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Notes on Mac storage.
Where the space actually goes, what is safe to remove, and where the usual advice is wrong.
Your Startup Disk Is Almost Full: What to Do on a Mac
What "Your startup disk is almost full" and "Your disk is almost full" mean on a Mac, what to clear first, and how to be warned at a level you choose.
macOS 27 System Data Huge After Updating? What to Check
System Data can look huge after the macOS 27 update. What macOS keeps there, how long to wait, and which snapshots, swap and app data to check if it stays.
WizTree for Mac: What WizTreeMac Does, and Alternatives
WizTree for Mac is here: WizTreeMac is free for personal use on macOS 12 and later. What it does, what differs from Windows, and the alternatives.
TreeSize for Mac: Free and Paid Alternatives Compared
TreeSize for Mac: JAM's TreeSize is Windows only. What replaces it, free and paid, feature by feature, and how TreeSize on Windows can still scan a Mac.
SpaceSniffer for Mac: The Closest Alternatives in 2026
There is no SpaceSniffer for Mac. The Mac apps that replace its zoomable treemap, filters and colour tags, free and paid, compared feature by feature.
idleassetsd: When Aerial Wallpapers Fill Your Mac's Disk
On macOS Sonoma and Sequoia, idleassetsd downloads Aerial wallpapers and can leave aborted downloads only root can see. How to check your Mac and stop it.
System Data on Mac: What It Is and How to Shrink It
System Data is the catch-all category in Mac storage settings: logs, caches and swap. What Apple counts in it, what is safe to shrink, and what to leave alone.
Purgeable Space on Mac: What It Is and How to Free It
Purgeable space is storage macOS can clear by itself, such as Time Machine snapshots and caches. How to see it, why it can block a copy, and how to free it now.
Where Are iPhone Backups Stored on Mac? Find and Delete Them
iPhone and iPad backups live in a hidden MobileSync folder on your Mac. How to find each one, tell which device it belongs to, and delete old backups safely.
How to Delete Ollama Models (and Other AI Models) on Mac
Ollama, LM Studio and Hugging Face keep models of several gigabytes in hidden folders. Where each stores them on a Mac, and the commands that delete them.
How to Clear Cache on Mac (and Which Caches to Leave Alone)
Clear app, browser and developer caches on a Mac step by step, with the current menus for macOS 27, what macOS clears itself, and which caches to leave alone.
Best Uninstaller for Mac in 2026: 8 Apps Compared
The best uninstallers for Mac in 2026, compared on what happens to your files: Trash or permanent delete, undo, price, background helpers and macOS 27.
Best Mac Cleaner Apps in 2026: An Honest Comparison
Mac cleaner apps compared on price, deleting (Trash or permanent), background helpers and data collection, from each vendor's own pages, and when you need none.
Best Disk Space Analyzers for Mac in 2026, Compared
Eighteen Mac disk space analyzers compared for 2026: how each shows the disk, whether it deletes to the Trash or for good, price, privacy and macOS support.
AppCleaner Alternative: AppCleaner vs Strata's Uninstaller
AppCleaner is free and needs macOS 15. How it compares with Strata's uninstaller on leftovers, several apps at once and the Trash, and the look-alikes to avoid.
WinDirStat for Mac in 2026: 5 Alternatives Compared
WinDirStat has no Mac version. QDirStat, WizTreeMac, GrandPerspective and two more macOS alternatives, compared view by view, and which are still maintained.
OmniDiskSweeper Alternatives: Size-Sorted Disk Lists on Mac
OmniDiskSweeper is free but slow to update: its stable release covers macOS 11 to 26. The alternatives that sort your disk by size in a list, compared.
GrandPerspective Alternatives for Mac in 2026
GrandPerspective is free and maintained, but needs macOS 14 and draws an unlabelled map. The alternatives for older Macs, labelled maps and cleanup, compared.
DaisyDisk vs GrandPerspective: Which Mac Disk Map in 2026?
How DaisyDisk, a $9.99 sunburst that deletes permanently, compares with GrandPerspective, a free treemap that uses the Trash, on maps, deleting and privacy.
CleanMyMac Alternative: CleanMyMac vs Strata in 2026
CleanMyMac is $39.95 a year; Strata is $9.99 once. How they compare on cleanup, deleting (permanent or Trash), helpers and data collection, from MacPaw's pages.
DaisyDisk Alternative: DaisyDisk vs Strata for Mac (2026)
DaisyDisk and Strata both cost $9.99 once. How they differ on deleting (permanent or Trash), cleanup tools, licences, trials and hidden space, from their docs.
Disk Inventory X on Apple Silicon: What Still Works in 2026
Disk Inventory X is Intel-only, unnotarized and last released in 2019, and Rosetta for apps ends after macOS 27. How to run it, the forks, and native options.
Full Disk Access on Mac: How to Turn It On, and Is It Safe?
Where Full Disk Access is in System Settings, what it lets an app read, why you must quit and reopen the app, and how to decide whether an app should have it.
Find Duplicate Files on Mac Without Deleting the Wrong One
Why duplicate files accumulate, how to prove two files are genuinely identical, which copy to keep, and the four places you should never run a duplicate finder.
Mac Startup Items: What Really Starts When Your Mac Boots
Login items are only one of five ways something can start itself on a Mac. What each one is, where it lives, and which are safe to switch off.
How to Show Hidden Files on Mac, and Which Ones Use Space
Press Command-Shift-Period in Finder to show hidden files on a Mac. What they are, which are safe to delete, and which are quietly filling your disk.
Uninstall Mac Apps Completely: The 9 Places Leftovers Hide
Dragging an app to the Trash leaves settings, caches and launch agents behind. The nine places leftovers hide, which are safe to delete, and how to clear them.
How to delete files on a Mac without regretting it
How to delete files on a Mac safely: the shortcuts, what the Trash actually is, why Put Back sometimes fails, and which deletions genuinely cannot be undone.
How to find large files on a Mac (and why the sizes lie)
How to find large files on a Mac, by size bracket, and why sparse files, APFS compression and hard links make Finder's numbers wrong.
What is actually taking up space on your Mac
The ten places Mac storage actually goes: Xcode, Docker, iOS backups, Photos, node_modules, Mail, caches and snapshots, with what is safe to remove.