Top 2 Ways to Remove Mac Purgeable Space [New Update]

I’m a Mac user and I use it for storing large-sized files. I’m a video special effects specialist and I am responsible for my company’s large video files. I just heard about the Purgeable storage in macOS Sierra. What is it? Can you tell me more about this Purgeable storage?

You’re in the right place. I'll show you about what is Mac Purgeable space and how to remove purgeable space on Mac.

Tips: PowerMyMac can help you easily clean up your Mac to remove purgeable space, just have a free trial below.

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Contents: Part 1. What is Mac Purgeable Space?Part 2. How to Remove Purgeable Space on Mac?Part 3. How to Manage Your Mac Storage?Part 4. Bonus Tip: How to Preview Purgeable Storage In Your Sierra?Part 5. In Conclusion

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Part 1. What is Mac Purgeable Space?

What's the meaning of Purgeable? Mac Purgeable Space is actually related to the Optimized storage feature of your macOS Sierra. Apple didn’t make your hard drive space bigger. What they’ve done is to handle the limited space on your Macintosh with the help of cloud storage. This, in turn, made one part of your storage bar and turned it into a piece called “Purgeable.”

You must notice that there is other and purgeable in about this Mac. Now, let’s dive more into detail with the said slice of the storage pie. Purgeable storage actually contains files that your macOS refers to as suited for removal.

That’s why it’s called purgeable, it can actually be deleted from your drive without causing any issues. If Optimized storage is activated, a lot of files gets transferred to the cloud. Some of them are referred to as optional files. So how to remove purgeable space on Mac?

Tip: How to deal with the issue of "Your startup disk full"?

Purgeable Files: Which Ones Are Considered Such?

No one is 100% sure as to which files are considered purgeable. Some guessed that files and system-generated files that have these two criteria are considered purgeable:

1. Super old files you have not used or opened for a really long time.
2. Files that are already synced to iCloud. Thus, the original file can be removed on your Mac device since it already has a copy on iCloud.

Mac Purgeable files vary in types. It can be any type out there. It can be movies you watched on iTunes. Or, it can also be language files you have never used before. The type of language files that your system hasn’t displayed cause you might not need it or might not understand it.

However, what renders these files purgeable and what does it actually mean? The system on your device looks for these files. It knows that when your Mac is about to run out of disk space and your Optimized Storage is activated, it can automatically delete these files to free your storage of space.

Part 2. How to Remove Purgeable Space on Mac?

This is very easy. All you need is a tool called PowerMyMac created by iMyMac. With this tool, you can find all useless files on your device and delete purgeable space on Mac with a few clicks. You can know more useful cleaners from here.

Here is how to use PowerMyMac to remove purgeable space on Mac Mojave, Catalina, or High Sierra step by step, try the steps below:

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1. Download and open PowerMyMac. Click the module named Junk Cleaner on the left-hand side.
2. Scanning system junk and it will display all Junk files to you when finished. The Junk files will be classified into different categories including Application Cache, Photo Cache, Mail Cache, System Logs, System Cache, and System Trash, among others.
3. Review items and select the files you want to delete. After which click the CLEAN button.
4. Clean Up Finished. The junk files will now be erased. It will then show how much space you cleaned just now as well as how much space is available on your disk drive now.

Repeat steps 1 to 4. But in this case, select Uninstaller or Large & Old Files instead of Junk Cleaner.

How to Remove Purgeable Storage On Your Device?

Actually, you don’t need to do this by yourself. But if you wish to do so, you can move to the next part of this guide.

Mac Purgeable space is there in that whenever your device is running out of space, you will be safe knowing that it will automatically clear up the allocated purgeable space.

This will lead to more free space on your Mac. The best thing to do for you to avoid lifting a finger is to activate other Storage. In this way, your device will automatically purge the said files. To do this, follow the steps below to remove purgeable space on Mac:

1. Go to the About This Mac menu.
2. Next, go to the Storage tab.
3. After which, press Manage.

Now, you have the ability to activate a particular option that you wish to be synced to iCloud.

Part 3. How to Manage Your Mac Storage?

How to manage your Mac storage to remove purgeable space on Mac? You may use a computer to store all your files like photos and videos, then you will have a hard time finding more available space on your Mac's internal drive. So you can get some space by managing and optimizing storage on your Mac.

When you choose to manage your computer's storage space, there are 4 parts to operate. Let's first see how to find these options:

1. Click About This Mac under the Apple Menu.
2. Select and click the Storage tab, you will see your available macOS storage.
3. Press Manage, you will now access storage management options.
4. Select Recommendations from the left column.

Now you will see 4 options including Store in iCloud, Optimize Storage, Empty Trash Automatically and Reduce Clutter. Let's discuss how to use them to help you manage your storage separately:

Store in iCloud

With this option, icloud stores only the latest files and optimized photos, and icloud downloads them when you need them. In this way, it saves a lot of storage space.

Optimize Storage

When choosing this option, the purgeable categories are added to your storage details. After clicking the Optimize Storage button, there are iTunes movies and attachments you can manage specifically to save your Mac storage.

Empty Trash Automatically

This option allows you set Mac delete items from the Trash automatically after saving for 30 days. Just select Finder>Preferences>Advanced>Check the box that says 'Remove Items from the Trash after 30 days'.

Reduce Clutter

This option allows you to select and delete any files you unneeded anymore to save some space on Mac. By pressing Review Files button, you will see a new window jumps out and shows you all the apps and files stored on your Mac. You can delete by file type (selected in the sidebar).

Tip: You can uninstall unneeded apps on your Mac completely with PowerMyMac Uninstaller, here shows you how to uninstall OneDrive on Mac as a reference.

Part 4. Bonus Tip: How to Preview Purgeable Storage In Your Sierra?

You may use Sierra or High Sierra on your Mac, and there must be some Mac purgeable storages.

You have the ability to check out the amount of space in your Sierra can purge in a variety of places:

1. The first method you can do is to check your native storage tab. You can access this tab by going to the Apple Menu and selecting About This Mac. Then, you go to the tab named Storage.
2. You can also view it on your Finder’s Status Bar. To display your Status Bar, you should click View and then press Show Status Bar.
3. The third option is to go to the top menu and click Go. Then, select Computer. Next, right-click on the hard drive. Then, go to getting Info.
4. The fourth option would be to click View. Then, go to the Options panel. This will activate the Desktop display of hard disks.
5. The final option would be to ask Siri about how much space you have left on your device.

Part 5. In Conclusion

Remove Purgeable space on Mac is one way your device works smarter instead of harder. Instead of putting a bigger disk space on your Mac, you are given an optimization feature. Purgeable files are files that can be removed without causing issues to your device. It is automatically deleted on your device if Optimized Storage is turned on.

However, if you find your Mac is running slowly and want to delete more unnecessary files on your system, you can use a tool like PowerMyMac. For example, it can help you find all your images stored on your Mac and remove the duplicates. It helps you scan your device for unneeded files and delete them completely without causing harm to your device.

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