I don’t want to put too much on my mac, i want to leave a considerable amount of free storage. I don’t do any gaming at all. I just listen to downloaded music and watch downloaded videos on my mac i watch Youtube and use Safari to search for things, look at my bank, that’s it.
How much storage according to this pic you think should i leave?
MacBook Air, macOS 15.4
Historically, the rule of thumb has been to keep at least 20% free space on your system drive on a Mac. That's so your system has adequate disk space for virtual memory (aka swap space). On your 250GB drive, that would be 50GB. You are already getting close to that number.
At a bare minimum keep at least 10% free at all times; your Mac needs some disk space to run; at less than 10% free space gremlins tend to show up and as you approach 100% full your system will simply not run.
Historically, the rule of thumb has been to keep at least 20% free space on your system drive on a Mac. That's so your system has adequate disk space for virtual memory (aka swap space). On your 250GB drive, that would be 50GB. You are already getting close to that number.
At a bare minimum keep at least 10% free at all times; your Mac needs some disk space to run; at less than 10% free space gremlins tend to show up and as you approach 100% full your system will simply not run.
Drickbay wrote:
OK, i emptied and backed up some media, im up to 65.52 GB leftover now. I guess im further away from the danger mark?
You're fine at that level. I wouldn't call 20% free space a danger mark, just a point to be aware of for managing your disk usage. 10% ... 5% ... they're a different matter.
+1 If you are looking to free up internal drive space...?
You can also move your Photos, Music, Movie Libraries to an external hard drive.
Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support
Change where your music files are stored on Mac - Apple Support
Move your iMovie for Mac library - Apple Support
Moving, storing and accessing files or libraries on an external hard drive is fairly easy.
Keep in mind, that it is a good idea to backup both the Mac and your Libraries to a second external drive.
How much storage do you have?
I have a desktop and try to keep a minimum of 80 to 100 GB free on a 1 TB SSD boot disk. However, I do have external drives to store additional files.
You could put larger files like your Photos library on an external SSD like OWC"s (MacSales.com) OWC Envoy Pro MINI which comes in sizes from 256 GB to 2 TB. It would be easy to carry along with your laptop.
OK, i emptied and backed up some media, im up to 65.52 GB leftover now. I guess im further away from the danger mark?
I’m never good at percentages. Basic math i can do but when it comes to percentages, i get lost. I just read the GB i have left.. Thanxalot✌🏻
Where is a good stopping point with storage (memory)?
