What Files Are Taking Up Space On My Mac?

What Files Are Taking Up Space On My Mac?
Question: My Mac laptop is running slower than usual and I was wondering what files were taking up space? I am new to Mac as I have always had a Windows computer, but now I don’t know if I should be worried about filling up my hard drive or not? The thing is, I’m saving files to my Mac and they are just building up. But there is no real rules to say that we have two clean out either. How can I see what files are taking up space on my Mac computer?
Answer
Windows isn’t the only operating system that requires computer maintenance as you are totally right when you said that you just keep adding files to your Mac computer and they just keep building up. Files have to be saved somewhere, so obviously a hard drive can become very full. Especially because most Mac laptops and computers come out with solid-state hard drives, which are very small in capacity. That means you have less space to start with.
Running a Mac computer with a SSD that is almost full is just the same as running a Windows computer that needs defragging and maintenance. The problem is, it can be quite hard to track down the files that are actually taking up space on your Mac computer. If your files are organised and stored in the usual directories like documents, movies and so on, it is pretty easy to see the files were hogging your space.
See some tips for uninstalling programs from your Mac computer.

How To Find Large Files That Are Taking Up Space [Video]

In the video below you can see a few ways to find large files they are taking up space on your Mac computer.

Software To See What Files Are Taking Up Space On Your Mac

If you have no idea where the large files are that are taking up space then there is a great free utility for the Mac OSx that will show you the files that are taking up the most space. It is called Grand Perspective and is totally open source and free.
It uses a tree map for visualisation. Each file you have on your Mac is shown as a rectangle with an area proportional to the file’s size. So straight away you can see any large files and decide if you need them or not.

Visit the developers page here: Grand Perspective
To run Grand Perspective on your Mac, simply click on the icon and select the folder to analyse using the navigation dialogue. You can also drag a folder to the icon on the dock to analyse that way. This software has other features we you can see the details about a file, send it to the trash and if you need help the program comes with extensive documentation. All up this is a very handy little tool to have if you are wondering what is taking up space on your Mac computer.