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How to find large files on Mac (including hidden ones)

In short

Storage settings lists your biggest documents; a Finder search by size finds the rest; Terminal shows what's in the hidden Library folder, where most of the forgotten space usually is.

1. Storage settings

System Settings → General → Storage, then the ⓘ next to Documents. The Large Files tab lists your biggest files, and Downloads shows what's there by size. It doesn't show caches or app data.

2. Search by size in Finder

Open a Finder window, press ⌘F, choose This Mac, and in the first menu pick Other… → File Size. Then set is greater than 1 GB. Sort the results by size.

3. Folder sizes in Finder

In list view, open View → Show View Options and turn on Calculate all sizes. Finder then shows how much each folder takes, so you can follow the biggest one down.

4. Terminal, for the hidden part

Most forgotten space is in ~/Library, which Finder hides. These commands list the biggest folders, largest last:

du -sh ~/* ~/Library/* 2>/dev/null | sort -h | tail -20

And every file over 1 GB in your home folder:

find ~ -size +1G 2>/dev/null

Found something big. Can I delete it?

That's the hard part. Look it up in the folder guide: what each folder is and whether it comes back by itself. If it's not there, don't delete it until you know what made it.

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