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Finding and removing large files on your Mac: Quick Guide

Finding and removing large files on your Mac: Quick Guide

Mashum Mollah On January 9th, 2026

Regardless of how much time we spend on a Mac, eventually we all accumulate large files and these can eat up a lot of space. And at some point, we end up forgetting about these files, as we don’t have enough space on the device. The best approach here is to figure out where to find these large files and how we can remove them. With that in mind, here is a set of tips on how to deal with these large files effectively.

Finding large files fast

A Mac cleanup tool can provide you with the means to identify files based on size. You can enter the app, perform a search for files and then you check for the large and old files. That approach is great because it gives you consistent results, and the value as a whole can be downright excellent. It’s definitely one of the better options to consider, and you will be quite impressed with the way everything comes together here.

Use the Finder

If you want to go the Manual route on how to view all files on Mac, you can start using the Finder. You then type any symbol and use the Plus button to select Other/File Size. This will allow you to see files based on the file size. And it’s definitely a very good approach, as it will help you save both time and effort. The idea that you can select files based on size, that alone will make it easier to find those large files.

And of course, now you can delete the file and send it to trash, then empty the trash. It’s not a difficult process for sure, but it will offer a better result and the experience as a whole will be much better than you expect. Knowing how to address that is not simple, but if you can manage it appropriately and know how to do it adequately, the results will be second to none every single time.

Start using the Storage Manager

The Storage Manager is a great option because it allows you to figure out what files are wasting too much space. You can find this in the Storage settings. Browsing categories here will allow you to find large files and you can delete those that you just don’t need. And that’s the thing, a simple process like this is only going to make things better in the end, just use that as an advantage.

Find large files via the Terminal

What you will notice about the Terminal is the fact that it can help you identify and also delete files with ease. In the terminal, if you want to find files over 1 GB, you can use this command and press Return “find ~/ -type f -size +1G”.

In order to delete the files, you type “find ~ -type f -name \*.avi -size +2G -exec rm {}” and then you can press Return. You can replace AVI with any other file type. The idea is to remove files that are of a certain format and over 2 GB. It will make the process much easier to manage, and you can save quite a bit of time, too, so it’s totally worth it.

How much space should you keep free on your device?

In order for things to run smoothly, having at least 15% free of the storage space is the best idea. Of course, it depends on the situation at hand. But for the most part, 15% to 20% free is going to matter quite a lot. And that’s why you shouldn’t try to overwhelm your device with too much data. If you see that the device’s storage icon turns red, then deleting stuff becomes a necessity.

The problem is that your Mac doesn’t have a system in place to give you alerts if files are too large. You just have to figure stuff out and narrow down how to solve the issue. Of course, you do want to monitor what large files you are using and delete those that you just don’t need. It might not seem like a lot at first, but being able to keep large files under control is extremely handy.

What really matters in the end is to identify those large files and remove them properly. Even if it does take a while in order to keep the process under control, it will help a lot. At the end of the day, the primary focus is on identifying large files and knowing where they are located. These methods shown above are great as they will help streamline the process, while making things much easier. And it’s simple stuff like that which will help quite a bit, especially if everything is managed adequately.