🧹 Mac Storage Hog Audit – README

This document lists potential storage occupiers on macOS. These are common folders, files, caches, and apps that may consume a significant amount of disk space over time.

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🧑‍💻 For Developers

📦 Node.js / JavaScript

• /node_modules/ (inside projects)
• ~/.npm/ (NPM cache)
• ~/.yarn/ (Yarn cache)
• ~/.pnpm-store/ (PNPM cache)
• ~/.nvm/versions/ (Node versions if using NVM)
• Global NPM modules: npm list -g

🐍 Python

• ~/.virtualenvs/ (virtual environments - if using virtualenv or pipenv)
• ~/anaconda3/ (if using Anaconda)
• ~/miniconda3/
• __pycache__/ folders in Python projects
• Jupyter cache and notebooks

🐳 Docker

• Docker images, containers, and volumes
• ~/Library/Containers/com.docker.docker/
• Docker Desktop's internal disk

🧪 Xcode & Dev Tools

• ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/
• ~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/
• ~/Library/Developer/XCPGDevices/
• ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.dt.Xcode/
• iOS Device backups

⚙️ Homebrew

• /usr/local/Cellar/
• /opt/homebrew/Cellar/ (Apple Silicon)
• /Library/Caches/Homebrew/

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🌐 General Caches & Temp Files

🌐 Web Browsers

• Chrome: ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/
• Safari: ~/Library/Safari/ and ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/
• Firefox: ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/
• Web Worker storage (e.g. YouTube): ~/Library/Caches/com.google.Chrome/Default/Service Worker/

💬 Messaging & Collaboration Tools

• Slack: ~/Library/Application Support/Slack/
• Discord: ~/Library/Application Support/discord/
• Microsoft Teams, Zoom, etc.

💌 Mail

• ~/Library/Mail/
• ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/
• Mail attachments and old messages

📩 Downloads Folder

• ~/Downloads/ – common for videos, installers, and large files

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📦 System, Apps & Misc

🗑 Trash

• ~/.Trash/

📁 Large Files

• Use Finder → Cmd + F → Filter by File Size and Kind

📂 "Other" Storage in Disk Usage

• App extensions
• Application support data
• Fonts, logs, old updates

🧾 Log Files

• ~/Library/Logs/
• /Library/Logs/

💿 Time Machine Local Snapshots

• /Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/

💡 Spotlight Index

• /var/folders/ – includes caches, index databases, etc.

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🎬 Media & Creative Software

🎵 iTunes / Music

• ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/

🎥 iMovie / Final Cut Pro

• Render files, libraries, and caches

📸 Photos

• ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/

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🧰 System Tools & Others

🧮 Virtualization

• Parallels, VMWare, VirtualBox images (huge disk files)

⌨️ Emulators & IDEs

• Android Studio: ~/Library/Android/sdk/
• VSCode extensions: ~/.vscode/
• IntelliJ, PyCharm caches

🧱 Design Tools

• Figma, Sketch, Adobe caches and projects

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📂 Common Folders to Inspect

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This list gives you a holistic view of what might be bloating your Mac. It’s great for building a cleanup script, audit tool, or even a GUI app for end users and developers alike.