How to See What’s Using Disk Space on Mac (Treemap + Large Folders)

macOS System Settings → General → Storage shows high-level categories, but “System Data” and “Other” rarely tell you which folders are responsible. When you need to reclaim space quickly, you need a folder-by-folder view.

Why the Built-in Storage View Is Not Enough

Apple’s categories are useful for a quick sense of scale. They do not show:

Which subfolder inside ~/Library is huge.
Whether a single project or a .git folder dominates.
How space is split across external volumes.

A treemap solves this by drawing every folder as a rectangle proportional to its size. Large folders are impossible to miss.

What Is a Treemap?

A treemap is a visualization where:

The area of each block represents disk usage.
Nested folders appear as subdivisions inside their parent.
You can drill down from “Macintosh HD” to a specific project or cache.

NythyCleaner’s Disk Space feature provides an interactive treemap so you can navigate the filesystem without guessing paths in Terminal.

What to Look For First

Once you can see folder sizes clearly, prioritize:

Caches — ~/Library/Caches and app-specific caches (often safe to clear).
Developer tools — Xcode DerivedData, simulators (see clean Xcode caches).
Downloads — old installers and archives.
Cloud sync — local copies of large cloud folders.
Duplicates — similar photos and videos (see find duplicate files).

Terminal Alternative (Power Users)

Commands like du -sh * help in a single directory but become tedious across the whole disk. A treemap replaces hundreds of manual commands with one visual map.

Using NythyCleaner Disk Space

Select the volume (internal or external).
Run a scan; wait for the treemap to finish.
Click large blocks to descend into folders.
Decide whether to delete, move, or clean in place using other NythyCleaner tools.

Summary

Seeing what uses disk space on Mac is the first step to any cleanup. A treemap turns vague “System Data” numbers into actionable paths—and NythyCleaner is built to make that exploration fast and visual.