Optimized Storage

>>> Sierra’s Optimized Storage feature provides guidance about operating system and app preferences you may want to change to help conserve storage space – an important consideration given that most MacBooks still ship with a fairly limited amount. The feature isn’t in a particularly obvious place: go to  > About This Mac, click the Storage tab, then click the Manage button at the top right of your startup disk.

The window opens with a Recommendations category selected in its left pane. Some of these actually cover multiple app preferences. For example, if you’re not already using iCloud Photo Library, the top item (Store in iCloud) covers two changes: enabling that feature, but also turning on the ability to move your Desktop and Documents folders to iCloud Drive, which enables files in those folders that you haven’t touched in a while to appear there, but actually to be stored in iCloud and only downloaded when you open them, saving on local space in the meantime.

You can make these changes elsewhere in macOS and its apps, as long as you know where to look. The point of the Optimized Storage feature is to consolidate them so you only have to look in one place to make smart changes to how your Mac manages its storage.

Below Recommendations in the left pane, the feature highlights a few other areas you may want to check out. Among the most useful for quickly clearing out large amounts of space are: the Applications view, which you can sort by date last accessed to identify those you may no longer use; Documents, which offers granular options for document files wherever they’re stored; and iOS Files, which lists firmware updates still on your Mac even after you’ve updated your devices.