Emergency Space: when the disk is full right now

Emergency Space is the screen to open when your Mac's disk is full right now. It shows what is using your space and lists your options, safest first, each with how much it would free. Nothing happens until you choose. Anything it removes is copied first wherever there's room, so you can put it back (an option tells you when a copy can't be kept), and you can stop it at any time.

Open it from the More menu (•••) → Emergency Space… (shown in red, at the top of the menu). When your Mac runs low on space, the warning notification also offers See What's Using It, which opens the same screen.

Step by step

1. Let it look. On a very full disk this can take a few minutes. Options appear as they're found, so you don't have to wait for it to finish before choosing.
2. Pick a goal. Next to Aim for, choose 30 GB free, 50 GB free (the default) or 100 GB free, then click Choose for me. It ticks the smallest, safest set of options that reaches your goal and stops there. You can tick and untick rows yourself too.
3. Check the total. The bottom of the screen shows Selected and how much you'd have free afterwards. If the options it's allowed to choose for you fall short of your goal, it says by how much.
4. Click Free up space. A review opens first: Review what will move. Nothing has happened yet. Each choice is opened up one level so you can see what's inside, and anything that will be removed rather than moved is listed separately.
5. Confirm. Click Free up space in the review to start. A progress view shows what's done, what's being removed now, and how much has been freed so far, measured on your disk.

%% caption: How Emergency Space goes from a full disk to a finished run
flowchart TD
  A[Open Emergency Space] --> B[Options appear, safest first]
  B --> C[Pick a goal and click Choose for me]
  C --> D[Click Free up space]
  D --> E[Review what will move]
  E -->|Cancel| B
  E -->|Free up space| F[Work runs one folder at a time]
  F --> G{Stop clicked?}
  G -->|Yes| H[Finishes the current folder, then stops]
  G -->|No| I[Done: see what was moved and removed]
  H --> J[Carry on later from where it stopped]

What it offers, in order

The options are grouped by what they cost you, safest group first:

Choose for me only ever picks from the first three groups. Deleting your own data is never chosen for you, however full the disk is: you tick those rows yourself. An app's folder is never offered whole: only the part the app rebuilds by itself, never its settings, sign-ins or history. Big folders it won't touch are listed under Big folders we're leaving alone, with the reason.

Your Trash isn't part of the plan. If it's holding space, a separate note says how much, with an Open Trash button, because emptying it can't be undone. See The Trash and the space it holds.

Stopping safely

While it's working, a Stop button is always visible, in the progress view and on the main screen. Stop finishes the folder it's already started, then stops. Nothing is left half-removed. Afterwards, Carry on picks up exactly where it stopped. Folders already done aren't done again.

You can close the progress view at any time. Moving files carries on in the background, and Show progress on the main screen brings the view back.

If an app is using something in the plan, that item is skipped and the app is named. You can choose to close it (you're asked first) and reopen it afterwards with Reopen.

Seeing what it removed

When the run finishes, the progress view shows how much was freed and lists the folders already removed and those not touched. Everything removed is in the Recycle Vault: click Open Recycle Vault to see it and put anything back. Anything moved appears in What's Using Space with a one-click Move back. See Reviewing, stopping and checking a clear-up.

If Emergency Space finds nothing it can offer safely, it says so plainly: Nothing here is safe to offer you. That means your space is being used by things it won't touch on your behalf. What's Using Space shows the full picture so you can decide yourself.

See also: Temporary files you can't see · Why deleting files doesn't always give the space back · Restoring something from the Recycle Vault · Where did my space go? · Pausing or stopping everything