Freeing Up Space on a Mac

Summary:

This article covers how to analyse and act on storage issues on a Mac. Generally speaking, we want to have a minimum of about 20 gigs free to ensure that a mac has sufficient space to download updates. When we get below 1 GB of free space on a Mac, things can start to behave erratically. 

Prerequisites:

  • You need to be a full time staff member to install the needed software on a JCU owned device
  • You need to have a basic working knowledge of macOS file structure as it relates to things that cannot be deleted 
  • Admin Credentials for non-JCU owned devices

How to Tell how much Space is Free on a Mac

  • Navigate to System Settings>General>Storage and here we will see a general breakdown of storage and be able to tell if the disk is running out of space

Install Procedure For JCU Owned Macs:

  • Navigate to "Self Service" 
  • Full-time staff member will need to sign in, or the app will not appear for download
  • Search for "Omnidisksweeper" 

  • Click Install
  • Launch app from Applications Folder
  • Follow the "Analysing and Clearing Storage" section 

Install Procedure for Non-JCU Macs

 Analyzing and Clearing Storage

  • When Launching the app, you will be presented with the connected drives - Network drives or virtual ones like Google Drive do not seem to like to show here - so it is limited more to physical drives

  • Target "Macintosh HD" 
  • Click "Sweep Selected Drive" 

  • The application will show a "Sizing" status at the top of the window above - wait until that sizing status goes away to indicate that the drive has been fully parsed (this can take a while) 
  • When complete, it will rank folders and files by size 
  • Here we need to be careful to involve the client so that we are not deleting files they still need, and we also want to be extremely careful about what we delete here - generally anything in the Library folders we should not be touched
  • At the bottom of the window, on the left, there is the "Trash" icon, which as you might expect, deletes the selected file, and on the right, there is a folder icon, that opens the file path to that item within finder

  • Once we have deleted enough, or provided the client with what needs to be deleted, it is best practice to uninstall this app (run the uninstall policy in self-service for JCU devices, highlight the app and drag it to the trash and empty it for non-JCU devices)  as there is the potential for people to force delete critical files the Mac needs to be able to function, and not having the knowledge and discernment when using this app can create some serious issues

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