A Mac maintenance routine for storage: ten minutes a month

A Mac maintenance routine for storage takes about ten minutes a month. Check that your last backup ran, look at Storage settings, clear out Downloads and the Trash, look for large files you've finished with, old iPhone backups and apps you no longer use, and install waiting updates. That covers what macOS leaves to you.

Every three months, go a little deeper: what opens at login, how long Messages keeps conversations, and how your numbers have moved. Once a year, before the big macOS upgrade, archive finished projects and check that your backup disk still has room.

Just as useful is what to skip. Repairing permissions, defragmenting, clearing caches every week, running maintenance scripts and "speed up" apps are leftovers from older Macs, or jobs macOS already does. Clearing caches frees space for a while; it doesn't make a Mac faster.

The post on whether you need a cleaner app at all ends with a short version of this routine. This one goes step by step, with the reasons behind each step and the mistakes to avoid.

Why Mac maintenance is mostly about storage now

Older advice treated a Mac like a car: regular servicing, special tools, a checklist of repairs. Most of that work now happens inside macOS, without you. What's left is mainly deciding what to keep on a disk that fills a little every day.

What does macOS already look after?

More than most people expect. Apple's guide to optimizing storage says that when space is needed, macOS clears caches and logs that are safe to delete, including temporary database files, interrupted downloads, staged macOS and app updates, and Safari's website data.

It also removes Time Machine's local snapshots as they age or when space is needed. Apple's security guide says macOS checks for new malware signatures daily, by default, and blocks known malware by itself. System files are protected and checked by macOS, not by you.

What's left for you?

Your own files and the decisions only you can make. macOS doesn't know whether an installer in Downloads is still needed, whether a backup of an old phone matters, or whether a finished video project can move to an external drive. It never clears those by itself.

The same goes for leftovers of apps you've removed, and for developer tools and creative apps that keep large caches outside what macOS clears. A monthly look is how they stay small.

Does free space affect how your Mac runs?

It can. Apple's guide to a Mac that runs slowly puts a startup disk without enough free space first on its list of causes. The fix it gives is moving or deleting files and using the Storage settings recommendations, not a cleanup app.

Apple doesn't publish a fixed amount of free space to keep. Large macOS updates need room to download and install, so a Mac that's always nearly full is the one that most needs a routine.

Job	Who does it	What you do
Safe caches and logs	macOS, when space is needed	Nothing
Malware signatures	macOS, checked daily	Keep macOS updated
Local snapshots	Time Machine	Nothing
System file permissions	macOS	Nothing
Downloads, old backups, finished projects	You	Look once a month
Apps you no longer use	You	Remove them and their leftovers

The ten-minute monthly routine

Here's the whole routine in order. Each step gets its own section below with the details. If your Mac has plenty of free space, you can do it every two or three months instead.

1. Check that your last backup ran, before you remove anything.
2. Open Storage settings, note the largest categories, and review the recommendations.
3. Sort Downloads by size and remove installers and archives you've finished with.
4. Look through the Trash, then empty it.
5. Find large files you haven't opened in months.
6. Remove apps you no longer use, with their leftovers.
7. Delete backups of iPhones and iPads you no longer have.
8. If you have them, trim developer and creative-app caches with each tool's own controls.
9. Install waiting macOS and app updates.

Why check the backup first?

Because every other step removes something. A current backup means a mistake costs you a restore, not a file. The post on backing up your Mac before a cleanup covers what a good backup looks like before larger deletions.

Why write the numbers down?

Storage settings shows today's figures only. Writing down the three or four largest categories each month, or taking a screenshot, turns a snapshot into a trend. A category that grew by several gigabytes since last month is where to look first.

The post on tracking what's growing on your Mac's disk goes further, with ways to see which folders grew.

How do you remember to do it?

Give it a fixed slot. A repeating reminder in Reminders or a repeating event in Calendar, on the first weekend of each month, works better than waiting for a low-space warning. A warning means the disk is already tight, which is the worst time to make careful decisions about what to keep.

Keep the notes in the same place each month, such as one note in Notes with a dated line for each visit. Three lines of numbers a month are enough to show a trend after a quarter.

What if your Mac has plenty of space?

Then do the monthly steps every two or three months, and keep the backup check monthly. Space that isn't needed doesn't need clearing, and caches that are still there are ones apps don't have to rebuild. The routine is for keeping a disk comfortable, not for keeping it empty.

Storage settings, Downloads and the Trash

These three take most of the ten minutes, and they're where most space comes back on a typical Mac.

What should you look at in Storage settings?

Choose Apple menu › System Settings, click General in the sidebar, then click Storage. Wait for the bar to finish counting. It shows used and available space, split into categories such as Applications, Documents, Photos, Messages, iOS Files and System Data.

Note the largest categories and compare them with last month. Then click the information button next to a category you can act on, such as Documents or iOS Files, to see its largest items. Before macOS Ventura, the same view was under Apple menu › About This Mac › Storage.

Which recommendations are worth turning on?

At the top of Storage settings, Apple offers three:

• Store in iCloud keeps Desktop and Documents files, photos and messages in iCloud, with recent items on the Mac when space is needed. It needs an iCloud plan with room.
• Optimize Storage removes Apple TV movies and shows you've watched, and keeps only recent email attachments on the Mac when space is needed.
• Empty Trash automatically erases items that have been in the Trash for more than 30 days.

Each one hands a job to macOS for good, so turn on only the ones that fit how you work. Once a recommendation is on, it disappears from the list.

How do you clear Downloads without losing anything?

Open Downloads in Finder, choose View › as List, and click the Size column heading to put the largest files at the top. Disk images (.dmg) and installer packages (.pkg) for apps you've already installed are usually the first to go.

An installed app runs from Applications and doesn't need the file you downloaded. Keep an installer you couldn't download again, and a disk image that holds your own files. The post on what .dmg and .pkg files are explains how to tell the two apart.

What about archives and other downloads?

Archives such as .zip files are often already opened, with the extracted copy next to them. Check that you have the contents before removing the archive. Documents, photos and videos in Downloads may be the only copy you have: move them to a folder where they belong instead of the Trash.

Leave Downloads sorted by size, or by Date Added, between visits. Next month, the new arrivals are at the top, and the whole step takes a minute.

Why look in the Trash before emptying it?

Because items in the Trash still use space, and because the Trash is your last chance. Until it's emptied, select an item and choose File › Put Back to return it to where it was. Once it's emptied, the items are gone for good.

Open the Trash from the Dock and choose View › as List. If there's no Date Added column, choose View › Show View Options and select it, then sort by it. Anything you don't recognize from the last month is worth a second look. Then click Empty, or choose Finder › Empty Trash.

Do external drives have their own Trash?

Yes. Items you delete from an external drive go to a hidden Trash folder on that drive, not on your Mac, and the space on the drive comes back only when the Trash is emptied. They appear in the same Trash window while the drive is connected, so empty it before you eject the drive.

Should you turn on Empty Trash automatically?

It suits most people. You can turn it on in Storage settings, or choose Finder › Settings, click Advanced and select Remove items from the Trash after 30 days. The Trash then can't fill the disk quietly.

If you treat the Trash as a holding area for weeks at a time, leave it off and empty it yourself during the monthly look. Either way, check it first.

Where	What to look for	What to keep
Storage settings	Categories that grew since last month	Nothing to remove here directly
Downloads	Installers, disk images, archives	Installers you can't get again
Downloads	Documents, photos, videos	Move them where they belong
Trash	Items added in the last month	Anything you'd still want
Storage settings › Documents	Large Files, sorted by size	Your only copies

Large files, unused apps and old iPhone backups

These are less frequent but larger. A single finished video project or a backup of a phone you sold can outweigh a year of downloads.

How do you find large files you've forgotten about?

In Storage settings, click the information button next to Documents. Click Large Files to list the biggest files, and sort by Last Accessed to bring the ones you haven't opened in a long time to the top. File Browser shows how much each folder holds.

Old screen recordings, exported videos, disk images and project archives are the usual finds. Before you remove one, ask whether it's your only copy. If it is and you want it, move it to an external drive instead.

What if the file is a library or a project?

Leave packages such as the Photos library and the Music library to their own apps. Removing files from inside them in Finder can damage them. For Photos, the app's own settings and its option to keep a library on an external drive are the safe routes.

Large project files are different. If a project is finished, copy it to an external drive, open the copy to check it, then move the original to the Trash. Apple's free-up-space guide also suggests compressing files you want to keep but rarely use.

Apps you no longer use, and what they leave behind

In Storage settings, click the information button next to Applications to see your apps and how much space each takes. Remove apps you haven't used in months: drag them from Applications to the Trash, or use an app's own uninstaller if it came with one.

That removes the app, not its caches, settings, data or background helpers. The post on leftover files after uninstalling Mac apps shows where they stay. Check System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions afterwards for anything from the app that still tries to start.

Is it safe to delete old iPhone and iPad backups?

For devices you no longer have, usually yes. A backup made on your Mac holds the device's settings, app data, and messages and photos that aren't in iCloud. Backups of a phone you sold or traded in stay until you delete them.

Apple's steps: open Finder, connect the device, click it in the sidebar, click General, then Manage Backups. Control-click a backup and choose Delete, Archive or Show in Finder. Apple warns that a deleted backup can't be recovered, so archive the one you want to keep.

What if the device isn't connected?

Storage settings lists backups without the device. Click the information button next to iOS Files to see the backups and device software files on your Mac, and delete the ones you don't need there. The guide to iPhone backups on a Mac covers moving them instead.

Developer and creative-app caches, if you have them

Most Macs can skip this step. If you write code, edit video or make music, it may be where the most space goes, because macOS's own clearing doesn't reach these tools' data.

Xcode, Docker and package managers

Xcode's build files and simulators, Docker's disk image, and caches from package managers such as npm, pip and Homebrew grow with every project. Each tool has its own way to clear them: Xcode's settings, Docker Desktop's dashboard, or the tool's own cleanup command.

Use those rather than deleting their folders by hand. A tool's own command knows what it still needs. The developer's guide to disk space on a Mac covers each one in turn.

Adobe's media cache and other creative apps

Premiere Pro, After Effects and Media Encoder create media cache files for imported footage, and keep them after a project is finished. The apps recreate what they need when you open a project. The post on Adobe's media cache on a Mac shows how to clear it from Adobe's own settings.

Other creative apps keep their own downloads. GarageBand and Logic Pro download sound libraries, and Final Cut Pro makes render and proxy files inside its libraries, which its own Delete Generated Library Files command removes. Use each app's controls rather than opening its library in Finder.

Should you clear app caches every month?

No. App caches in your Library folder are data apps keep so they can load things faster, and apps recreate them when they need them. Clearing them gives back space that comes back as you use your apps, and apps are a little slower while they rebuild.

It's worth clearing a cache when it belongs to an app you've removed, or when one has grown far beyond the others. A routine wipe every month costs more than it saves.

Tool	Where its space goes	How to clear it
Xcode	Build files, simulators	Xcode's settings, or quit Xcode and trash DerivedData
Docker Desktop	Its disk image	Docker Desktop's dashboard
Package managers	Download caches	The tool's own cleanup command
Adobe video apps	The media cache	The app's Media Cache settings
Final Cut Pro	Render and proxy files	Delete Generated Library Files

Updates and the backup check

Updates and backups don't free space, but they belong in the same ten minutes. A Mac that's current and backed up is one where a cleanup mistake is easy to undo.

How do you check for macOS updates?

Choose Apple menu › System Settings, click General, then Software Update. Install what's waiting. Click the information button next to Automatic Updates to have your Mac download new updates when available, install macOS updates, and install Security Responses and system files by itself.

Apple notes that a laptop must be plugged in to download updates automatically. If an update says there isn't enough space, the monthly routine above is the place to start: Downloads, the Trash and old backups usually make the room.

What about apps?

Apps from the App Store update through the App Store. Click the Apple menu: the number of waiting updates, if any, appears next to App Store. Apps from developers' websites usually check for updates themselves, often from a Check for Updates item in the app's menu.

Apple's storage guide says macOS clears staged macOS and app updates when space is needed, so there's nothing to clear by hand after updating.

Did your backup actually run?

If you use Time Machine, click its icon in the menu bar. The top of the menu shows the date and time of the latest backup, or how far the current one has got. A date more than a few days old means backups have stopped, usually because the disk wasn't connected.

Time Machine keeps hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month and weekly backups for older months, and deletes the oldest when the backup disk is full. Apple suggests a backup disk with at least twice your Mac's storage.

What if you don't use Time Machine?

Then check whatever you use instead: another backup app, a cloned drive, or a cloud backup service. Each shows when it last ran. iCloud Drive and iCloud Photos sync your files, but they aren't a backup: delete a file on one device and it goes everywhere.

Now and then, open your backup and restore one file to check it works. A backup you've never restored from is one you're only hoping works.

The quarterly and yearly layer

The monthly routine keeps things tidy. Every few months, a slightly longer look catches what grows slowly, and once a year is the time for decisions about where your files live.

Every three months

• Login items and background apps. In Login Items & Extensions, remove what you don't need under Open at Login and turn off what you don't use under App Background Activity.
• Messages. Choose Messages › Settings, click General, and check Keep messages. Forever means every attachment stays.
• Mail. Apple suggests Mailbox › Erase Deleted Items and Mailbox › Erase Junk Mail to free space Mail holds.
• Other accounts. Apple's guide suggests deleting user accounts nobody needs any more.
• Your trend. Compare three months of notes. A category that only goes up is worth a closer look.

Every year

• Before the big macOS upgrade. Back up first, make room with the monthly routine, then upgrade. A failed upgrade is easier to recover from with a fresh backup.
• Archive finished work. Copy last year's finished projects to an external drive, check the copy, then remove the originals.
• Check your backup disk. If it's close to full, Time Machine deletes the oldest backups sooner than you might like.
• Check iCloud storage. In System Settings, click your name, then iCloud, to see what fills your plan.

When the routine stops being enough

If you're clearing the same space every month and it's gone again a few weeks later, the routine is treating a symptom. Either something is growing that you can limit at its source, or your files have outgrown the disk.

For the first, find what grew and change the setting that controls it. For the second, the post on adding storage to a Mac compares external drives, iCloud and a larger Mac.

How often	What to do	Time it takes
Monthly	Backup check, Storage settings, Downloads, Trash, updates	About ten minutes
Monthly	Large files, unused apps, old iPhone backups	A few minutes more when there's something to find
Quarterly	Login items, Messages and Mail settings, trend	About fifteen minutes
Yearly	Archive projects, check backup disk and iCloud plan	An hour, plus copying time

What not to do: maintenance myths macOS already handles

A lot of Mac maintenance advice was written for Macs with spinning disks and older systems. Some of it no longer applies; some never helped storage at all.

Do you need to repair disk permissions?

No. Disk Utility's Repair Permissions was removed in OS X El Capitan, when System Integrity Protection started protecting system files, including their permissions. Howard Oakley of the Eclectic Light Company notes that Apple withdrew its support note on repairing permissions in June 2020.

If an app misbehaves, update it, or reinstall it from its developer or the App Store. Tools that promise to reset permissions in your home folder can cause more problems than they solve.

Should you defragment a Mac's SSD?

No. Apple describes its file system, APFS, as optimized for flash and SSD storage, and Disk Utility has no defragment option. Fragmentation slowed spinning hard disks because their heads had to move between pieces of a file; an SSD has no heads.

The Eclectic Light Company's explainer on defragmentation concludes it doesn't appear to be of any value for SSDs with APFS. Every Mac with Apple silicon has an SSD.

Should you clear caches every week?

No. macOS already clears caches it knows are safe when space is needed. Clearing them on a schedule frees space that comes back as you use your apps, and apps are a little slower while they rebuild. Clearing caches frees space; it doesn't make a Mac faster.

What about maintenance scripts?

Older versions of macOS ran daily, weekly and monthly maintenance scripts for tasks such as rotating logs, and old advice said to run them by hand. In November 2024, heise reported that Apple removed the tool that ran them in macOS Sequoia, after moving their work to other parts of macOS, such as its logging system.

On macOS 26 Tahoe and macOS 27, there's nothing to run. Apps that still offer to run "maintenance scripts" are offering something macOS already does.

Do "speed up" and memory-cleaning apps help?

Not with storage, and rarely with speed. Apple's checklist for a slow Mac covers free disk space, an app that needs more memory than your Mac has, incompatible apps, apps you aren't using and disk problems. Its remedies are Storage settings, Activity Monitor, quitting apps and Disk Utility.

macOS manages memory itself, compressing what inactive apps hold. Emptying memory with a button throws away work macOS did on purpose.

Should you run First Aid every month?

There's no need. Apple suggests Disk Utility's First Aid when you have problems with a disk, such as several apps quitting unexpectedly, a corrupted file or a Mac that won't start up. If Disk Utility says a disk is about to fail, Apple's advice is to back up and replace it.

Never paste a cleanup command from a web page

Real maintenance on a modern Mac never needs Terminal. Security researchers have found fake "free up space" guides, some surfaced through search ads, whose pasted command installs malware that steals passwords. The post on fake cleanup guides and Terminal scams shows how to spot them.

Myth	What's true now
Repair permissions monthly	Removed in OS X El Capitan; macOS protects system files
Defragment the disk	APFS is built for SSDs; Disk Utility has no such option
Clear caches every week	macOS clears safe ones when space is needed
Run maintenance scripts	Removed in macOS Sequoia; their jobs moved elsewhere
Free up memory with an app	macOS manages and compresses memory itself
Run a "speed up" scan	Free space matters; caches and memory buttons don't

A worked example: one month on a 256 GB MacBook Air

Here's what the routine looks like in practice on a hypothetical Mac, a 256 GB MacBook Air with about 18 GB free and a low-space warning that keeps coming back.

What the numbers showed

Storage settings lists Documents at 61 GB, Photos at 48 GB, iOS Files at 22 GB, Applications at 30 GB and System Data at 29 GB. Last month's note had iOS Files at 11 GB, so it's the category that moved.

The Time Machine menu shows a backup from this morning. That's the go-ahead to start removing things.

What went

• iOS Files. Two backups: one of the current iPhone, one of the phone it replaced. The old one goes, about 11 GB.
• Downloads. Sorted by size: four disk images for apps already installed and a 3 GB archive already opened. Those go.
• Large Files. A 9 GB screen recording from last spring, already shared. Moved to an external drive.
• Applications. A video converter not opened in a year and a game. Both go to the Trash.

What stayed

The Photos library stays, because it's one person's photos and Optimize Mac Storage is already on. System Data stays, because its size moved up and down over the month, which points to snapshots and caches macOS manages itself.

After a look through the Trash and Empty, the Mac has about 45 GB free. The warning stops.

The next month

The note shows iOS Files steady and Documents up by 2 GB from new downloads. Five minutes of the routine handles it. The quarterly look later finds Keep messages set to Forever, which explains a slow rise in Messages; the owner changes it to one year.

How the app does it

Wombit is a native Mac app that shows what's using your storage, explains every item in plain language, and clears it safely: Trash first, undoable and logged. Its scan covers the whole disk or any folder, reading only names, sizes and dates, and file names and paths never leave your Mac.

The map is the home screen. The sidebar's "safe to remove" total and the Safe to Remove filter light up only items rated Safe, such as app caches, and Review Safe Items… opens the review sheet. Nothing inside Documents or Desktop is among them.

The routine's other stops are Review first: the Trash, installers in Downloads, large files not changed in a year, and iPhone backups. They may be things you want, so nothing starts checked. The Apple Data pages list backups, installers and large files for you to choose one by one.

• ~/.Trash

  Trash

  Items you've moved to the Trash. They still use space until the Trash is emptied.

  Review first · Explained only: the app shows you how

• ~/Downloads/*.{dmg,DMG,iso,ISO,pkg,PKG,mpkg,xip}

  Disk images and installer packages in Downloads

  Disk images and installer packages you downloaded, often for apps you've already installed.

  Review first · Moves it to the Trash

• ~/Library/Caches/*

  App caches

  Data that apps and macOS services keep so they can load things faster. Apps create it again when they need it.

  Safe · Moves it to the Trash

• ~/**/*

  Large files not changed in a year

  Files of 500 MB or more in your home folder that haven't changed for a year, such as old videos, disk images and archives.

  Review first · Moves it to the Trash

• ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/*

  iPhone and iPad backups

  Backups of an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch that were made on this Mac, one folder for each device.

  Review first · Moves it to the Trash

The menu bar item shows available space and keeps a daily history from the day you install the app. What Changed shows what grew over the last 7 or 30 days, and alerts can tell you when space runs low.

The analyzer, the map, the explanations, Undo, Put Back, Empty Trash and Cleanup History are free. Cleanup, the Apple Data actions, What Changed and its alerts are PRO: one payment of $4.99 with lifetime access. Every Pro tool's review is free to open, so you see what would go and why before you buy.