Plenty of space on HD, but "Home Folder" full

Hello everyone,
I should begin by saying that I am so horrible with computers/technology. Hopefully someone on here can help me out without it being too difficult for me to understand.
Anyway, I recently bought a macbook pro with a 500 gb HD so as to accommodate space for music etc...
The Hd has plenty of space on it (372 gb) but everything seems to go directly to my Home Folder (itunes, photos etc). Hence, my home folder is practically at capacity (80 gb). What is the easiest way to simpliy have everything go onto the HD? Do I have to copy and paste my music? Do I have to create another folder?
If these questions are laughable, please see th first statement.
Thanks for any help,
rsc4685

I rechecked the Disk and yes, there is a problem.
Utilities are best run from the CDs to avoid system interference & false readings/reports. You must use the versions that are compatible w/your OS system & keep the utilities updated to avoid damaging/harming/trashing your system.
You need to make your own decision on which to purchase. Read up on them on their websites because each do something a little different.
DiskWarrior (Highly Recommended for Directory Damage Repair)
Techtool Pro http://www.prosofteng.com/products/drive_genius_features.php
Drive Genius

Similar Messages

Home folder full

When I try and open my mail I get a dialog box that says home folder full, delete files. How do I do that? Where do I go? I have deleted files in my documents, etc. still get the message. I am not out of space on the hard drive.

Your mail server would be whatever you use for your email, for example [email protected] Messages can be stored on the server, so depending on the preferences you have set, you can use up your alloted space. Check your Mail preferences in the Mailbox Behaviors and Advanced tabs for your settings - for example, how long to wait before deleting junk mail.

Upgraded hard drive, but Home folder didn't get bigger.

I upgraded to a 500gb hard drive. I imaged the old drive directly to the new one, so it's a carbon copy. Everything is working great, but I realized that my home folder is still only 60gb. I have file vault turned on, and I can't turn it off because it needs 60gb of free space in the home folder to be able to do so, and my 60gb of space in my home folder is completely full.
Is there a way to expand my home folder to utilize the full 500gb of space without turning File Vault off? or another way of turning it off that I don't know about?

this is most bizarre. it should not be doing this. regardless, it IS doing this so we need to deal with it somehow. I suggest trying to resize the sparse image from terminal without turning filevault off.
make a new admin account. log out of your current account and log into the new admin account. open Terminal and enter the following command (copy and paste please)
sudo hdiutil resize -size 400GB /users/Chris/Chris.sparseimage
you'll have to enter your admin password (which you won't see) that's normal. after that you'll have to enter the password for your main account (the one with the filevault on). if the command returns no errors log back into your main account and see what maximal size it reports for the home directory. it should be 400GB.

Mobile account working but home folder is named incorrectly ('99')?

Hi,
Both server and clients running 10.4.5 with a mixture of local and network accounts. All works fine. Wanting to migrate all users to mobile accounts (which we have achieved successfully in many other places). It works (i.e. log in first time, say 'yes' to creating the account, syncing options are set as in WGM) but the home dir that is created is called '99' (which isn't the user name!) Does anyone know why this is?
Thanks very much..
Rob

I believe that the 99 refers to a network login where
the network user has no network home folder on the
network (or server). The 99 is a generic username
for this situation on the machine that is being
logged into, but each account needs a home somewhere.
That sounds strange, but I have it deliberately on
some lab machines. Let me explain. I have users
with Mobile Accounts on laptops. To prevent them
from logging in to a lab machine, I have set up
Workgroup Manager to not give the lab account user a
network home (I don't need Gigs worth of video on my
server). Therefore, when a lab account logs in, it
has no network home and is forced to create a local
home on the lab machine. That works great-I don't
fill my server with unedited video. Workgroup
Manager covers the apps and privileges on the lab
machine. To prevent a Mobile Account user from
logging in to the lab machine and filling that up
with their home directory, I have a workgroup that
the lab account belongs to, but not the Mobile
Account user. In that workgroup, I have limited who
can login (only lab accounts). And finally, I have
limited the access to the lab machines by entering
in the lab machine's ethernet address in the
computer (don't remember its name right this
second-it is the 2 squares to the right of the
workgroups in WGM) list so that a lab account can't
log in to a laptop and a Mobile Account can't log
into the lab machine.
After all of that explanation of what I have done,
you probably have some part of that set on your
Workgroup Manager like mine. I would think most
likely the no home directory setting in the user's
account.
Hope that sheds some light for you.
Wayne
Wayne, with your lab accounts - do they auto-create with '99' or their proper short name? Additionally, does another folder '99' get created at the root level of the hard drive as mine still do?
I have tried everything that I can think of but regardless, mobile account creation does not want to work as seamlessly and effortlessly as it does with 10.3.9. All I want is to continue to have managed user accounts on my (10.4.x) server, no network home, mobile accounts created on each (10.4.x) Mac in the lab. That isn't happening. I'm at the point of giving up and fogetting about an OS upgrade for 2 labs.

User Account deleted, but Home folder still visible

Deleted a user account within the System Preferences > Accounts and restarted the computer, but the "deleted" account is still visible under Finder > Users.
It failed to delete the account when I tried to 1st option of saving to .DMG - so I chose the 3rd option i.e.: to remove the Home folder. this seemed to work OK as the User Account is no longer presented as available to Login.
Don't understand why?
Thanks

Apple offers the option saving the user file as a disk image or delete the account, but keep the files in the account, or get rid of it entirely. The first two options make it possible to recreate the user account. You must move the file out of the User directory to rename (remove (deleted)) from the name. Place the folder back into the User directory and create another login using the same name as the file and the system will ask you if you want to use the above mentioned folder as the home folder. Click yes and the user is back as if it never left.
Why would I want to bother? You might find that there was something left in the user folder that you want to retrieve. Another reason, I consider even more significant is if I am having problems with a user account and it is isolated to that account, I will use this method to hopefully clear up any corruption within the account.

[SOLVED] Home folder full & can't figure out why (MBs not matching up)

/home (as a partition) is 5GB and completely full... however, XFE, emelfm2, and PCManFM all see the home "folder" as being between 1.3GB and 1.8GB full... I am under the impression that I have a ghost file SOMEWHERE that even root can't properly detect, as it's not making any sense. What tools can I use to figure out why my /home partition is full?
Note: XFE, when checking the properties of the home partition vs home folder, it also shows the partition as full and the contents of the folder as 1.5GB or so. I can't shut down the computer, as I'm transferring large files from one flash drive to another (and my /tmp is on another partition and is 1% full out of 3.8GB. The comand 'df' returns that the partition is full as well... all tools, whether accessed via root or user, are telling me contradicting things: partition full, folder 40%(ish) and it's driving me mad! Any and all help is, and will be, GREATLY appreciated!
SOLUTION:
installed ncdu from repos, used command 'ncdu /home' and found which folder was the culprit... I had a large transfer going overnight that wasn't going when I got back in the morning, so the disk wasn't at 100% when I got back (not sure why any space was taken up by the transfer since the tmp folder is NOT in /home and the transfer wasn't to or from /home, but that may be an issue for another day).
Last edited by CPUnltd (2012-01-25 20:37:44)

trash was empty, lost+found could be a possibility... what is ncdu?
EDIT:
figured out what ncdu is, can't believe I'd never seen this program before!!! will be using it to track down the issue tomorrow! THANKS!!!
Last edited by CPUnltd (2012-01-25 08:58:32)

I have a new mac book pro. i am using a usb not associated with my mac. when trying to download films onto the usb it keeps saying no space on it but its not full what can i do?

i've just bought a new macbook pro retina. i am using a usb not assocciated with this mac. when i try to download movies onto the usb it keeps coming back saying its full when i know there is plenty of space left. what can i do to correct this problem? do i need to buy a new usb? thanks

empty your trash
then open disk utility and reformat it
as mac journaled if you only want to use it for a mac
if you want to use it for both mac and PCs, select the partition tab, choose 1, format exfat and MBR under options
enjoy

Plenty of space for Download, but it will not complete.

The loading dialog box remains open with the bar going madly from left to right. Load never finishes. Had same problem yesterday. Finally gave up. Trying again today with same result. I have 9 GB of space available so that's not the issue.

''richr12 [[#question-1037143|said]]''
<blockquote>
The loading dialog box remains open with the bar going madly from left to right. Load never finishes. Had same problem yesterday. Finally gave up. Trying again today with same result. I have 9 GB of space available so that's not the issue.
</blockquote>

My MacPro says the startup disk is too full. I have 4 internal hard drives that have 2T each so there is plenty of space, but all start up programs, libraries, iTunes and application folder are on the '1st' hard drive. Can I move any to 2nd drive?

My MacPro says the startup disk is too full. I have 4 internal hard drives that have 2T each so there is plenty of space, but all start up programs, libraries, iTunes and application folder are on the '1st' hard drive. Can I move any to 2nd drive?

Your system will likely fit just fine on a small fast 250GB SSD
What you have is lots of stuff that should not be on the boot drive, data and graphics or media files and libraries that should be moved to another drive.
If you are getting a message like this, STOP, off load files, make room, and make sure to have 15% free or more.
Do not try to move anything from system and its library and sub folders. Move your home user account and just leave the essential home library but move all the rest.
A full drive can have trouble finding free space segments and writing out updates to files and to the directory. And loss of directory means loss of where files are located and their segments.

Home folder using more HD space then what's in it.

I am having a space issue my home folder shows it's using 550 GB when the folders inside of it add up to only about 100 GB. Anyone know why it thinks there is more in it?
things I have done:
Disk verify - says it's ok
repaired permmissions
searched for hidden files - nothing of significance showed up
My total HD space is 750
the programs I use most often are:
Mail
Firefox
final cut pro x
and a data base for my work called acctvantage

There are plenty of files in your home folder you won't see in finder.
Google for the command to "show all files" in Finder, or open up Terminal and enter:
du -chd 1
This will generate a size report for ALL files and top-level folders, you can increase the number "1" to go deeper into your subfolders if needed. Here is part of what I get on my machine:
[15:35:43] rcooke@Richards-MacBook-Pro-4 ~
$ du -chd 1
4.0K          ./.adobe
4.0K          ./.config
4.0K          ./.cups
2.9M          ./.dropbox
16K          ./.freemind
24K          ./.ix
0B          ./.jfreereport
4.0K          ./.MacOSX
48K          ./.macports
8.0K          ./.parallels
28K          ./.pylint.d
128K          ./.python-eggs
12K          ./.ssh
8.0K          ./.ssh_new
132K          ./.subversion
588K          ./.swt
3.2M          ./.Trash
8.0K          ./.wxglade
0B          ./.Xcode
420K          ./Applications
18M          ./Applications (Parallels)
234M          ./Desktop
28G          ./Documents
707M          ./Downloads
30M          ./Dropbox
1.0M          ./GLUCOFACTS Deluxe
3.2M          ./InstallShield
45G          ./Library
73G          ./Movies
12G          ./Music
61G          ./Pictures
54G          ./Public
9.3G          ./Shared
0B          ./Sites
208K          ./SugarTests
392K          ./T1
14M          ./T2
520K          ./T3
115M          ./T4
204M          ./T5
2.0M          ./test
2.5M          ./Test2
283G          .
283G          total
Anything starting with a dot (.), called dot-files or dot-folders is ignored by Finder. That is because these are behind-the-scenes files. Chances are one of your apps is maintaining a HUGE temporary file or cache.
Oh yeah, your "Library" folder is also hidden by default, but pressing ALT while the GO menu is open in Finder will reveal a link to it. Likewise, any of your apps could be keeping a HUGE library file inside of the library folder.
To list hidden files in terminal use:
ls -laGh
To get more information on either command use:
man man
man du
man ls
Arrow up/down to navigate, press "q" to exit.
Fixed a typo in the "du" command example that would cause an error.

On 10.4.11 Mac Mail I get this: Mail cannot update your mailboxes because your home directory is full. You must free up space in your home folder before using Mail. Delete unnedded documents or move documents to another volume. I can't open mail.

On 10.4.11 iMac Mac Mail I get this message: "Mail cannot update your mailboxes because your home directory is full. You must free up space in your home folder before using Mail. Delete unneeded documents or move documents to another volume." I can't open mail to do this. I have reinstalled software but no effect. How do I get into Mail to delete?

Found this on the "more like this" Worked like a charm!
With the Mail.app quit and using the Finder, go to Home > Library > Mail. Copy the Mail folder and place the copy on the Desktop for backup purposes.
Go to Home > Library > Mail > Envelope Index. Move the Envelope Index file to the Desktop.
Launch Mail and you will be prompted to import mailboxes. Select OK and allow the import process to complete.
After confirming all mailboxes were successfully imported and available, you can delete the copy of the Mail folder and old Envelope Index file from the Desktop and this should resolve the problem.

Free space in Home Folder???

I have been away on holiday and have now come back to the following message when using Mail on my computer:
*You must free up space in your home folder before using Mail. Delete unneeded documents or move documents to another volume.* It then closes the Mail function down. Additionally, it downloads several copies of the same email, no matter how many times I delete them!
Help!

I have asked the moderators to move this thread to the Tiger forum.
But in the meantime:
Why have you not updated to Tiger 10.4.11 and the latest security updates>
Before you do, I suggest you undertake a bit of maintenance:
Repairing permissions is important, and should always be carried out both before and after any software installation or update.
Go to Disk Utility (this is in your Utilities Folder in your Application folder) and click on the icon of your hard disk (not the one with all the numbers).
In First Aid, click on Repair Permissions.
This only takes a minute or two in Tiger, but much longer in Leopard.
Background information here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751
and here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302672
An article on troubleshooting Permissions can be found here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2963
By the way, you can ignore any messages about SUID or ACL file permissions, as explained here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1448?viewlocale=en_US
If you were having any serious problems with your Mac you might as well complete the exercise by repairing your hard disk as well. You cannot do this from the same start-up disk. Reboot from your install disk (holding down the C key). Once it opens, select your language, and then go to Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Select your hard disk as before and click Repair.
Once that is complete reboot again from your usual start-up disk.
More useful reading here:
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417?viewlocale=en_US

[SOLVED] /home folder is taking space on two partitions after install

Hi everyone,
At first I thought that I would just read these forums, however even after a few days of using Arch Linux I found one issue that was never been asked before (or asked in different way that I couldn't find).
So the problem that I cannot find solution for is that the files in /home folder are taking space on two partitions - on /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda4 and therefore making root partition run out of space.
Some information from commands to get more clear view:
[root@localhost ~]# df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2 20511356 18790980 655416 97% /
dev 5109884 0 5109884 0% /dev
run 5112632 592 5112040 1% /run
tmpfs 5112632 2696 5109936 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5112632 0 5112632 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs 5112632 34612 5078020 1% /tmp
/dev/sda4 215038368 15923256 188168744 8% /home
tmpfs 1022528 12 1022516 1% /run/user/1000
[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# /dev/sda2
UUID=a2160300-9ce0-4a88-8e29-ee87d1ee0d96 / ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 1
# /dev/sda4
UUID=7e762343-1762-481e-b433-be9edaca18bb /home ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 2
# /dev/sda3
UUID=096fb727-255c-4aac-b200-0baa929dd9b7 none swap defaults 0 0
[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/mtab
rootfs / rootfs rw 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime 0 0
sys /sys sysfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime 0 0
dev /dev devtmpfs rw,nosuid,relatime,size=5109884k,nr_inodes=1277471,mode=755 0 0
run /run tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,mode=755 0 0
/dev/sda2 / ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 0
securityfs /sys/kernel/security securityfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000 0 0
tmpfs /sys/fs/cgroup tmpfs ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,mode=755 0 0
cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd cgroup rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,xattr,release_agent=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-cgroups-agent,name=systemd 0 0
pstore /sys/fs/pstore pstore rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime 0 0
cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset cgroup rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpuset 0 0
cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu,cpuacct cgroup rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpu,cpuacct 0 0
cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup/memory cgroup rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,memory 0 0
cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup/devices cgroup rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,devices 0 0
cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer cgroup rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,freezer 0 0
cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup/net_cls cgroup rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,net_cls 0 0
cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio cgroup rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,blkio 0 0
systemd-1 /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc autofs rw,relatime,fd=21,pgrp=1,timeout=300,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct 0 0
mqueue /dev/mqueue mqueue rw,relatime 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs rw,relatime 0 0
configfs /sys/kernel/config configfs rw,relatime 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs rw 0 0
hugetlbfs /dev/hugepages hugetlbfs rw,relatime 0 0
/dev/sda4 /home ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 0
fusectl /sys/fs/fuse/connections fusectl rw,relatime 0 0
tmpfs /run/user/1000 tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,size=1022528k,mode=700,uid=1000,gid=100 0 0
gvfsd-fuse /run/user/1000/gvfs fuse.gvfsd-fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=100 0 0
[root@localhost ~]# lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 238.5G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 1007K 0 part
├─sda2 8:2 0 20G 0 part /
├─sda3 8:3 0 10G 0 part [SWAP]
└─sda4 8:4 0 208.5G 0 part /home
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
I have checked three times the commands that I ran when installing Arch Linux with a few tutorials including beginner's guide but don't see where could be the issue. Maybe any of you know what could be the problem here?
Last edited by juraskaz (2014-10-29 18:13:02)

drcouzelis wrote:
juraskaz wrote:Some information from commands to get more clear view:
I'm so confused. O_O What is the problem? The output of those commands are all consistent: "/dev/sda2" is mounted as "/" and "/dev/sda4" is mounted as "/home".
Are you saying that when you create a 1GB file in "/home" that 1GB of space becomes used in BOTH "/home" and "/"?
One thing that MIGHT be suspicious is your use of "/dev/sda4". In a traditional BIOS setup, partitions 1 - 3 are primary partitions and partition 4 is an extended partition. How is your drive partitioned? Could that be related to whatever problem you're seeing?
Thank you drcouzelis for pointing me in the right direction! I thought that creating 1 GB in /home would be used in both /home and /, however when I did that only /home have changed. So I started checking what is causing / to fill out and found that it was the backup of home to the root!
Thank you for your time

File Vault requires free space equal to size of Home Folder?

Is it true that File Vault requires you maintain free disk space equal to the size of your home folder? Or is that only necessary in order to create the vault in the first place?

I'm really sorry but I still am no clear if you gave me an answer to my original question, which was "Is it true that File Vault requires you maintain free disk space equal to the size of your home folder?"
I understand I need to have free space equal to the size of my Home Folder for initial encryption.
I understand I need to have free space equal to the size of my Home Folder should I decide to restore (or unencrypt) the encrypted folder. This is easy to do by simply moving files off to an external drive.
I understand that having a full drive can result in degredation of system performance.
What is still not clear to me, is whether I must maintain that space during day to day operation.
Realistically, my Home Folder is about 90GB, after having removed graphics and music files. I would prefer not to have to maintain 90gb of free space during normal operation. If my drive has 30gb or more of free space, that should be more than enough to maintain reasonable system performance.

How do I install OSX onto a new SSD (in the place of my optical drive) without transferring all data across. However, with the applications, system and library on the SSD to improve the speed, but keep non essential items (the home folder) on the HDD

I have a mid 2009 13 inch unibody 2.53GHz MacBook Pro. I'm finding that it doesn't run as quickly as it used to.
A genius in the Apple store suggested that I replace my optical drive with an SSD, however only use the SSD for OSX, applications, system and library. Keep all documents, pictures, music etc on the current hard drive.
I would be grateful if someone could help me with:
1) installing OSX on the SSD without copying across data from the current hard drive
2) transferring applications, system and library folders across to the SSD so that they still function
3) changing my settings so that OSX reads the home folder from the current hard drive, as well as all the applications' data (documents, music etc...)
However, I would like to run iMovie, with all events etc solely from the SSD to speed up the process of editing movies.
If anyone could help with this, it would be much appreciated.

If you got the data transfer cable with your SSD, the procedure should be pretty simple - and there should be step-by-step instructions in the box. You're simply going to remove the bottom case of your computer (using a Phillips #00 screwdriver), take out the two screws in the bracket holding the hard drive into place (using same screwdriver), remove the drive and (use a Torx 6 screwdriver) remove the four screws that hold the hard drive in place. Then put in the SSD and reassemble the machine.
Then you'll plug up the old hard drive by using the SATA to USB cable and use the option key to boot from the old drive. I don't know what data transfer software Crucial provides, but I would recommend formatting the SSD using Disk Utility from your old drive ("Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" with a single GUID partition) and then use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your old drive to your new SSD (see this user tip for cloning - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4122). You needn't worry about getting an enclosure since you have the data transfer cable and you don't want to use your old hard drive.
There are a number of videos on YouTube that take you step-by-step through this procedure - many specific to Crucial SSDs and their data transfer kit - do a little searching there if you're unsure of how to procede.
Clinton

Plenty of space on HD, but "Home Folder" full

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