How to find large files on a Mac

Updated November 4, 2026

A few big files you forgot about can take more space than thousands of small ones: screen recordings, video exports, disk images and installers you downloaded once.

The short answer: open System Settings › General › Storage and click the info button next to Documents: Large Files lists the biggest ones. In Finder, press Command-F and search by File Size. In Terminal, find ~ -type f -size +1G lists every file over 1 GB in your home folder.

How do I find large files with Finder?

  1. Open a Finder window and press Command-F.
  2. Click This Mac, then click Kind and choose Other… › File Size.
  3. Set it to "is greater than" 1 GB, or 500 MB. Click the Size column to sort.

How do I find large files in Terminal?

The biggest files in your home folder, with their sizes, largest first:

find ~ -type f -size +1G -exec du -h {} + 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -30

Files in ~/Library belong to apps: look them up before removing any. Your own files are in Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Movies and Pictures.

Where do forgotten big files usually hide?

How do I find screen recordings?

macOS marks screenshots and screen recordings when it makes them, whatever their name. Spotlight finds them by that mark:

mdfind 'kMDItemIsScreenCapture == 1'

How do I find files I haven't opened in a year?

This lists files over 100 MB in your home folder, outside Library, that haven't been opened or changed in a year. macOS doesn't always record when a file was opened, so treat the list as a hint:

find ~ -path ~/Library -prune -o -type f -size +100M -atime +365 -mtime +365 -print 2>/dev/null

Which old installers can I delete?

A .dmg or .pkg you already installed from can go: the app is in Applications, and its website has the newest version. Keep an installer only if the app can't be downloaded again.