When you use a MacBook for some time, which is a powerful working tool, it can accumulate some files and folders that you can delete and you probably didn't know about it. There are, as with other operating systems, temporary and unnecessary files that, for those who have a MacBook with little storage capacity, it becomes even more necessary to eliminate.
But since macOS is also a complex system, in addition to being robust, you have to pay attention to what you really want to erase and how to do it correctly.
The “System Data” folder – what is it for
This folder recently underwent some changes; it was previously called "Others" in older versions of macOS, and is now named "System Data." With this change, Apple aimed to clarify the information about what this folder contains, which is actually system data. The same happened on the iPhone, where the folder also had a name change.
But some of this data can be deleted, as the folder serves to store data in transit or cached data from some applications. With care and knowledge, you can erase some of this data, freeing up a lot of space on your MacBook with just a few minutes of work.
How to Securely Erase System Data
Cleaning this folder, which becomes essential in your macOS during use, can be done automatically or manually. The manual method takes more time as it requires analyzing the files, but all methods help you know how to remove it from the Mac and free up some unnecessary data that will give your MacBook more free space. With more free space, macOS will perform better and can operate more quickly and efficiently.
Manual removal on macOS
To remove this data from your macOS, you must go to the ~/Library/Caches folder. For that, you can go to Finder and in the top menu select Go to folder, and write ~/Library/Caches or in the Terminal application use the command “cd ~/Library/Caches” to go inside that folder.
Next, you need to analyze whether a folder is still needed. For example, if you've used Skype in the past, you might have a folder named com.skype.skype and another named com.skype.ShipIt, but if you don't already have Skype installed on your MacBook, you won't need it anymore. of these folders. Just follow the logic of this example and delete the folders for applications you no longer use.
Automatic removal on macOS
To remove files in a much easier and more efficient way, as there are applications that analyze your applications and temporary files, eliminating what you don't need, avoiding a manual search. That way, you don't have to worry about its manual analysis, as the tool does the deletion intelligently. Depending on the application, it may even have some way of scheduling these optimizations or it may do the manual method periodically.