Volume Macintosh HD Is Full? – 4 Solutions to Resolve it

The Macintosh HD is the main drive of every macOS computer. It’s what most apps and system processes rely on before anything else when they need storage space. If you install an app, for example, it uses the space from the Macintosh HD.

Naturally, that means if the volume Macintosh HD is full, certain tasks will no longer be accessible on your computer, specifically those that require storage space. What most people do in this scenario is simply delete unnecessary files from their computer, and that’s exactly what you must do as well. But first, how do you know if volume Macintosh HD is full?

How Can You Check If Volume Macintosh HD Is Full?

You’ll only encounter the volume Macintosh HD is a full error when the main disk is completely full. It doesn’t give you a warning if it’s on the brink of getting full, so by the time the error appears, the disk would’ve already been in bad shape.

That’s why rather than waiting for the error, you must monitor your disk space yourself, and here’s how you can do it:

1. Click the Apple icon that’s on the top-left corner of your screen.
2. Select About This Mac from the dropdown menu.
3. A popup window will appear where there will be five tabs. Navigate to the Storage tab.

On the Storage tab, you can find a bar consisting of numerous colored bars. These correspond to your total disk space and the used space. If the bar is filled with colors, then it most likely is on a brink of getting full. But if the good majority of it is still blank or white, then you have space left. For a more exact metric, you can refer to the text under Macintosh HD that says something along the lines of 845.15 GB available of 1 TB. That should tell you if volume Macintosh HD is full. Once you’ve determined that the main disk is indeed on the brink of getting full, you must free up space using the following methods.

Fix #1: Empty The Trash

The Trash contains all the files you deleted over the past 30 days. Though you deleted them once, that doesn’t mean they’re gone from your computer. In reality, they still take up disk space on your computer unless you delete them from Trash.

With that said, here’s how you can delete all items from your Trash and free up space on your main disk:

1. Open the Trash app by clicking on its icon from the Dock, the taskbar of macOS.
2. Click the Empty button at the top menu bar of the window.

Note: Alternatively, you can also simply click the Trash icon while holding the Ctrl key and select Empty Trash.

Keep in mind that the files you deleted that are older than 30 days will automatically get deleted.

Fix #2: Clear The System Cache

Whenever your system performs an operation, it creates the files that it needs and stores them in the cache folder. These files aren’t always needed, since the system only needs them for certain tasks. Therefore, you can delete them if you wish to free up space on your main disk. Here’s how you can clear the system cache:

1. Open the Finder app on your computer.
2. Click the Go option from the top menu bar.
3. Select Go to Folder… from the dropdown menu.
4. A popup window will appear. Type in the following text on the text bar: ~/Library/Caches
5. Click Go.
6. The system will take you to the Cache folder. Find and delete the cache files you no longer need.

Fix #3: Uninstall Unused Apps

If you have a couple of apps on your computer, chances are you’re no longer using some of them. If that’s the case, it’s best if you simply uninstalled those apps, and here’s how you can do that:

1. Click the Launchpad icon from your Dock. It should look like a rocket or a square with nine other squares.
2. On Launchpad, you’ll find a list of apps. Before you can uninstall apps, you must enter Edit mode. To do that, hold down the Option key on your keyboard until the apps start jiggling.
3. On Edit mode, the apps that you can uninstall will have an X icon on their corners. Click that icon.
4. Select Delete to confirm your decision.
5. Do this to all your unused apps.

Fix #4: Free up Space on Macintosh HD With Mac Cleaner

If you were to free up space on Macintosh HD using the previous methods, then it might take you several hours to do so since each method would take at least several minutes. Unfortunately, that’s too inefficient, especially if you’re planning on doing that regularly. After all, if you stop clearing your disk, chances are you may encounter the volume Macintosh HD is full error once again. If you want a quick way to free up space, we suggest using cleaning tools and apps like Mac Cleaner.

Mac Cleaner is a modular software that specializes in deleting certain files, hence its name. Its main goal is to simply free up space on your computer, which is ideal for your purposes. To use the software, here’s what you need to do:

Step #1: Download, Install, and Open Mac Cleaner

Before you can free up space on your computer, you’ll have to get the software first. To do so, you need to open a browser and head to the Mac Cleaner download site. Click the Download Now button located there to prompt the download of a file with a DMG extension. That file is the installer, and you have to open it as soon as the download completes. Then, follow the onscreen instructions from that point onwards. The software opens automatically once the installation finishes.

Step #2: Pick a Cleaner Module

There are six modules that you can use in the Mac Cleaner software. These include  (1) Clean Up Junk, (2) Delete Large Files, (3) Delete Duplicate Files, (4) Erase Private Data, (5) Speed Up Your Mac, and (6) Manage Apps & Extensions, and each has different functionalities. For your goal of fixing the volume Macintosh HD is full error, you’ll mainly need the help of the cleaning modules of the software. There are three cleaning modules. Here’s a look at each one:

• Clean Up Junk scans your computer for files and folders that it considers junk. These may include files like System Junk, App Junk, Trash Bin, iOS Junk, iTunes Junk, Unused Disk Images, and Downloads.
• Delete Large Files looks for files and folders with a size higher than or equal to 50MB.
• Delete Duplicate Files checks each file in a directory and looks for their extra copies, also known as duplicates.

To proceed to the next step, you only have to select a module, and you can do so by clicking on it from the left sidebar.

Step #3: Scan Your Mac for Files

The next step is all about scanning your computer for files. The steps will naturally be different for each module. However, they should be similar to one another. In that regard, here’s a look at what you must do to scan for files using the cleaner modules:

• Clean Up Junk: The software will consist of two parts. One side says Quick Cleanwhile theother says Deep Clean. Quick Clean detects System Junk, App Junk, Trash Bin, and iTunes Junk, while Deep Clean detects those in addition to Downloads, iOS Junk, and Unused Disk Images. Choose between the two and click the Scan button.
• Delete Large Files: Click Scan button after selecting the module.
• Delete Duplicate Files: At the center is a field that says Select a File Directory. To its left is a Browse button. Click that button. When a popup window appears, navigate to eh folder you want to scan, then click Scan.

Step #4: Pick a File/s

The fourth step is to select the files you wish to delete. The steps also vary according to the module. For Delete Large Files and Delete Duplicate Files modules, you immediately get a list of files that can be an image, video, document, song, folders, etc. You simply have to click their checkboxes to select items. In the case of the Clean Up Junk module, the list on the left will consist of file categories like  System Junk, Downloads, Trash Bin, and more. You must first select a file category so a list will appear on the right side, from which you must select items normally like in the previous two modules.

Step #5: Delete the File/s

Now you only need to delete the files you selected. For that, you just have to click the blue button at the top right corner of the page, which should either say Clean or Delete. You may have to wait for a few minutes for the software to delete the files.

With this, you can very easily free up space on your computer without jumping from one folder to another. As a result, you should no longer see the volume Macintosh HD is full error again, and even if you do, you just have to repeat these steps.

Conclusion

Disk space is one of the many resources that you’ll need if you want to perform tasks on your computer without an issue. If you run out of it, the things you can do will become limited, and that’s a scenario you must avoid as much as possible. That’s why errors like “This disk is almost full” is an excellent reminder that you must clear unnecessary files from your computer before volume Macintosh HD is full. However, you must not only delete unnecessary files when your storage drives are on the brink of filling up. You must do it regularly, even if you have plenty of storage space to spare.