed: inactive, can be used by other apps
Swap used: memory used by macOS
Cached files: memory you can really use
Notice the colored graph under Memory Pressure. If your graph is all but red and yellow, your Mac is really gasping for fresh memory. It seems counter-intuitive, but “available memory” your Activity Monitor is not that important after all. In fact, it’s a system intended behavior to use all memory resources when available. On the contrary, the Memory Pressure graph is much more telling, so grow a habit to check this graph in the Activity Monitor every now and then.
How to check CPU usage on Mac
Open the CPU tab in Activity Monitor to keep in check CPU-heavy processes. Normally an app would be using 0-4% of CPU. If it takes abnormally more than that, go inside that particular item in the list and press the Quit button.
How to free up memory on Mac
Tip # 1. Remove Login Items to lower Mac memory usage
Login items are programs that load automatically upon Mac startup. Some of them covertly add themselves to the list and this is no good. If you’re looking to free up RAM, they are the first candidates for deletion. Don’t worry, you’re not deleting the app itself, you just stop it from auto-launching every time.
So, to remove Login Items and at the same time reduce your memory usage of your Mac, you need to:
- Open System Preferences and select Users & Groups.
- Click your nickname on the left.
- Select the Login Items tab.
- Check programs you don’t want to load as your Mac starts.
- Press the “–” sign below.
Now, you won’t see these apps pop up the moment you turn on your Mac. Although this method doesn’t require some superpowers of yours, some special Mac optimization and memory cleaner tools may do the job faster and ensure the smooth performance of your Mac. CleanMyMac X is an excellent example of such software. Here’s how to disable Login Items with CleanMyMac X:
- Download it for free and go to the Optimization tab.
- Check Login Items to see the list of apps that get opened when you start your Mac.
- Click Remove.
As you’ve already come to the Optimization module of CleanMyMac, you can also fix hung apps and heavy memory consumers there. In this way, you’ll free up the solid amount of RAM on Mac — 100% free of charge.
Tip # 2. Free up disk space if Mac is low on memory
The available space on your Mac’s drive translates into virtual memory. This comes to save you when you’ve run out of physical RAM. So now your computer relies on your hard drive space to keep your apps going.
The classic geek rule of thumb holds it that you should keep at least 20% of disk space on your startup drive. Not only this potentially reduces your future spending on iCloud storage but it also keeps your Mac speedier.
What to delete to free up space:
- Large unused files, like movies
- Old downloads
- Rarely used applications
- System junk
How To Clear Space On Mac
But here’s a simpler solution to save your time — clean up your drive with CleanMyMac X— the app I’ve mentioned above. Many users recommend it as an excellent way to free up more space because it searches for large & old files, useless system files, Photo junk, mail attachments and shows everything you can safely delete. Interestingly, it finds about 74 GB of junk on an average computer.
Extra trick: How to free up RAM on Mac with CleanMyMac X
If you have downloaded CleanMyMac, you may also take advantage of its amazing feature — the ability to free up RAM in a few seconds. Try this next time you see “Your system has run out of application memory” message.
- Go to the Maintenance tab on the left.
- Click Free Up RAM.
- Click Run.
As simple as that!
And you can do it even if you download a free version of the app.
Tip # 3. Clean up your Desktop
This tip always comes at the bottom of instructions and unfairly so as it is quite effective. Without even looking at your Desktop I would assume it’s cluttered with mountains of icons. Thing is, your macOS was designed in a way that it treats every Desktop icon as a little active window. The more icons, the heavier memory usage on Mac. So in order to release available memory resources, it’s recommended to keep your Desktop clean.
You don’t have to do it all by yourself. With apps like Declutter and Spotless, every desktop cleaning session will be scheduled in advance and executed automatically. Your only job is to define the rules on how your files should be organized.
Tip #4. Clear cache files
Another way to free up RAM on Mac is to clear it of cache files. Of course, it won’t save you gigabytes of space, but deleting cache regularly, you can help your Mac run faster and avoid system issues.
So, to remove cache files on your Mac, you need to:
- Open Finder.
- From the Go menu, select Go to Folder.
- Type ~/Library/Caches in the field and press Go.
- In the window that appears, you will see all your cache files.
- Press Command+A to select all files or delete files one by one.
- Enter your user name and password to confirm.
If you find some files still in the folder after you emptied it, maybe you have some windows open on your Mac. Just like that, you can save up some space on your Mac. Don’t forget to empty the bin afterward.
Tip # 5. Tune up Chrome’s Task Manager
Although Google Chrome is not the one to blame for massive memory usage, it can indeed affect your Mac's performance. If you use Chrome as your primary browser, you probably have many windows opened there. Chrome runs a lot of processes to ensure a fast browsing experience for you. So, it uses your RAM for storing your tabs, plugins, and extensions. Look at how many entries Google Chrome has in Activity Monitor:
The question then arises, 'Why does Chrome use so much RAM?' The thing is that each process is responsible for a separate plugin or extension of your browser. For example, when a tab unexpectedly falls, you need to refresh it to continue your work there. If one process were responsible for all tabs and extensions, you would need to restart the whole browser instead. Can you imagine how many times would you do that? That’s the proper answer to why Chrome uses so much RAM.
I’ve been using Chrome for some years only to discover (recently) that Chrome had a task manager of its own. You can use it to force quit memory-heavy processes in the browser. It’s a handy tool because it lets you see how a page weighs on CPU usage on a Mac.
- Go to Chrome settings (dotted icon in the top right corner)
- Click More tools -> Task Manager
To free up even more RAM, close the GPU process. The GPU Process, though helpful in theory to accelerate pages, eats up a considerable amount of memory. Click to end it to free up RAM on your Mac.
Tip # 6. Manage RAM usage with CleanMyMac X menu
CleanMyMac X has another useful and convenient feature for managing your Mac’s performance and memory usage. As you install CleanMyMac X and start it for the first time, it’s icon will appear in your menu bar. Click the icon to open the CleanMyMac X menu. Here you can find updates on the current condition of your Mac and perform quick tweaks to increase your Mac's speed. Whenever you feel like your Mac underperforms, open the CleanMyMac X menu to check how much RAM is available and free it up as well.
Tip # 7. Close Finder windows
Okay, suppose you’re still asking yourself, how do I clear RAM on my MacBook Pro/MacBook Air. The next trick is as magical (you’ll see for yourself) as it is time-saving. It’s no secret that each window in the Finder eats up RAM. But how many open windows are there? Some of them are collapsed or stacked in some blind spot on your screen. This Finder command merges all your windows into one. See how to do it:
Click on Finder > Window > Merge All Windows
Now you can manage Finder windows more effectively and free up memory on MacBook.
What else you can do to minimize memory usage on Mac
I’ve saved the easiest tips for the end, as long as these ones are self-explanatory.
- Replace AdBlock (very memory-demanding) with a lighter extension
- Keep fewer opened tabs in the browser
- Restart your Mac more often to free up RAM
- Close all hung-up print queues
That was my take on how to make your Mac a bit speedier to use. If you’re looking for more guidance, check simple ways to speed up your Mac.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to check application memory on Mac?
To check RAM usage on your Mac, go to Activity Monitor (Applications > Utilities). In the Memory tab, you will see all the active processes that are using your Mac’s RAM. At the end of the window, there is a Memory Used graph, which indicates how much application memory is used.
How to find out whether your Mac needs more RAM?
Your Mac may be using almost all its RAM, but you don’t need more if it’s using it efficiently. Open Activity Monitor and go to the Memory tab. The Memory Pressure graph shows the current condition of your RAM: green color means your Mac’s using RAM effectively, while yellow is a sign that some application or process is using too much of application memory. The red memory pressure signals that your Mac needs more RAM.
How to quickly free up RAM on your MacBook?
To free up RAM on your Mac, firstly, you should find out what app uses so much of your memory. The memory-heavy programs are listed in Activity Monitor, Memory tab. If there is an app you aren’t using at the moment, click it and press the “X” sign to quit it. This will, in turn, free some of the application memory.
When the disk on your Mac is almost full, you may receive the above warning message and find that your Mac runs slower than usual. You can then take the easy steps below to check the disk space on your Mac, and may need to use the 10 methods provided in the second part to free up disk space.
Let’s get started.
How to check disk space on Mac
You can simply follow these steps:
- Click the Apple Icon, and select About This Mac.
- Click Storage. And you’ll see how much free space is available and what are taking up the used space.
If you are running out of disk space, you can try the methods below to free up some.
How to free up disk space on Mac
Method 1: Use recommendations
A quick fix would be to click the Manage button to use recommendations for optimizing your storage. You’ll see fewer options if some of them are already enabled.
Method 2: Use cloud storage
Besides iCloud and iTunes, you can also use other cloud storage tools to store your content and save disk space on Mac. There’re many cloud storage applications available on the Web or inside the Mac App Store. Among them, you can try AnyTrans.
AnyTrans breaks the sync boundaries and builds highways between all your devices. With it, you can transfer your data and files across iOS devices, Android mobiles, PC/Mac, and cloud storage. Freely, flexibly and unlimitedly.
Method 3: Use external drives
You can also move big and infrequently used files (e.g. movies, photos and audio) to a USB drive with a large storage capacity, say, 500GB, to effectively free up space on your Mac.
Method 4: Delete downloads
As you may frequently download files from browsers and mail, the Downloads folder is probably taking up several Gigabytes of free space. So you can navigate to the path below to delete downloads that are not needed any more to free up your disk space.
Machintosh HD > Users > Current User > Downloads
Method 5: Clear caches
Best Way To Free Up Space On Macbook Air
Caches in apps and browsers can pile up and occupy a good portion of disk space over time. So it’s a good idea to periodically clear caches and free up disk space. To do so, you can:
- In the menu bar, click Finder, then select Go.
- Click Go to Folder.
- Type ~/Library/Caches.
- Delete the files or folders that’re taking up the most space.
- Type /Library/Caches.
- Again, delete large folders/files.
Method 6: Remove logs
In the Library folder, you can also find the Logs folder, which stores some temporary files of the system, apps and mobile devices. You can remove unnecessary files/logs in it to free up space.
Method 7: Delete iTunes backups
If you often back up your iPhone with iTunes, the backups may take up much space on your Mac. To have a check, you can go to iTunes > Preferences > Devices.
You can then move the content to the cloud, then delete all previous backups on your Mac.
Method 8: Remove duplicate files
In iTunes, there’re other files you can remove to free up disk space — duplicate items.
- Open iTunes.
- Click the View tab, then select Show Duplicate Items.
iTunes will show you a list of duplicates. You can then check and remove the unneeded.
Method 9: Remove software updates
If you have updated your iPhone or iPad via iTunes on your Mac, you’ve left update file(s) on the system. After the update, these files are not needed any more, and you can follow these steps to delete them.
- Click the Finder tab > Go > Go to Folder.
- To delete iPad update files, type ~/Library/iTunes/iPad Software Updates.
- To delete iPhone update files, type ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates.
Best Way To Free Up Space On Mac Computer
Method 10: Uninstall unneeded apps
Last but not least, you can consider removing unused applications on your Mac. It’s a great way to free up disk space.
Best Way To Free Up Space On Macbook
You can use the free OS X tool AppCleaner or AppTrap to clean uninstall apps. Just drag and drop the app you want uninstalled into the tool.
Then select the files you want to be removed along with the app, and empty the trash and the uninstallation process is complete.
Just have a try now!
Best Way To Free Up Space On My Mac
Feel free to leave a comment below to share your results or any other suggestions.