Freeing up space · Emergency Space

What does "safest first" mean in Emergency Space?

Short answer: Options are ordered by cost to you: space that returns without deleting anything first, then rebuildable caches and abandoned temporary files, then moves to your fast drive, and only then anything deliberate.

Options are ordered by what they cost you, not by how big they are:

  1. space that comes back without deleting anything (such as space held in your Mac's automatic backups),
  2. disposable data — caches and temporary files an app left behind — that apps rebuild,
  3. things moved to your fast drive and still fully available,
  4. only then anything deliberate.

When snapshots are holding a lot, that row leads, because it's what works when deleting hasn't. The biggest number on the screen is usually not the thing to do first. See why nothing is ticked.

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