Mac disk space guides for developers

Step-by-step guides to the folders that fill up a developer's Mac. Each one explains what the folder is, where it lives, how to measure it with exact commands, how to delete it safely and what rebuilds afterwards.

• How to clear Xcode DerivedData on Mac (and how much space it takes)Where it lives, how big it is, how to delete it and what Xcode rebuilds afterwards.
• How to find and delete every node_modules folder on your MacOne command to list them all by size, a safe way to delete them, and what not to sweep up with them.
• Why your Rust target folder is so big and how to clean it safelyWhat Cargo keeps in target, how to measure it, and the safe ways to shrink it.
• How to clear npm, yarn, pnpm, cargo and pip caches on MacWhere each cache lives on macOS, how to measure it and the right command to clear it.
• What is com.apple.coresymbolicationd and can you delete it?What the macOS symbolication cache is, where it lives, and how to clear it safely.
• Mac storage full? What actually takes up space on a developer's MacHow to find what is filling your disk, what is safe to clear, and what System Data really is.

Every command in these guides can be run by hand. Commands that only read, like du, find and ls, are safe to try at any time.

Let SymbolSweep find it

SymbolSweep is a menu bar app that finds these folders for you and sorts them into tiers (SAFE, REBUILD, REINSTALL and REVIEW) so you can see what is safe to delete.

Download SymbolSweep for Mac

Scanning is free and never deletes anything. Deleting needs a one-time $12 license for one Mac. Requires macOS 13 or later on Apple silicon. See how it works.