Finding the largest files on your Mac OS X computer is very valuable when you have a full disk and need to delete large files to clear up space.
Traditionally, it hasn’t been that easy to find large files on Mac OS X without downloading a third party application or tool.
Thankfully, the advanced search feature currently available in Finder allows users to search only for files that are larger than a particular size. Users can then sort from largest to smallest and, viola, you’ve got a list of the largest files on your computer and you can decide whether you’d like to delete or keep them.
See Also: Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet For All Applications [Video]
To find the largest files on your Mac OS X computer, open a new finder window by double clicking on the your hard drive.
To get the ball rolling in the Finder window that appears, you need to type any letter in the search box at the top right. When you type a letter in the box, a plus icon will appear towards the top of the finder window which, when clicked, allows the user to add specific criteria to the search.
From the dropdown menu in the advanced search bar, choose other and search for “size”. An option should appear that will allow you to search by file size. Select the option and specify that you would like to search for files greater in size than 500MB or 1GB. Also, delete the letter out of the search box at the top so you’re only searching by file size and nothing else.
When the list populates in the search field, sort by the “size” column and you will have a list of the largest files on your computer. For more advanced instructions, watch the video tutorial embedded at the top of this post.
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