How to find large folders and duplicate files on a Mac
Open the notch, choose Disk, then use Space to rank your home folder by size and Duplicates to find files with identical contents. Nothing runs until you press a button, and everything you remove goes to the Trash first, so you can undo it.
Find the big folders
- Open the notch and choose Disk. A row of eight sections sits at the top: Overview, Space, Find, Duplicates, Apps, Compress, Monitor and Activity.
- Choose Space. It measures your home folder and ranks every folder by size.
- Click a folder to look inside it. The up arrow goes back one level.
- Use the magnifier icon beside a row to show it in Finder, or the trash icon to move it to the Trash.
The first time you scan Documents, Desktop or Downloads, macOS asks for access to that folder.
Find duplicates
- Choose Duplicates, then press the scan button.
- NotchStar compares file contents, not names, across Downloads, Documents, Desktop, Pictures, Movies and Music. It skips files under 1 MB.
- Each row is a set of copies, with the number of copies and the folder holding the oldest one, which is the one it keeps.
- Tap a set to include or exclude it. The button shows how much space you would reclaim.
- Press it to move the extra copies to the Trash. Check the Trash before you empty it.
Find a file by name
The Find section searches every file and folder by name as you type, hidden ones included. Each result has Show in Finder and Move to Trash buttons.
Limits
- Only your home folder and apps in /Applications. System locations are refused, as are the home folder itself and your top level Documents, Desktop and Library folders.
- Scans do not run in the background. Start each one yourself.
- Duplicates ignores small files and compares by content, so a renamed copy is found, but two similar photos are not duplicates.
- A kept copy may be in an odd place. The oldest copy is kept even if it sits in a folder you do not like, so look at the path.
- It is not a backup tool. Emptying the Trash is permanent, and NotchStar does not do that for you.
Pair it with the System tab, which shows how full your disk is at a glance. For developers, see freeing space on a developer Mac, and for media, see compressing photos and videos. The full list is on the Disk page.
