1. Daisydisk Purgeable Space Not Deleting Account
  2. Daisydisk Purgeable Space Not Deleting Text

Your Mac is smart enough to understand what files are redundant and can be removed. Your Mac calls these files Purgeable Data. Usually, it’s about outdated caches, duplicates, and any kind of files that can be deleted without any impact on your system.

To see purgeable data, you should enable the Optimize Storage feature on Mac. Go to the Apple menu, click About this Mac and then the Storage tab. If you’ve activated storage optimization, you’ll see that next to colour-coded sections for Documents, Apps, Photos, etc, there’s one called Purgeable.

Apr 05, 2018  DaisyDisk now lets you free up disk space by deleting purgeable space, the 'dark matter' storage that can fill up to 80% of your Mac's storage without you even knowing. Drag the purgeable space item into the DaisyDisk Collector and it will forceably delete it. Note that this may take a few minutes to complete depending on the size of the file. When finished, DaisyDisk will recalculate the new amount of purgeable space. Apr 28, 2017  I am not sure if this next step is necessary, but I didn't want deleting theses files to just create more purgable space so I used RM in the terminal. 'sudo RM /Desktop/BIGFile' By doing this I was able to clear enough space for what I was wanting to do.

The Optimize Storage feature allows you to quickly identify files that are taking up lots of space on your startup disk and either delete them or move them to iCloud, depending on the type of file. There are a couple of different ways to use it, one of which uses CleanMyMac and which adds an extra tab – ’System Junk’ – to the Manage Storage window. Here’s method one.

Win more disk space with CMMX

Install CleanMyMac X to free up storage on your Mac. The app removes all system clutter and junk, enabling you to make the best use of disk space.

The fastest way to clear Purgeable space from Mac

If you have CleanMyMac installed on your Mac, you’ll have noticed an additional section – System Junk. These are system files CleanMyMac has identified that can be safely trashed. All you need to do is click on System Junk and click Run.

If you don’t have CleanMyMac installed, it’s available in Setapp – just launch Setapp, search for CleanMyMac and click Install.

Here’s what to do next.

  1. Launch CleanMyMac, click the Smart Scan tab and then click Scan.
  2. When CleanMyMac has finished scanning, click Run to perform cleaning.

Also you can perform clean up with Cleanup section – System Junk, Photo Junk, Mail attachments, etc and review the results. You may be surprised by the results and by just how much space you can reclaim.

To see in detail what CleanMyMac has found in each section, click Review Details. From there, you can uncheck any items you don’t want to delete. When you’re ready, click Clean to delete the junk.

When you’re done, you should have got rid of several gigabytes of purgeable data and freed up lots of room on your hard disk.

Other methods for identifying and removing purgeable data

Disk Drill, also available in Setapp, has a Clean Up section, which allows you to identify and delete files you don’t need.

  1. Install Disk Drill from Setapp if you haven’t done so already.
  2. Launch it and click ‘Clean Up’ in the toolbar.’ In the next window, click ‘Let’s get started.’ Click on the drive you want to clean up, then click Scan.
  3. Disk Drill will now scan your Mac identifying all the files on the drive you selected. When it’s done, it will list the folders on the disk in order of the amount of disk space they are occupying. By default, it doesn’t display system or hidden files. To display those, click the left most menu and select ‘All files (including system and hidden ones).’
  4. Starting at the top, click the drop down arrow to display files inside the folder. If there are more folders inside, click the drop down arrows on those. You’ll soon tunnel down to the files that are taking up the most space on your drive – they’ll be labelled in red.
  5. To change the way Disk Drill displays files, use the other menus. For example, you can display files by the percentage of the total disk space they use, or only display files that take up more than the space your specify.
  6. To delete a file you no longer need, click the checkbox next to it and click ‘Remove file.’

Another way to free up disk space is to get rid of duplicate files. Gemini, another app available in Setapp, does exactly that.

  1. Install Gemini from Setapp and launch it.
  2. Read the information cards that appear and click Next when you’re done.
  3. When you see the window with a big ‘+’ in it, drag a folder onto it to identify duplicates. For example, open a Finder window and drag your user folder onto the ‘+’.
  4. Gemini will start scanning the folder for duplicate files. When it reaches your iTunes and Photos libraries, it will ask you to open those applications. You can either do so, or skip them and Gemini will leave those libraries alone.
  5. When it’s finished, click Clean Up to remove all the duplicates it’s found, or click Review Duplicates to select the ones you want to remove yourself.
  6. In the review window, click on the drop down arrow next to folders of duplicates, make sure they really are duplicates, then check the box next to the one you want to delete and click Remove.

How to reduce Purgeable space manually

It’s always better if someone can do the cleaning for you, both at home and on your Mac. Nevertheless, it’s a good idea to learn how to free up space manually. While purgeable information can be restored at any time, there’s little risk you’ll remove any important data:

  1. Click on the Apple menu at the left of the Finder menu bar and choose About this Mac.
  2. Click the storage tab and you’ll see a bar with different colored sections on it. Each of these sections describes a specific type of data. Documents is first, followed by System, then Apps, and so on. Towards the right, you’ll see a section called Purgeable.
  3. Click Manage to free up space on your Mac. The next window that opens, launches with the first tab on the left, Recommended, selected. You’ll see four options. The first allows you to store all files on the Desktop or in your Documents folder in iCloud and only keep those you’ve opened recently on your Mac. To enable it, Click Store in iCloud.
  4. The next three options allow you to remove movies and TV programmes you’ve already watched in iTunes from your Mac; empty the Trash automatically every 30 days; and review files in your Documents folder and delete any you don’t need.
  5. Once you’ve been through the Recommended options, you can click on the other sections on the left and follow the instructions to either delete files or review them before deciding what to do.

Try all these apps for free

Get a huge set of top apps for keeping your Mac in shape. Best utilities in one pack, give it a go!

Without regular cleanups, purgeable data can pile up on your Mac, lightning fast. In fact, the redundant file caches and duplicates can occupy up to 30% of your disk space. That’s a lot of storage you could use for valuable things. With cleaning utilities and a few minutes of your time, you can free it up and forget about the problem of limited storage.

Our resident Mac Help guru, Peter Cohen, previously told us about the 'Other' storage category on Mac computers and what it catalogs: In short, you're seeing space taken up by plug-ins, documents, and caches stored by OS X.

It's worth noting that these files aren't normally harmful or wasteful to your computer's system; most are intended to help your Mac run efficiently, and ideally, you shouldn't ever have to clear out your Other files. Unfortunately, they can quickly clog up a computer low on storage — especially if you're storing a large number of iPhone or iPad backups.

Whether you're looking to free up space on your hard drive or just want to do some spring cleaning, here are some simple steps to get your Mac free and clear.

A note on what happened to 'Other' space in macOS Sierra and higher

When Apple added its storage management feature to macOS Sierra, called Optimize Storage, it reorganized what 'other' storage is and where it's located on the Mac. Much of it has been divided out through other categories so it's easier to find and remove.

The 100GB of Other storage I used to carry on my iMac is whittled down to just 5GB. You can still clean out old and unnecessary content from your Mac with macOS Sierra and High Sierra by using Optimized Storage. It's just a little easier to find those unused files than it was before.

A lot of the features of Optimized Storage remove content from your Mac and store them in iCloud. If you're concerned with how much storage you're using up in iCloud, you can customize or disable some Optimized Storage features to keep a balance between what's on your Mac and what's in iCloud.

What's this 'Purgeable' category all about?

If you check your system storage graph in macOS, you'll probably discover a category called Purgeable. This is part of Apple's Optimized Storage service. When you move your Documents into iCloud (part of the Store in iCloud component) and your hard drive gets low on storage, only recently opened files are kept on your Mac. Older documents are stored in iCloud, while a shortcut icon is kept on your Mac (files are automatically re-downloaded to your Mac as soon as you open them). The Purgeable files are what Optimized Storage will move to iCloud and delete from your hard drive only if your hard drive starts to get full. Purgeable files also include caches and temporary files that used to fit into the Other category, which will also be deleted as your hard drive starts to fill up.

Though your Other storage might have been spread out across categories in macOS Sierra and higher, you can still follow the below steps to manually clean up your Mac and get rid of unnecessary files.

How to check your storage space on your Mac

If you are concerned with how much storage space you have remaining on your Mac computer, you can check its usage folder to see how much space each category is taking up, including Other.

  1. Click on your desktop or the Finder icon from the Dock.
  2. Select the Apple Menu icon in the upper left corner of the screen.

  3. Click on About This Mac.

  4. Select Storage.

Your Mac breaks down its storage categories as follows: Apps, Movies, Photos, Audio, Backups, and — that annoying, undescriptive category — Other.

How to remove cached files

Now that you know how much space your Other files are taking up, it's time to reduce their footprint on your Mac. You can start by removing items you don't need, including caches for your web browser, saved Apple Music streams, and photo previews.

A note on deleting cache folders: You only want to delete old and unnecessary files, as current cache files store your preferences. We strongly recommend only deleting cache files from old apps.

  1. Click on your desktop or select the Finder icon from the Dock.
  2. Select the Go menu in the upper left corner of the screen.

  3. Click on Go to Folder.

  4. Type ~/Library/caches into the text box. A list of caches from active apps will appear on your desktop.

  5. Select the app folder you wish to remove the cache from.
  6. Right-click (or control-click) on the app folder.

  7. Select Move to Trash.

How to remove downloaded files

key champ software installation mac Chances are, your Downloads folder is stuffed with Other-type files, including installer packages, documents, and folders you have already made copies of somewhere else. If you want to make some room on your Mac, it may be time to clean out your Downloads folder.

  1. Click on your desktop or select the Finder icon from the Dock.
  2. Select the Go menu in the upper left corner of the screen.

  3. Click on Downloads.

  4. Select the file you wish to remove.
  5. Right-click (or control-click) on the file.

  6. Select Move to Trash.

If you want to save a file from the Downloads folder but don't want it clogging your drive, consider moving it to an external hard drive or flash drive, or uploading it to an online storage option like Dropbox.

Daisydisk Purgeable Space Not Deleting

How to delete old device backups in iTunes

If you tend to get new iOS devices fairly regularly, you may have unnecessary device backups stored on your computer via iTunes. Backups take up 4-5GB each, on average; there's no need to hold on to older device backups if you no longer have the device or have it stored in iCloud.

Third-party software that can help

While you don't need any third-party app to 'clean' your Mac, there are some very handy system access tools out there that make it easier to regularly remove unwanted files.

CleanMyMac 3

Daisydisk Purgeable Space Not Deleting Account

With CleanMyMac, you have easy access to a list of features that help you keep your Mac free of unnecessary junk. It scans your entire system and recommends files you should delete based on how old they are and whether they are considered unnecessary to your workflow. It's a lot like Apple's Optimized Storage, but with a few additional features. My favorite is the recommendation to delete all content related to an application. Sometimes, you'll end up with a couple of files left behind by an app when you delete it. CleanMyMac provides a one-button purge of everything associated with that app.

DaisyDisk

DaisyDisk scans your Mac and gives you a pie chart that makes it easy to see what files are using up the most space. You can identify files that are in the Other storage category and drag them to the delete box.

Onyx

Onyx is a robust Mac system access tool that, in-part, can delete caches, logs, temporary items, and other files that find their way into the Other storage category.

Cocktail

Cocktail is another useful system access tool that you can use to clear caches, purge memory, and manage hidden Apple app settings, which might be automatically sending files into the Other category abyss.

Questions?

Space

Still having trouble with Other? Let us know in the comments.

Updated June, 2018: Updated the section on deleting iPhone and iPad backups in iTunes to direct people to the article about doing that. The rest of these steps are still correct.

macOS Catalina

Main

We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.

Vintage Fun

Watch this dongle flex allow a Mac Pro to work with 3 ancient Mac displays

Daisydisk Purgeable Space Not Deleting Text

The Pro Display XDR isn't Apple's first obscenely costly monitor. Watch some of the others be hooked up to a Mac Pro.