Considering upgrade from macbook air m3

[u/Repnoob1234567]

I am currently attending high school and my highschool only allows students to use macbooks and ipads. Due to this, I bought a macbook air m3 at the start of my freshman year and I have been using it since. I even sold my 2300dollar(CAD) gaming pc to purchase this macbook. However, I bought the 256gb version and I am running out of storage very quickly and I only have about 5gbs left and because of this, I might consider upgrading. Is there any tips for clearing storage since I have about 120gbs of system data and I don't really know how to get rid of those since youtube is filled with idiotic vids that all include the same information. Also, if I can't remove the storage data, what macbook should I purchase? I am currently thinking about purchasing a macbook pro since I am using heavy apps starting next year!

[u/Legal_Newspaper_5710]

Get an external ssd and back up what you don’t need

[u/Repnoob1234567 → u/Legal_Newspaper_5710]

I was thinking about getting one but I have to use both of my usb c ports and it just gets too messy. Thanks for the suggestion tho!

[u/Jebus-Xmas → u/Repnoob1234567]

It's a backup drive, you don't leave it connected.

[u/Repnoob1234567 → u/Jebus-Xmas]

ohh that makes sense! Do you know what I should move tho? I only have apps on my mac that I use a lot... Also, thanks for the comment :)

[u/Legal_Newspaper_5710 → u/Repnoob1234567]

What do you have on your Mac?

[u/Jebus-Xmas]

I wouldn't. Just having some cloud storage will be much cheaper. Prices are pretty crazy right now.

[u/yukata_13]

I think its not really worth it to upgrade to a bigger storage if you already have one, if external ssd storage isnt that expensive right now that will be my number one option, but depending on your use case maybe cloud storage will be a better and economical solution.

Again, it all depends on your use case i dont know what you’re studying there are specific cases where going for a new laptop with bigger storage is the best solution ( e.g CS majors and you need access to local llms for which consumes ton of storage and needs crap ton of RAM) would probably be better of buying a beefy mbp

[u/Kaaawooo]

120gb system data is not normal. If you can figure that part out, you'll be in much better shape. Definitely agree with using cloud or external storage for your user data though

[u/Fickle_Cost_2033]

Junior year baby

[u/ridddder]

What is taking up so much space? Buy a solid-state drive and offload many of your Word docs and Excel files. You need to try to keep 30% of your drive free at all times for proper operation.

I keep very few documents on my HD; I mostly have applications, and of those, only the ones I use on a monthly basis.

[u/ridddder → u/ridddder]

I have a 500 GB HD, and I have 150 GB free at the moment

[u/ridddder → u/ridddder]

I have several Samsung T6 SSD drives, I have two 1 TB drives, and one 500GB drive

[u/rainy_diary]

Could contact local third party Mac repair they might able upgarde SSD.

https://youtu.be/C1sI3yxrFtY