Macs also have no way to uninstall or install operating system features, so there’s no way to easily remove the many applications Apple included with your Mac. On OS X 10.10 Yosemite and earlier, it was possible to open a terminal window and issue commands to delete these system apps, which are located in the /Applications folder.
If you’re encountering any of these problems - including your Mac being warm to the touch and the fan making more noise than normal - you might need to delete some files and folders to create more space on the hard drive. In this article, we cover what you need to know to delete files, folders, and apps on a Mac.
How to delete files on a Mac
macOS provides 4 main ways of deleting files:
- Trash bin
- Terminal
- Using software
- Keyboard shortcut
Caution: Are your files backed up?
Using Time Machine, an external or third-party cloud-storage service, you can back-up your files and folders. Before you start deleting files, folders, apps, photos, videos and anything else that is taking up too much space, have you given much thought as to whether what you are deleting is backed-up? You might want to keep a copy, just in case something later proves useful. So if you’re using Time Machine, now is a good time to store everything in an external or cloud-based hard drive. Or if you’re using a third-party storage system, now is a good time to get everything stored securely.
Unless everything is backed-up for any future use, once you’ve dragged files and folders into the Trash and emptied it — which you can do straight away or it will automatically empty after 30 days - you won’t be able to retrieve what is taken to the Trash.
Dragging files to the Trash
Once everything is backed up, go through your Files, Folders, Desktop, Dock, Applications and iCloud Drive. Drag everything you don't want to keep into the Trash. Another way to put something in the Trash is to press Command + Delete.
Can't delete a file? Unlock it first
If an item is locked, it will ask if you want to continue to put it in the Trash. Click Confirm. Or to unlock it first, select the item by going to File > Get Info (or press Command-I), and the deselect Locked tickbox. If you aren't logged in as an administrator it won’t let you do this; it may require the Mac’s admin username and password to unlock a folder or file that is being moved to the Trash.
Now that you’ve got everything that needs to go, you can either empty the Trash straight away or wait 30-days for the Trash to empty itself. Only once the Trash is empty will you gain the space your Mac needs to operate more effectively.
By default, your Mac will keep files in the Trash for 30 days.
How to empty the Trash?
- Open the Trash at the right-hand side of the Dock
- If you only want to delete one item, select that item using Control-Click, then choose Delete immediately
- A warning message always appears when you are going to delete anything. Make sure you do want to delete the item as it can’t be retrieved once this is done. Select Delete.
- To delete everything in the Trash - again, make sure you do want to do this, or that the items your deleting are backed-up. Click the Empty button in the upper-right corner of the Finder menu.
- A warning icon will appear again. Click Empty Trash to accept and delete everything that is taking up too much space.
How to find and delete the unseen files?
Some files on your Mac were intentionally hidden by the operating system. They could be critically important Library files or invisible folders created by malicious apps. And besides that, any Mac has folders tucked away so deep they are impossible to dig out.
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Recently, CleanMyMac X came up with a tool that solves this problem. The instrument is called 'Space Lens' and it builds the entire storage map of your Mac. You can see the 'visualized tree' of all your folders and how big they are. For example, I was able to find a 30 GB backup folder that was (as it always happens) titled 'dfdfd' that had been stored away somewhere deep in my Docs.
You can try searching for your own hidden files with Space Lens:
Download CleanMyMac X — a link to the free edition
Run the app and click Space Lens in the sidebar
It looks like this:
CleanMyMac X's Space Lens quickly identifies what is taking up so much room on your Mac.
Delete Mac files immediately bypassing Trash
If you have OS X 10.11 El Capitan or a more modern macOS, Apple introduced a quicker way to delete anything you don’t want immediately. Highlight the file or files you want to delete, then hold down the Option-Command-Delete key. Caution: there’s no way back!
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More shortcuts for deleting files
To select folder contents: Cmd + A
To delete a group of files after selection: Cmd + Delete
To empty the Trash: Cmd + Shift + Delete
While in Finder, Use Shift + Command + Period key to highlight the unseen files in Documents.
How to delete files on your Mac forever?
Whether you’re deleting files, folders, apps or videos, the process is the same for whatever is being deleted.
But even after you empty your Trash it's still possible to retrieve the deleted data. The only reliable way to fully eliminate the data is to write new information over it.
If you want your folders gone without a trace, use a shredder application. It overwrites the deleted files with random ones and zeroes so they become unretrievable.
This Shredder tool is a part of CleanMyMac X and is 100% free.
- Click Shredder in the sidebar
- Now, drag the unneeded files onto the Shredder
Be careful: you're about to destroy your files for good.
Now you know everything about deleting files on Mac. Hope you found this article helpful.
BestWays to Back up Your MaciMore2020
One of the most important things that you need to do with your Mac is — and I can't stress how important it is — backing up. No matter who you are or what you do for a living, chances are high that you pretty much have your life on your Mac, or at least close to it. It holds your photos, video, documents of high importance, and plenty of other sensitive or prioritized information about you. No one is immune to a system failure, so it's always a good idea to make sure you can recover your data if something goes wrong. Here are some of the best solutions for backing up your Mac.
The free, built-in solution: Time Machine
Staff pickTime Machine is built into every Mac, so you should utilize it as much as possible. All you need is to hook up an external hard drive, and Time Machine is good to go! Time Machine backs up everything on your main HDD, and you can retrieve specific files from folders, so you don't need to restore everything if you don't need to. It also has a local snapshot feature that deletes older backups when you run out of space, and save them for longer periods when you recover more space on your external.
Learn more at AppleAffordable cloud backup: Backblaze
Backblaze is one of the most affordable cloud backup solutions on the market. It automatically selects what data to back up for you, though you can manually exclude folders you don't want to back up. There is also a special tool that tracks your Mac's location if it's lost or stolen, and you can order a USB flash drive with all of your backup data if you don't want to bog down your Internet connection when restoring. There is a free 15-day trial.
Starting from $6 a month at BackblazeSecure backup for multiple devices: iDrive
iDrive is another excellent and affordable cloud backup solution. It works with multiple platforms, has support for multiple device backup for a single price, and can even backup your Facebook and Instagram data. To solve the problem of bogging down your Internet connection, you can request a physical drive to back up your data, then send it back to iDrive, and they'll upload everything for you. You can get 5GB for free to try it out first.
Starting from $70 a year at iDriveBeginner friendly: Carbonite
Carbonite is great, especially for anyone who has never used cloud backup before. They have suggested backup plans to fit all of your needs, whether you have one computer, multiple computers, or multiple computers and servers. It keeps unlimited backups for your computers and keeps a dozen of the most recent changes to files so you can revert at any time. There is also a backup scheduler, so you can designate when Carbonite should back up your data.
Starting from $6 a month at CarboniteHow To Delete Downloads On Mac
Bring your own storage: MSP360 Cloud Backup for Mac
MSP360 (formerly Cloudberry) is a unique cloud backup solution because you control where your backup goes. You can use Amazon S3 and Glacier, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Storage, OpenStack, RackSpace, HP Cloud, Backblaze B2, and more. Backups include all of the data on a machine, and you can restore it from a certain point on a new machine. You can set up backup schedules, and even use it with a physical drive if you want to. There's a free version for personal use, but the Pro version gets you compression and encryption.
Best Way To Delete Software On Mac Windows 10
$30 for a single Pro license at MSP360Easy to understand physical backup: Carbon Copy Cloner
Carbon Copy Cloner works with an external hard drive, like Time Machine. It makes an exact copy of what's on your Mac's drive, or you can select individual folders and files to back up on the external. Backups can be scheduled for every hour, daily, weekly, monthly, or manually. Your backup is like a bootable clone that you'll have access to if something happens to your Mac.
$40 for all computers in your household at BombichPainless and easy backup: SuperDuper!
SuperDuper! is a great complement to Time Machine. It creates a fully bootable backup on your external hard drive and features a smart updater that copies and erases files as needed. You can also set up a schedule for regular backups. SuperDuper! is perfect for those who want a super simple way to back up everything that matters. There's a free trial, so you can give it a try before paying for more advanced features.
$28 for one Mac at Shirt PocketSync partial backups together: Mac Backup Guru
Mac Backup Guru helps you create an exact, bootable clone of your Mac's disk onto an external hard drive. The great thing about Mac Backup Guru is that it can even take older, partial backups and sync them up with what you have now to create a clone faster than starting from scratch. There are also incremental snapshots to create thumbnails of your backups, so they don't take up too much space.
$29 per computer at MacDaddyHow To Delete Software On Mac Pro
Best of both worlds: Acronis True Image
With Acronis True Image, you get to run a local backup on an external hard drive of your own, while also storing a second backup on the company's cloud servers. Local backups run automatically and continuously with end-to-end encryption, and you can schedule the cloud backups as often as you want, even if it's every five minutes.
Starting from $50 a year at AcronisAdvanced backups: ChronoSync
If you want to be in total control of what gets backed up and when, then ChronoSync is the solution for you. While it can create a clone of your entire drive, you can optionally choose what gets backed up, such as select folders only, or you can create a bootable backup on your external drive. Schedules can be set up, everything can be synced with a cloud storage server as well, and there is a 15-day trial to see if you like it before committing. All updates are free.
$50 for one computer, bulk pricing available at EconItsy bitsy spider: SpiderOak
SpiderOak's pricing is a bit high and is more like Dropbox pricing, but it's still a good service to check out. It's one of the first services that gives the user a private, exclusive encryption key, and there are some nice file-sharing and syncing features across multiple devices and platforms. You also get support for unlimited machines, as well as backups of initial system files and applications too.
Starting from $6 a month at SpiderOakDon't lose your data, always back up!
With all of these solutions available, there is no reason why you shouldn't be backing up your Mac regularly. It's always best to have a physical backup available, as well as an off-site cloud backup, just in case something happens to your external hard drive as well.
Our personal favorite from these is Backblaze because it provides simple cloud backup at an incredibly affordable rate. We also like to use Time Machine, as it already comes with your Mac, and is completely free to use — all you need is an external hard drive, which can be pretty cheap to obtain these days. Another good option is Carbonite because it's foolproof enough for everyone.
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