Cleaning Up Disk Space on macOS

As a developer, I'm sure you're familiar with the feeling of running out of disk space on your mac. It's frustrating and can even slow down your computer. In this article, I'll share some tips on how to clean up disk space on your mac, specifically focusing on cleaning up Xcode simulators and cached data.

Clearing Xcode Simulators

One of the most significant consumers of disk space is Xcode simulators. Every time you create and launch a new simulator in XCode, more than 500 Mb are allocated to it. Over time, this can add up and take up a lot of space on your hard drive.

To clean up Xcode simulators, simply navigate to `~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices` and delete all the data of the builds you made in it. You can easily add back the simulators you use most frequently.

Clearing Cached Data

Another way to free up disk space is by clearing cached data. This includes cleaning up code that's cached when building your iOS apps.

One useful tool for this is a CLI tool called `rn-game-over`. It's also useful for day-to-day React Native work when you have issues with your cache. To use it, simply install it and then run the command to clean your iOS cache: `rn-game-over`.

Using the `find` Utility

Another useful utility is the `find` command. It recursively descends the directory tree for each path listed and can be used to find what files and folders are taking up space on your machine.

For example, you can use the following bash command to list the files with their sizes associated sorted from the biggest one to the smallest one in the current directory:

```

find . -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -type d -exec du -hs + | sort -r -h

```

By following these tips, you can free up a significant amount of disk space on your mac. Remember to always use a version control system for your code and be sure to back up your important files before cleaning up cached data.

Try out these tips today and see how much disk space you can free up!

Macos cleanup disk space