Hard drive - cannot figure out missing space

I moved my pictures to an external drive freeing up 120 MB. Everything was working fine for a few weeks with disk utility showing about 160 mb free on my iMac internal drive. Suddenly one morning it shows I only have 35 mb free. I have carefully checked finder and have run two separate freeware disk diagnosis programs which confirm what Finder says is the total space utilized- there should be about 120 mb+ free.
I strongly suspect that my 64mb iPad and 32mb iPhone back up is somehow using the space that is hidden from view. But when I go to the location of the backups the size is quite small- around 2 mb for the iPad and 1 mb for the iphone. I assume my pictures and music (same in both devices) is not being backed up. I have also run disk utilities and checked the disk and repaired permissions, everything there seems OK.
Any ideas on how to find what is filling up the iMac internal drive.
thanks very much

AKR1 wrote:
Any ideas on how to find what is filling up the iMac internal drive.
download & use [WhatSize|http://www.id-design.com/software/whatsize> or Disk Inventory X: _*http://www.derlien.com/*_
JGG

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Hard drive is running out of space!! HELP!!

I just purchased a new macbook pro with retina 4 days ago. I've noticed that the hard drive is almost out of space already. I removed all pics and music to external drive and still have "backups and other" that are taking up 75% of HD. How do I clean up these files? Thanks!!

Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:
iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash
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 your 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.
If you're using Time Machine to back up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of files you've recently deleted. 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.
To locate large files, you can use Spotlight. That method may not find large folders that contain a lot of small files.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your 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.
Install ODS in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
Triple-click the line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C):sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
Launch the 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 not to screw up. 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. It may take some minutes for ODS to list all the files.
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.

It keeps saying my hard drive is almost full even though I delete as much as possible and use an external hard drive, cant figure out where else I need to look?

I've tried to keep my computer as organized and clean as possible. I only have 400 songs and not a ton of pictures. I can't figure out where else I need to look on my hard drive. Any suggestions?

I can't really figure out how much I have left in memory but here is some basic info:
Model Name:          MacBook Pro
Model Identifier:          MacBookPro5,5
Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:          2.26 GHz
Number Of Processors:          1
Total Number Of Cores:          2
L2 Cache:          3 MB
Memory:          2 GB
Is there somewhere to look to see a breakdown of what memory is used where?
Thanks for your help!

HT1660 I lost my entire music library when my hard drive crashed 2 wks ago. It's all on my iPod, though. I just cannot figure out how to download my iPod music BACK into my iTunes library. All they seems to address is Library - iPod. I'm not an iT geek..

Hi, I lost my entire music library when my hard drive crashed 2 wks ago. It's all on my iPod, though..but the songlist appears gray. I just cannot figure out how to download my iPod music list BACK into my iTunes library. All they seems to address is Library -> iPod transfers. I'm not an iT geek.. Help meeee!

See Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2

TS3212 ITunes worked fine on my Windows 7 machine. Had to rebuild the machine but all the data remains. Downloaded a new version of iTunes and cannot figure out how to load all of my music currently on my hard drive. Tried moving Library file. Did not

ITunes worked fine on my Windows 7 machine. Had to rebuild the machine but all the data remains. Downloaded a new version of iTunes and cannot figure out how to load all of my music currently on my hard drive. Tried moving "iTunes Library" file. Did not work. Never had trouble like this before.

Many thanks for your post. I've been trying for days to get this sorted and was getting well fed up with I-Tunes. Really thought i'd never get it working again. Tried un-installing it, loading older versions and they still wouldn't work.
Came across your suggestion by chance and top man - it worked..!!!!
How you even knew what to do is beyond me - but thanks so much. I really was pulling my hair out.
You need to put your post over the Web as there seem to be loads of people having the same trouble.
Thanks again.

I cannot figure out what the "other" is that is taking up space on my iPOD.

Please help! I am in the process of burning my songs to my iPOD and I noticed when I synced it up that I had alot of orange, "other" stuff taking up space. I have a few television shows and am building up my music files. I cannot figure out what the "other" is. When I clicked the tab for photos, it had 23 photos that it pulled from My Pictures. However, I played around with the settings and it said under "photos," (0). However, it still has space that it is taking up.
I have alot of music to download and I don't want to have 5.38 bytes of used up space for which I don't know what it is.
Thanks!
-Josh

Other can be album artwork, contacts, notes etc. If you feel that the Other is being incorrectly reported you could try restoring your iPod. Just be aware that restoring will erase the hard drive, reload the software and put it back to default settings, so if you have songs on your iPod that aren't on iTunes you will lose them if you have no back up. Once the restore is complete follow the on screen instructions and it should connect to iTunes and give you a prompt to automatically update your library onto the fresh installation. If you want to update manually or using selected playlists choose no and it will default to manual mode and you can choose whatever setting you like: Restoring iPod to factory settings with iTunes 7

I moved iTunes TV files from my PC to an external drive. I want to return them to my PC so I can watch during travel, but cannot figure out how to move them back. Can you help? Thanks in advance.

I moved some iTunes TV shows from my PC hard drive to an external drive. I can watch them as long as the external drive is plugged in, but I now want to move them back to my PC to watch from the internal drive, but cannot figure out how to do it. Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.

Is it just the TV Shows that you moved to the external, or did you consolidate all your media there?
What is the current location of the media folder given under Edit > Preferences > Advanced?
If the media folder is currently pointed to a folder on the internal drive you could select the files you want to copy, then right-click and select Consolidate Files from the pop-up menu. This will leave the originals behind. If you want to move specific files to a new media folder then my script ConsolidateByMoving can do this.
tt2

HT1386 The first time I synced my iphone with my mac, I didn't realize that all of my photos from iphoto would transfer over to the phone. Now, I need to remove some, as they are taking up too much space. I cannot figure out how to remove them from the

The first time I synced my iphone 4 with my mac, I didn't realize that all of my photos from the iphoto library would transfer over to the phone (more than 3,000). Now, I need to remove some, as they are taking up too much space. I cannot figure out how to remove them from the phone. I tried to uncheck boxes and sync again, but I get a message that there is no room on the iphone. I've read as many articles as I can find, but still cannot manage this. Thanks for any help.

Open itunes, connect iphone, select what you want, sync

I like the mail feature with one exception; I cannot figure out how to change the font size of incoming mail permanently. And, when answering an email I have to highlight the first few words and zoom it so I can see what I am writing. what am I missing?

I like the mail feature with one exception; I cannot figure out how to change the font size of incoming mail permanently. And, when answering an email I have to highlight the first few words and zoom it so I can see what I am writing. what am I missing?

You can type the email using what you set in preferences and then highlight the text and use command - minus sign (or command - + for larger) to reduce the size of the text.
You can also type command - T and a window will appear allowing you to select fonts/sizes/color/ background highlight.
The above works in Notes also. I haven't tried to do this in any other Apple application.
For incoming emails, you can use the above to reduce font size, but I don't know of a way to permanently set the incoming font size to a default.

I have a new imac and am trying to transfer files from my old gateway using a flashdrive. I cannot figure out how to export from itunes to the drive.

I am trying to import my itunes library from my old gateway computer to a new imac. I cannot figure out how to export the library from the gateway computer to a flash drive to transfer.

Copy the entire /Music/iTunes folder to /Music/ on the new computer.
That is all you need to do.

I created a photo album on my iPhone 4s - edited photos etc. but I cannot figure out how to transfer it to my pc (using Windows 8). The only folder in the iphone drive is the one which has the Camera roll photos :( Help please - I really need the photos!

I created a photo album on my iPhone 4s - edited photos etc. but I cannot figure out how to transfer it to my pc (using Windows 8). The only folder in the iphone drive is the one which has the Camera roll photos Help please - I really need the photos!

The camera roll is not part of the sync process at all.
You should be importing these photos to your computer regularly as you would with any digital camera. Youc an organize them on your computer and sync the to the iphone if you wish.
The photos sync from the computer to the iphone is one way.
The iphone mirrors the selected content of the computer to which it is synced.

I installed dropbox in my applications and now I want to delete it. Dragging it to the trash isn't working because I get a message that dropbox is open, but I have hardly used it at all and cannot figure out why or how it is open.

When I try to uninstall dropbox I get a message that it's open, however, I never use dropbox and cannot figure out how to close it in order to move it to the trash.

Look in the menubar for a blue icon shaped like an open box and click on it. Click on the gear icon and select quit. Now you can throw it away. DropBox is an almost faceless program - it puts an icon in the menu bar and that's all it shows.

I redirected iTunes to an external drive and moved my iTunes library and folder, but my hard drive is still low on space. How can I be sure that my music is all on the external HD ONLY, especially with the new iCloud technology?

I redirected iTunes to an external drive and moved my iTunes library and folder, but my hard drive is still low on space. How can I be sure that my music is all on the external HD ONLY, especially with the new iCloud technology? It doesn't look like I created any more space by doing this, AND I totally lost all my iTunes playlists. I'm not sure if because I added old library materials manually if this messed up my playlists, or if the new location is just not reading my moved library. In any case, I followed step by step instructions and found a few holes and thought I'd just "figure it out" but I guess I'm not as smart as I thought since I'm still scratching my head many hours later.
Thanks for any support ;-)
Eaglerocker

Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the option (alt) key (shift on Windows) so you get a prompt to select a library, then guide it to the 'iTunes Library.itl' file in the moved iTunes folder.
If this is to a new computer and you put the copied iTunes folder in the default location of Macintosh HD > Users > *User Name* > Music then you don't even need to start with the option key held down, iTunes will automatically look for it there. (Make sure there isn't anything already in the iTunes folder there that you want to keep since you will be replacing it with the one you are moving.)
iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527 - a somewhat bewildering and not always easily understandable set of options.

I have a new iMac running iTunes 10.4 in OS 10.6.8, and a new Mac Air running iTunes 10.4 in Lion. I was able to transfer all my music etc. from the iMac onto the Air, but cannot figure out how to get the Playlists from the iMac to the Air. iTunes Help

I have a new iMac running iTunes 10.4 in OS 10.6.8, and a new Mac Air running iTunes 10.4 in Lion. I was able to transfer all my music etc. from the iMac onto the Air, but cannot figure out how to get the Playlists from the iMac to the Air. iTunes Help says File >Library >Export playlist and choose XML, or to save a copy of all your playlists, File > Library > Export Library, "the Exported info is saved in XML format." Then it says, "to import an iTunes playlist, File > Library > Import Playlist". Now I am assuming I do that import part on the Air, but when I try it doesn't recognize anything that can be imported - what am I missing??? Aside from a clue...

Thanks, Jim, for taking the time, but the reply is unfortunately vague in the exact area of my confusion! "you need to copy that file to your new computer..." Well, the Import/Export instructions make it seem as if the two computers should be able to communicate this file thru wifi, but that's the linkage I can't seem tocreate with Import/Export. Should I instead email a copy to myself (thats what applecare suggested)? Copy it to and from a thumb drive? But then place the file where? And the article was helpful, but should I be trying to move the Library file or the Library.xml file (as iTunes Help suggests)? Sorry to be so clueless about it...I suppose I buy Apple in the hopes of not having to think about this stuff, which approach seems not to be serving me well. Thanks again for your time!

Hard Drive does not have enough space/error message

Hello: I am new to Mac but have been having trouble with my iMac for a while. I can no longer download my software updates. I have an error message that states "Your hard drive does not have enough space" - 5.7 GB is required.
I only have a 1 GB machine. What am I doing wrong?
When I go to my Macintosh HD icon on the desktop, it says at the bottom of that window that I have 495.9 MB available.
The error message tells me to go to the Startup file to delete items. I go there, but there's only two files. I do have music/photos/but I do not understand what's going on with my computer.
In addition, it turns itself off often, for no apparent reason. Any ideas?
Thanks!
J.Renee

The error refers to space on your hard drive, not memory. Unless you've mis-typed, if you have only 495.9 MBs free on your hard drive then you are definitely out of space. If you continue operating with so little free space you are risking a catastrophic loss of data.
To free up space you will either need to delete unneeded personal files or copy some of your bigger files off to an external hard drive then delete them from your internal drive. Alternatively you can replace the internal drive with a larger drive.
You should maintain no less than 15 GBs or 15% of the hard drive's capacity as free space whichever is greater.
If you meant to type 495.9 GBs then you may have a corrupted disk directory. Try the following:
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger and Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger, and 4.1 for Leopard) and/or TechTool Pro (4.6.1 for Leopard) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

Hard drive - cannot figure out missing space

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