How to Delete Mail Storage on Mac – Free Up Space in Minutes

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  • Updated on September 4th, 2025

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During regular use of their Mac, a user experienced slower performance, with applications taking longer to respond. They discovered that the Mail app is using a large amount of storage space. As a result, they start exploring how to delete mail storage on Mac. Our article covers deleting emails with Apple’s native tools and using a professional Cigati iCloud Backup Tool to efficiently back up emails. Now, let’s start with the blog without wasting any time.

Check Mail Storage on Mac 

Below, we have listed two processes to view the Mail storage on macOS. First, it is for viewing the storage in the Apple system, and second, in the Mail app. 

  1. Using “About This Mac”
  1. In the top-left corner, click on the Apple Menu icon.
  2. After that, select About This Mac and navigate to the Storage tab.
  3. Wait for a few minutes and then check the Mail section storage.
  1. Via the Mail App 
  1. To start with, launch the Mail app.
  2. Ensure all your email accounts are connected to it.
  3. Now, click on Mailbox and then press Get Account Info.
  4. After that, choose the mailbox you want to inspect for storage.

Reasons to Reduce Mail Storage on Mac

  • By clearing the old mail data, one can reclaim valuable storage on a Mac.
  • Too many old attachments and duplicate messages may cause glitches and syncing errors. 
  • By deleting the mail storage, users reduce the chances of exposing personal information.
  • A large mail storage takes up a lot of space in iCloud backups. Clearing it saves the cloud storage. 

How to Delete Mail Storage on Mac?

Now, review the following techniques and look at what works best for you. The following section illustrates various techniques to reduce the mail storage on Mac. 

Technique 01: Delete Email Attachments

The email attachments are automatically downloaded on your Mac. To make space for more storage, users often choose to clear mail storage on Mac. Large attachments like a video, image, or anything can consume a lot of storage space.

Follow these steps to start deleting the attachments:

  1. On your Mac, open the Mail application.
  2. Now, browse and search the emails with large attachments.
  3. After that, select the email with the attachment that you want to delete.
  4. Then, go to Message > Remove Attachments.

Technique 02: Empty Junk and Trash Folders

Delete Mail storage on Mac to free up space by permanently deleting them. Simply moving emails to the Junk or Trash folder will not delete them from the mail storage. They still occupy the storage space on your Mac. 

These are the steps to permanently delete them:

  1. In the Mail app, click on the Mailbox and tap Erase Junk Mail.
  2. Next, head to the Mailbox and press Erase Deleted Items
  3. This will permanently delete both emails and attachments, and free up the storage space.

Technique 03: Change the Mail Attachments Settings 

Make sure to adjust the settings for downloading the type of email attachments, like .zip files, spreadsheets, videos, etc. These settings help free up Mail storage on Mac.

Use the following instructions to modify the settings:

  1. First, launch the Mail app.
  2. Then, navigate to Mail > Settings.
  3. Afterward, go to the Accounts tab and choose the desired account.
  4. Next, choose the Download Attachments dropdown to pick the desired option:
  • All: Download these types of attachments.
  • None: Never download these types of attachments.
  • Recent: Download these attachments in the last 15 months. 

Technique 04: Optimize Mac Storage

The built-in features in macOS will automatically manage the mail storage without deleting the emails permanently. This process does not permanently remove the attachments. Also, it removes the older attachments and keeps the recent ones.

The following are the steps to begin the process:

  1. In the top-left corner of your Mac system, click on the Apple menu icon.
  2. After that, select System Settings > General > Storage.
  3. Next, look for Optimize Storage and turn it ON.

Technique 05: Efficient Solution to Backup iCloud Emails

How to delete Mail storage on Mac? With the Cigati iCloud Backup Tool, users can back up emails and then delete them to reduce the mail storage. It is a perfect solution to protect, organize, and manage the emails. The tool allows users to export emails to multiple file formats compatible with different email clients. Also, users have the option to download the emails with or without attachments. Moreover, it supports backing up single emails or entire mailboxes, along with a date-range filter for selective backup. 

Quick and simple steps to begin:

  1. Download and execute the backup software on your computer.
  2. After that, choose from Single Mode or Batch Mode.
  3. Then, enter your iCloud email account credentials to Sign In
  4. Next, pick the mailbox folders that you want to backup and tap Next.
  5. Now, choose the desired saving format in which you want to store the backup. 
  6. Finally, apply the filters, set the destination path, and click on Convert.

Conclusion

The above blog has perfectly answered the user’s question: how to delete Mail storage on Mac. Also, deleting the Mail storage offers several advantages that are listed in the blog. Techniques like deleting email attachments, emptying trash, and junk folders are helpful. But these involve manual steps and take time. In contrast, the automated Cigati iCloud Backup Tool offers a much easier approach to reducing the mail storage. Both businesses and individual users find this tool to be the most efficient solution.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I remove large attachments without deleting emails on Mac?

Ans: First, open the desired email with the attachment, right-click on it, and choose the Remove Attachment option. The email still stays on the server, but the attachment is deleted, freeing up the storage space.

Q: Is there a way to delete all attachments from Mail at once?

Ans: Go to the Mail app and open it. Then, in the search bar, type has:attachment and select the emails by holding Command. Next, go to Message > Remove Attachments.

About The Author:

Rohit Singh is an Email Backup, Recovery & Migration Consultant and is associated with Software Company from the last 3 years. He writes technical updates and their features related to MS Outlook, Exchange Server, Office 365, and many other Email Clients & Servers.

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