Space Map

Why is my Mac’s disk full? A folder-by-folder lookDraft

The Storage panel in System Settings sorts your disk into categories like Applications, Documents and System Data. That’s useful, but it doesn’t tell you which folder is big. For that you need to look folder by folder.

In Finder

  1. Open your home folder and switch to list view (Command-2).
  2. Press Command-J and tick Calculate all sizes.
  3. Sort by Size, then open the biggest folder and repeat.

It can take a while for big folders, and Finder doesn’t look inside your Library by default.

In Terminal

This lists the folders in your home folder by size, smallest first:

Terminal
du -sh ~/* 2>/dev/null | sort -h

Run it again inside the biggest one to dig down. Add ~/Library/* to look inside your Library too.

The usual suspects

Downloads, Movies, Library (caches, app data, developer files) and phone backups. When the biggest folder is your Library, see What “System Data” on your Mac is.

Space Map showing Macintosh HD: 212.54 GB in 451,458 folders
Space Map

Or let Tinymop map it

Space Map measures every folder and draws it to size, as rings, bubbles or tiles, so the big ones stand out straight away. Click one to go inside, or open it in Finder.

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