The exact files to delete are going to vary, so you will need to manually move the files to your trash, then complete the steps in the linked article to empty that trash. Click here to see how to empty trash in macOS Sierra. The exact way to do this is going to vary from person to person, as not everyone has the same files, can delete the same stuff, or needs to free up the same amount of space. If you are almost out of room on your startup disk, then you need to start deleting stuff. How Do I Fix a Full Startup Disk on My MacBook Air? The smaller your hard drive, the more likely it is for you to get the “Your startup disk is almost full” message that likely led you to this page. MacBook Airs typically have a small amount of storage space so, if you use it as your primary computer and aren’t using an external hard drive or cloud storage, then it is completely realistic that you could have a full startup disk just through normal usage. This changed a little bit in macOS Sierra if you have an iCloud account where you are able to save files on your desktop and documents folder, but basically any application, picture, song, or video is stored on your startup disk. If you click that you will see another screen with some options for ways to clear space on the startup disk.Īll of the files and programs that you use are saved to the startup disk. You will note that there is a Manage option next to your hard drive on that screen. This displays a breakdown of the storage usage on the computer.

You can view the current startup disk usage on your laptop by clicking the Apple icon at the top-left of the screen, clicking the About this Mac option, then clicking the Storage tab.

Unless you have created additional disk partitions on your MacBook (this is fairly uncommon, and you would probably know if you had done it), then your startup disk is basically your hard drive. Unless you have made some changes to your computer, this should be the hard drive that was in the laptop when you first bought it. The startup disk on your MacBook Air is the hard drive that is storing all of your operating system files. The best way to understand the problem that you are having is to identify the actual issue. What is the Startup Disk on a MacBook Air? In that case, you are going to need to clean the full startup disk on your MacBook Air by deleting some of the files that you aren’t using, or don’t need. You can mitigate this problem by saving files to a cloud storage platform or an external hard drive, but you might find those options either impractical or cumbersome. The 128 and 256 GB versions of the Air are really easy to max out, and a full hard drive on my MacBook Air is something that I have been living with since only a short while after I started using one. The full startup disk error on the MacBook Air is something that you will probably encounter at some point as someone that owns or works with this laptop.

How to clear space on mac startup disk