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I'm seeing 193 GB taken up by my User directory on a 256 GB Macbook Air, of which only about 20 GB is music, pictures, etc. The rest seems to be taken up by my Library folder, which seems excessive. How do I clean it up?
MacBook Air
User Library? Go directly to a specific folder on Mac - Apple Support. The User Library is ~/Library
You can sort its contents by Size and delete whatever you don't want in the usual manner.
Be advised deleting files or folders may cause apps or system functions to crash or misbehave, so don't do anything without a backup plan. To learn how to use Time Machine please read Back up your files with Time Machine on Mac - Apple Support.
The question is, how do I have a clue what's safe to delete, and what isn't?
Ask.
Is there a utility that cleans up old, unused files, such as obsolete application caches?
Optimize storage space on your Mac - Apple Support
If you don't have a backup, then the prospect of permanently losing the contents of that Mac does not concern you. There is nothing wrong with that, provided you are aware of it.
Yes, I know all that. The question is, how do I have a clue what's safe to delete, and what isn't? Yes, I suppose I could go file by file, but I don't have a week. Is there a utility that cleans up old, unused files, such as obsolete application caches? There was a point on another thread, concerning excessive space in the System folder, that mentioned re-installing the OS. Would that help? Is there an equivalent action for user data?
Also, part of the problem is that Time Machine is failing because there's insufficient disk space to prepare the package. A nice Catch-22.
Thanks for your help.
It's not that big a deal, we have earlier backups, so this is really all about gitting rid of the contant "out of disk space" messages that come from various apps. It's particularly annoying as we keep all the important stuff on a NAS, with RAID and a backup schedule of its own, but I'm constantly having to clean up stuff, delete trash and so on, when the real problem is all the junk cluttering up the Library, a fact that I only discovered recently. But yes, you are correct in that I don't really care about the contents, other than in the inconvenience of setting it up again (which would, at least, clear out the Library folder).
iCloud storage and removal of redundant items will do little for me under the circumstances, but I will try the other suggestions in the article. Thanks.
Follow-up --
Using the tool, I was able to identify ~50 GB of dead stuff, mostly old podcasts and outdated iPhone backups. Thanks!
👍
iPhone / iPad backups tend to be the largest single category.
excess disk space taken up by user Library
