how to manage storage on macbook air 2015

If you’re trying to partition your drive, download a major software update or install a large app, you may run into a brick wall. While macOS will theoretically clear out purgeable space as needed, there are some instances when it may not do so. For many of the data categories, macOS is making an educated guess as to whether or not you’ll actually need or access those files anytime soon. There are also reports that data sent to Trash but not deleted immediately will show up as purgeable space.Īs you might notice, there’s another element to purgeable storage: guesswork.Locally stored Time Machine data, which is separate from the backups on your Time Machine drive.(And, if deleted, can easily be re-downloaded from iTunes.) Movies and TV shows that you’ve already watched.Dictionaries that you haven’t used or accessed in a while.Large font files that you rarely use, or may never use.Various cached data and temporary system files that macOS can delete if necessary.Full-resolution versions of photos stored in iCloud (that can be downsampled if needed).This helps speed up opening those files if you need them. Locally stored copies of files that you have stored in iCloud.Purgeable space shows up as white space with a diagonal gray pattern over the top (see above).īut what files or documents does the purgeable storage category actually refer to? Well, there are a couple of things that fall into it, including the following:

To see how much purgeable space is on your Mac, you can head to Apple menu -> About This Mac -> Storage. Don’t worry, macOS isn’t going to delete any of your important files - the files in purgeable space are actually more of a redundancy feature. In a nutshell, purgeable storage refers to files or documents on your disk that macOS can remove if more space is needed. In any case, here’s everything you need to know about purgeable storage on your Mac.

As a workaround, it could require some technical tweaking.

My Mac Won’t Start or Boot: How To Fix White Screenīased on the name, you may think that purgeable space is simple to get rid of.How to Cancel Your iCloud Storage Subscription Without Losing Data.How to use storage recommendations and optimization in macOS.New Year, Quick Fixes for Your Mac for Better Performance and More Storage.But how do you go about clearing out storage that’s “purgeable”? Related: Local storage is one of the most important things to manage on your Mac.

How to manage storage on macbook air 2015