Finding unnecessary files?

Hey guys, I just wanted to know how I can find unnecessary files, particularly large files that's on my Mac HDD. I don't trust 3rd party apps so I don't want to use one. I just want to do it myself or using something within OSX Mavericks.
Thanks!

OmniDiskSweeper worth the download (and it is free).
NOTE: Stay in your home directory tree. If you start deleting system files, you may end up turning your system into a Door Stop. If you think there is a file that you feel you should be able to delete that is not in your home directory tree, research it with Google, or ask in these forums.
If you insist on just using Mac OS X features, then you could enable Finder -> View -> Show View Options -> Calculate all sizes.
This will show the amount of stored in each directory in "List" mode, and you can open that directory, and see the sizes of each file and directory, and open the next level of directory and see sizes of files and directories, etc...
You chase the larger directories looking for large files you own and your know you can safely delete.
NOTE: "Calculate all Sizes" can be very slow and can slow down your Mac if you leave it on all the time, so turn it off when you are done looking for big files.

Similar Messages

Finding Duplicated Files

What is the easiest way to find duplicated files throughout the hard drive? I have just managed to eliminate 6 GB of files that had arisen because previously I had files and clones on 3 separate Hard Drives and had lost track at times. I am now consolidating to one HD and cleaning out the excess fat by laboriously going through several folders by hand. It takes a lot of time.
Is there a way of getting Spotlight to identify unnecessary duplicates systemwide? Or is there another method?

I have seen reports of success using dupeGuru:
http://www.hardcoded.net/dupeguru/
Ciao.

How do I delete unnecessary files

Mac OS X, V 10.6.8, processor; 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo; Memory 2 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
I would like to clean up my computer of unnecessary files and backups, i.e. email, printers, logs, caches.

You should never, EVER let a computer 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 Mac's Trash icon in the Dock?
If you use iPhoto or Aperture, both have 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 are an iMovie/ Final Cut user, both apps have their own individual Trash location that needs to be emptied, too!
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.
Look through your other Mailboxes and other Mail categories to see If there is other mail you can archive and/or delete.
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.
To find other large files, download an app called Omni Disk Sweeper.
http://www.omnigroup.com/more
Also, Find Any File
http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/
Download an app called OnyX for your version of OS X.
http://www.titanium.free.fr/downloadonyx.php
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.
Moving iTunes library
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
Moving iPhoto library
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2506
Moving iMovie projects folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/ph2289
Good Luck!

What is a good utility for removing unnecessary files and freeing up space on a MB disk?

Does anyone have a recommendation for a utility to free-up storage on the MBP HDD by listing files that are duplicates, temporary, or that are no longer required by the current configuration?

Good software, and good suggestion.
You may find, however, that removing dupiicate and unnecessary files reaches a point of diminishing returns. The average user will reclaim only a few gigs of extra space, at best. '
Your best strategy will be to aggressively delete or archive space consuming media files; a complementary approach woud be to increase your HD space by either getting a bigger HD, or investing in an extra drive. Prices are very good, and several manufacterers offer reliable devices. I have three, which may also serve as backup devices.
Post in this thread if have additional questions!

Software to clean duplicate and unnecessary files

Hello
I was looking for a safe app or software that can clean extra and unnecessary files off of my imac - has anyone tried anything that they trust will work?
I am not well enough versed to just start deleting files - and would probably delete something that was needed
any help would be greatly appreciated
sbmop

Here are some general tips to keep your Mac's hard drive trim and slim as possible
You should never, EVER let a computer 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 Mac's Trash icon in the Dock?
If you use iPhoto or Aperture, both have 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 are an iMovie/ Final Cut user, both apps have their own individual Trash location that needs to be emptied, too!
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.
Look through your other Mailboxes and other Mail categories to see If there is other mail you can archive and/or delete.
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.
To find other large files, download an app called Omni Disk Sweeper.
http://www.omnigroup.com/more
Also, Find Any File
http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/
Download an app called OnyX for your version of OS X.
http://www.titanium.free.fr/downloadonyx.php
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.
Moving iTunes library
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
Moving iPhoto library
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2506
Moving iMovie projects folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/ph2289
Good Luck!

Help:Can not find the file in jar!

Hello everyone:
I build a project using Netbeans 5.0 and make a jar file with it...
The code in the project as follows will throw an exception described that it can not find the file named datasource-config.xml
String dataFilePath = getClass().getResource(dataFile).getPath();
//System.out.println("filepath:"+dataFilePath);
InputStream input = new FileInputStream(dataFilePath);
when I run the project with the main() function as an entry it works perfectly and output:
filepath:/C:/projects/java_project/search/build/classes/com/cn/wxjt/lucene/config/datasource-config.xml
But when I compressed the project with jar and run it , it will show:
filepath:file:/C:/projects/java_project/search/dist/search.jar!/com/cn/wxjt/lucene/config/datasource-config.xml
there is a (!) between search.jar and /com/cn/wxjt...
I dont know why I generate a ! symbol in the file path... Is it cause the exception->
java.io.FileNotFoundException: file:\C:\projects\java_project\search\dist\search.jar!\com\cn\wxjt\lucene\config\datasource-config.xml
If you have any idea, plz tell me.
Thank you and best wishes to you !
:)

If the file you want to read is in your jar file, use
getClass ().getResourceAsStream
(relative_path_file_name)Hope that help,
Jackhey jack i want to open the file as new File
i m using this.getClass().getResource("resource/backend.xml");
the resource is the directory inside the jar file.
when i prints the url it shows:
the jar file is in the WORK directory
URL : jar:file:/home/neeraj/WORK/show.jar!/resource/backend.xml
now when i creates new File using the url.getFile() method the file does not exist.
although the same programs runs well when i uses the InputStream
so plz tell me cant I create a new File from the above method????
thanks in advance
with regards
neeraj

Move all my music to another folder but Itunes can't find the files!

I have all my music on my desktop in small folders for each artist.
But now i don't have room anymore, because i have to much music.
So i want to move it all in to a folder called "Music". But when i do that
Itunes can't find the files, and i have to search for each file, to find the new location instead of the desktop. How do i move my music more easily? So i don't have to synchronize it all in again, with the right album covers and that..
Please, need some help here!

You need to open your preferences file in iTunes and click on advance then select the location of where you put the folder. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527

I have updated my iphone software from ios4.1 to 5.0.1(9A405) through itunes and i want to find the file which i download but i can`t find it in itunes where can i find it

I have updated my iphone softwarefrom ios4.1 to 5.0.1(9A405) and i want to jailbreak my iphone to download cydiaafter i do that i download programe named sn0wbreeze2.8b11 but when i startedto jailbrake the programe ask me to drag&drop or browse for ipsw while ialready downloaded but through itunes i try to search on itunes store to get itand drag on this programe but i didn`t found it so, Kindly please tell me howcan i find this file to continue jailbreak my iphone if u have an answer to myproblem please e-mail me at *****[email protected] or just reply in zis discussion

See this
If you can't update or restore your iOS device

HT3986 I've had MS Office:mac 2011 on my imac for around 18 months now. Outlook has just disappeared and when I find the file and open it it tells me that there is a problem and I may need to re-install it. I've just done this using the installation dis

I've had MS Office:mac 2011 on my imac for around 18 months now. Outlook has just disappeared and when I find the file and open it it tells me that there is a problem and I may need to re-install it. I've just done this using the installation disc which, then said the installation had been successful.
Outlook is still not working. Can anyone please advise me on what to do next.

Remove MS Office 2011 completely (here are instructions) and reinstall it.
It's not a simple or fast process but it is important to follow all of the steps in order to get all the files that Office scatters around. This will not affect your data files, only MS Office and its preferences.

How Do I use TM to find a file on my computers Idisk from today's backup?

Where do I find the file that is on my Idisk's Time Machine Backup that was on my laptop this morning when TM backed up????? My Idisk had a problem this morning and when I sought help, they had me hit the stop and restart the syncing. The problem is that even though there was a file on my Idisk on my computer from last night, the Idisk syncing reset every file from the mobileme cloud to my laptop and the file on my mobileme cloud was from 2 days ago. Not the updated one from last night. I teach and my attendance is all taken and stored on the Idisk (and synced) from all my classes. Wed & Thursday attendances were on my laptop correctly. (I know because I checked BEFORE they told me to restart the sync button on preferences. My laptop did its normal BU this morning so I am trying to find the excel attendance file on the backup. Can anyone help????????
I don't know why that happened but it did!!!
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Skip

Dear Thomas,
I entered TM and found the sparsebundle under the Filesync library. However, it appears NOT to be recoverable and I tried double clicking on it but it doesnt do anything other than show a summary of what it is.
By the way, I really do appreciate your comments and agree completely. Something strange happened with my syncing of Idisk (which is set to "automatic"). It has been working fine for years. But for some reason, it stopped two days ago and did not let me know. When I tried to put something manually on it (through drag/drop), it never showed up on the Idisk on the cloud which made me notice and check it out by going to Mobileme through the browser. I then went to the tech service for Idisk and they explained that something probably got corrupted so just hit STOP syncing and then hit Automatic again. Which is what I did. Then everything from the cloud went to my Idisk on my computer and for some reason, the latest version of my excel spread sheet for attendance showed two days ago, not last night. so I lost wed/thursday classes. I KNOW it was on my Laptop which is backed up to TM every morning.. Thats why I believe that the latest file IS on my TM backup for this morning. But I can't get to it. Any other help would be appreciated.
Skip

Can't find imovie file on my hard drive

I have a imovie file on my hard drive that I can't find. I really want to delete it so
that I can free up some room on my hard rive. It's at least 15 gigs big. I tried using the search icon in the upper right hand corner and I tried using the 'find' option under the 'finder' menu, searching for any files over 5 gigs in size. Can anyone help me find this file so I can get rid of it?
[email protected]

An iMovie project is a package, not a file; the actual files inside it are smaller. Use a tool such as WhatSize to locate it.
(23171)

I have problem with Itunes losing where podcasts and some purchased music is located. Don't know how Itunes losing the locations of the files and I can't find the files on my hard drive. What can I do to stop Itunes losing location and restore my files?

I have problem with Itunes losing where podcasts and some purchased music is located. Don't know how Itunes losing the locations of the files and I can't find the files on my hard drive. What can I do to stop Itunes losing location and restore my files?

Try assigning Queen as the Album Artist on the compilations in iTunes on your computer.

I put in my memory card to the left side of the computer, but I cannot find the file of pictures anywhere. Its not even on my desktop. What should I do and how can I get it to show up on my desktop?

I put in my memory card to the left side of the computer, but I cannot find the file of pictures anywhere. Its not even on my desktop. What should I do and how can I get it to show up on my desktop?

If your Mac is new-ish and has one of the Lions as its OS, the drives, cards, USB sticks no longer show up, even though they're there. Go to Finder's Preferences and tick the corresponding items in the General and Sidebar tabs.

My hard disk suddenly filled up and I can't find the files

that are causing my hard disk to fill up. I was watching some videos that was on an external drive on my computer using vlc. I finished one movie (.avi file) and then tried to watch the second one in the series. However, the vlc application would not open it. I tried several times. I gave up and tried opening it with the quicktime player. Even though it opened, I got a message that my startup disk was full. That was strange because I am sure I had about 20GB as I was keeping a close eye on my hard disk capacity. I had recently deleted many video files and so I had a rough idea of how much hard disk I should have.
Anyway, I deleted some movie files to make space and then I checked my hard disk with Disk Inventory X.
When I did that, I found some strange files.
There are some temp files some of which are 1GB. The path is private/var/vm/tmp. One file is labeled a Quick Time player launcher document.
Another one is called "sleepimage". Format is HFS+. It is 4GB. It was modified recently (yesterday). Its path is private/var/vm/sleepimage.
I don't want to delete anything important by accident.
I just think this is strange and want to find these files but when I click "Open", it says I don't have permission and I have to locate them in Finder. However, when I type "sleepimage" in Finder, nothing comes up.
I really want to get rid of any files that take up a lot of space on my computer and that shouldn't be there. Do you think this is some kind of virus? And that's why my computer is filling up with some strange files. There are also many swapfile documents that are 1GB in size.

I think the problem is Quick Time Player. I am using OS 10.6.8 by the way.
I tried it out again.
I had about 26 GB of space before I played an .avi video.
After the movie started to play (it was slow to load), I got a warning message that my startup disk was full. I opened Disk Utility and it told me I had no space left (about 20 MB or something like that was left).
I watched to the end of the movie.
Then I quit Quicktime Player.
And I shut down the computer.
I turned on the computer and checked Disk Utility. I have about 26 GB of space.
I think for some reason Quicktime Player uses up a lot of the disk space when it runs movies that are problematic. This movie I was watching did not open with vlc.
I normally use vlc to watch movies.
Probably it doesn't use up this much space when the movie is OK.
I think there's a problem with this particular movie. It is about 50 MB so it's not that big a file. I watch .smi subtitles with it. The Quicktime Player automatically loads the subtitle file in this case because the subtitle file has the same name as the movie file.
I watched about 10 movie files from the same series that I downloaded together and did not have any problem watching them. I watched them on vlc. But this latest movie had problems I think (as I repeat). It did not load on vlc even though I waited for a minute, and normally movies load instantly on vlc.
So I think that movie file caused problems. It made QT player use up a lot of hard disk space.
I had better avoid watching that movie in the future. I don't want it to wreck my hard drive.
So to sum up, everything is back to normal. I have the hard disk space that I should have. However, I am scared of damaging my hard drive due to shonky movie files that eat up all the space when they are played using QT player, and so I will not watch those files in the future, as I do not know why the files do that.

I cant access firefox, everytime i try i get that windows can't find the file, i tried redownloading it but it still gave me the same message?

i cant access firefox, everytime i try i get that windows can't find the file, i tried downloading it again but it still gave me the same message. the problem has nothign to do with my internet because it wonks on internet explorer and everythign is fine, my computer just can't access firefox for some reason. i tried uninstallign ti adn then installing it again, but that didnt work, i tried installing a different version and it still didnt work.
okay the exact message is" Windows cannot find 'C:\Program Files\Mozilla Forefox 4.0 Beta 1\firefox.exe'. make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click the Start button, and then click Search.
Nothing happens after i install is the "Launch Firefox now" checkbox set, the same message comes up.
i usually start firefox from the shortcut i have on my desktop but when this happened i thought that the shortcut is the problem, but i went to the Mozilla firefox folder and tried it from there, but it didnt work. i also tried downloading different versions of firefox but that didnt work either.

can you tell me the solution to "windows cant find firefox" error. thanks.

Finding unnecessary files?

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