Hello,
in order to recover some gigas from my HD (256 G), I’m thinking of deleting some Apple apps that I never used and will never use, for instance, Numbers, Keynote etc etc.
Before proceeding, I’d like to have this doubt cleared: when I install a new system, for instance passing from Yosemite to El Captain, will the installer expect to find those apps?
Sorry, this post was intendet to be Off-Topic.
Don’t think so. If that were the case you would not be able to remove them 
No.
And if your computer is young enough, at any time, you will be able to download them and install them from teh App Store ;-
.
256GB ? SSD ?
Example: I have a nearly 1 y/o MacBook Pro 256GB SSD and use an external HD to store anything (everything) I can instead of feeding the SSD.
OK: once in a while, I forgot the external HD 
With money, a 1TB SSD can be used (can ? maybe, this have to be checked )
Numbers+Pages+Keynote is about 1.5gig total, or about 0.6% of your total, so the hassle of removing them doesn’t really gain you alot, and most likely any future updates that Apple makes to any of those programs will trigger the Update process to try to reinstall them again.
The usual worst offenders when it comes to storage gobbling are audio and video files.
Try looking at GarageBand if you don’t use it. That one usually takes multiple gigs of space.
Try using DaisyDisk or similar to see if you have any large or hidden files.
And no, the OS installers don’t expect to see these apps.
If you’re like me and hook up several iOS devices to your Mac regularly, maybe this helps.
A few weeks ago I won >150GB by deleting iOS backups and sync stuff. Never knew that would take up so much space.
You can delete old stuff in the iTunes settings or here: ~/Library/Application Support/Mobile Sync/Backups
+1 for DaisyDisk
It has helped me recover a lot of space a few times.
Thank you all for the advices.
In terms of Pages and such, be careful these came pre-installed on your Mac, but if you delete them… They’re gone forever, as my wife found out, and to get them back requires a purchase on the App Store.
A quick hint that will help find most user files (but not necessarily system ones):
- Finder / New Window
- Command-Shift-H (Go Home) or even better, Command-Shift-C: (Go Computer)
- Command-2 (View as List)
- Command-J (View: Show View Options)
- Click the checkbox for “Calculate All Sizes”
Now, in the Finder window click the “Size” column to sort it with largest items at the top. Wait a bit, and you will see the largest folders sort to the top. Explore inside these folders (using the arrow keys) and you’ll quickly see where all your precious bytes have gone.
Note that running with “Calculate All Sizes” on can slow down the finder a bit (much less with a SSD, much more with a HD).
@SAM
I removed only those that I never used in all these years and I know I would not use in the future, and keeping those that I thought I could use. Among them Page, since it let one create ebooks.
I use GarageBand, and I hate the fact that it installs gigas of loops that I dont need at all. They should make such loops-installing optional.
And since I do not use iOS, I was thinkink of moving Xcode to an external back-up disk. What you think?
@MIchael
Yes, I had already followed the same procedure.
As Sam said look first what Pages, Number, Keynote version you have. If you are coming from iWork Licenses then it is lost and you have to buy it in AppStore. If your Mac is not older than 2-3 years you should be fine. In this case you can download them from your Mac App Store if needed.
Also check your Documents folder, esp. large VIdeo files or remaining VMs may be hot candidates.
Regarding eBooks: Do you know Apples’ eBook Author?
It happens to be that some years ago.
Nowadays, it is no more the case (AFAIK).
What is your experience folks ?
(with computers that are younger that the App Store, of course).
On the other hand, TextWrangler, downloaded for free from the App Store, does not want to be loaded from THIS computer (I downloaded it from a previous hardware): it told me to download a brand new free copy from the App Store.
I do not care, but what if I wanted to use it while I was far away from any internet hot spot ?
@Tomas
All my VM and Garage-Band files are on the external disk.
iBook Author: yes, I know it. In fact, when I wrote Page, I intended iBook Author.