In storage on my Macbook pro, I have 376gigs of other. How do I find out whats in there so I know what I can get rid of to free up space?
In storage on my Macbook Pro I have 376 Gigs tied up under other. How do I find out what is in there so I know what I can safely get rid of and free up space?
Thx
Hi Kevin,
Welcome to Apple Support Communities.
Take a look at the article linked below, it provides a lot of great information that will help you identify and remove the Other data from your Mac.
OS X Mavericks: Increase disk space
I hope this helps.
-Jason
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My MacBook Pro is running very slow. How do I find out what is causing this?
How do I find out why my MacBook Pro is running so slow? Then how do I fix it?
Suggestions of Things You Can Do To Help A Slow Computer
If your computer seems to be running slower here are some things you can do:
Start with visits to: OS X Maintenance - MacAttorney;
The X Lab: The X-FAQs;
The Safe Mac » Mac Performance Guide;
The Safe Mac » The myth of the dirty Mac;
Mac maintenance Quick Assist.
Boot into Safe Mode then repair your hard drive and permissions:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions Pre-Lion
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 Utilities menu. 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.
Repair the Hard Drive - Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the Utilites Menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD disk icon and click on the arrow button below.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. 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, then click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
Restart your computer normally and see if this has helped any. Next do some maintenance:
For situations Disk Utility cannot handle the best third-party utility is Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible.
Note: Alsoft ships DW on a bootable DVD that will startup Macs running Snow Leopard or earlier. It cannot start Macs that came with Lion or later pre-installed, however, DW will work on those models.
Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced since Tiger. These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard or later and should not be installed.
OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive.
Helpful Links Regarding Malware Protection
An excellent link to read is Tom Reed's Mac Malware Guide.
Also, visit The XLab FAQs and read Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware.
See these Apple articles:
Mac OS X Snow Leopard and malware detection
OS X Lion- Protect your Mac from malware
OS X Mountain Lion- Protect your Mac from malware
About file quarantine in OS X
If you require anti-virus protection I recommend using VirusBarrier Express 1.1.6 or Dr.Web Light both from the App Store. They're both free, and since they're from the App Store, they won't destabilize the system. (Thank you to Thomas Reed for these recommendations.)
Troubleshooting Applications
I recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX, Mavericks Cache Cleaner, or Cocktail that you can use for removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc. Corrupted cache, log, or temporary files can cause application or OS X crashes as well as kernel panics.
If you have Snow Leopard or Leopard, then for similar repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the command line. Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard. Applejack does not work with Lion and later.
Basic Backup
For some people Time Machine will be more than adequate. Time Machine is part of OS X. There are two components:
1. A Time Machine preferences panel as part of System Preferences;
2. A Time Machine application located in the Applications folder. It is
used to manage backups and to restore backups. Time Machine
requires a backup drive that is at least twice the capacity of the
drive being backed up.
Alternatively, get an external drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Carbon Copy Cloner
2. Get Backup
3. Deja Vu
4. SuperDuper!
5. Synk Pro
6. Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files. For help with using Time Machine visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.
Referenced software can be found at MacUpdate.
Additional Hints
Be sure you have an adequate amount of RAM installed for the number of applications you run concurrently. Be sure you leave a minimum of 10% of the hard drive's capacity as free space.
Add more RAM. If your computer has less than 2 GBs of RAM and you are using OS X Leopard or later, then you can do with more RAM. Snow Leopard and Lion work much better with 4 GBs of RAM than their system minimums. The more concurrent applications you tend to use the more RAM you should have.
Always maintain at least 15 GBs or 10% of your hard drive's capacity as free space, whichever is greater. OS X is frequently accessing your hard drive, so providing adequate free space will keep things from slowing down.
Check for applications that may be hogging the CPU:
Pre-Mavericks
Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the Processes dropdown menu. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order. If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar. Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process. See if that helps. Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.
Mavericks and later
Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the View menu. Click on the CPU tab in the toolbar. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order. If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar. Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process. See if that helps. Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.
Often this problem occurs because of a corrupted cache or preferences file or an attempt to write to a corrupted log file. -
I'm trying to find instructions on replacing the memory module in an older MacBook (1,1). This is the model that has the removeable battery on the back. Anybody know where I can get this info? (It's not listed in the Apple Support info)
Video of the installation here:
http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/macbook_13_mem_hd/
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i have MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010) i7 , 2.6 GHZ, 8GB RAm, 500GB, I try to install mavericks it be come slow,
Let me know the reasonHey Cris from London,
I would try out the recommended steps in the following link:
OS X Mavericks: If your Mac runs slowly
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13895
Let us know if any of the steps within resolved the issue.
Welcome to Apple Support Communities!
Take care,
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I have a 5th gen 32gb iPod that I use only for music. Usually I update it via wi fi but it recently updated to the new IOS 8. Now it is saying there is limited space capacity for the music because there is 18.85 gb of used space. I don't have any apps or features on the iPod and all the options such as Siri or App store are turned off. I simply carry it in my car for travel music and use my iPhone for all other business that would need apps/etc.
I reset back to the factory settings and did not link back to the iCloud so it did not "reset" the old copy if it was corrupt. My iPhone has a ton of music plus apps, contacts, etc and does not show this same type of memory usage. Any idea what could be using so much and how to get rid of it??OTHER
Connect the iPod to your computer and look at the storage used by the various categories as shown in the colored bargarph in iTunes.
Come back with the results.
An "other" larger than about 1 1/2 GB indicates corrupted files.
What is the Other on my iPhone and How to Remove It
What is "Other" and What Can I Do About It?
Next, usually restoring from backup eliminated the corrupted files. However, sometimes restoring to factory settings/new iPod is required.
To restore from backup see:
iOS: How to back up
To restore to factory settings/new iPod see:
iTunes: Restoring iOS software -
I have over 3gb of memory used by "other" How do I find out what that is?
on my Ipad I have just ove 3GB of space which is taken up bu "other" I do not know what this is or how to reduce this usage. Please help
This indicates corrupt file(s). It is normally less than 1 GB.
A restore should resolve. -
My Time Capsule is constantly flashing yellow and it will not preform periodic back-ups. When I tell it to from the icon on the top task bar, it freezes MacBook...every time. I am now dragging files from internal HD to TC found in Finder after hardwiring it to laptop treating it as an external HD. Can in trust it to store files and photos as my MacBook is telling me to back-up because my internal HD is corrupt and may need replacing?
Thanks in advance.A PC can have more issues connecting than a Mac.
But it really should not matter.. so just try it in situ.. press and hold the reset.. once it starts up, it will return to default IP, 10.0.1.1 the PC should then be able to find it via the airport utility.
If not drag it over to the Mac and plug in there by ethernet.. or since it is a laptop, really should not be that difficult to drag the Laptop and plug it into the TC.
Important thing is to get access to the TC.
The Mac if it is running lion, then you MUST download and install 5.6 airport utility to do anything useful.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482 -
Sometimes when I click a link, I get redirected to "scour" which gives me a list of links that may or may not have anything to do with my search. Also, I play an app on Facebook and am experiencing hella lag and have also been redirected from there to random sites.
For me Malwarebytes and Microsoft Security Essentials did not detect any malware or virus on my computer. Then I tried SuperAntispyware, Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware by Lavasoft. I would NOT recommend them. '''Most definitely do not install Lavasoft Ad-Aware.''' I installed these three programs and did a full scan. They all claimed to have found trojans, etc... and then disinfected and removed them. But they all left remnants and pieces all over the place and the malware kept replicating. It was an absolute mess! I uninstalled SuperAntispyware and Spybot but the Lavasoft Ad-Aware would not uninstall!! I first tried Ad/Remove Programs but it did not give me an "uninstall" button. Then I tried to go to the Start Menu where it had an "uninstall Ad-Aware" option in the Program group, but it was a lie, instead it tried to re-install itself. I ran rkill.exe and repeated everything in Safe-Mode... didn't help. I opened the command prompt in Safe-Mode, it would not let me delete the file AdAwareService.exe. I spent an entire day from morning until night going through the registry and windows files deleting every instance of Lavasoft and Ad-Aware. It fought back all the way but I finally killed it. If you look up reviews on these programs, they all get one or two stars out of five(?). I'm very surprised that Cor-el (the first reply) recommends them. Lavasoft Ad-Aware is bad news, don't install it.
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I was bought a voucher for Xmas.I redeemed it and the balance showed as £15.A few weeks later the balance is at 0.03p and i have not bought anything.How do i find out where the money has gone to.
ThanksLogin to iTunes on your computer: Store>View My Apple ID>Purchase History.
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Wish to upgrade from SL to ML on Mac Pro. Spec says only on Mac Pros from early 2008 but unsure how old my Mac Pro is as it is from work and there are no records. How do I find out if ok to upgrade to ML?
You can write to Apple with the serial number and they can tell you exactly when your MacPro (as opposed to Mac Book Pro) was manufactured.
And in the Apple menu > about this Mac > more info > there should be sufficient detail to narrow it down.
EDIT. These are the specs for the April 2007 version.
"Suggested"
"Best"
Speed of Xeon Processors:
Dual Core 2.66 GHz x2
Quad Core 3.0 GHz x2
Memory:
1.0 GB
2.0 GB
Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
ATI Radeon X1900 XT
Video Memory:
256 MB
512 MB
Hard Drive Capacity:
250 GB
500 GB
Optical Drive:
16X "SuperDrive"
16X "SuperDrive"
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How to use ssd as boot drive and hdd as storage on a macbook pro 13
Does anyone know how to use SSD as boot drive and have HDD in optical bay as storage on a Macbook pro 13. I mean in that both drives work as one . by formatting using mac software . I would like to run all programs and OS but would love to have my downloads and useless data on run on my 1tb 5400rpm hdd without me have to manual send it there..
Does anyone know how to use SSD as boot drive and have HDD in optical bay as storage on a Macbook pro 13. I mean in that both drives work as one
Each drive mounts as a separate volume. There is no convenient way to make them look like one contiguous volume.*
Franky, with an hdd and a ssd I would recommend you put your home dir on the hdd and leave the ssd for the OS and your key applications. It's relatively easy to do and I think better than moving only portions of your stuff.
How to Move the Home Folder in OS X – and Why
* There are ways to to make musltiple volumes appear as one large drive but I think it is beyond the scope of this discussion and not appropriate to this configuration. -
Does the Macbook Pro (2012) have a dvd drive? I can't seem to find one.
Does the Macbook Pro (2012) have a dvd drive? I can't seem to find one.
Not the MBP-R's, you can't even change the RAM or storage in them.
The other 15" MBP's you can and they include the Superdrive built in.
Last time you do a impulsive purchase huh? -
Storage full on MacBook Pro, what is in 'Other'? Can we delete the trash?
The storage on my MacBook Pro is almost full. We noticed that there is 143GB in the 'other' category. Any ideas what might be taking up all that storage in 'other'? Also, our trash contains 58GB. Is it okay to permanently delete the trash? We noticed there are a lot of iTunes related items in the trash.
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. -
What the Macbook Pro should have
Hi guys, 2 weeks ago I purchased my first Apple laptop - the Macbook Pro 13", before that (and still sometimes) I used PC. Even though the design is great, there are things that could be done to make it perfect. Here is my list, please tell me what you think about it.
1 - A delete button one the keyboard, I noticed that the Macbook Pro doesn't have one before purchasing it, but after using if for 2 weeks noticed how important it is.
2 - The 2 USB ports are quite inconvenient because they are next to each other, it would be more convenient if they are from both sides instead, like Macbook Air. I have devises that are a bit wider than the other ones, so when one of these is plugged in, the other USB port is unusable. Speaking of which USB 2.0 isn't good! The ThunderBolt port is great but there are no devises yet that can take any advantage of it, so in the meantime USB 3.0 would be great.
3 - HDMI port - most of the laptops already have it, I don't see why none of the Macbooks has it. If I want to connect my Macbook Pro to my TV, I have to spend extra money on MiniDisplay to HDMI adaptor (it's not like Apple products are any cheep, so spending extra money on things that should have been there on first place is NOT good).
4 - Numerical Keyboard - I know there is no room for it, but a button like Caps Lock could be used, when it's pressed certain buttons from the keyboard could act only as numerical keyboard and when pressed again, the keyboard could be back to normal.
5 - The screen resolution of the 13" Macbook Pro should have been like the 13" Macbook Air.
6 - The CD Drive is unnecessary, nobody uses it nowadays. Nobody listens to music from a CD and nobody installs any software from a CD, everyone uses the Internet for these things, the little part of people who are still using CDs, DVDs, etc. have other devises such as: DVD or Blue-ray players, HiFi systems and Desktops. The room that is taken by the Optical Disk could be used for a bigger battery.
7 - Better cooling system - when watching a move the laptop gets so hot that I literally can't put it on my lap (lol what a paradox, a laptop that cannot be put on a lap), also I would love to be able to close the lid and leave the laptop works (it is great when downloading big files or scanning software is used), but with that cooling system I'm afraid that it would overheat.
8 - Last but not least - The screen bezel. It's too big, Macbooks should be bezelless, it would make them much better looking.DS had some great points, I'll chime in as well.
1.) I agree, it'd be handy to have. It definitely took some getting use to but once you do and modify your keyboard workflow it becomes second nature.
2.) I ended up investing a USB extension cable, Apple makes them I believe. At least they use to, I've had mine for years. While the cable dangling off the side of the machine is a bit of an annoyance, it's a necessity if I want to double up my AirCard (USB) with a thumb drive. USB 2.0 is still the "standard" and as such it's going to be the de facto peripheral port. Apple is historically slow about adopting non-standard peripheral interfaces unless they pioneer or champion it. It wouldn't surprise me if Apple still doesn't offer USB 3.0 this time next year. Thunderbolt/Light Peak is brand new tech, and as such it's going to take a while to have peripherals that support it. There are NAS devices that have it, they were just announced this week.
Here's a link regarding its deployment - http://www.tuaw.com/2011/04/13/intel-distributing-thunderbolt-developer-kits-thi s-quarter-more/
3.) I agree that HDMI would be nice but with Thunderbolt supporting HDMI, I really don't see Apple adding another video out port. There's no room left on the I/O strip on the 13" MBP for it. Apple use to include adapters (when the MBP first came out) but they've since stopped doing that and gouge with adapters. Thankfully there are numerous 3rd party offerings at a fraction of the price.
4.) I agree, I forget which "redesign" of the keyboard layout got rid of the Num Lock key. I know my 15" MBP (Santa Rosa) has it. I currently use my iPhone as my numerical keyboard, there's a great little app that pairs the phone to your computer via Bluetooth. It works great as an alternative.
5.) Marketing 101. By introducing it via a future revision this encourages current owners to want to upgrade/switch and thus move more units and tout it as a "feature upgrade." I was pretty shocked the i5/i7 update to the MBP 13" did not introduce the 1440 resolution.
6.) This is where you'll get disagreement. Rule #1 of proper Internet forum posting, don't use words like: everyone, everyone, most, all, nobody, no one, etc. Especially without evidence to back it up. While you don't use it, people do. I use mine daily, my co-workers use their drives daily. That's 11 people right there, which is 11 more than "nobody."
7.) Apple has never called their computer a "laptop." They've always referred to is as a portable computer. Matter of fact, they strongly discourage the use of their portable computers on your lap due to how the heat dissipation process works through the top case. So the problem(s) you're experiencing are to be expected, you're using the machine in a method that is not recommended by the manufacturer. They even discuss that in the "Getting Started" booklet that came with your machine. -
On my macbook pro I have a message on my homepage telling me that certain items want to use my keychain. I've pressed cancel the message will not go. The mac is now running very slow and iphoto and safari are not working. Can anyone help?
What version of Mac OS X?
What home page?
What browser?
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