How to Free Up Storage Space on macOS

macOS provides a curated Storage Recommendations panel in System Settings > General > Storage that goes beyond simple file deletion, recommending actions like storing files in iCloud, emptying Trash automatically, and removing already-watched iTunes content. Time Machine local snapshots are often invisible to users but can occupy tens of gigabytes on the startup drive — these release automatically when needed, but you can also remove them manually with the tmutil command in Terminal. iCloud Drive's Optimise Mac Storage option is the most effective single setting: it keeps only recently accessed files local and stores the rest in iCloud, showing only lightweight placeholders on disk.