How Do You Get More Storage On Your Macbook Air

• How Do You Get More Storage On Your Macbook Air Force
• How Do You Get More Storage On Your Macbook Air Wirelessly
• How Do You Get More Storage On Your Macbook Air Pro

Optimised Storage helps you save storage space by storing your content in iCloud and making it available on demand:

• When storage space is needed, files, photos, films, email attachments and other files that you rarely use are stored in iCloud automatically.
• Each file stays exactly where you last saved it, and will download when you open it.
• Files that you've used recently remain on your Mac, along with optimised versions of your photos.

If you can only choose one of them, then you should go for 16GB ram. There is only subtle difference in i5 or i7 when we are talking about MacBook air. However, 16GB means a totally different story in actual usage It would last another 5 yrs before 16GB become not enough to use. You can use external storage methods to add storage to your MacBook Pro. The most common way to do this is by using an external hard drive. These drives connect directly to your computer using an appropriate cable and will give you as much extra storage as you want or need.

If you haven't yet upgraded to macOS Sierra or later, find out about other ways to free up storage space.

Find out how much storage is available on your Mac

Choose Apple menu  > About This Mac and then click Storage. Each segment of the bar is an estimate of the storage space used by a category of files. Move your pointer over each segment for more detail.

Click the Manage button to open the Storage Management window, pictured below.

Manage storage on your Mac

The Storage Management window offers recommendations for optimising your storage. If some recommendations have already been turned on, you will see fewer recommendations.

Store in iCloud

Click the Store in iCloud button and 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 work offline easily. Files only stored in iCloud will display a download icon , which you can double-click to download the original file. Find out more about this feature.
  
• Photos. Store all original, full-resolution photos and videos in iCloud Photos. When storage space is needed, only space-saving (optimised) 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. Find out 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 50 GB for $0.99 (USD) a month, and you can purchase additional storage directly from your Apple device. Find out more about the prices in your region.

Optimise Storage

Click the Optimise button to save space by automatically removing films and TV programmes you've watched. When storage space is needed, films or TV programmes that you've purchased from Apple and have already watched will be removed from your Mac. Click the download icon next to a film or TV programme to download it again.

Your Mac will also save space by only keeping recent email attachments on this Mac when storage space is needed. You can manually download any attachments at any time by opening the email or attachment, or saving the attachment to your Mac.

Optimising storage for films, TV programmes and email attachments doesn't require iCloud storage space.

Empty Bin Automatically

Empty Bin Automatically permanently deletes files that have been in the Bin for more than 30 days.

Reduce Clutter

Reduce Clutter helps you identify large files and files you may no longer need. Click the Review Files button and then choose any of the file categories in the sidebar, such as Applications, Documents, Music Creation or Bin.

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.

Find out how to re-download apps, music, films, TV programmes 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 these settings directly within each app.

• If you're using macOS Catalina or later, choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, click Apple ID, and then select iCloud in the sidebar: Store in iCloud turns on the Optimise Mac Storage setting on the right. To turn off iCloud Drive entirely, deselect iCloud Drive.
• If you're using 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 Optimise Mac Storage settings.
• In Photos, choose Photos > Preferences and then click iCloud. Store in iCloud selects iCloud Photos and Optimise Mac Storage.
• In Messages, choose Messages > Preferences, then click iMessage. Store in iCloud selects Enable Messages in iCloud.

• If you're using macOS Catalina or later, open the Apple TV app, choose TV > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Files. Optimise Storage selects 'Automatically delete watched films and TV programmes'.
• In you're using macOS Mojave or earlier, open iTunes, choose iTunes > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Advanced. Optimise Storage selects 'Automatically delete watched films and TV programmes'.
• In Mail, choose Mail > Preferences from the menu bar and then click Accounts. In the Account Information section on the right, Optimise Storage sets the Download Attachments menu to either Recent or None.

Empty Bin Automatically: From the Finder, choose Finder > Preferences, then click Advanced. Empty Bin Automatically selects 'Remove items from the Bin after 30 days'.

Other ways that macOS automatically helps to save space

With macOS Sierra or later, your Mac will take these additional steps automatically 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 Optimised Storage features described in this article, you can take other steps to make more storage space available:

• Music, films and other media can use a lot of storage space. Find out how to delete music, films and TV programmes from your device.
• Delete other files that you no longer need by moving them to the Bin, then emptying the Bin. The Downloads folder is good place to look for files that you may 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 Deleted Items mailbox, choose Mailbox > Erase Deleted Items.

Learn more

• The Storage pane of About This Mac is the best way to determine the amount of storage space available on your Mac. Disk Utility and other apps may show storage categories, such as Not Mounted, VM, Recovery, Other Volumes, Free or Purgeable. Don't rely on these categories to understand how to free up storage space or how much storage space is available for your data.
• 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 only frees up the space required by any data that 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 Optimise Mac Storage, find out how to make sure your projects are always on your Mac and able to access their files.

If you have run out of storage space in your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro with Retina display, don't cry over your paltry 128GB drive or marginal 256GB of built-in flash-based storage just yet — you have a few cool ways to increase storage that don't include choosing a new MacBook Pro with more storage.

Before you choose your storage upgrade method, I always advise MacBook users to delete or offload large files they don't really need.

How to Save Space on a MacBook

Start by spending a few hours going through your Photos library and deleting those extra photos and video from your birthday party three years ago — do you really need three dozen birthday photos? Probably not. Pick a few good ones and delete the rest.

Next, delete any iTunes TV shows or movies you don't plan on watching any time soon. Why? As part of your Apple iTunes account, nearly all of this purchased content can be downloaded again if you plan to binge on a series or go on a road trip. The last time I did this, I trimmed out 54GB of video — and it's all waiting for me on some Apple server, ready to be downloaded again if I need it.

There is one more big storage win you need to know about: iOS device backups. If you backup your iPhone or iPad on your MacBook, go into iTunes, open Preferences, then select Devices. You'll see a list of device backups. Delete any old, unneeded backups from older iPhones. As I typed this last sentence, I just deleted an old iPhone 5 backup and gained 7GB of space. This method only gets more useful as you upgrade your iPhones and/or iPads.

Now that you've done a little MacBook storage housekeeping, you'll have a better idea how dire your storage needs really are, which will help you choose from your storage upgrade options below. Of course, to be fair, there is only one real storage 'upgrade' and that's number one on the list. Why? The rest are more technically workarounds that add storage to solve your storage needs in relatively simple ways.

5 Easy MacBook Air and Pro Storage Upgrades

1. Upgrade the Internal MacBook Drive

If you have a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro with Retina display, the internal solid state drives are glued into the case. A handful of older models are user upgradable through some handy kits, and if you have one of these MacBooks, this kind of upgrade will give you the best overall performance and ease-of-use.

To learn if you have a MacBook that has an SSD drive that you can upgrade yourself, check out, 'How to Upgrade Your MacBook Air SSD,' or 'How to Upgrade Your Retina MacBook Pro SSD Drive.'

If you have have a non-Retina 13-inch MacBook Pro, your storage upgrade is super easy: Check out, 'How to Upgrade Your MacBook Pro with a Solid State Drive (SSD).'

2. Use the SDXC Card Slot

The 13-inch MacBook Air and MacBook Pros all have SDXC card slots, which are used to make loading photos and video from cameras easy. Even if you use your SDXC card slot for this purpose, you don't have to — many cameras can connect directly through USB, or you can pick up a USB-based card reader. So how do you use an SDXC card slot for your storage upgrade?

You can easily add storage to a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro with Retina display with an SDXC card slot drive option like the TarDisk Pear system.

You have two basic choices, both of which cram up to 256GB of flash-based storage into what is essentially a tiny memory card that has been cut down to fit flush against the side of your MacBook. The first way is to use this card much like a tiny USB thumb drive — the drive will show up on your MacBook's screen just as if you inserted a thumb drive or attached an external drive. You can drag and drop files onto the drive — or even move your iTunes library over to it. It's very easy, but it also requires you to pay just a bit of attention to where you're storing files. Check out the Transcend JetDrive Lite series.

The second option is semi-permanent but it's also more seamless: The TarDisk Pear system bundles a slim aluminum flash-based memory card with an easy-to-use installation program that 'fuses' your new storage with the built-in storage on your MacBook. This results in a drive that appears to be one single unified drive, and your MacBook stores your files and programs so that your most-used materials end up on your faster built-in drive.

The downside? If you want to remove the TarDisk, you'll have to walk through an unpairing process. As a near-permanent solution, though, the TarDisk is incredibly easy to install and results in a more seamless experience than other SDXC-based options.

3. Use a USB 3.0 Thumb Drive

Some MacBook lovers will be able to use a relatively fast USB 3.0 'thumb drive.' These little sticks have gotten smaller over the years, making them not only portable – but relatively unobtrusive when they stick out of the side of your MacBook. These affordable drives are dirt-simple and durable, and you can slip them into most every other Mac or PC and get access to your files, depending on what you're storing, of course. The downside is that they are easy to remove, and if you don't intentionally 'eject' the drive first, you could experience some data loss. So, again, as a storage upgrade solution, you have to pay attention to what files you're storing on these drives — and pay attention to when you're going to insert or remove them.

Check out the SanDisk Ultra Fit 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive — it's a tiny drive that you could leave in your USB port all the time.

4. Use an External Hard Drive

External hard drives are bulky ways to add storage to a mobile MacBook — but they are cost-effective.

If you tend to use your MacBook on a desk, you can get a full-size external hard drive, some of which are small and rugged enough to travel with if you needed to. I recommend bus-powered drives so that you don't need an extra power cable, and USB 3.0 drives are capable enough for most everyone. If you have a MacBook Air or Pro with a Thunderbolt port, you can get a Thunderbolt-based drive, but USB 3.0 drives are usually more cost-effective. In addition, if you have a truly massive photo or video library, external storage is by far the most cost-effective way to save it.

Again, the downside here is that you have to pay attention to how you use your external drive — and, of course, remember to back it up, too.

How Do You Get More Storage On Your Macbook Air Force

Need a recommendation? I like the Seagate Backup Plus Slim 1TB Portable External Hard Drive for Mac.

5. Use an Online Cloud Service

TarDisk is an easy integrated storage upgrade for MacBook Air and MacBook Pro: Use code WICKEDDISCOUNT to get 10% off today.

Apple, Dropbox, Microsoft, and Google all offer online storage options, but if you're reading this article, you need a lot of storage space, which will usually cost you a monthly fee — but not always. If you're only storing photos and home video, you can use Google Photos free — unless you're shooting photos that are more than 16 megapixels, in which case you'll pay $2-10 per month for 100GB to 1TB of data. The free option is a great deal, but Google also mines your photos for data, which it then uses to make it services better — and to serve up ads to you. Google has the ability to scan photos and make judgements based on the content of your photos, in addition to reading the metadata in your photos, which provides time and GPS-based location stamps from when and where your took them.

Apple's iCloud service, on the other hand, treats you as a customer, and Apple seems to be a company that would prefer to not Best video maker software for pc free download. know so much about you, nor collect as much data about you — but you'll pay for this: 50GB of iCloud space is $1 per month, 200GB is $3, and 1TB is $10. These prices are pretty reasonable, and Photos and iCloud have the ability to place compressed files on your devices, helping you save some space on your MacBook or iPhone.

Use Caution with the Cloud

However, all of these cloud services come with risks beyond the monthly costs: Your usernames and passwords need to be secure, and hopefully no one will ever want to hack or use social engineering to compromise your online accounts. If you forget your password and/or lose your iPhone, good luck working through the bureaucracy of these behemoth companies to regain access to your precious photos and data: For example, if you lose your keys to your house, you can always break the door down to get access to your stuff — not so with cloud services. Cloud services for individuals don't play well with the challenges of life faced by everyday consumers. On the flip side, cloud services can provide an off-site backup for you, which is handy in case of natural disasters or fires.

Personally, I'm a fan of storage devices and upgrades that I can directly control and access in person, which is why I recommend hardware solutions most often.

Get the Gear:

MacBook Air SSD Drives:

MacBook Pro with Retina SSD Drives:

How Do You Get More Storage On Your Macbook Air Wirelessly

Non-Retina MacBook Pro SSD Drive:

SDXC Card Drives:*

How Do You Get More Storage On Your Macbook Air Pro

Small USB 3.0 Thumb Drives:

External Drives:

* Of course, if you use your SDXC card slot for loading photos, you can pick up a small USB-based card reader like the Kingston Digital MobileLite G4 Card Reader to easily load photos and video off of your SD camera cards through a USB port.