🧹 Developer’s Guide to Freeing Up Disk Space on macOS

This guide is designed for developers who want to clean up gigabytes of unnecessary files from their Mac, safely and effectively — without wrecking their dev environment.

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📦 Summary

Location	Description	Safe to Delete
~/Downloads	Old files, DMGs, ZIPs	✅
~/Library/Caches/	App caches	✅
~/Library/Logs/	Log files	✅
~/Library/Developer/	Xcode junk (archives, device support, simulators)	✅ (selectively)
~/Library/Android/sdk/	Emulators, system images, old SDKs	✅ (selectively)
~/.gradle/	Gradle cache	✅
~/.npm/	NPM cache	✅
~/Library/pnpm/	pnpm store	✅
~/Library/Application Support/	Data from removed apps	⚠️ selectively
~/Library/Containers/	App sandbox storage	⚠️ selectively
~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/	Crash logs	✅
~/Trash	Your trash bin	✅

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✅ Safe Cleanup Commands

1. Clear System Caches

rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/*
rm -rf ~/Library/Logs/*

2. Clean Trash

rm -rf ~/.Trash/*

3. Remove Xcode Simulator Junk

xcrun simctl delete unavailable
rm -rf ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/Archives/*
rm -rf ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/iOS\ DeviceSupport/*
rm -rf ~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/*

4. Clean Android SDK Garbage

rm -rf ~/Library/Android/sdk/emulator/*
rm -rf ~/Library/Android/sdk/system-images/*
rm -rf ~/Library/Android/sdk/ndk/*
rm -rf ~/Library/Android/sdk/sources/*
rm -rf ~/Library/Android/sdk/patcher/*
rm -rf ~/Library/Android/sdk/extras/*

5. Clean Gradle Cache

rm -rf ~/.gradle/caches/
rm -rf ~/.gradle/daemon/
rm -rf ~/.gradle/wrapper/

6. Clean npm Cache

npm cache clean --force
rm -rf ~/.npm

7. Clean pnpm Store

pnpm store prune
# or fully reset:
rm -rf ~/Library/pnpm

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🧠 Optional Manual Cleanup

Application Support

ls -lh ~/Library/Application\ Support/

Containers

ls -lh ~/Library/Containers/

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🛠 Bonus Tips

• Disk Usage Overview:

du -sh ~/* ~/Library/* ~/.*

• Time Machine Snapshots (if APFS):

sudo tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots <snapshot-date>

• Homebrew Cleanup:

brew cleanup

• Docker Cache Cleanup:

docker system prune -a

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⚠️ Do Not Touch These

Path	Reason
/System	Protected by macOS (SIP)
/Library	Shared system resources
~/Library/Keychains/	Contains sensitive credentials
~/Library/Preferences/	Touch only if you know what you're doing

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🧨 One-Liner: Aggressive Developer Clean-up Script

#!/bin/bash
echo "🧹 Starting Developer Cleanup..."
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/* ~/Library/Logs/* ~/.Trash/*
rm -rf ~/.npm ~/.gradle ~/Library/pnpm
rm -rf ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/Archives/*
rm -rf ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/iOS\ DeviceSupport/*
rm -rf ~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/*
rm -rf ~/Library/Android/sdk/{emulator,system-images,ndk,sources,patcher,extras}
echo "✅ Done."

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🧭 Need More Help?

Use tools like:

• GrandPerspective
• DaisyDisk
• Storage Management from macOS

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🧊 Final Words

Freeing up space isn’t just about deleting files — it’s about reclaiming control of your dev environment. Run this cleanup monthly to keep your Mac fast, light, and sane.