CleanMyMac by MacPaw has published its Q2 2026 macOS Report, “Five Findings From One Million Macs,” drawn from anonymized data across more than one million Macs between April and June 2026.
It maps where reclaimable storage really comes from and how maintenance is becoming routine. One finding stands out: Mac users cleared 46 petabytes of invisible data in a single quarter, files created by the system and apps rather than anything users chose to keep.
A few more findings:
- Temporary system data alone made up nearly 6 petabytes of that total.
- Users removed 26.5 million forgotten or duplicate files over the quarter.
- More than 2.3 billion browser privacy records had accumulated, led by Safari at 355 million.
This invisible data also has a physical cost and a carbon footprint: stored files sit on powered, cooled hardware whether anyone opens them or not, and keeping 1 TB in the cloud for a year uses roughly 40 to 70 kWh, according to MacPaw. In earlier CleanMyMac’s Earth Day survey, 7 in 10 US Mac users said they would clean up more often if they knew that environmental cost.
The full report includes practical takeaways with the central insight across both reports — awareness drives action, and we rarely give much thought to the clutter we can’t see.
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Article provided with permission from AppleWorld.Today
