How to find large files on Mac
It’s worth taking a few minutes to find large files on Mac: a handful of forgotten videos, disk images and archives often takes more space than everything else in your home folder. Here are three ways to find them — in Storage settings, with a Finder search by size and in Terminal — and what to check before you delete one.
- Open MacWashing and choose Large Files in the sidebar.
- Click Find Large Files. Filters by type, size and last opened date narrow the list.
- Check the files you no longer need and click To Trash.
Free trial · macOS 14 or later
Find large files in Storage settings
- Choose Apple menu › System Settings, click General in the sidebar, then click Storage.
- Click the (i) button — Show Detail — next to Documents.
- Switch to the large files list at the top, or sort the list by Size. Last Accessed shows when you last opened each file.
- Select a file you don’t need and click Delete, or click Show in Finder to look at it first.
File Browser in the same window shows how much space each folder takes.
How to find large files on Mac in Finder
- In Finder, press Command-F and click This Mac, so the search covers the whole Mac rather than the open folder.
- In the first pop-up menu of the search row, choose Other…, select File Size in the list and click OK.
- Set the size to greater than, for example, 1 GB. Finder lists the files that match.
- Select a file to see where it is: its path appears at the bottom of the window.
By default Finder search leaves out system files, so app data in Library rarely shows up there. For that, see how to clear cache on Mac.
Find large files in Terminal
This command lists the folders in your home folder from the smallest to the biggest. It only reads sizes and deletes nothing:
du -sh ~/* 2>/dev/null | sort -h
And this one lists every file over 1 GB in your home folder:
find ~ -type f -size +1G 2>/dev/null
Terminal sees protected folders, such as those of Mail and Messages, only with Full Disk Access (System Settings › Privacy & Security › Full Disk Access). Without it, those folders are skipped.
Before you delete a large file
- Open it or check its name and date: a big file may be the only copy of a video or a project.
- Disk images (
.dmg) and installers (.pkg) of apps you already installed are safe to delete. - Delete virtual machines and the Photos and Music libraries from inside their apps, not in Finder.
- Files from Finder go to the Trash first. Empty it to get the space back: see how to empty the Trash on Mac.
With MacWashing, it’s one click
Large Files in MacWashing finds files of 50 MB and more in your home folder and on other disks, groups them by type, size and when they were last opened, and moves the ones you choose to the Trash.
Free trial · macOS 14 or later
Questions and answers
Will MacWashing delete files on its own?
No. Large Files only lists them: nothing is checked until you check it, and files go to the Trash by default, so you can put them back.
Which files does it show?
Files of 50 MB and more in your home folder and on the other disks you choose, by type, size and the date you last opened them. Apps, the Library folder and hidden folders stay out: apps are for the Uninstaller, Library for System Junk.
Is it free?
Yes. Large Files doesn’t count toward the free trial’s limit, with no account or card needed.
What is the fastest way to find large files on Mac?
Open System Settings › General › Storage, click the (i) button next to Documents and look at the large files list. It already picks the biggest files out for you.
Is it safe to delete large files?
Only the ones you recognise. Movies, archives and installers you downloaded are usually safe to delete. Files inside app folders and libraries belong to apps and should be deleted from within those apps.
Why does Storage show more used space than the large files I find?
Large files are only part of it. Caches, app data, iPhone backups and System Data are spread over many smaller files that a size search doesn’t catch. See what System Data is.