Sierra has included some new tools to manage storage on your Mac. However, if you have an earlier version of Mac OSX, these options are not available. Cleaning your Mac is an important step in maintenance, and includes cleaning the hard drive, as well as the outside of your device.
Clean the Hardware
First off, turn off your computer and unplug it from power. Take your computer out of the case. Get a microfiber cloth, dampen it slightly, and wipe down your computer. You can also use the damp microfiber cloth on the screen. If you keyboard is extra dirty (I’ve seen some keyboards that I didn’t want to touch), use a soft toothbrush to get between the keys. Lifehacker explains that you can use a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser if you computer is greasy. We also have some LCD cleaning foam in the Idea Lab. Here are the official cleaning instructions from Apple.
Update your Software
Now’s a good time to update your software as well. I usually recommend that people do security updates as soon as they come out. Update your apps in the App Store, as well as your operating system, if your hardware is compatible.
Also, clean up your login items, those are the applications that automatically open when you start your computer. Go to System Preferences | Users and Groups | Login items, and delete the items that you don’t want to automatically open when you start your computer.
Make Space on your Hard Drive
- It’s okay to delete apps that you never use on your laptop. You may have installed something for testing, or for a short time, and kept it installed. If you no longer need it, delete it. You can do that by dragging them to the trash can. For a cleaner uninstall, you could use an app like AppCleaner.
- Clean out your old photos and videos, remove duplicates, and empty your Photos’ trash.
- export old photos to an external drive
- save old photos to Google Photos or to iCloud with optimized storage turned on (only available in Mac OSX Sierra)
- Clean out your download folders. Either move files into Documents or delete them.
- Organize your desktop. Delete saved screenshots that you no longer need, and move files into folders in Documents. If you can’t see your desktop, it’s a good idea to clean it up. If you want to move a file but be able to quickly access it from the Desktop, make an alias to the file on the Desktop after you move the file.
- To make an alias, click on the file with two finders and select Make Alias.
- Drag the alias (it’s not a real file, just a pointer to a file as seen by the arrow on it) to the Desktop
- Use an app like Disk Inventory X to see the size of folders, or use the Finder to find large files.
To use finder to find large files:
- Open Finder,
- Go to File | Find (shortcut CMD – F)
- Change Kind to File Size.
- Set the minimum File Size requirement e.g. 100 MB
Back Up
Use Time Machine to back up your hard drive, or copy your necessary files over to a back up hard drive. It’s a good idea to schedule a weekly back-up time in your calendar. I encourage you do that now, if you haven’t done it before.