How to Check Storage Usage on Mac for Mail
Before you delete mail from Mac, it's important to first check how much space the email app is using to see if it's necessary. Keep in mind this includes messages, attachments, deleted emails, and the Apple Mail Archive folders for your accounts.
How to View the Mail App Storage on Mac
First, you can view the amount of storage the Mail app uses on your Mac in just a few steps.
- Open the System Settings with the Apple icon in the menu bar or the icon in your Dock.
- Select General on the left and Storage on the right.
- Scroll down until you see Mail. You’ll see the storage amount used to the right and can click the Info icon for a larger view.
How to View the iCloud Storage for Mail
Next, you can also easily see the amount of iCloud storage used by the Mail app.
- Open the System Settings with the Apple icon in the menu bar or icon in your Dock.
- Select your Apple ID on the left and iCloud on the right.
- Click Manage next to Account Storage at the top.
- Scroll down the Account Storage window until you see Mail. You’ll see the storage amount used directly beneath and can select Mail for a larger view.
So now you may be wondering, “why is Mail using so much storage on Mac?” From deleted emails to junk messages to email attachments, the app’s storage can fill up quickly.
Let’s look at how to delete Apple Mail storage to free up space on Mac.
How to Clear Mail Storage on Mac
You can empty the Trash, erase Junk, and remove attachments to delete Mac Mail storage. We’ll walk you through these methods as well as how to adjust the attachment settings to keep your storage manageable.
You’ll also learn how Clean Email can help you do all of this and more, with less manual work.
How to Empty Trash in Mail on Mac
One of the easiest ways to clear email storage on Mac is by emptying the Trash. This is the folder that holds your recently deleted emails which can consume plenty of space. While you’re at it, you can delete the messages in the Junk folder too.
📌 Tip: Before you empty the Trash folder, look at how to delete multiple emails on Mac and how to delete all iCloud emails so you don’t have to clear out the Trash twice.
- To empty the Trash, open the Mail app and select Mailbox → Erase Deleted Items.
- You can then choose In All Accounts or a specific account.
- Pick Erase to confirm and note that this permanently removes those messages.
To delete items in the Junk folder, select Mailbox → Erase Junk Mail and confirm. Again, this removes those messages for good, so be sure you’re ready to delete them before clicking Erase.
How to Delete Mail on Mac with Clean Email
Clean Email is an inbox cleaner app that can help you clean out thousands of unwanted emails in a matter of seconds. With Cleaning Suggestions, Auto Clean, and the ability to delete emails in bulk using Smart Folders, let’s look at how to clear mail storage on Mac using Clean Email.
Cleaning Suggestions
Clean Email provides you with recommendations for sending messages to the Trash, Archive, or marking them as Spam. What’s nice about these suggestions is that you can take action on multiple emails at once.
Select Suggestions in the left-hand menu and then perform a recommended action on a group of emails.
Auto Clean
With Auto Clean, you can set up rules to automatically clean up your mailbox rather than taking the time to do it manually.
- Select Auto Clean in the left-hand menu and then Create Rule or the plus sign on the right.
- Add the conditions for the messages such as from a certain sender, domain, within a timeframe, or large mail.
- Choose an action for the messages that meet those conditions like Trash, Archive, or Delete.
- Optionally turn on Apply to existing messages and click Create Rule.
Then, sit back and let Auto Clean keep your mailbox tidy and your storage under control.
💡 Note: the Trash action moves your messages to the Trash folder that contains your deleted items and allows you to recover them, whereas Delete permanently removes the messages, and they can’t be restored.
Smart Folders
Clean Email uses 33 pre-made filters to automatically sort emails into Smart Folders. For instance, you can see all travel, food delivery, and online shopping emails in their same-named folders. You can then do a sweep of the folder to remove messages in bulk.
Expand Smart Folders in the left-hand menu and select a folder.
- To delete an email group, choose Trash on the right.
- To delete multiple email groups, choose Select at the top and then mark the message bundles, or pick Select All. Then, click Trash at the bottom.
How to Delete Mail Attachments on Mac
You can delete email attachments you receive for individual messages in Mail or using Finder on your Mac.
In Mail
For an individual email, select Message → Remove Attachments in the menu bar. For IMAP accounts, be sure to save the attachment first because it cannot be retrieved.
💡 Note: If you delete an email, this also deletes the attachment.
In Finder
- With Finder active, select Go → Go to Folder.
- Enter the following path into the pop-up window and press Return: ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Mail Downloads/
- You’ll see the Mail Downloads folder open with subfolders containing email attachments you can review.
- To remove those you no longer need, drag them to the Trash or right-click and choose Move to Trash.
How to Change the Mail Attachment Settings
When you receive a message with a media item like a PDF file, video, or image, that file automatically downloads to your Mac. But you can adjust the settings for downloading other types of email attachments like ZIP files, spreadsheets, or text files.
- Open the Mail app and select Mail → Settings in the menu bar.
- Go to the Accounts tab.
- Choose an account on the left and use the Download Attachments drop-down box to pick an option:
- All: Always download these types of attachments.
- None: Never download these types of attachments.
- Recent: Download these types of attachments received in the last 15 months.
- Repeat these steps for your other connected email accounts.
Warning: Deleting the Mail App on Mac
You may be tempted to uninstall the Mail app to remove mail storage from Mac, especially if it consumes too much storage space and you plan to use a different email service anyway.
Not only is it challenging to delete the Mail app on macOS, but it is not recommended!
Removing the app from your Mac does not delete the data associated with it. For example, items such as attachments are stored separately and can be found using Finder as explained above. Plus, you cannot easily restore the app; you’ll need to reinstall macOS to use Apple Mail again.
Instead, use the suggestions listed here as well as Clean Email for a supplemental solution to clear and control your email storage.Optimizing Mac Email Management with Clean Email
Along with the above-mentioned features, Clean Email offers even more tools for effectively managing email on Mac in addition to your mobile device.
Unsubscriber: Easily unsubscribe from newsletters and promotional emails you no longer want. With Unsubscriber, you can remove yourself from multiple mailing lists with a click.
Screener: Stop spam and junk from reaching your inbox. With Screener, messages you receive from unknown senders are held in a separate spot until you review them.
Privacy and Security: Clean Email is committed to your privacy and security, doesn’t keep, sell, or analyze your data, and never downloads full emails or attachments. Your data is only used for the features.
For a complete email management package on your Mac, iPhone, and iPad, check out Clean Email for free. You can explore and enjoy all premium features on your devices during the trial period.
Wrap-Up
Before your mailbox is full and you struggle to clean it up, see how much storage Mail is consuming and do a bit of maintenance. And keep in mind that if you want the best mail organizer for Mac that can help you with advanced tools and automations, Clean Email is the way to go.
Now that you know how to remove Mail storage from Mac, are you ready to get to work?
How to Delete Mail Storage on Mac - FAQs
Do emails take up storage?
YES, emails take up storage, especially if they contain large attachments. If you get many emails or newsletters, they use more space. Attachments in emails also add to the space used. It's a good idea to regularly clean your email or let Clean Email help manage it for you.
Does archiving emails save space?
Archiving emails moves them out of your inbox but DOES NOT save space on your Mac, as they are still stored locally or on the email server.
Why is mail using so much storage on Mac?
Whenever you receive an attachment through email, it is automatically saved on your Mac when you open it. This attachment can be documents, video files, and even the logo and signature images attached to marketing newsletters.
How to get rid of mail storage on Mac?
To reduce email storage on a Mac, delete unnecessary emails and attachments, and empty the Trash within your Mail app. Consider archiving emails externally if needed.
How to uninstall Mail on Mac?
Ideally, Apple doesn't allow you to delete the Mail app. However, you can either use a third-party app to have it uninstalled or do so by disabling the system integrity protection.
