Mac Format

Prune files from your Mac

Claw back acres of space by scanning your Mac and getting rid of documents and other files you no longer need

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Explained… Finding a clearer perspectiv­e 1 Scan your drive

Prettier apps exist to examine your Mac, but few are more usable than GrandPersp­ective (Free, grandpersp­ectiv.sourceforg­e. net). Go to File > Scan Folder and the app will rapidly scan your Mac’s entire drive and give you a graphical overview.

2 Select items

Click an item to highlight it. You’ll also see how it sits within any group of associated files (such as Applicatio­ns, or tracks in iTunes). The Focus buttons (top left) move the selection up and down the hierarchy.

3 View item details

Regardless of the selection you make, the path will be shown in the status bar at the bottom of the GrandPersp­ective window – along with the all-important value that states how much space its contents take up.

4 Perform actions

≈- click aselection and you can perform actions on it using the contextual menu – notably, previewing the item using Quick Look, or viewing it in Finder, prior to you potentiall­y deleting it.

5 Beware of deletion

In GrandPersp­ective’s preference­s, you can decide whether the app can move files to the trash, and whether confirmati­on is required to do so. If unsure, turn off this capability of the app and only delete files using Finder.

6 Rescan & repeat

GrandPersp­ective doesn’t provide a live view of your Mac’s drive. If you delete items, they’ll still appear in the app and simply be greyed out. Therefore, for ongoing pruning, make several changes and then rescan your drive.

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