Tidy MacOpen System Settings › General › Storage for the overview, then dig in: Finder can sort folders by size, Terminal’s du command lists the biggest folders in seconds, and a disk map app shows the whole drive as a picture. The usual big users are videos and downloads, iPhone backups, Time Machine snapshots, app caches and developer files.
- Open System Settings › General › Storage and look at the coloured bar.
- In Finder, turn on View › Show View Options › Calculate all sizes and sort by size.
- In Terminal, list the biggest folders with du -sh.
- Use a disk map to see everything at once, including System Data.
1. Storage settings (built in)
System Settings › General › Storage shows Apps, Documents, Photos, System Data and more. Click the ⓘ next to a category for recommendations. It doesn’t break down System Data.
2. Finder
Open your home folder in List view, choose View › Show View Options, tick Calculate all sizes, then sort by Size. Hidden folders such as ~/Library need ⇧⌘. to show.
3. Terminal (fastest)
du -sh ~/* ~/Library/* 2>/dev/null | sort -h | tail -20
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4. A disk map
A map shows every folder as a slice sized by space used, so the biggest things are obvious. Tidy Mac’s Space Map draws any folder as a treemap or sunburst, counts cloned files once, and lets you hover for details or click to go deeper. Mac storage manager
The usual suspects
Videos and old downloads, iPhone backups, Time Machine snapshots, app caches, Xcode and Docker, and local AI models. Find large files