The operating system went golden and had its full release on September 20, 2016. Along with giving the operating system a new name, Apple added a lot of new features to macOS Sierra. This isn't just a simple update or a bunch of security and bug fixes.
Click the Store in iCloud button, then choose from these options:. Desktop and Documents. Store all files in these two locations in iCloud Drive. When storage space is needed, only the files you recently opened are kept on your Mac, so that you can easily work offline. Files that are stored only in the cloud show a, which you can double-click to download the original file. Photos. All original, full-resolution photos and videos are stored in. When storage space is needed, only space-saving (optimized) versions of photos are kept on your Mac. To download the original photo or video, just open it. Storing files in iCloud uses the storage space in your iCloud storage plan. If you need more iCloud storage, starting at 50GB for $0.99 (USD) a month directly from your Apple device.
Click the Optimize button, then choose from these options. Automatically remove watched iTunes movies and TV shows. When storage space is needed, iTunes movies or TV shows that you already watched are removed from your Mac. Click the next to a movie or TV show to download it again.
Download only recent attachments. Mail automatically downloads only the attachments that you recently received. You can manually download any attachments at any time by opening the email or attachment, or saving the attachment to your Mac. Don't automatically download attachments. Mail downloads an attachment only when you open the email or attachment, or save the attachment to your Mac. Optimizing storage for movies, TV shows, and email attachments doesn't require iCloud storage space. Reduce Clutter helps identify large files and files you might no longer need. Click the Review Files button, then choose any of the file categories in the sidebar, such as Applications, Documents, GarageBand, iOS Files, iTunes, or Trash.
Some categories allow you delete files directly. Move your pointer over the file name, then click to immediately and permanently delete the file. If you purchased the file from the Mac App Store, iBooks Store, or iTunes Store, you might be able to. Other categories show the total storage space used by the files in each app.
You can then open the app and decide whether to delete files from within it. :. Choose Apple () menu System Preferences, click iCloud, then click the Options button next to iCloud Drive. Store in iCloud turns on the Desktop & Documents Folders and Optimize Mac Storage settings. To turn off iCloud Drive entirely, deselect iCloud Drive. In Photos, choose Photos Preferences, then click iCloud.
Store in iCloud selects and Optimize Mac Storage.:. In iTunes, choose iTunes Preferences, then click Advanced. Optimize Storage selects “Automatically delete watched movies and TV shows.”. In Mail, choose Mail Preferences, then click Accounts. In the Account Information section of your email account, Optimize Storage sets the Download Attachments pop-up menu to either Recent or None.: From the Finder, choose Finder Preferences, then click Advanced.
Empty Trash Automatically selects “Remove items from the Trash after 30 days.”. Even without using the Optimized Storage features of Sierra or later, you can take other steps to make more storage space available:. Delete files that you no longer need by moving them to the Trash, then emptying the Trash. The Downloads folder is good place to look for files that you might no longer need. Move files to an external drive.
Delete unneeded email: In the Mail app, choose Mailbox Erase Junk Mail. If you no longer need the email in your Trash mailbox, choose Mailbox Erase Deleted Items.
System taking too much space on macOS High Sierra About This Mac Storage Many users who upgrade to macOS High Sierra get confused by what they see in About This Mac Storage window. Particularly, the System category appears to take an unreasonable lot of space. Usually it’s a combination of factors. The System is a bit of a catch-all category. It includes not only the /System folder, but also many other folders related to macOS and applications all over your disk.
So, the first thing you can do is to with DaisyDisk and in areas such as /System, /private, /Library and others. You may find some temporary files or caches that were not disposed properly. Next, look at the figure of available space. In certain cases you’ll notice that you may still have a lot of available space, but it’s simply not shown on the chart. This happens because in macOS High Sierra, the is included into the System category, unlike previous macOS versions, which used to have a special category — Purgeable. And the amount of in macOS High Sierra has also grown compared to the previous versions, because the new keeps saving hourly temporary snapshots for the and deletes them only when necessary. In result, the purgeable space is allowed to grow until 80% of the disk is occupied.
This can make the System look unnecessarily bloated on the chart of About This Mac. DaisyDisk to the rescue DaisyDisk clears this confusion by showing separately how much space is actually used by files and by the purgeable space, and therefore how much space is currently available to the applications. Notice that you can separately see free space and free + purgeable, the latter corresponding to the “available space” in About This Mac. The purgeable space can be found inside the hidden space item. As a useful addition, you can use DaisyDisk to also the purgeable space, if necessary.