Last year I upgraded my computer from an iMac Pro to an iMac mini. I absolutely love it, and have zero complaints. The only thing I didn’t pay attention to was computer storage, and I found myself wondering how to go about upgrading computer storage inexpensively. I work solely off a SSD so I can easily switch between my laptop and desktop. I don’t really even use the computer storage, but the applications installed were just taking up so much space.

Looking back I may have upgraded at the time of purchase to one with a higher storage, but I found a workaround that was even more cost effective and included more storage than what apple could provide.

Now you’re probably asking, how does one go about upgrading computer storage inexpensively?

purchase an external drive.

It’s actually so simple! Go to amazon, find a SSD that you like. I could have opted for the same one that I already have, but 1TB instead of 2TB. However, I found one that was a little cheaper, so I went with this one.

step 1: move everything over.

I bought the external SSD and thank you amazon, it was delivered within a couple hours. Then you just have to move all of the programs/applications from your computer to the external drive. If you keep documents, and pictures on your computer, move those as well! You want everything off your computer and onto the SSD to save as much space on your computer. Please make sure you keep a backup of everything too!

These are the instructions I followed to do it. It’s extremely easy and took me less than an hour to do. The best part about upgrading computer storage inexpensively, it freed up over 100GB of space on my computer.

This YouTube video was extremely helpful throughout the process.

1. Connect the external drive. Make sure it’s formatted as APFS if you want the best compatibility. If APFS isn’t an available option when you erase the SSD, the drive is not set to the “GUID Partition Map” scheme, or you are not viewing all devices in Disk Utility. Follow this video to learn how to fix it.
2. Open Finder. In one window, navigate to your internal Applications folder, and in another, open your external drive.
3. Drag and drop. Click on the application you want to move, and drag it to the Applications folder on your external drive.
4. Authenticate. You may be prompted to enter your password to authorize the move.
5. Verify. Once copied, check that the application is working correctly from the external drive.
6. Delete the original. After confirming the app works from the external drive, you can delete the original application from your internal Applications folder to free up space.
7. Important: Some applications may have components that remain on your internal drive. Also, system apps cannot be moved. 

step 2: download new large apps directly to the external drive

1. Connect the external drive. It must be APFS-formatted.
2. Open App Store Settings. Go to the App Store app, click App Store in the menu bar, and select settings.
3. Enable the feature. Check the box next to “Download and install large apps to a separate disk”.
4. Select the drive. From the pop-up menu, choose your external drive.
5. Download apps. Any new apps larger than 1 GB will now download directly to the external drive.
6. Keep in mind: The external drive must be connected for the apps to be accessible. Some app data may still be stored on the internal drive.

There you have it. You may have to work some kinks out along the way, but for a one time fee of $100 this solution couldn’t be beat.

The biggest hiccup I had was opening images from Adobe Bridge to Photoshop. It wanted to open from the old photoshop application on the computer, but since that was deleted, it essentially couldn’t find it. But there’s an easy fix for that!

1. Open Bridge.
2. Select Adobe Bridge. in the menu bar, go to settings.
3. Change the file association. Go through your most used files, and change the application location. Click the dropdown, and select browse. Find your new SSD and select the application.

I also had some issues with photoshop AI features working after I moved it over as well, after some research I found out if my photoshop was placed in a folder titled Adobe, it worked fine. Took some trial and error, and an uninstall + reinstall. Maybe that tip can help you avoid some frustration!

Hope this helps you with upgrading computer storage inexpensively!