

The easiest way to check what's taking up space on a Mac is by using Apple's inbuilt storage management tool. Related: Mac Slowing Down? How To Find Which Apps Are Using The Most Memory For instance, macOS Monterey needs at least 26GB of free space, while those upgrading from older releases need at least 44GB of storage to install the update.

Apple's macOS system updates also need a fair bit of free space to be installed. It may also become impossible to download larger files. Apps that save temporary files on a Mac may begin to get sluggish when there isn't free space. While the Mac still remains functional, it can begin to slow down if there isn't enough available storage.

When a Mac's storage is close to full, Apple will begin displaying warning messages asking users to free up space.
