dispatch / how-i-freed-163gb
How I Freed 163 GB in One Afternoon
A practical breakdown of the Mac cleanup that reclaimed roughly 163 GB from caches, stale builds, abandoned apps, and one heroic GTA V experiment.
The Crime Scene
Preetham's MacBook Air was not full. It was being held hostage.
| Item | Size | |------|------| | CrossOver app + data | ~120 GB | | Claude app data | ~10 GB | | npm cache and residuals | ~17 GB | | Xcode DerivedData | ~6.9 GB | | User temp files | ~4.7 GB | | Homebrew cache | ~1.9 GB | | pip cache | ~1.1 GB | | Browser caches | ~1.9 GB | | Logs and /var/tmp | ~725 MB |
Total reclaimed: roughly 163 GB.
The CrossOver Situation
The M3 MacBook Air is a very capable machine. The problem was not the chip; the problem was trying to run a Windows x86 DirectX 11 game through layers of compatibility and translation on macOS/ARM.
The hardware had spirit. The software stack had drama.
What Was Safe to Remove
npm Cache
npm cache clean --force, plus residual _npx and _prebuilds cleanup.
Xcode DerivedData
Xcode rebuilds DerivedData automatically. Deleting stale build products is usually safe and often very effective.
Homebrew and pip Caches
Download caches, old bottles, and package artifacts. Useful once, then freeloaders.
Browser Caches, Temp Files, Logs
Caches and temp directories are supposed to be temporary. Some software apparently missed that memo.
Lessons
- Caches grow silently.
- Abandoned apps become storage vampires.
- Developer tooling can quietly consume tens of gigabytes.
- Cleanup should be boring, repeatable, and checked before destructive deletes.
Takeaway
A Mac cleanup does not need to be reckless. Inventory first, identify safe targets, confirm destructive actions, and verify the reclaimed space afterward.