Forum Discussion
How to free up disk space on mac as storage is full?
My MacBook Air M2 has recently shown a "storage almost full" warning, and things have started to slow down a lot. Not very familiar with how storage works on macOS, so not sure what is taking up so m...
If you're trying to free up disk space on Mac without spending any money, dupeGuru is a fantastic, completely free option that most people have never heard of.
The tool has three special scanning modes:
- Standard Mode: For general files like documents, videos, and downloads
- Music Mode: Specifically analyzes song tags (artist, album, title) to find duplicate tracks even if the filenames differ
- Picture Mode: Compares actual image content to find similar or identical photos, even at different resolutions
How to free up disk space on Mac:
When you open the app, macOS might warn you it's from an unknown developer—this is common for open-source software. You can allow it by going to System Settings > Privacy & Security.
Once open, you simply:
- Choose your scanning mode (Standard, Music, or Picture)
- Add the folders you want to scan—your Downloads folder, Documents, or even your entire Pictures library
- Click "Scan" and let it work
The scan speed depends on how many files you have, but it's generally efficient. When the scan finishes, dupeGuru shows you groups of duplicate files. For each group, it designates one file as the "reference" (usually the oldest) and marks the others as duplicates.