How to Find Large Files on a Mac

Updated 2026-09-07 · 3 min read

Before clearing caches or hunting for duplicates, it's worth checking for the fastest win: one enormous file you forgot existed. It's more common than people expect.

Finder: search by size

Open a new Finder window, press Command-F.
Click the "+" to add a search criterion.
Change the first dropdown to File Size, and the second to is greater than.
Enter a threshold, 50 MB is a reasonable starting point.
In the search scope bar, make sure it's set to search This Mac, not just the current folder.

Sort the results by size (View menu, Sort By, Size) and the biggest offenders land at the top. This works and needs no Terminal at all, its main limitation is that Spotlight's index, which powers the search, sometimes skips system directories and deeply nested folders.

Terminal: du and find

To see which top-level folders in your home directory are largest:

du -sh ~/*/ 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -20

That prints the 20 biggest folders directly under your home directory, sorted largest first, which is often enough to spot the guilty one, a Downloads folder that's quietly grown to 40 GB, or a project folder nobody cleaned up.

To find individual files rather than folder totals:

find ~ -type f -size +500M 2>/dev/null

That lists every individual file over 500 MB anywhere under your home directory. Drop the threshold to +50M for a wider net if the first pass doesn't turn up anything.

Where large files hide

Downloads. Installers (.dmg files), especially ones you've already run and no longer need.
Old iPhone backups, if you've ever backed up a phone to this Mac through Finder rather than iCloud. These sit in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup and routinely run 10–30 GB, easy to forget entirely once made.
Movies you edited once and exported multiple versions of, each export a separate multi-gigabyte file.
Virtual machine disk images, if you've ever run Parallels or VMware, these are commonly 20–60 GB single files.
Xcode DerivedData and simulator runtimes, if you develop software. Covered separately in deleting Xcode DerivedData safely.

The honest math On a full disk, one or two forgotten files are frequently a bigger recovery than a week of cache-clearing. Check this first. It's the five-minute step, and it's the one most people skip in favor of the slower, less effective one.

Every file over 50 MB, sorted by size, no Terminal required

CleanMachine's Large Files scan covers your whole home directory and sorts results biggest first, so the forgotten 30 GB backup or export shows up immediately instead of requiring a manual du pass. Free to scan.

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Common questions

How do I find large files on a Mac without Terminal?

Press Command-F in Finder, add a File Size search criterion set to "is greater than" a threshold like 50 MB, set the search scope to This Mac, then sort results by size. This uses Spotlight's index and needs no Terminal commands.

What Terminal command finds large files on a Mac?

find ~ -type f -size +500M lists individual files over the given size anywhere under your home folder. Du -sh ~/*/ | sort -rh shows which top-level folders are largest, which is often faster for spotting the problem area first.

Where do large files usually hide on a Mac?

Downloads (old installers), old iPhone backups made through Finder, exported video files, virtual machine disk images, and for developers, Xcode's DerivedData and simulator runtimes.

Why does one file account for so much storage?

iPhone backups, VM disk images and video exports are all commonly tens of gigabytes in a single file, and easy to forget entirely once created. Checking for these first is often faster than clearing caches.

Keep reading

What Is System Data on Mac?What Is Purgeable Space?Why Macs Slow Down Over Time Safely Deleting Xcode DerivedData Large Files →Mac Storage Full →