If you’re a laptop user, you’re likely familiar with the continual battle against your device’s storage space.
With some modern laptops like Apple MacBooks making it difficult or impossible to upgrade one’s hard drive space, buyers who opted for the lowest storage option when obtaining the device are well aware of the continual struggle to keep empty space on their drive.
Deleting pictures and videos, transferring data to the cloud—these efforts can temporarily mitigate the problem, but eventually, users continually find that their computer is nearly out of storage.
However, if you’re one of those people who’s sick of closing out the “Your computer is running out of storage” notification, this TikTok user may have a solution.
How can I free up storage on my MacBook?
In a video with over 129,000 views, TikTok user Allison Denofrio (@allisondenofrio_) says she’s had a MacBook for around 5 to 6 years. For much of that time, her computer was running out of storage. However, after consulting Apple, she says her computer now has several gigabytes of storage free.
Her solution? “Deleting caches, containers, and cookies.”
To do this, one must click on Finder, then hold down the “Option” key. At this point, if one goes to the section labeled “Go” on the top of their screen, they should see an option for Library. Click on that, navigate to those folders, and delete their contents.
“It deleted over 80,000 items,” she says. “I used to delete everything on my laptop just so I could play ‘Sims’. Now, I can have ‘Sims’ and do my actual work on my laptop.”
What does this really do?
Before you follow this advice, it should be noted what one is actually removing when they delete the contents of these folders.
As noted by TrendMicro, clearing cookies and cache can disrupt your daily computer usage. For example, you might be logged out of websites where your login details were saved, thus requiring you to sign back in. Additionally, cookies often store preferences and settings for certain websites, meaning that you’ll have to reconfigure these options when visiting a site again.
Furthermore, after clearing your device’s cache, your browser will need to download website data all over again. This could take longer than expected when returning to a website and can lead to greater data usage.
As far as containers are concerned, issues can arise from deleting items in this folder.
“Over time as an app runs, container folders can grow to a fairly large size. If you don’t use a particular app any longer, you can safely delete its app folder in the Containers folder,” writes Chip Loder for Apple Insider. “But in general, you shouldn’t delete any container app folders for Apple Software—unless it belongs to an additional Apple app you will never use. For example, GarageBand, Logic, or Final Cut Pro.”
Commenters share their thoughts
In the comments section, many users shared their own struggles regarding data storage on their Apple devices.
“Now someone show me how to do this on my iPhone,” wrote a user.
“Uhhhhhhhhh deleting Caches and Cookies is probably OK, but DO NOT DELETE CONTAINERS!!!” exclaimed another. “Some apps store their data in here! Not all of them do, but some do, you will lose data by deleting Containers!!”
“Wow! Wish I would have known that a couple years ago. I had no storage,” stated a third. “Ended up buying a new laptop. Ugh.”
@allisondenofrio_ I hope this helps someone else as much as it helped me. 🤣
♬ original sound – Allison Denofrio
We’ve reached out to Denofrio via Instagram direct message and website contact form, and to Apple via email.
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