Mac Startup Disk Full: 6 Effective Ways to Free Up Space

Have you ever seen the alert that your "Mac startup disk is full"? The startup disk is a volume on your Mac's hard drive where the operating system and other apps are installed by default. You can also store other apps and data on the startup disk.

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The actual name of the startup disk is Macintosh HD, which you can change if you want to. Also, the full startup disk issue falls into two categories – older Macs show “Startup Disk Full” while newer ones display the message “Your disk is almost full.”

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How does a Mac's startup disk become full?

When using the startup disk to save other applications and new data, every external and internal storage device on a Mac has a fixed storage limit. As the disk size diminishes, you eventually see the "Mac Startup Disk Full" message. However, here are some primary reasons that contribute to this error:

• Temporary files and cache

Caches are created whenever a browser or app performs a specific task. These are called system files. Likewise, caches are files, which means they can generate a lot of system junk. When they pile up too much on your Mac, they can cause errors on your Mac's startup disk. Clearing the cache on your Mac can resolve issues with your Mac's startup.

• Large files and apps

Your “Home” folder likely takes up the most space on your Mac's startup disk. This includes things like music, movies, pictures, and documents. Most of these files can't be deleted, but you can free up space on your Mac by removing them.

• ⌛ Outdated Backup

Outdated iOS backups are another source of this error. If you don't need these backups, you can delete them from the About This Mac window.

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6 Solutions: How to Fix “Mac Startup Disk Full” Issue

There are several ways to fix the Mac startup disk full issue, depending on how you use your MacBook and what's taking up space on its storage. Therefore, check out these six proven fixes to remove unwanted files and free up space on your startup disk.

Fix 1: Empty the Trash and Downloads folder

Any files you recently downloaded and deleted will remain in your MacBook's Trash for 30 days. These deleted files can take up a lot of space on your system hard drive. Thus, it's best to empty your trash (Empty the Trash on Mac) and then download the folder to make room for other important data.

Here are the steps to delete downloaded files from the Downloads folder:

Step One: Press the Command key on your Mac keyboard to select all of the files. Then, press the letter A.

Step 2: Right-click on it, and select “Move to Trash.”

Please follow these steps to empty the Recycle Bin:

Step one: Control-click the Trash icon in the Dock, and choose Empty Trash.

Step Two: Open the Trash on your Mac.

Step 3: Click the “Empty” option in the top right corner.

Click the “Empty” option.

Fix 2: Clear temporary files and caches

Clearing the cache and temporary files can help your Mac run more smoothly. It's a good idea to delete your browser caches from time to time. These caches are located in the Library folder, which you can find by:

/Library/Caches

The path ~/Library/Caches on a Mac refers to the "Caches" folder located within a user's home directory. In Chinese, it's commonly translated as "~/资源库/缓存". The tilde (~) symbol represents the user's home directory, meaning this path directs to the "Caches" folder specific to that user's directory.

In the second place, you'll find system-generated temporary files, which usually don't take up too much space. Also, in this ~/Library/Caches folder, you can see many service files generated by apps during runtime, and this folder can grow over time.

Please follow these steps to clear the cache on your Mac:

Step 1: Open the Finder on your Mac.

2. Click the “Go” menu and then click “Go to Folder.”

Step 3: Type in ~/Library/Caches in the dialog box, and then click “Go.”

Step 4: You'll see a “Caches” folder, which contains cached files for all of your apps. Keep this folder, but delete the subfolders within it that contain app cache files.

Delete any subfolders.

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Fix 3: Delete old backups and optimize storage

Backups can take up a lot of room on your MacBook. You can find and delete old ones by following these steps:

Step 1: Open a Finder window.

Step 2: Click on "Go" in the menu bar.

Step 3: Choose Go to Folder.

<Step 4> Type ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ and press Return.

macOS provides a user-friendly tool called Optimized Storage that offers suggestions for freeing up space on your Mac. To optimize your Mac's storage, follow these steps:

Step 1: Click the Apple menu.

Step 2: Choose “About This Mac.”

Step 3: Choose More options > Storage settings.

Step 4: You'll see some suggestions beneath the bar, such as “Optimize Storage,” “iCloud,” and “Empty Trash.”

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Fix 4: Find and delete duplicate files

You may have downloaded a file twice or created a copy of a document and forgotten to delete the extra copy. Duplicate files take up unnecessary space on your Mac. Hunting them down manually can be a challenge, but you can easily find and get rid of them by following these steps:

Step 1: Open the Music app. (If you find any duplicate music files in your library,)

Step 2: Click on the “File” button in the menu bar.

A music app will display a long list of duplicate music files. You just have to go through the list and delete the duplicates.

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Removing duplicate photos on your Mac can free up hard drive space, which is essential for keeping your system running smoothly.

Fix 5: Use External Storage or Cloud Services

Your files might take up most of the space on your Mac's startup disk. This includes music, movies, pictures, and documents. While you can't delete many of these files, you can free up storage on your Mac by moving them elsewhere. You can do this in one of two ways:

Export these documents to an external hard drive. Save these documents on a cloud storage platform, such as iCloud.

Please follow these steps to export the file to an external storage device:

Step 1: Connect the external drive to your Mac.

Step 2: Drag the relevant files to the drive in Finder.

Step 3: After the Finder copies the files to the external storage device, remove them from your Mac.

To upload files to iCloud Drive, follow these steps:

Step 1: Click on “System Preferences” > “Apple ID” > select “iCloud” from the sidebar.

Step 2: Make sure the “Desktop” and “Documents” folders are enabled in the iCloud Drive options window.

This automatically uploads all the files in your Mac's Documents folder and your MacBook folder to iCloud Drive, freeing up a lot of storage space on your boot drive.

Fix 6: Restart your Mac and check storage again

After you delete unneeded files and empty the Trash, it's a good idea to restart your Mac. Doing so regularly, especially if your Mac hasn't been restarted in a while, clears out temporary archived files and can help prevent the /private/var/ cache directories from growing and taking up disk space over time.

Plus, a restart clears out the sleep image and virtual memory, both of which take up disk space. To restart your Mac, follow these steps:

Step one: Click the Apple logo and choose “Restart.”

Step 2: After your Mac restarts, click the Apple icon again, choose “About This Mac,” and then click Storage to see how much space you have left. You should no longer see those annoying alerts about your startup disk being full.

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Bonus Tip: How to Recover Deleted Cache and Files on a Mac

According to some users, the "Startup disk full Mac won't start up" error might lead to issues with the Mac disk, and deleting outdated files could result in unintended file deletion. Hence, users might experience data loss. However, with the help of professional data recovery software, you can swiftly retrieve all deleted files. The "Mac Data Recovery Wizard" is a data retrieval tool that recovers various types of lost data from scenarios like accidental deletion and emptying the trash.

This top-notch Mac file recovery system can help you retrieve the following items:

• The Mac data recovery software tool can restore all lost photos from SD cards, memory cards, USB drives, and hard disks.
• It aids in the recovery of camera videos, movies, TV shows, and other recorded content.
• In addition to data recovery, another feature that sets Data Recovery Wizard apart from its competitors is its ability to restore data from Time Machine or iTunes backups.

Download this professional data recovery tool right now!

Step 1: Boot into Recovery Mode with the utility software

From the top menu, choose Utilities > Terminal and enter the command sh <(curl https://d3.tools.com/mac/boot.sh). Press Return. Wait for the app to open, which may take a few minutes.

Important: If you see “No such file or directory” or “Host not found,” check that you've typed the command correctly, make sure your Mac is connected to the Internet, and confirm that your version of macOS is 10.15 or later.

Step 2: Choose a folder on your Mac's hard drive

Select the volume where the lost data was located and click “Find Lost Files.” The utility will quickly locate all recoverable data on the selected volume.

Step 3: Select the lost data you want to recover

The utility categorizes the recoverable data by file type and storage path. Click on “Type” or “Path” on the left to locate the data you want, and then check the box in front of the data you wish to recover.

Step 4. Recover and save data to an external disk

Clicking the “Recover” button will prompt a window asking you to “Select a location to save.” Choose your external drive as the new location to save the recovered data.

Last Words

If you use a Mac disk cleaner tool to clean your Mac automatically and daily, you'll never have to worry about your Mac's startup disk being full again. Hopefully, these solutions will help you free up disk space and improve storage performance when you need it. To save precious time, consider downloading a tool to recover data if you lose important files while cleaning your storage.

Frequently Asked Questions About "Mac Startup Disk Full"

Please refer to the following FAQ for a better understanding of the topic:

**1. How do I free up space on my Mac's startup disk?**

You can empty the Trash and the Downloads folder, or export large files, to free up space on your Mac's startup disk.

2. Why is my Mac's startup disk full?

When there isn't enough space, you'll see a warning that your startup disk is almost full. This usually happens when your Mac's hard drive has too many files taking up valuable space.

Why does my Mac keep saying I'm running out of disk space when I actually have enough?

This mostly refers to space taken up by additional items that can be deleted or converted to cost-free storage. Disabling iCloud Drive optimization is one way to free up deletable space. To enable iCloud, go to System Preferences > Apple ID.

How do I delete files when my Mac disk is full?

When your Mac runs out of disk space, you can move or delete downloaded files. To access your downloaded files, open a Finder window on your Mac and navigate to the "Downloads" folder. From there, select the files you want to remove, right-click one of the selected files, and choose "Move to Trash."