How to Free Up Space on Your Mac

If you're running low on storage space on your Mac, there are several steps you can take to free up some room. Before we dive into those, let's look back at how much space was required to install or upgrade macOS in the past.

In the early days of Mac installation, the process didn't require a lot of space. For example, the High Sierra installer was just 4.8GB, while the Sierra installer needed around 10GB of space on a thumb drive or 5GB from the App Store. El Capitan required about 6.2GB of space on the App Store.

However, as newer versions of macOS were released, the space requirements increased significantly. Monterey (macOS 12) and Big Sur (macOS 11) required at least 26GB and up to 44GB of free space respectively, while Catalina (macOS 10.15) needed around 18.5 GB of free space for an upgrade from previous versions.

In the past few years, Apple has introduced new file systems, apps, and ways of handling objects on the file system, as well as backing up snapshots to make recovery easier. This has led to a steady increase in the amount of free space required to install or upgrade macOS.

For example, El Capitan (Mac OS X 10.11) needed around 8.8GB of free space for an upgrade, with 10GB recommended. Sierra (Mac OS X 10.12) had a minimum drive capacity requirement of 8.8GB, but ideally needed more like 12GB.

As the transition from HFS+ to APFS file systems took place, and as 64-bit operating systems became the norm, the amount of free space required for an upgrade increased dramatically. This growth has continued since the introduction of APFS-based snapshots in 2016.

Now that you know how much space was needed in the past, let's look at some ways to free up space on your Mac today:

By following these tips and being mindful of the amount of storage space available on your Mac, you can ensure that you have enough room for important files and apps.

How to free space in mac