One of the questions that concern all of the users of Mac is connected with data storage. Space for storage is always not enough, and people are interested in freeing it as thoroughly as it is possible. But before this, you should learn where you could find the necessary things on your computer. Where all of your information is kept? There are only two variants: Storage and iCloud. Both of them are available on each computer and helps to organize your documents fast and safely.
This article is dedicated to reviewing each of them one by one.
Storage on Mac
An experienced and advanced user knows everything about it. But the amount of owners of Mac is growing. Sites and forums are still full of questions about storage.
Where can I find it?
To receive any information which is connected with the Mac storage, you have to click on the image of the apple in the upper left corner of the screen, and select the first section – “About This Mac” in the drop-down menu. In the window that opens, we click on the “Details”, after which, in a new window, you have to choose the “Storage” section. Right after that, you will see a schematic distribution of the storage’s memory for certain types of files. With some of them, everything is clear, and some of them can cause questions.
To use the computer wholly and comfortably, you should be aware of what the storage consists of. It is divided into seven sections. We will get through them very quickly.
1) Section Audio. This is every music track and song, other audio files that are present on the disk space. It also includes all the music that you bought in iTunes.
2) Section Video. All videos, clips, movies and other video files, including everything that you bought in iTunes or downloaded from other websites. Video made by own hands, for instance, in iMovie, is also taken into account in this category.
3) Section Photo. All photos, pictures, and images on your Macintosh or Macbook, including those you imported from iOS devices or your camera, as well as screenshots and something like that. Created docs in Photoshop or Pixelmator are here as well.
4) Section Programs. Oddly enough here you will find all the types of programs, utilities, and applications. All .app-files are included in this category, too.
5) Section Archives. All local archives obtained, for instance, from Time Machine or Time Capsule.
6) Section Other. What is other on mac? This is the most sizable one, and that is why should stop on it in details. It contains the documents that are not suitable for the rest five described sections. They are:
– All contents in system folders;
– Tables and documents with expansion pdf, doc, PSD. ;
– All types of caches (user, system, browser ones);
– Disk images and archives with an expansion like WinZip, dmg and similar to these;
– Kinds of plugins and extensions are also here.
The documents that you create by hands or download from the Internet are allocated to the folders automatically. That is why the only question is “How to find and remove files to free some space on the computer?” You must be aware of the fact that even if you delete a movie after watching, it doesn’t mean that the total amount of available disk space will increase. You can do it manually or use CleanMyMac.
iCloud
Another variant to save and keep your files is cloud storage. With its help, you can store any document in iCloud safely and use them from any iOS computers and devices. If you want, it is possible to configure it in such a way, that all files from the folders “Desktop” and “Documents” will be saved to iCloud Drive automatically. Then you can keep the files where you are used to doing it, and they will be available on all of your computers and iOS devices.
Now you have learned what types of storage can be and where you can find certain kinds of files. This information will help to manage the processes on your computer and to feel to be an experienced Mac user.
