My startup disc was full. I need to delete files. But my laptop won't open any applications.

I had widow popping up saying I need to delete some files as my startup disc was full. So I connected External HD and wanted to empty dome of the 40000 photos I have on iPhoto. But my laptop stated to sync automatically to Lacie, and after sometime my laptop kept crashing or switching off. I manage to log in to my desktop but I cannot run a single application except finder

How much free space do you actually have? Go to the Apple menu and select About This Mac... More Info... and click on the Storage tab. You should see something like this...
This will show you how much free space you have and what's taking up all the space on your hard drive. You may need to backup and trash some seldom used files, applications, etc. You have to drag them into the Trash and empty the trash to regain the space. A general rule of thumb is that you should have about 15% of your hard drive storage free.
Good luck,
Clinton

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Hi, WWhen I turn on my mac pc, enter my account password my page wont load up , I can access the internet through my families account but not mine. There is a message telling me I need to delete files but the page won't load anything. Any help appreciated

Hi
When I turn on my pc and log into my account there is a message telling me I need to delete files. But the page won't load up anything to allow mw to do this. I am concerned I may have lost all my personal info.
I can log into other family members accounts but not mine.
Any help appreciated
Thanks

You only have to clone your mac when using certain cable modem. You don't clone your mac when using dsl.
Greetings from Northern Ontario, Canada

Following a message saying that my Startup disc was full and advising me to delete some files, I deleted my trash but then apps started to fail. When I tried to log on again, all I got was a blank screen and a cursor. I am a Mac Book Pro virgin, help

Following a message saying that my Startup disc was full and advising me to delete some files, I deleted my trash but then apps started to fail. When I tried to log on again, all I got was a blank screen and a cursor, so I am unable to delete any more files. I am a Mac Book Pro virgin, help

How much free space do you actually have? Go to the Apple menu and select About This Mac... More Info... and click on the Storage tab. You should see something like this...
This will show you how much free space you have and what's taking up all the space on your hard drive. You may need to backup and trash some seldom used files, applications, etc. You have to drag them into the Trash and empty the trash to regain the space. A general rule of thumb is that you should have about 15% of your hard drive storage free.
Good luck,
Clinton

TS3899 My mail box was full. I have deleted stuff but now can't receive mail. Can you please help?

My mail box was full. I have deleted items but still cannot receive mail? Can you please help. I have tried switching off and on.

TalkTalk E-mail Setup See post by Csound1

What do I need to do when I receive the message ". . . your startup disc is full, you need to make some room by deleting some files"

I hope I'm in the right place since I was sort of redirected here Recently I have been receiving the message that my startup disc is full and that I need to make room by deleting files. At first I received the message when I left my computer unattended with my virtual machine on, using VMWare Fusion to run Windows. Recently though, I got the message when I left my computer unattended for about 6 hours without the virtual machine running. As an aside, I get extremely nervous when anything freezes VMWare because it is usually a nightmare to get back into Windows if I can at all without calling Tech Support. This new message however, appeared without the virtual machine active, so I was relieved that VMWare most likely was not the cause. After reading a number of Tech Support articles and Community discussion questions and answers, I started wondering if iTunes or the SMC firmware or a combination thereof may be causing the problems. Mind you I know nothing about the SMC stuff because as I said, I am really new to Mac and know very little about computer code or processors or any of that stuff. But I do know that iTunes has recently been giving me some trouble, such as opening on start up and I can't figure out why and messing around with my iTunes libraries. I also read about the SMC firmware and the computer's sleep cycle so that sort of made sense. But I seriously need advice from someone a lot smarter than me. So, before you ask, both iTunes and my SMC firmware are up to date. I'm running a mid-2007 iMac Intel Core 2 Duo Processor with 2.4 GHz of speed.
You may not need all this junk, but in case you do, since the message tells me to make room and delete files, here goes. Now, if I need to make space and delete files, this is where I get confused and it's probably very simple but I'm still a relatively new Mac user and I still can't seem to find all the info about my Mac! I'm not exactly sure how much space I have left on my hard drive. I had to replace my hard drive last December and the invoice says it is a 500 GB 7200 SATA hard drive. For some reason I thought I had more than that. Regardless, System Profiler shows 10.26 GB currently available, 499.76 used; I assume that the used portion includes my partitioned drive that has my virtual machine on it? I may be using the wrong language when calling it that but that's how I understand it as a "partitioned drive". Now, when looking at the System Profiler, under Volumes, Capacity 209 MB writable diskOs1 - I think this my Virtual Machine. I also have three Western Digital drives that I use for Time Machine and for pictures and music; however, as I said, I am still new with Macs and do not fully understand the file structure so there may be pictures on my Mac hard drive that are duplicated on 1 or more of my WD drives but I don't know how to find them or if I do, I'm afraid to delete them. Of these WD external drives, 1 is 500 GB and is full with Time Machine backups; the 2nd WD drive is 3 TB and has 2.18 TB available and is currently being used for Time Machine backups; the final WD drive is 1 TB Firewire and currently has 694.33 GB available.
Any help would be appreciated. Please forgive any inaccurate terms or mis-statements of terminology as I do not really know what I'm talking about as far as the pieces and parts of the operating system; I'm just trying my best to describe what I see.
One more piece of advice that I would appreciate would be recommendations about a good file cleaner, for duplicates, messy file structure, space utilization software; it also needs to be idiot proof software. I have a trial version of Appdelete that I never really used and I have the purchased version of Tune Up My Mac that I haven't spent much time with because I'm afraid I'll delete something I shouldn't
Thank you for your help
Memalyn

Hi Memalyn
Essentially, the bare issue is that you have a 500GB hard drive with only 10GB free. That is not sufficient to run the system properly. The two options you have are to move/remove files to another location, or to install a larger hard drive (eg 2TB). Drive space has nothing to do with SMC firmware, and usually large media files are to blame.
My first recommendation is this: download and run the free OmniDiskSweeper. This will identify the exact size of all your folders - you can drill down into the subfolders and figure out where your largest culprits are. For example, you might find that your Pictures folder contains both an iPhoto Library and copies that you've brought in from a camera but are outside the iPhoto Library structure. Or perhaps you have a lot of purchased video content in iTunes.
If you find files that you KNOW you do not need, you can delete them. Don't delete them just because you have a backup, since if the backup fails, you will lose all your copies.
Don't worry about "cleaners" for now - they don't save much space and can actually cause problems. Deal with the large file situation first and see how you get on.
Let us know what you find out, and if you manage to get your space back.
Matt

My Spotlight is not working. I get the message that my start up disc is full and to start deleting files. What kind of files?

I am getting a pop up message that my start up disc is full and my spotlight is not working. The message tells me that I need to delete files. My question is what files do I need to delete? And why is my Spotlight not working?

You may find this link of interest and value...
http://macmost.com/what-to-do-when-your-hard-drive-is-full.html

I was able to download the Creative cloud but my Mac won't open the download. All I get is the color wheel...What should I do?

I paid for the student creative cloud and was able to download the actual software but my Mac will not open the installer for the cloud. I click on the download (which is the installer) and all I get is the color wheel that shows that it's having issues completing the task. The "Finder" also says that it is not responding while trying to open the download. Any suggestions on how to get the installer open?

Mcleighty0 can you please post a screen shot of the behavior you are experiencing? Please see FAQ: How do I capture and post a screen shot or video? for information on how to post a screen shot to this discussion.

Nothing appears on my screen after I log on, I know I need to delete files but how do I go about it if I can't click on anything bc there is nothing there :(

After loging in my screen is blank. Even the apps that automatically open don't open. nothing appear. I know i have a full memory but I can't delete anything help.

You have voiceover on. First try tapping the home button three times fast to turn it off.
If it is still on the gestures are different. You tap once to choose an item then double tap the item to activate it. Remember everything that was one tap is now tap then double tap. Start with the lock screen. Tap, then double tap your code. Swipe with two fingers to open, if the screen doesn't slide with two fingers try using three.
Tap then double tap each of the following. Settings> general> accessibility> voiceover > off.
Good luck.
Edit. I'm not sure if you need two fingers to slide to unlock. Try with one finger. If that doesn't work try two.

Startup Disc is full and now the laptop opens to a grey screen only.

I was downloading a large amount of photos onto my MacBook last night, I was aware I was running out of space but didn't realize I was that close. During the second download the process just stopped and I got messages that the startup disc was full. I had to Force Quit iPhoto as it was frozen. When I returned to iPhoto after working with other iPhoto libraries on an external HD I could not open the iPhoto on my MacBook - I got some message saying that I needed to check my permissions to (make changes?) something like that. Everytime the same message. I restarted my computer and now when it powers up and I log in it takes me to a grey screen and stops there. The only thing I can do is move the cursor. I left that up overnight just to see if it needed time and woke to the same grey screen.
I'm getting a bit panicked as all my documents for work and photos are on this laptop. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can get back into my files so I can remove photos to free up space on the startup disc?
Many thanks,
Bob

Try a Safe Boot;
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564?viewlocale=en_US
That may free up enough space to access the HDD and delete data from the drive.
If that does not work, you will have to connect your MBP to another Mac to access the internal HDD.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1661
Also do not forget to empty trash when you delete data. Only then is space allocated for new data.
Ciao.

After upgrading to mountain lion i keep getting an error message saying my startup disc is full. it shouldnt be full because there is barely anything on there and i was running windows with bootcamp prior to this with no issues

after upgrading to mountain lion i keep getting an error message saying my startup disc is full. it shouldnt be full because there is barely anything on there and i was running windows with bootcamp prior to this with no issues. my computer now freezes and programs close randomly. The usual command for opening windows with bootcamp doesnt work. once in restarted my computer after it froze and it rebooted in windows automatically. i really just want to know if there is a way to take the upgrade off my laptop because it is very annoying.

Hi Memalyn
Essentially, the bare issue is that you have a 500GB hard drive with only 10GB free. That is not sufficient to run the system properly. The two options you have are to move/remove files to another location, or to install a larger hard drive (eg 2TB). Drive space has nothing to do with SMC firmware, and usually large media files are to blame.
My first recommendation is this: download and run the free OmniDiskSweeper. This will identify the exact size of all your folders - you can drill down into the subfolders and figure out where your largest culprits are. For example, you might find that your Pictures folder contains both an iPhoto Library and copies that you've brought in from a camera but are outside the iPhoto Library structure. Or perhaps you have a lot of purchased video content in iTunes.
If you find files that you KNOW you do not need, you can delete them. Don't delete them just because you have a backup, since if the backup fails, you will lose all your copies.
Don't worry about "cleaners" for now - they don't save much space and can actually cause problems. Deal with the large file situation first and see how you get on.
Let us know what you find out, and if you manage to get your space back.
Matt

Keep getting a popup window stating" startup disc almost full, need to delete files"

keep getting a popup window stating" startup disc almost full, need to delete files", what can i do to help with this, i generally have only photos in iphoto, some imovies, and a small amount of documents

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.
Look through your other Mailboxes and other Mail categories to see If there is other mail you can archive and/or delete.
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!

My startup disc is full and I want to find out the size of trash and junk in mailbox before dumping trash & junk

I have gotten this message saying that my startup disc is full.
I know I need to dump the trash can on my home screen and I have done that.
I know that there is both trash and junk in my mail app that I will dump also but I am curious as to the size of the trash and junk in mail but I don’t see how to find the sizes.
Its nice that the Junk tells me that there are 739 messages but it doesn’t say what the size of all of them is.
Do you know how i can see what the file sizes are for trash and Junk in Mail?
I know I can just delete them and see how much this yellow bar decreases but that seems like a crude way to see what the file sizes are that I have deleted.
If you have an answer for how to find out the file sizes of the Mail trash and junk I would like to know how to do it.
I have the latest version 10.9.4 on my Mac Air.

do you have the Size Column selected in the View pulldown?

My start up disc is full i have a macbook air, i back everuthing up with time capsule and have movies all my music libraries and photos onto that too so as i have free space, but my max still says my startup disc is full with "other"

my start up disc is full i have a macbook air, i back everuthing up with time capsule and have movies all my music libraries and photos onto that too so as i have free space, but my max still says my startup disc is full with "other"

First, empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. 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 available 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 as described here. That method may not find large folders that contain a lot of small files.
You can also use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can 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.
Proceed further only if the problem hasn't been solved.
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.
Triple-click the line of text below 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.
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 you're done with ODS, quit it and also quit Terminal.

Hello everyone i have macbook air, hello everyone i have macbook air and my startup disc is full i checked everything and and find out that all space is of OTHER and i dont know what is it and what i have to do with that

hello everyone i have macbook air, hello everyone i have macbook air and my startup disc is full i checked everything and and find out that all space is of OTHER and i dont know what is it and what i have to do with that

First, empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. 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 available 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 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.

Imac startup disc is full and it won't boot up. what can I do?

My imac's startup disc is full and it won't boot up...thanks to my daughter uploading a million pictures. What do I do to fix this? We do have an external harddrive as well, but things haven't been moved over in a while.

You'll need to have access to another Mac. Connected the two with a Firewire cable and boot your iMac into Target Disk Mode, Transferring files between two computers using FireWire. Now you'll have access to your iMac's boot drive where you can download the necessary files to an external HD that is formatted OS X Extended (journaled) and then delete from the boot drive to give you a minimum of 10-15 GB of free space.
One can move both your iPhoto and iTunes libraries to the EHD to free up space on the boot drive and run the libraries from there. However, it must be formatted as I described above.

My startup disc was full. I need to delete files. But my laptop won't open any applications.

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