Disk almost full, please delete some items?

I know what this message means but HOW do i delete the files?

In the Finder, drag unwanted and unnecessary files to the Trash, and then from the menu bar, choose Finder > Empty Trash. This action will permanently delete everything in the Trash from your hard drive.
Also, please see:
Freeing Space on Your Mac OS X Boot Volume

Similar Messages

I have an iMac 5.1 with Mac OSX 10.6.8 and 2 GB memory and an L2 cache of 4 GB. lately I have been receiving error messages of " start up disk almost full; please delete files." is the start up disk the same thing as the hard drive?

I have an iMac 5.1 with Mac OSX 10.6.8 and 2 GB memory and an L2 cache of 4 GB. lately I have been receiving error messages of " start up disk almost full; please delete files." is the start up disk the same thing as the hard drive? I opened the hard drive and from the column on the left of the menu I've selected "search for" and under that " all images" then "all documents" I've deleted a few files from each. Are documents and images that I have deleted from here also deleted from the folders on my desktop?

You should never, EVER let a conputer hard drive get completely full, EVER!
With Macs and OS X, you shouldn't let the hard drive get below 15 GBs or less of free data space.
If it does, it's time for some hard drive housecleaning.
Follow some of my tips for cleaning out, deleting and archiving data from your Mac's internal hard drive.
Have you emptied your iMac's Trash icon in the Dock?
If you use iPhoto, iPhoto has its own trash that needs to be emptied, also.
If you store images in other locations other than iPhoto, then you will have to weed through these to determine what to archive and what to delete.
If you use Apple Mail app, Apple Mail also has its own trash area that needs to be emptied, too!
Delete any old or no longer needed emails and/or archive to disc, flash drives or external hard drive, older emails you want to save.
Delete any other mail in your Junk folders. Also, look through your Sent Mail to see if there is anything that can be deleted.
Other things you can do to gain space.
Once you have around 15 GBs regained, do a search, download and install OmniDisk Sweeper.
This app will help you locate files that you can move/archive and/or delete from your system.
STAY AWAY FROM DELETING ANY FILES FROM OS X SYSTEM FOLDER!
Look through your Documents folder and delete any type of old useless type files like "Read Me" type files.
Again, archive to disc, flash drives, ext. hard drives or delete any old documents you no longer use or immediately need.
Look in your Applications folder, if you have applications you haven't used in a long time, if the app doesn't have a dedicated uninstaller, then you can simply drag it into the OS X Trash icon. IF the application has an uninstaller app, then use it to completely delete the app from your Mac.
Download an app called OnyX for your version of OS X.
When you install and launch it, let it do its initial automatic tests, then go to the cleaning and maintenance tabs and run the maintenance tabs that let OnyX clean out all web browser cache files, web browser histories, system cache files, delete old error log files.
Typically, iTunes and iPhoto libraries are the biggest users of HD space.
move these files/data off of your internal drive to the external hard drive and deleted off of the internal hard drive.
If you have any other large folders of personal data or projects, these should be archived or moved, also, to the optical discs, flash drives or external hard drive and then either archived to disc and/or deleted off your internal hard drive.
Good Luck!

IMac saying "start up disc is nearly full please delete some files"

My iMac is one week old today. I've got hardly anything installed on it and Macintosh HD say's I have 252.87GB available space.
Yesterday I started getting an pop up saying "start up disc is nearly full please delete some files". I can't understand why as I have so much free space available.
I've googled around and not found anything that could help. Just a few people saying use Disk Utility etc. I've done all that now and it still comes up.
Any help welcome
Thanks

Hello d:
Welcome to Apple discussions.
Run repair disk from your software install DVD.
If you still get the message, call Applecare - you are well within the warranty period.
Barry

Startup disk almost full but cannot log on to delete items

when I start up my MacBook air it said "start up disk almost full" but I cannot even log on my act to get to my home screen to attempt to delete stuff... what do I do?

Step 1
The first step in dealing with a startup failure is to secure the data. If you want to preserve the contents of the startup drive, and you don't already have at least one current backup, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data that has changed since the last backup, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to start. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
a. Start up from the Recovery partition, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.” The article refers to starting up from a DVD, but the procedure in Recovery mode is the same. You don't need a DVD if you're running OS X 10.7 or later.
b. If Step 1a fails because of disk errors, and no other Mac is available, then you may be able to salvage some of your files by copying them in the Finder. If you already have an external drive with OS X installed, start up from it. Otherwise, if you have Internet access, follow the instructions on this page to prepare the external drive and install OS X on it. You'll use the Recovery installer, rather than downloading it from the App Store.
c. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, start the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
d. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
Step 2
You might be able to start up in safe mode even though you can't start up normally. Otherwise, start up from an external drive, or else use the technique in Step 1b, 1c, or 1d to mount the internal drive and delete some files. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation.

HT3680 My 3 year old iMac is freezing and I get a message "startup disk almost full for running applications. delete files..." Where do I find the startup disk and what should I delete?

My 3 year old Mac is having trouble and freezes up from time to time lately. I get a message saying "startup disk almost full, delete files ..." something about having enough room for applications to function. I know my startup disk is the Macintosh HD, but what kind of files do I need to delete and how much space do I need to free up? In my "about this mac" area, it says I have 4.89gb free out of 319.21 So I am confused why I need to do this.

You're less than 2% free and should always have at least 15% (my SWAG). Best is to get an ext FWHD and move stuff from the startup disk to it and delete it from that. Best things to move are movies, music, and photos, using the apps that manage those things.

Disk almost full

How do I fix this? I have this message that keeps popping up that says, "Start up disk almost full." I have reset my cache in safari, deleted as many photos as I could, but it still says the same thing. What should I do? Thanks so much!
Also, I looked at my macintosh HD info and this is what it says:
Capacity: 148.73 GB
Available: 3.88 GB
errr.. I really don't have much stuff on my computer.. I have a few movies and tv shows. How can I save those?
Message was edited by: lschat

also see this:
Your Mac needs adequate hard drive space to operate normally. How full can a drive be before it's too full? There is no hard and fast rule that says “X” amount or “%” of free drive space is needed. A low amount of RAM requires more drive space for Virtual Memory’s swap files.
Problems from insufficient RAM and free hard disk space are discussed in this link
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/lackofram.html
Here’s some general guidelines for minimum hard drive free space:
1. As a general rule, your available space should be 5GB as an absolute minimum as it generally requires that much free space to perform an Archive and Install of Mac OS X and still preserve some free space for VM swap files.
2. Some say that your hard drive should have at least 5% of it's capacity available for use. Still others say 10% to 15%. If you routinely process complex graphics and videos, even more space is required.
Look at these links about freeing up more space.
Where did my disk space go?
_*http://www.macfixitforums.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Forum38&Number=770243*_
Download & use WhatSize described in this link or Disk Inventory X @ _*http://www.derlien.com/*_
Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk
_*http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html*_
Amazing Disappearing Drive Space
_*http://www.pinkmutant.com/articles/TigerMisc.html*_
Increase HD Free Space
_*http://macosx.com/forums/howto-faqs/275191-how-easily-increase-hd-free-space-lap top.html*_
How to free up my disk space
http://www.macmaps.com/diskfull.html
JGG

How do I rectify start up disk almost full. I am new to Macs and struggling

How do I rectify a start up disk almost full message? Never had this until I put a load of photos on to my Mac book air

Hello Kirkcaldy Ronnie,
As Plotinus Veritas said take a backup for your Images on External Hard Disk.
As your Macbook Air Startup disk is full and if you are unable to do anything on your Mac follow the below process to boot your Mac in Safe Mode and then delete some files on your Mac to free up some disk space and then you should be able to boot in Normal Mode.
Steps : > Turn of your Macbook completely by holding the Power On/Off key on your Mac's keyboard > Turn On your Mac again and simultaneously press and hold the Left Shift key on your keyboard and this should take your Macbook in Safe Mode. ( Note : You will see a loading bar at startup when you boot your Mac in safe mode and your Mac will take some time to boot) > Once you login to the User Account on your Mac go ahead an delete as many files as you can from your Mac to free up some space (try to delete and make as much space as you can and keep at least 20% space free of the total amount of your disk space on your Mac Disk) and also empty the Trash of your Mac to completely remove the files from your Mac. > Now you can restart your Mac and let it start in Normal mode and check of you are able to login. If you are able to login in normal mode then try to transfer the data which you do not use regularly on an external hard disk and keep internal space free as much as you can as that will help you to get a better performance of your Mac. Hope this helps you.

Its saying startup disk almost full. have no music or photos on computer. how do i clear it up and free up the HD

its saying startup disk almost full. have no music or photos on computer. how do i clear it up and free up the HD

There are some items to the right of these reply boxes,
of them a few are likely to be of help to some extent...
Without knowing which OS X version, advice will be not specific
and to answer three different ways when one of them is correct
is a waste of time.
Is your OS X newer than Lion 10.7.5? IF so different rules apply
to finding out what is free space, where it is, & how to tell if it is.
For systems older than Lion (Snow Leopard, Leopard, Tiger, Panther)
the rules are a little different, since there would not be an Other item
on the hard disk drive which could contain items necessary to the OS
yet not detailed to the user.
And Lion 10.7 has a few hidden files that are hard to locate, and one
of them may have some bearing on the missing space of a HDD.
The items here, mostly for 10.7:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/24954432#24954432
start up disk full, other options:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/11808734#11808734
There are Support articles, you could use Help viewer in the
system, on your computer, to look for results; or use google.
However, avoid the temptation to use a badware such as cleanmymac,
mackeeper, and others that are sources of known trouble to the Mac.
Good luck & happy computing!

How do i solve the 'start up disk almost full' problem?

when i turn on my macbook air, it comes up with a warning message that says 'start up disk almost full' and that i need to clear some space, how do i do this?

For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article.
Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:
iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash
Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space.
According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of the data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.
When Time Machine backs up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of recently deleted files. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown asBackups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself. If you followed bad advice to disable local snapshots by running a shell command, you may have ended up with a lot of data in the Other category. Reboot and it should go away.
See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore the volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one.
Deleting files inside an iPhoto or Aperture library will corrupt the library. Any changes to a photo library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.
Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.
ODS can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
If you have more than one user account, make sure you're logged in as an administrator. The administrator account is the one that was created automatically when you first set up the computer.
Install ODS in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:
sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
The application window will open, eventually showing all files in all folders, sorted by size with the largest at the top. It may take a few minutes for ODS to finish scanning.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything while running ODS as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.
When you're done with ODS, quit it and also quit Terminal.

How can I find where this came from? - start up disk almost full

Hi, my mac began saying this to me today "Start up disk almost full"
So I began deleting files. I deleted a lot via DiskWave.
But now Diskwave says I have enough space but my mac sure doesn't.
What do I do? What's all that 'other' stuff and where can I find it?
Thanks in advance!

For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article. If the Storage display seems to be inaccurate, try rebuilding the Spotlight index.
Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:
iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash
Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then restart the computer. That will temporarily free up some space.
According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of the data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.
When Time Machine backs up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of recently deleted files. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself. If you followed bad advice to disable local snapshots by running a shell command, you may have ended up with a lot of data in the Other category. Ask for instructions in that case.
See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) or GrandPerspective (GP) to explore the volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one. Note that ODS only works with OS X 10.8 or later. If you're running an older OS version, use GP.
Deleting files inside an iPhoto or Aperture library will corrupt the library. Any changes to a photo library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.
Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.
ODS or GP can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
If you have more than one user account, make sure you're logged in as an administrator. The administrator account is the one that was created automatically when you first set up the computer.
Install the app you downloaded in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
Triple-click anywhere in the corresponding line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:
sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
sudo /Applications/GrandPerspective.app/Contents/MacOS/GrandPerspective
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
The application window will open, eventually showing all files in all folders, sorted by size. It may take a few minutes for the app to finish scanning.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.
When you're done with the app, quit it and also quit Terminal.

Startup disk almost full, what are my option

"startup disk almost full"
What are my options for additional space on my startup disk??????
Previously I have copied my photos and documents onto disks to make more space.
I do have lots of program on my computer which I guess is taking up most of the space.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

1030/3476
Hi deeswaz,
I would download and run WhatSize or OmniDiskSweeper, separately from each User Account, to make sure about some files that may exist somewhere, grown enormously with no reason to keep them on your hard drive.
Also:
Does your periodic maintenance (aka "cron scripts") run regularly enough? If it never ran, your log files too can take a huge space in some cases.
Caches:
You can delete Users caches folders to gain space. Use WhatSize or Finder's Find (⌘F) to locate them and drag them to the Trash.
They will rebuild themselves automatically (experiencing some small, harmless slowdowns sometimes), with nothing but the caches your applications actually use, not the old stuff that you don't use since months.
Other:
Of course the obvious:
Uninstall all that is useless. Did you Custom-Install Mac OS X, with only the printer drivers you need, with not all languages installed etc (keep BSDSubsystem though).
Good luck!
Axl

I have a mid 2007 iMac.    2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM, OSX 10.9.5.   I attempted to do the latest update and got the message: Start up disk is full. Delete files. How do I do that?

I have a mid 2007 iMac.    2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM, OSX 10.9.5.   I attempted to do the latest update and got the message: Start up disk is full. Delete files. How do I do that?

Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
1. See Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks' Storage Display.
2. You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
4. Get an external hard drive on which to store some of your files after which you can
      erase the data from your internal drive to free up space.
5. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
6. See Where did my Disk Space go?.
7. See The Storage Display.
You must Empty the Trash in order to recover the space they occupied on the hard drive.
You should consider replacing the drive with a larger one. Check out OWC for drives, tutorials, and toolkits.
Try using OmniDiskSweeper 1.8 or GrandPerspective to search your drive for large files and where they are located.

"Disk almost full" after taking iBook to Apple store....

....to get a new hard drive. My HD decided to quit (after only 2 yrs), took it to Apple, they sent it out, and replaced the HD. Now my iBook's back, and I keep getting "Startup disk almost full". Wouldn't everything be wiped out when a hard drive is replaced?? What could possibly be taking up all of my memory?? And how do I fix?
I've read many posts in this forum, and when I try to download some software to see where the space is being taken up, it keeps referring back to that message "start up disk..." and the pinwheel keeps spinning and I have to force quit everything. Grrrr.
Thanks for any advice thrown my way!!

Hi Trebornozel,
Welcome to Apple Discussions
I am thinking that when they sent your iBook away they archived your hard drive and then restored it. They might for some reason they might have left an archive of your hard drive on your computer. When you sent your computer in, did the same settings and files come back on your computer? Did you try WhatSize ?
I hope that helps,
Jon
G4 1.33Ghz iBook, G4 iMac 1Ghz, G3 500Mhz iBook, Macintosh 128K, eMate... Mac OS X (10.4.2) Airport Express, Palm Zire 72, Minolta Dimage X31, iSight, and more

"startup disk almost full" message - NOT TRUE! I have about 900 GB of free space. What can I do about this?

I have been getting repeated messages "startup disk almost full". I am on a very new iMac running Lion with the most up to date OS. This is a 1 TB iMac. When I first got the message, I cleaned almost everything but the applications off the disk. I now have more than 900 GB of space but again I am getting the message. I found someone reporting the same problem and he said Apple Care reported a but in the mail system. He found a Fix but it is not working for me. (He clicked the option key and opened finder, then went to Library/mail/mailbox/recovered messages and deleted the recovered messages. But I do not have any folder called "recovered messages" so can't pursue that fix. Any ideas?

I'm don't know about the new systems, but I remember that I set the % full to warn me. Your % might be set to 20% or something rather than 10% which is a preferable safety margin for many uses. I solved this start up disk problem by installing a 2 Tb internal drive and keeping my data files on external, raided, drives. A real show-stopper is when your 45 Tb external drive warns you that you're too close to OUT for comfort. And, Yes, I do keep it trash free.

SIM card full please delete SMS messages

I keep getting the message "SIM card full please delete SMS messages". I've gone into options under TEXT messages and there is no option to check or uncheck "save on SIM card. I've had this issue since I bought the 9810. I did not have the same issue with the 9800 that I had before.

Hi and welcome to the forums!
Try the steps listed below.
Let us know how it goes!
Thanks,
Bifocals
KB13465 "SIM card is full please delete SMS messages" appears on the BlackBerry smartphone
For a possible resolution of this issue, complete the following steps:
On the Home screen of the BlackBerry smartphone, go to Options > SMS.
Press the Menu key and click SMS options.
Go to Leave Messages On SIM Card.
Press the Menu key again and click Change Option.
Select No.
Press the Menu key and click Save.
Open Messages on the Home screen of the BlackBerry smartphone and press the Menu key.
Locate the View Folder menu option.
Select SMS SIM Card Inbox.
Delete any unnecessary SMS text messages in order to create space on the SIM card.
For BlackBerry® Device Software 6.0, complete the following steps:
On the Home screen of the BlackBerry smartphone, open the Messages application.
Press the Menu key and click Options.
Click Text Messaging.
In the SMS Text area, clear the Leave Messages On SIM Card check box.
Press the Menu key and click Save.
Click Accept as Solution for posts that have solved your issue(s)!
Be sure to click Like! for those who have helped you.
Install BlackBerry Protect it's a free application designed to help find your lost BlackBerry smartphone, and keep the information on it secure.

Disk almost full, please delete some items?

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