HOW TO Find and remove unwanted large files
OPEN SYSTEM INFO
In the menu, select About This Mac. Click the Storage tab and then Manage. The System Information app will open, initially displaying recommendations regarding how to trim what’s on your Mac’s internal drive.
FIND LARGE FILES
We’re primarily interested in deleting unwanted files here, so click Review Files next to Reduce Clutter – or you can select Documents from the sidebar. Next, click Large Files and then the Size column heading to see your largest files.
DELETE A FILE
Select an item and click Show in Finder to view it and check it’s something you do want to remove. Or if immediately convinced, click Delete. But beware: this action has no undo – you cannot retrieve your item from the trash.
CHOOSE A FOLDER
Launch GrandPerspective. Select a listed folder, or scroll to the bottom of the list, double-click Select Other Folder, and choose an alternative. Or skip the window and kick things off with File > Scan Folder (command-n).
BROWSE ITEMS
Hover over or click any square. It will be highlighted, as will any containing folders. In the status bar at the foot of the window, you’ll see the path to the document, its file name, and – most importantly – its size.
FILTER YOUR SCANS
Should you want to reduce noise, create a filter for your scans. Go to Window > Filter, click New and call your filter ‘Huge files’. Select Huge files from the Available tests area, and click < to add it to the match area.
SCAN YOUR SELECTION
It may take a long time to scan your entire drive, or a large folder with many documents. It’s therefore sometimes worth scanning smaller folders like ~/Downloads, to quickly weed out large documents you weren’t aware of.
DOUBLE-CHECK DELETIONS
For the current selection, use toolbar buttons or the contextual menu (controlclick) to view it using Quick View, or reveal it in Finder. It’s best to check (and possibly back-up) anything you’re planning to delete!
CHOOSE CRITERIA
Click OK to save your filter. Run a scan – or select an existing one on-screen. Go to Window > Filter, select your filter from the pop-up menu and click OK. The scan will now only display files larger than 100MB.
VIEW YOUR SCAN
When the scan is complete, your selected folder will be represented as a grid of coloured squares. Each of these squares is a document – and the larger the square, the larger the document. Hone in on the biggest ones.
REMOVE A FILE
On selecting Delete, you’ll be asked to confirm. Your file is not immediately removed – it’s sent to the macOS trash, from where it can be retrieved. In GrandPerspective, the space it once took will be coloured grey.
ADJUST YOUR DISPLAY
Click Drawer. Display > Color by lets squares’ colours represent file type or age rather than folder. Also, use ‘Show entire volume’ to compare the current scan to your entire drive, and avoid pruning tiny files!