Be careful not to delete items from the System folder or MacOS folder as some of these files are necessary. If you see big chunks of data that you do not need, you can move to Trash right from the app and start to quickly delete data you do not need. I am a fan of this utility due to the visual component and it easily helps identify bigger chunks of data and more importantly, where they are located. There are fortunately multiple third party options for mapping your hard drive and giving you information on its storage yet the one I have used the most is free utility, Disk Inventory X.ĭisk Inventory X will allow you to check your Hard Drive contents and will graphically lay out where all the space is being allocated. What if you do not know where to start however? If you are confident that you know where the space is being taken up, you can navigate to Finder and delete those files. If trash is empty however, you may need to check elsewhere for storage being taken up. Many users will delete files for months on end and forget to empty the trash, actually freeing up the space. There are a couple of different ways to get information on where your disk space is going.Įmptying the trash is the best first step. Most users will find that they have quite a bit of media they do not need on their Mac including videos and photos. So where is the storage being taken up? There are usually a couple of culprit file types that are taking up unnecessary space and they predominately media. MacOS Sierra has a built in Optimized Storage yet this solution moves files to iCloud which may not be the best option for all users depending on their online storage capacity. The main issue with the startup disk being full is likely data sitting on your machine that does not need to be there.

Here are the steps to take in order to get more free space on your Mac and avoid this error. How to Resolve Startup Disk is Full Error on Your Mac There are multiple ways to investigate where the storage is being taken up on your Mac and a few tools I would recommend to find the best ways to free up space and get you working again. The meaning behind this alert is quite simple as it signifies you are running out of space on your hard disk, yet you may not know where to start when deleting to make room. The error for Startup Disk being full can definitely be an annoyance when we are attempting to work on a new project or import photos and we are halted with this message. Here is a guide on how to resolve the “ startup disk is full” error on your Mac computer.

My mac says my disk is full