Notes, Freeform and Voice Memos: how Apple's small apps grow

When the Notes app is taking up space on a Mac, the cause is nearly always attachments, not text. Photos, videos, scanned documents, PDFs and audio recordings dropped into notes add up over the years, while thousands of plain notes take very little room.

Freeform and Voice Memos grow the same way: by the media on your boards, and by every recording you keep.

None of the three has a storage setting. You make them smaller inside each app: remove large attachments in Notes, delete boards or big items in Freeform, and delete recordings in Voice Memos. Each keeps deleted items for a while, so the space comes back after you empty its Recently Deleted.

With iCloud, all three sync to every device signed in to your Apple Account, and their data counts toward your iCloud storage. Deleting on the Mac deletes everywhere, which helps when iCloud is full and hurts when you only meant to tidy one device.

What never helps is opening their folders in your Library and removing files. Each app keeps its own records of what it holds, and files removed behind its back leave notes and recordings that don't open.

Why the Notes app is taking up space on your Mac

Notes is a database of small text documents with attachments inside them. The text is light; the attachments are where the space goes.

What makes notes large?

Apple's guide lists what a note can hold: photos, videos, PDFs, drawings, emoji and other items, plus map locations and webpage previews in iCloud notes and notes stored on your Mac. Notes can also record audio and transcribe it, keeping the recording inside the note.

Scans add up quickly too. File › Insert from iPhone or iPad offers Take Photo, Scan Documents and Add Sketch, and each scan arrives as images in the note. A habit of scanning receipts or letters into Notes can grow a library of notes into gigabytes.

What's in a note	Typical cause	How to remove it
Photos and videos	Dragged from Photos or pasted	Select it in the note and delete it
Scanned documents	Insert from iPhone or iPad › Scan Documents	Delete the scan from the note
PDFs and other files	Dragged from Finder or the Desktop	Save it elsewhere first if needed, then delete it
Audio recordings	Record Audio in the note	Control-click it and choose Delete
Drawings	Sketches made in the note	Erase or delete the drawing

Where does Notes keep its data?

On the Mac, Notes keeps its notes and their attachments in a database of its own, inside a folder named group.com.apple.notes in your Library's Group Containers folder. Apple doesn't document that folder, and it isn't meant to be opened.

Leave it alone. Notes expects to manage every file in it, and macOS restricts group containers so that only the apps in the group can use them, as the post on Containers and Group Containers explains. Every change goes through Notes.

How do you see how much space Notes uses?

There's no direct way in Notes or in Storage settings. System Settings › General › Storage has no Notes category; Apple's examples of System Data include app support files, so that's where Notes' database is counted. The post on what System Data holds covers the rest of that category.

For iCloud notes, iCloud's own storage list helps more. Choose Apple menu › System Settings, click your name, click iCloud, then click Manage. Apple says data from apps such as Notes and Reminders counts under Documents, along with iCloud Drive.

Find and remove large attachments in Notes

You don't need to open thousands of notes to find the heavy ones. Notes collects every attachment in one window.

How do you see every attachment at once?

Choose View › Show Attachments Browser. Apple says it shows the attachments from all your iCloud notes and notes stored on your Mac in a single window. Click a category button, such as Photos & Videos, Scans or Maps, to see one kind at a time.

Two things are missing from it. Apple notes it doesn't show attachments in locked notes, even when you've unlocked them, and it doesn't show drawings. To return to your notes, choose View › Hide Attachments Browser.

How do you check an attachment before removing it?

Select it in the browser and press the Space bar for a Quick Look preview. To see which note it belongs to, Control-click it and choose Show in Note. That's the step that matters: removing an attachment means editing the note it's in.

How do you delete an attachment but keep the note?

Use Show in Note, then select the attachment in the note and delete it, as you'd delete a word of text. The rest of the note stays. If you remove the wrong one, Edit › Undo puts it back straight away.

For an audio recording, Control-click it and choose Delete. Apple notes that deleting an audio recording also deletes its transcript, so copy the transcript into the note first if you want to keep the words.

How do you keep a copy outside Notes?

Control-click the attachment in the Attachments Browser and choose Save Attachment, then pick a folder. Apple notes it doesn't work for some attachments, such as maps and webpage previews. For an audio recording, Control-click it in the note and choose Save Attachment.

Saving to Desktop or Documents has a consequence of its own if those folders sync to iCloud Drive: the file then counts in iCloud Drive instead. The post on Desktop and Documents in iCloud explains what that setting does to storage.

Can you sort attachments by size?

Apple doesn't document a way. Work by category instead: Photos & Videos and Scans usually hold the heaviest items, and a long audio recording is heavier than most photos. Old scans of documents you also keep as PDFs elsewhere are often the easiest to let go.

Deleted notes and Recently Deleted

Deleting a note doesn't free its space at once. What happens next depends on the account the note is in.

Where do deleted notes go?

For notes stored on your Mac, Apple says a deleted note moves to the Recently Deleted folder, where you can recover it for up to 30 days. Upgraded iCloud notes move to that account's Recently Deleted on every device; after 30 days they're removed from your devices, and after 40 days they're permanently deleted from iCloud.

The Recently Deleted folder only appears in the sidebar if you've deleted a note in the last 30 days, and it shows notes deleted on this Mac, on iCloud.com and on your other devices.

How do you free the space sooner?

1. Click Recently Deleted in the sidebar and select a note.
2. Control-click it, click Delete, then click Delete again to confirm.

That removes the note from this Mac. Apple adds a second route for iCloud notes: delete or replace all of a note's contents. Because the note syncs, that empties it on every device straight away.

What about Google, Yahoo and other accounts?

They behave differently. Apple says that if you use a notes account other than iCloud, or haven't upgraded your iCloud notes, there's no Recently Deleted folder, and deleted notes are removed permanently from all devices that use the same account. There's nothing to undo, so be sure first.

Exchange accounts are lighter for another reason: Apple says you can't attach files, map locations or webpage previews to notes in an Exchange account at all.

What happens when you delete a shared note?

If you delete a note you shared with others, Apple says it's deleted from all your devices and all the participants' devices. If you delete a note someone else shared with you, it's deleted from your devices only. Check who else relies on a shared note before you delete it.

What happens to locked notes?

You need the password to delete a locked note. Their attachments don't show in the Attachments Browser either, so a library with many locked notes can be larger than the browser suggests. Unlock each one to review it.

iCloud notes or On My Mac: where the space goes

Notes can keep notes in several accounts at once, and the account decides where each note's space is counted.

iCloud notes

Apple says that when you set up iCloud for Notes, your notes are stored in the cloud, which frees up space on your device, and they stay up to date on every device signed in to the same Apple Account. They count toward your iCloud storage, under Documents.

Apple doesn't document how much of each note the Mac keeps locally. Notes has no setting like Photos' Optimize Mac Storage: its settings cover sorting, the default account, text size and locked notes, nothing about storage.

The On My Mac account

Notes in the On My Mac account are stored only on this Mac. Apple says they can't be accessed on your other devices or on iCloud.com, so they never use iCloud storage, and your Mac is their only home. Back them up with Time Machine.

To turn it on, choose Notes › Settings and select Enable the On My Mac account.

Is it safe to move notes between accounts?

Not always. Apple warns that moving notes or folders from one account to another can permanently lose formatting and attachments; drawings, for example, can turn into image files you can no longer edit as drawings. Move a test note first, and check it.

What happens when you remove an account from Notes?

Choose Notes › Accounts, select the account and click Delete Account. Apple says the account's notes are deleted from that Mac, while copies stay in the internet account and on your other devices. That frees the Mac's space without losing the notes elsewhere.

Account	Where notes are stored	Syncs to other devices	Recently Deleted	Counts toward iCloud storage
iCloud	iCloud, and on each device	Yes	Yes, 30 days	Yes, under Documents
On My Mac	This Mac only	No	Yes, 30 days	No
Google, Yahoo and others	That account's server	Through that account	No	No
Exchange	That account's server	Through that account	No	No, and no attachments

Freeform boards

Freeform is a whiteboard where almost anything can go. Text and sticky notes are light; the media you drop in is not.

What makes a board large?

Apple's guide lists photos, videos, scans and generated images, plus other files such as Keynote presentations, 3D objects and multipage PDFs. Each one is kept on the board. A board used as a mood board or a project wall, full of photos and video clips, can be far larger than its sticky notes suggest.

Do Freeform boards use iCloud storage?

With iCloud on, yes. Apple says your boards are then stored in the cloud, which frees up space on your device, and changes, including deletions, appear on all your devices. Turn it on or off in System Settings: click your name, click iCloud, click See All next to Saved to iCloud, and find Freeform.

Apple's description of the Documents category in iCloud storage covers data from apps it doesn't list separately, which is where Freeform's boards fall.

How do you delete a board?

1. Open Freeform and click a category in the sidebar. If there's no sidebar, choose View › Show Sidebar.
2. Select one or more boards and press Delete.

A board you own moves to Recently Deleted, for you and everyone you share it with, where it stays for 30 days. If someone shared a board with you directly, deleting it only removes your access; the owner and others still see it.

How do you recover or permanently remove a board?

Click Recently Deleted in the sidebar. To bring a board back, Control-click it, choose Recover to and pick a folder. You can't open a board while it's there.

To free the space now, select it, press Delete and click Delete in the dialog. Apple notes that permanently removing a shared folder removes its boards too, and everyone you shared it with loses access.

What about deleting a folder of boards?

Deleting a folder deletes the boards inside it. Apple's advice is to move the boards out first if you want to keep them. A folder you own goes to Recently Deleted for 30 days; one someone shared with you simply disappears from your devices.

Keep a copy before you delete

Choose File › Export Board as PDF to keep a flat copy of a board you're finished with. Apple suggests opening the PDF in Preview to save it in an image format if you need one. The PDF is a picture of the board, not an editable board, and files on it aren't kept as separate files.

Voice Memos recordings

Voice Memos is the simplest of the three: one recording, one audio file. Recordings also pile up easily, because making one is a click and listening back takes as long as the recording did.

Where do recordings live?

In ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.VoiceMemos.shared/Recordings. The catalog's Voice Memos recordings entry explains that Voice Memos stores recordings there as audio files and keeps their titles and folders in its own records. With iCloud, recordings made on your other devices are stored there too.

The same entry warns that removing files there directly leaves recordings in Voice Memos that can't be played. Delete them in Voice Memos instead.

Lossless or Compressed: which uses less space?

Choose Voice Memos › Settings. Under Audio Quality, Apple describes Compressed as lower-quality, smaller files and Lossless as high-quality, larger files. For speech, such as meetings and lectures, Compressed is usually all you need; Lossless suits music you plan to edit.

Apple doesn't describe converting recordings you've already made, so treat the setting as one for new recordings. If you make long recordings often, check it now.

What does Clear Deleted do?

It sets how long recordings stay in Recently Deleted. Apple's example: choose After 7 Days, and deleted recordings stay in that folder for seven days, then Voice Memos removes them. Apple also mentions an option to clear deleted recordings immediately, which skips the safety net altogether.

A short period keeps the folder from quietly holding hours of audio. Immediately is only worth it if you're sure of every delete.

How do you delete recordings?

1. Open Voice Memos and select the recording.
2. Click the Delete button or press Delete.
3. To free the space now, open the folder sidebar, select Recently Deleted, and click Delete All at the bottom, or select one recording and click Delete, then Delete Forever.

To change your mind while it's there, select Recently Deleted, select the recording, click Recover and then Recover Recording. Recover All brings back everything.

What does iCloud change?

With Voice Memos turned on under Saved to iCloud, your recordings appear on your Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro signed in to the same Apple Account. Apple says that when you permanently delete a recording, it's removed from all those devices.

Apple's iCloud storage guide notes that voice recordings are stored in iCloud and can be deleted if you need more space. Recordings from an Apple Watch show up on the other devices too, though recordings made elsewhere don't appear on the watch.

How do you keep a recording before deleting it?

Drag it from the Voice Memos window to a folder in Finder; Apple says that saves a copy wherever you choose. You can also click the Share button and send it to an app such as Mail or Notes. A copy in Notes moves the space rather than freeing it.

Voice Memos setting	Where	What it changes
Audio Quality	Voice Memos › Settings	Compressed makes smaller files, Lossless larger ones
Clear Deleted	Voice Memos › Settings	How long deleted recordings stay in Recently Deleted
Voice Memos in Saved to iCloud	System Settings, your name, iCloud	Whether recordings sync, and use iCloud storage

Other small Apple apps that hold attachments

Notes, Freeform and Voice Memos aren't the only Apple apps that quietly keep pictures and files. A few more are worth a look on a Mac that's short of space.

Reminders

A reminder can hold images. Apple's guide describes Add Image, which takes pictures from Photos, or, with an iPhone or iPad nearby, a photo, a scan or a sketch. Deleted reminders go to the Recently Deleted list for 30 days, and Apple notes that permanent deletion may take up to 40 days.

To clear old ones in bulk, select a list, scroll to the top until you see Clear, and choose which completed reminders to delete. The Completed smart list does the same across all lists.

Stickies

Stickies notes can hold pictures and PDFs; Apple's guide says to drag a file into a note to add one. Apple's guide describes no syncing for Stickies, so they stay on the Mac. To delete one, click the box in its top-left corner, then Delete Note.

Note one trap: File › Export All to Notes copies every sticky into Notes, and Apple says your notes also remain in Stickies. That's two copies of each until you delete one set.

Journal

Journal entries on the Mac can hold photos, music, drawings and audio recordings. Deleted entries stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days; to remove one sooner, choose Recently Deleted in the sidebar and delete it there.

Journal's Save to Photos setting, in Journal › Settings › General, saves photos and videos taken in Journal to the Photos app as well. With it on, each one is kept twice, in Journal and in your Photos library. The post on duplicate photos in the Photos app covers tidying the library side.

Messages, Mail and the media apps

Messages and Mail hold far more than any of these. Messages keeps every photo and video in your conversations; the post on Messages attachments shows how to trim them in Messages. Podcasts and the TV app keep downloads, covered in the post on Podcasts and TV app downloads.

If you make music, GarageBand and Logic Pro dwarf Voice Memos. Their downloadable instruments and loops are covered in the post on the sound libraries GarageBand and Logic Pro download.

App	What it can hold	Recently Deleted	Syncs with iCloud
Notes	Photos, videos, scans, PDFs, audio, drawings	30 days, in iCloud and On My Mac	Yes, for iCloud notes
Freeform	Photos, videos, scans, files, 3D objects	30 days	Yes, with Freeform on
Voice Memos	Audio recordings	As set in Clear Deleted	Yes, with Voice Memos on
Reminders	Images	30 days, up to 40 to finish	Yes, for iCloud lists
Journal	Photos, music, drawings, audio	30 days	Not covered in Apple's Mac guide
Stickies	Pictures and PDFs	None	Not described by Apple

How these apps count on the Mac and in iCloud

The same note or recording can count in two places: on the Mac, and in iCloud. Knowing which is which saves you deleting something to fix the wrong one.

How do they count on the Mac?

Storage settings has no category for Notes, Freeform, Voice Memos, Reminders or Journal. Their data lives in your Library, and Apple's examples of System Data include app support files. The catalog files Voice Memos recordings under System Data, and the others land there in the same way.

So if System Data looks large and you use Notes for scans or Voice Memos for long recordings, these apps are worth checking before anything else in that category.

How do they count in iCloud?

Open System Settings, click your name, click iCloud, then Manage to see how much each app and feature uses, largest first. Apple's guide says the Documents category covers iCloud Drive plus data from apps it doesn't list separately, for example Notes and Reminders.

If iCloud is full, deleting attachments, boards and recordings you don't need frees space there too, once they leave Recently Deleted. The post on making room when iCloud storage is full covers the bigger items, such as backups and photos.

Does iCloud free space on the Mac?

Apple says storing notes and boards in iCloud frees up space on your device, but it doesn't say how much the Mac keeps. Unlike Photos, these apps have no setting to keep only recent items on the Mac. Notes' and Voice Memos' settings have nothing about storage at all.

In practice, the way to make them smaller on the Mac and in iCloud is the same: delete what you don't need, then empty Recently Deleted.

Screenshots pasted into notes

One common source of heavy notes is screenshots. Dragging the floating thumbnail of a screenshot into a note puts a copy in Notes, and the original may still be on your Desktop. The post on screenshots piling up on a Mac covers that side.

A fifteen-minute tidy of all three apps

If you'd rather work through them once than read every section, here's an order that finds the most space for the least risk. It works the same on macOS 27 Golden Gate and macOS 26 Tahoe.

In Notes

1. Choose View › Show Attachments Browser and click Photos & Videos.
2. Press the Space bar on anything you don't recognize, and use Show in Note to see its context.
3. Delete the attachments you don't need from their notes, or delete whole notes you've finished with.
4. Repeat with Scans, then look through notes with audio recordings.
5. Open Recently Deleted, check what's there, and delete the notes you're sure about.

In Voice Memos

1. Sort out the recordings you've already listened to, transcribed or saved elsewhere, and delete them.
2. Drag any you want to keep, but not in Voice Memos, to a folder in Finder first.
3. Select Recently Deleted and click Delete All once you're sure.
4. In Voice Memos › Settings, choose a Clear Deleted period and the Audio Quality you need.

In Freeform

1. Look through your boards for finished projects, and export the ones worth keeping with File › Export Board as PDF.
2. Delete them, then remove them from Recently Deleted.
3. On boards you still use, delete the large videos and files you no longer need on the board.

Then check the result

Give Storage settings and iCloud's storage list a little time to update. With iCloud on, the space comes back in iCloud too, and on your other devices, since the same items were removed there. If little changed, these apps weren't where your space was, and the rest of the disk is the next place to look.

Mistakes to avoid

Don't	Why	Instead
Remove files from these apps' folders in your Library	The apps keep their own records; files removed behind them break notes and recordings	Delete inside each app
Delete a shared note or board without checking	It can disappear for everyone you share it with	Leave it, or ask the owner
Move notes between accounts to tidy up	Formatting and attachments can be lost	Test with one note first
Delete notes in a Google or Exchange account in a hurry	There's no Recently Deleted; they're gone everywhere	Check twice, or export first
Set Clear Deleted to clear immediately	No chance to recover a mistake	Use a short period instead
Export Stickies to Notes and keep both	Every sticky is then stored twice	Delete one set once you've checked

Is any of this worth the effort?

For most Macs, these apps are small next to Photos, Messages or Mail. They matter when you scan a lot, record long meetings or lectures, or use Freeform for media-heavy projects. Ten minutes in the Attachments Browser and Voice Memos' Recently Deleted usually tells you which kind of Mac you have.

How the app does it

Wombit is a native Mac app that shows what's using your storage and explains every item in plain language. It scans the whole disk or any folder, reading only names, sizes and dates. File names and paths never leave your Mac.

Voice Memos' Recordings folder appears on the map with its real size, explained from the catalog's entry: what it holds, why removing files there leaves recordings that can't be played, and how to delete recordings and empty Recently Deleted in Voice Memos.

It's Review first. The app doesn't move the folder or anything inside it; it points you to Voice Memos' own steps instead.

• ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.VoiceMemos.shared/Recordings

  Voice Memos recordings

  The audio recordings you made or synced in Voice Memos.

  Review first · Explained only: the app shows you how

The catalog has no entry for Notes' or Freeform's data. Items no catalog entry explains are never offered for removal; the app shows a Best guess for them, written on the Mac by Apple Intelligence and labelled as a guess. macOS keeps some apps' data private, and folders it didn't let the app read are listed, not skipped.

The scan, the map, the explanations, System Data explained and Apple Data are free. Cleanup and the Apple Data actions 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.