HOW TO Find and delete unwanted files

1 View drive summary

Launch DaisyDisk and you’ll see a summary of all the drives connected to your Mac, including external drives and even some cloud drives such as Google Drive. The amount of free space is listed next to each drive.

4 Select a sub-folder

Click a folder in the list and DaisyDisk will update the sunburst map to focus on that folder and its contents. Roll the mouse over a subfolder name to see where it sits within the map – its segment will start to flash.

7 Free up space quickly

As you collect files in the Collector, you’ll see the amount of space you’ll free start to grow. Make sure you’re happy to lose those files before you actually click Delete; if not, click ‘X’ next to an item to remove it from the list.

2 Scan drive

Click Scan next to the drive you wish to check further. If prompted, click OK to grant DaisyDisk access to the volume. You’ll see a progress indicator appear next to the drive while it’s being scanned, and you cancel if you need to.

5 Keep drilling down

The folder list only displays the largest folders – to view more, click the ‘smaller objects’ entry at the bottom to show everything (you may need to scroll down to view them all). Again, click a subfolder to move to that level.

8 Access restricted files

When scanning your main drive, you’ll find system folders marked as offlimits. Advanced users comfortable with browsing these folders should go back to Disks and Folders, ≈-click Scan and choose ‘Scan as Administrator’.

3 Read top-level summary

Once complete, you’ll see a visual representation of the drive as a colourcoded sunburst map. On the right is a list of the drive’s parent folders with size and coloured dots to help you locate them on the map.

6 Folder and file actions

If you ≈-click a folder or file, you’ll see options to preview it, show it in the Finder, open it in Terminal or move the file or folder to Collector. This latter option allows you to collect files and folders to delete.

9 Purge cloud folders

If you’re running out of space on Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox, open DaisyDisk, ≈-click the Scan Folder button and you’ll be able to connect directly to your cloud storage to root out large and unwanted files.