Delete Old User Accounts on Mac to Free Space

Every user account on your Mac keeps a complete home folder on disk — Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Photos library, caches, the lot. An account nobody has logged into for two years can easily be sitting on 50 GB. Deleting it takes two minutes; the only decision that matters is what happens to its files.

First, see how much space old accounts are using

Before deleting anything, check whether it's worth it. In Terminal:

# Size of every home folder (read-only — changes nothing)
sudo du -sh /Users/*

You'll be asked for your admin password, and Terminal may need Full Disk Access (System Settings → Privacy & Security) to read other users' folders completely. Prefer the point-and-click route? Open Macintosh HD → Users in Finder, select a home folder, and press Cmd+I for Get Info — the size appears after a moment.

Delete the account

You need to be logged in as an administrator, and the account you're deleting must be logged out — you also can't delete the account you're currently using. The path is the same on macOS 13 Ventura, 14 Sonoma, and 15 Sequoia:

1. Open System Settings → Users & Groups.
2. Click the ⓘ (info) button next to the account you want to remove.
3. Click Delete Account… and authenticate with your admin password when prompted.
4. Choose what happens to the home folder (see below), then click Delete Account to confirm.

The three home-folder options, and which to pick

• Save the home folder in a disk image — macOS packs everything into a .dmg file in /Users/Deleted Users. Safest choice, but note: it frees no space until you later delete that image, and the archiving itself can take a long time for big folders.
• Don't change the home folder — the account disappears from login, but the folder stays in /Users with "(Deleted)" appended. Useful when you want to pull a few files out first, then trash the rest by hand. No space reclaimed yet.
• Delete the home folder — everything goes immediately and the space is freed. There is no undo for this one: once confirmed, the files are gone unless they exist in a Time Machine or other backup. Check the account for anything worth keeping before you click.

If the goal is reclaiming disk space and you're sure nothing in the account matters, the third option is the honest choice — the disk-image route just moves the problem into a different folder. A reasonable middle path: pick the disk-image option now, copy the .dmg to an external drive, and delete it from /Users/Deleted Users once the copy is verified. You get the space back and keep a recoverable archive.

Check for leftovers afterward

Open /Users in Finder (Go → Go to Folder, type /Users) and look for a Deleted Users folder — that's where saved disk images from past deletions accumulate, and they're often forgotten. Also glance at the Shared folder, which survives account deletion and can hold files the old user parked there. Anything you delete from these locations goes to the Trash, so empty it to actually get the space back.

Keep hunting for space

Old accounts are usually just one of several space hogs. Once they're gone, run through what's actually taking up space on your Mac to find the rest — old iPhone backups and forgotten installers tend to be next on the list.