Optimized Storage in macOS Sierra and later* can save space by storing your content in iCloud and making it available on demand. When storage space is needed, files, photos, movies, email attachments, and other files that you seldom use are stored in iCloud automatically. Each file stays right where you last saved it, and downloads when you open it. Files that you’ve used recently remain on your Mac, along with optimized versions of your photos.
* If you haven't yet upgraded to macOS Sierra or later, learn about other ways to free up storage space.
Find out how much storage is available on your Mac
Choose Apple menu > About This Mac, then click Storage. This is an overview of available storage space on your Mac, as well as the space used by different categories of files:
Question: Q: How to delete GarageBand instruments and lessons? Hello, I’m running macOS 10.12 and under storage management it says that 'GarageBand instruments and lessons are using 1,02 GB. You can manage these files using GarageBand.' Jan 24, 2019 The easiest way to get a file from your iPad to your Mac is to use AirDrop. Alternatively, you could move the project file or a Dropbox folder, or however else you like to share files between.
Click the Manage button to open the Storage Management window, pictured below. (The Manage button is available only in macOS Sierra or later.)
Manage storage on your Mac
The Storage Management window offers recommendations for optimizing your storage. If some recommendations are already turned on, you will see fewer recommendations.
Store in iCloud
Click the Store in iCloud button, then choose from these options:
- Desktop and Documents. Store all files from these two locations in iCloud Drive. When storage space is needed, only the files you recently opened are kept on your Mac, so that you can easily work offline. Files stored only in iCloud show a download icon , which you can double-click to download the original file. Learn more about this feature.
- Photos. Store all original, full-resolution photos and videos in iCloud Photos. When storage space is needed, only space-saving (optimized) versions of photos are kept on your Mac. To download the original photo or video, just open it.
- Messages. Store all messages and attachments in iCloud. When storage space is needed, only the messages and attachments you recently opened are kept on your Mac. Learn more about Messages in iCloud.
Storing files in iCloud uses the storage space in your iCloud storage plan. If you reach or exceed your iCloud storage limit, you can either buy more iCloud storage or make more iCloud storage available. iCloud storage starts at 50GB for $0.99 (USD) a month, and you can purchase additional storage directly from your Apple device. Learn more about prices in your region.
Optimize Storage
Click the Optimize button, then choose from these options.
- Automatically remove watched movies and TV shows. When storage space is needed, movies or TV shows that you purchased from the iTunes Store and already watched are removed from your Mac. Click the download icon next to a movie or TV show to download it again.
- Download only recent attachments. Mail automatically downloads only the attachments that you recently received. You can manually download any attachments at any time by opening the email or attachment, or saving the attachment to your Mac.
- Don't automatically download attachments. Mail downloads an attachment only when you open the email or attachment, or save the attachment to your Mac.
Optimizing storage for movies, TV shows, and email attachments doesn't require iCloud storage space.
Empty Trash Automatically
Empty Trash Automatically permanently deletes files that have been in the Trash for more than 30 days.
Reduce Clutter
Reduce Clutter helps you to identify large files and files you might no longer need. Click the Review Files button, then choose any of the file categories in the sidebar, such as Applications, Documents, Music Creation, or Trash.
You can delete the files in some categories directly from this window. Other categories show the total storage space used by the files in each app. You can then open the app and decide whether to delete files from within it.
Learn how to redownload apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books.
Where to find the settings for each feature
The button for each recommendation in the Storage Management window affects one or more settings in other apps. You can also control those settings directly within each app.
- If you're using macOS Catalina, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Apple ID, then select iCloud in the sidebar: Store in iCloud turns on the Optimize Mac Storage setting on the right. Then click Options next to iCloud Drive: Store in iCloud turns on the Desktop & Documents Folders setting. To turn off iCloud Drive entirely, deselect iCloud Drive.
In macOS Mojave or earlier, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click iCloud, then click Options next to iCloud Drive. Store in iCloud turns on the Desktop & Documents Folders and Optimize Mac Storage settings. - In Photos, choose Photos > Preferences, then click iCloud. Store in iCloud selects iCloud Photos and Optimize Mac Storage.
- In Messages, choose Messages > Preferences, then click iMessage. Store in iCloud selects Enable Messages in iCloud.
- If you're using macOS Catalina, open the Apple TV app, choose TV > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Files. Optimize Storage selects “Automatically delete watched movies and TV shows.”
In macOS Mojave or earlier, open iTunes, choose iTunes > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Advanced. Optimize Storage selects “Automatically delete watched movies and TV shows.” - In Mail, choose Mail > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Accounts. In the Account Information section on the right, Optimize Storage sets the Download Attachments menu to either Recent or None.
Empty Trash Automatically: From the Finder, choose Finder > Preferences, then click Advanced. Empty Trash Automatically selects “Remove items from the Trash after 30 days.”
Other ways that macOS helps automatically save space
With macOS Sierra or later, your Mac automatically takes these additional steps to save storage space:
- Detects duplicate downloads in Safari, keeping only the most recent version of the download
- Reminds you to delete used app installers
- Removes old fonts, languages, and dictionaries that aren't being used
- Clears caches, logs, and other unnecessary data when storage space is needed
How to free up storage space manually
Even without using the Optimized Storage features of Sierra or later, you can take other steps to make more storage space available:
Mac Music Creation Garageband Delete
- Music, movies, and other media can use a lot of storage space. Learn how to delete music, movies, and TV shows from your device.
- Delete other files that you no longer need by moving them to the Trash, then emptying the Trash. The Downloads folder is good place to look for files that you might no longer need.
- Move files to an external storage device.
- Compress files.
- Delete unneeded email: In the Mail app, choose Mailbox > Erase Junk Mail. If you no longer need the email in your Trash mailbox, choose Mailbox > Erase Deleted Items.
Learn more
- When you duplicate a file on an APFS-formatted volume, that file doesn't use additional storage space on the volume. Deleting a duplicate file frees up only the space required by any data you might have added to the duplicate. If you no longer need any copies of the file, you can recover all of the storage space by deleting both the duplicate and the original file.
- If you're using a pro app and Optimize Mac Storage, learn how to make sure that your projects are always on your Mac and able to access their files.
If you are not aware, let me tell you GarageBand is Apple’s freeware digital audio workstation which means this software enables you to create, customise of the mix up your music just like a professional music composer, available for download from the Apple app store for all iOS and Mac devices, absolutely free. Garageband is available for Apple devices officially and comes with advanced features including in-app recording, Virtual studio technology, MIDI editing, a collection of instruments and loops, artist lessons, etc; gets better when all of that packed into an intuitive and easy to use interface.
The music composing app has all the instruments and sounds that can help you in creating great music. In this post, you will get to know, how to create music on it. If you are using a windows PC you can download garageband on PC here.
How to get GarageBand on Mac?
Installing GarageBand on apple devices is super easy. Make sure you have latest MacOS installed on your Macbook, iMac or iPhone. Apple is rolling new updates to improves the bugs and fix them quite often, if available just update to the latest MacOS. Once you are done, now you can proceed.
Installation:
You can download GarageBand for Mac from the Apple’s official website named, APP STORE. Initially, it came as the pre-installed app for iPhone as well as on Mac computers but now the GarageBand is available on App store and it’s just a click-away from installation.
For more clarity, Here are the detailed steps for you:
1. Open the Launchpad and then look for App Store in it.
2. Once you found the App Store, open it.
3. Now, on the App Store, look for GarageBand. It would be the first app you will see. Simply click and download.
4. Once you install the app, it is ready to use.
5. Go ahead and create some soulful music on your Apple beast.
How to use GarageBand on Mac?
Using GarageBand on Mac or any apple device is really easy, the interface is same. GarageBand offers you different project templates that you can choose as per your need. Before creating the music, here is some basic stuff you need to know:
Step 1: Opening the Project
First of all, you need to open the project area where you will create music. To do that, open the app and go to File menu and then select ‘New‘. You can also use shortcut key by pressing ⌘+N to open the new project.
You will find a couple of options. In songwriter mode, you will get the preset instruments, audio and other stuff you need to create a new song. Similarly, in Electronic, you will get the preset trance sounds, bass and drum kicks that will help you in creating EDM and other electronic music.
You can choose either of them as per your need but if you want to start from scratch without any preset sounds, simply open Empty Project.
Step 2: Adding Instruments on Empty Project:
If you have chosen the Empty project, here is what you need to do to start creating music on GarageBand. On the new empty project, you will get a basic Classic Electric Piano. Use your keyboard to play the Piano notes and to record it. You can see the Piano Keyboard on your screen by going to Windows > Show Musical Typing or press ⌘+K.
If you wanted to add more Tracks, simply click on the + icon (see screenshot), select Empty Project and add another track. Choose any instrument you wanted to add in your song and go on.
Using Loops on GarageBand:
Once you opened the project, now it is time to create some music on it. Creating music on GarageBand is so easy and so much fun, honestly. There is an inbuilt library of Loops that you can use in your songs as well. There are loops from different Genres, Moods, Instruments. You can sort the loops as per your need and type of music. You will get to know the Note of the loop as well as the BPM or Tempo of the loop which is also useful for any music creator. You can open the Loop menu from the Top Right corner. See Screenshot below.
Record External Instrument on GarageBand
Recording an external instrument like Piano, Guitar or Drums on GarageBand is so easy. For recording the Analog instrument as a digital sound require a converter that will convert the analog sound of your Guitar or Piano into Digital sound. You can use Tascam iXZ interface for iPad, iPhone. That is a brilliant gear for your setup. Using this, you can easily record external instrument into the app. You can also record the sound from the inbuilt microphone but the output would be terrible with noises. To open the External instrument interface on GarageBand, you need to go to File > New Project and choose Audio Project. Using the same option, you can also record your own voice on it.
FAQs
Ques – Is GarageBand free for Mac?
Ans- Yes, GarageBand is a free digital audio workstation available for download in the Apple app store. The free package includes a full set of features and a considerable number of sounds, loops, drummers, lessons, etc. You can, however, expand your content by making a one time purchase of $4.99. It also includes some Artist Lessons that would require you to make an in-app purchase.
Ques- How much does GarageBand cost for Mac?
Ans- GarageBand is free of cost for Mac users. The digital audio workstation is available for download in the Apple app store. The free package includes a full set of features and a considerable number of sounds, loops, drummers, lessons, etc. You can, however, expand your content by making a one time purchase of $4.99. GarageBand also includes some Artist Lessons that would require you to make an in-app purchase.
Ques- Do all Macbooks have GarageBand?
Ans- Even though GarageBand is not pre-installed on all Macs, it is available for all Macbooks. Any Mac user with an Apple ID can download the software from the Mac App Store.
Ques- Where do I find GarageBand on my Mac?
Ans- If you haven’t downloaded GarageBand, you will find it in the Mac app store where you have to search and download. In case you already have the music composing app downloaded on your Mac, you will most likely find it in the tab at the bottom of your screen (with a guitar icon). You can also search for it by name from the search bar at the top of your desktop screen. Alternatively, you can also open the Finder and from the panel on the right, click on Applications. Now when you scroll through your applications, you will find the app.
Ques- How do I remove GarageBand from my Mac?
Delete Garageband Files From Mac To Computer
Ans- To delete GarageBand from your Mac :
- Open Finder.
- Select Applications from the window on the left side
- Find GarageBand and then drag it to the Trash icon at the bottom of the screen
- Alternatively, you can right-click on the icon and tap on ‘Move to Trash’
- Empty the trash folder (right-click on its icon and select ‘Empty Trash’ option)
Alternatively, you can also use this method to get rid of GarageBand :
- Open Launchpad
- Type and search for GarageBand in the search bar
- Click and hold on the GarageBand icon, a small cross should appear at the top left of the icon
- Tap on that x and select Delete on the window that pops up
Ques- How do I get rid of music creation files on my Mac?
Ans- To get rid of music creation files from your mac :
- Click on the Apple logo, and then select ‘About this Mac’
- Now go to Storage and select ‘Manage’
- Click on the ‘Music creation’ option
- You’ll find a button to remove GarageBand, click on it to remove music creation files.
- If you don’t find a button to remove GarageBand, you’ll have to first re-install the software on your mac from the App store. Once you have re-installed the app, start this whole procedure from the beginning.
- If you want to further remove GarageBand files and clear up space : Go to the Finder window and search for GarageBand. Now scan the ‘This Mac’ and ‘Library’ folders and delete all GarageBand or Apple Loops files from them.
Ques- How do you delete instruments and lessons on GarageBand in Mac?
Ans- To get rid of music creation files from your mac :
- Click on the Apple logo, and then select ‘About this Mac’
- Now go to Storage and select ‘Manage’
- Click on the ‘Music creation’ option
How To Erase Garageband Files From Mac
- You’ll find a button to remove GarageBand, click on it to remove music creation files.
How To Remove Garageband Files
- If you don’t find the button, you’ll have to first re-install the software on your mac from the App store and then start this procedure from beginning.
Remove Garageband Files From Mac
- If you want to further remove GarageBand files and clear up space: Go to the Finder window and search for GarageBand. Now scan the ‘This Mac’ and ‘Library’ folders and delete all GarageBand or Apple Loops files from them.