CleanWhat to do with heavy podcast videos on your Mac
Every video-podcast episode produces the full episode (almost 1 GB), the raw camera footage and 10–20 clips for social. On a real Mac, 6 episodes took more than 9 GB in Downloads alone.
Before deleting: the 3-question rule
Your files: review1. Do I have a copy somewhere else? An external drive or the cloud, not just YouTube. 2. Does the copy open? Play it for a moment. 3. Have I published everything that comes out of this video? Check the clips still waiting "to upload".
YouTube is not a backup: it recompresses your video and lowers the quality. If you ever need to re-edit, you need the original file.
One folder per episode
Use one folder per episode with three subfolders: raw, final and clips. Once everything is published, move the whole folder to your backup. That way you never delete a clip you hadn't posted.
Find all your large videos
This command lists videos over 100 MB in your personal folders:
find ~/Downloads ~/Movies ~/Desktop -type f \( -iname '*.mp4' -o -iname '*.mov' \) -size +100M -exec du -h {} + | sort -rhClear your editor's cache too
SafeAfter exporting, your editor keeps copies. Check the CapCut or Final Cut guide: it's usually several more GB.
FAQ
Should I keep my videos in iCloud?
For large videos an external SSD is better: faster, cheaper per GB and it doesn't depend on your internet connection.
Keep reading
How to clear the CapCut cache on Mac
Where CapCut stores its cache on Mac, how big it can get and how to clear it without losing your projects.
How to free up space in Final Cut Pro (render, proxy and optimized media)
Delete the generated files in your Final Cut Pro libraries and reclaim tens of GB without touching your original footage.
Why deleting iCloud files doesn't free up space (and can delete them everywhere)
iCloud files that aren't downloaded take 0 bytes on your drive. Deleting them frees nothing and removes them from all your devices.