We've got two ways to do it: the manual way and the CleanMyMac X way.
How to Clear Log Files on a Mac Manually
- Open Finder and select 'Go to Folder' in the Go menu.
- Type in ~/Library/Logs and hit Enter to proceed to this folder (pay attention to the use of “~” — this will ensure that you’re cleaning user log files, not the system log files).
- Optional step: You can highlight & copy everything to a different folder in case anything goes wrong.
- Select all files and press Command+backspace.
- Restart your Mac.
Note: We recommend that you remove the insides of these folders, but not the folders themselves. Also note that some system applications, like Mail, have their own logs stored elsewhere.
2017-4-20 Mac OS X v10.12 Sierra Mac OS X v10.11 El Capitan Mac OS X v10.10 Yosemite Mac OS X v10.9 Mavericks Mac OS X v10.8 Mountain Lion <<VPN.
Remember, if you want the additional space from cleaning these log files, be sure to empty your Trash. To do this, Control+click on the Trash icon in the dock and select “Empty Trash.”
In addition, some log files can be found in the /var/log folder, but not all the items contained therein are safe to remove. That’s why it is safer to remove log files using a Mac cleaning utility like CleanMyMac X.
How to Clear Log Files with CleanMyMac X
Rather than searching all over your Mac for log files yourself, you can clean up logs with CleanMyMac X in just 4 steps. And that’s not all it does! Anyway, to clean them up with CleanMyMac X:
- Download CleanMyMac X (free) and launch it.
- Choose System Junkin the left menu.
- Click Scan at the bottom of CleanMyMac X.
- Hit Clean.
Done! If you’d like to remove only log files and nothing else, click on Review Details before clicking Clean. Deselect everything except for System Log Files and User Log Files, and then click Clean.
Make sure that once you have finished clearing out these logs for additional hard drive space, you empty out your Trash. To do this, Control-click on the Trash icon in the dock and select “Empty Trash.” Restart your Mac afterward so your Mac can begin to create new log files.
Cleaning up log files with CleanMyMac X is as easy as can be. And, like we said before, it can do so much more, too! With CleanMyMac X, you can clean up outdated apps, language packs, universal binaries, and gigabytes of useless junk you didn’t even know you had. Download CleanMyMac X now and feel what it’s like to have a faster, cleaner Mac.