How to Avoid Running Out of Storage Space on Any Device

With storage space costing so little these days, it’s easy to forget about it until you get a warning that your phone, computer, or cloud storage account is nearly full. Our accounts always seem to run out of storage at the most inopportune times, though, so keeping an eye on your storage usage is a good idea. Even checking in on it only once or twice a year can help you make sure you’re not close to the limit. If you are, set aside a few minutes to check the files that are taking up the most space and decide whether you want to move or delete them.

- JILL DUFFY

Here’s a quick guide to finding how much space you have and how you’re using it for your mobile device, computer, Apple Watch, and a few of the most popular cloud storage services. If you’re running out of space, consider buying a network attached storage drive.

HOW TO CHECK THE STORAGE ON YOUR MAC

• Click on the Apple logo in the upper left corner.

• Select About this Mac.

• Choose Storage. Wait a moment while your computer calculates how much space you have and how much you’re using. You will see how much space you’re using and how much is free on a color-coded graph. Hover over any color to see more information about what it means. The white section is your free space. Click Manage to see a more detailed breakdown of your storage usage, plus some suggestions for how to minimize it. From this window, you can easily dive into any section to see the individuals files that are taking up space and delete them.

HOW TO CHECK THE STORAGE ON YOUR WINDOWS PC

• Go to Setting > System > Storage. Or simply type Storage into the Windows search bar.

• Next, you can see the breakdown of used space versus free space on your local disk, with additional information about various file types. Click any of them to get more information and manage them.

• Windows also offers a quick option for gaining some space: Storage Sense. This feature helps you automatically clean up your storage when space gets low. You can also run it manually. It lets you automatically delete files in the trash after the amount of time you set and delete previous versions of Windows that may be hanging around.