User folder size confusion

Hello
I'm in the process of cleansing my original Startup disc so I can swap the HHD with a SSD
I've moved across what I can to another drive and I'm now left with just the 'User' folder (my name), and inside that a 'Pictures' folder. This contains both Lightroom and Aperture catalogues.
My question is, if I right click on the 'User' folder the Get Info box pops up showing 201GBs, however, if I Get Info on the 'Pictures' folder, this shows 41GBs - where is the other 160GBs??
Many thanks
Steve

Once I understood your instruction - I found 160GB in Library
Many thanks - I will now delete some more...
Steve
Sorry - you answered my question - the other answer appear as I clicked 'this solved my problem'

Similar Messages

HT4889 Migration assistant is showing user folder sizes much larger than in finder

I am migrating my system from a HD to a 256 GB SSD on a mac Pro.
The move is all internal from Bay 1 to Bay 4.
I did a fresh install of Mountain Lion on the SSD.
I now have about 199 Gb free on the SSD.
When I went to use the Migration assistant to move users it shows the user folders to be >300 GB, even though they read as being less than 30 GB when I look at then in the finder.
I already store my iTunes, videos etc in separate folders outside the user folders.
What is going on?
How to I address this?

Probably Time Machine local snapshots. Even if your TM disk isn't connected, local snapshots are created.

Users Folder. HELP

My users folder size is calculated at almost 13 GB. There is nothing really in there that I can tell. I noticed because I am running out of hard drive space. After trashing and emptying 7 GB worth of stuff my hard drive only regained about a gig. HELP. Someone.

The icon that looks like a house is your homespace. It should be named the same as your username. I'm not sure why the file is locked though. Did you look inside your homespace to see what was taking up the 12.4 GB? Generally its people's music or picture folder, depending whether they have a lot of pictures or songs. If you don't have anything that's unnecessary in your homespace I would recommend getting an external drive (personally I like the firewire powered ones 'cause then I don't have to worry about having an extra outlet). If you have any questions about something that seems to big, don't hesitate to ask. HTH.
-NifflerX

How best to move user folder to a Mac Mini + external drive

I am streamlining my desktop computer setup. Whereas before I was using a PowerMac G5 as my primary desktop computer, I realize I am using my MacBook Pro more often, so in the interests of conserving space, I will be switching over to a Mac Mini connected to my AV system for hosting all my iTunes music, videos, media, photos, etc.
Here is where I need advice. My PowerMac has a lot more media on it than can fit on the internal hard drive of a Mac Mini. I have already secured a 1 TB external drive which will be permanently connected to the Mac Mini, but I am unsure as to how to best go about copying my data to it.
My initial thought was that I could move the iTunes music folder to the external drive using the library consolidation feature, and I could copy my iPhoto library to it, then point the respective applications to the new location. However, I want the external to act as my home folder where the OS looks for all my personal data, including movies, documents, etc.
I know there is a procedure for changing your home folder's location to an external drive, but because of the limited size of the Mac Mini's internal HD, I would like to use migration assistant when I first start using the Mac Mini. Should I hold off on moving the home folder until after I have migrated, or can it be done beforehand?
Anyone have any thoughts or ideas? Thanks!

Thanks for the procedure. It seems very easy, but I am wondering about the consequences depending on when I do it. For example, let's say I first copy my entire home folder to the 1 TB external drive, set up the PowerMac to use it as my home folder, then use migration assistant to import my user accounts, applications, and settings onto the Mac Mini. Will it try to extract the data from the external drive onto the Mac Mini's internal drive? There won't be enough room for everything.
As an alternative, I can move my iTunes library and iPhoto library onto the 1 TB external first, keeping the rest of my user data in its original location. Then it can fit on the Mac Mini, and I can do the migration, then move the home folder to the 1TB external once it's all up and running on the new computer.
Which will work best?
I had heard about people using a single drive as their home folder across multiple computers, but that is not the case for me. My MacBook Pro will become my primary computer, but I intend to keep it clear of media, whereas the MacMini will become my media server for my AV system in my living room. The 1 TB will be constantly connected to the Mac Mini, so there shouldnt be a problem with starting it up once the user folder location has been moved.

How can I force Time Machine to make a complete backup of my Hard Drive. I just installed a new external drive for Backup since my previous one failed. Now when I back up, Time Machine only backs up my data folder and the Users folder.

How can I force Time Machine to make a complete backup of my Hard Drive. I just installed a new external drive for Backup since my previous one failed. Now when I back up, Time Machine only backs up my data folder and the Users folder.
When I start a backup. Time Machine says "Oldest Backup: None; Latest Backup: None", so it seems like it should do a complete backup, but it only does a partial.

Hi I'd like to jump in here. Your app showed me this:
Time Machine:
          Skip System Files: NO
          Mobile backups: OFF
          Auto backup: YES
          Volumes being backed up:
                    Macintosh HD: Disk size: 749.3 GB Disk used: 453.81 GB
          Destinations:
                    Plastic Wrapper [Local] (Last used)
                    Total size: 999.86 GB
                    Total number of backups: 64
                    Oldest backup: 2013-07-24 23:25:11 +0000
                    Last backup: 2013-11-17 01:40:47 +0000
                    Size of backup disk: Too small
                              Backup size 999.86 GB < (Disk used 453.81 GB X 3)
          Time Machine details may not be accurate.
          All volumes being backed up may not be listed.
          /sbin excluded from backup!
          /usr excluded from backup!
          /System excluded from backup!
          /bin excluded from backup!
          /private excluded from backup!
          /Library excluded from backup!
          /Applications excluded from backup!
Aside from the size of my backup drive, which I will increase at some point, I'd really like to have time machine backing up all system folders, especially Applications. How to I reset this hidden exclusions?
Thanks,
Darcy

Why do I need Library at root level AND a library in the admin user folder?

I have three user accounts in my macbook, I share it with two brothers. I'm the "administrator". Under my user account there is a library folder, same as with the other two users. But I also have a library folder at the root level when I open the "Macintosh HD" icon on the desktop. I notice that both the library at my user folder and the one in the root folder have items that have been updated recently.
While I noticed that the individual user libraries are "normal" in size, the one at the root level is 11 GB.
Why do I need the library at the root level? Can I consolidate that with the Library in my user folder?
Thanks!

Why do I need the library at the root level?
For items which apply to all user accounts.
Can I consolidate that with the Library in my user folder?
No.
(57249)

How can I access my user folder on a second boot partition?

Hi there. Thank you for reading this. I am at a bit of a loss although I have searched several forums to find someone having the same problem:
I use my Macbook Pro in the office and at home. To keep things strictly apart and have to separate Time Machine backup procedures, I have divided my harddrive into two boot partitions ('office' and 'private') and installed Mountain Lion on both of them. Now occasionally when I am at the office I would like to access my user folder on 'private' to retrieve a file from the documents folder there (e.g. a paper I gave in my free time but would like to send to a colleague). Now although I see the 'private' volume, and the other user folder and the Documents folder in it with a red 'No Access' badge, even when I set read/write permissions via Command-I > Permissions for my current account, I do not see any files in it apart from Microsoft User Data. I have tried enabling the root user but with the sam result.
Do I really have to shut down the computer and boot with the 'private' boot volume in order to access the files on 'private'>user?
Looking forward to your suggestions! Thank you in advance!
Christian

To solve this issue permanently, is to first disconnect both TimeMachine drives.
Boot into one partition and consider it history, make a note of everything, apps, export bookmarks, serial keys and files to a regular external drive. (non TimeMachine)
If on a hard drive, consider the first partition for performance, the second one is going to be slower. (SSD no need)
Next what you do is boot into the first partition and use Disk Utility to erase (with zero option if a hard drive) the other partition. Then use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the first partition to the second. (should be about equal sizes or tweak before cloning.)
Repair permissions on both partitions in Disk Utility.
Next boot into the second partition and install/uninstall apps and files. etc and set it backup up the way you had it.
Once your sure, then update TimeMachine for each one.
Now you will be able to easily access the other bootable partition as long as your logged into the same account name on the first partition., in other words you can access the same named account on both partitions and trade files without rebooting.
Because it's a clone, you have the same access privileges to the files on the other partition.
If your a power user, your going to find bootable clones are a much superior option than TimeMachine
Most commonly used backup methods

Missing files, user folder, application folder and system folder

I am using a MacBook Pro 2011 model with OS X 10.9.4.
Since I bought the machine several years ago, I have had only a few small problems with it. Yesterday I wanted to reduce the size of a video, so I downloaded a video compressor/converter software, and left the computer on and the program compressing my video whilst I went off to work. When I returned home, the compressing program had a pop-up saying ''Could not complete compression, system full'' or something along those lines.... After trying to play the movie without success, I decided that I would restart my computer, as it had been on all day.
When the computer restarted, it came up with the grey loading bar, which usually comes up when I have done a software update. It disappeared quite soon and several minutes later, my user profile appeared. I logged in as normal, and then tried to open my browser. An error message popped up stating"Can't open user profile directory, because you lack sufficient privileges. You might want to contact the administrator of this machine". I then tried to open other programs and they all came up with similar messages and did not open. Skype stated "Can't create a lock file at Users/Lauren/Library...etc".
I then went to Finder to look at my applications and they were ALL GONE! Then I went to a folder I have with all my files called "My files", and although the primary folders were visible, "SCHOOL,WORK, HOLIDAYS PICS, etc", these folders were empty. I then checked my User folder, and my systems folder and these were empty too. However, the Desktop and Documents folders still contain the documents that were previously there, and my background images remained the same.
I tried to open Word, and although it is also missing from the applications folder, and it opened, also allowing me to open a document which I know is located within the 'empty' folders. I have a feeling that my documents and files are still on my computer, but I don't know how to access them!
Please if someone could shed light on the situation! All my work files and personal files are on this computer and I would be devastated to loose them!
Let me know if you need any more ino or screen shots!
Kind regards,
Lauren

OS X- Gray progress bar appears under Apple logo during startup
You need to start by doing the following:
Reinstall Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks without erasing drive
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the 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 and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair
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. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks
OS X Mavericks- Reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Reinstall Mac OS X
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

Share Point folder size limit - File Services

I created a new folder inside a share point using Server Admin. Is there a way to set a folder size limit (quota) for that folder.
P.S. I am NOT talking about user accounts quotas for home folders created using Workgroup Manager! ...Just any new folder created, to be used on any volume, is there a way to set a mamimum size?
For example I have a 1TB volume on my Xserve RAID. I create a new folder but want to set its maximum capacity to 200GB. Is that possible?
Thank you very much in advance for any feedback.

There's no direct way to set a limit on a folder size.
The 'simplest' method I can think of is to create partitions on your disk of the appropriate sizes and share these - they will have inherent size limits based on the size of the partition. It's a little messier but should solve your issue.
:: thinking :: you might be able to use disk images rather than partitions, although I've never tried sharing a mounted disk image, and you'd need to address automounting the disk images when the server starts, so it might not be viable.

Installing OS/user folder on one drive, apps on another

I have two Velociraptor drive that are RAID striped as my startup disk. It's caused some some problems. (like Boot Camp won't work on RAIDs, Each drive shows up separately when Option key booting, etc)
So I'm thinking of splitting them up into two normal drives. But at 300GB each, they aren't big enough to store all my big apps, the OS and my huge user folder.
I heard there's some problems keeping/linking your user folder to a non-startup drive.
But is it possible to install apps on a non-startup drive? Do they all expect to be on the startup drive? Do I need to remap the HD/Applications folder? Many apps (esp. Adobe's) install lots of files in HD/Library/Application Support. Is that going to confuse things?
Love to hear some tips/warnings/suggestions.

But is it possible to install apps on a non-startup drive? Do they all expect to be on the startup drive? Do I need to remap the HD/Applications folder? Many apps (esp. Adobe's) install lots of files in HD/Library/Application Support. Is that going to confuse things?
There are basically two kinds of program installation methods for the Mac - those that are dragged and those that use an installer. Any program that is installed by dragging can safely be placed on a secondary drive. Those that use an installer are a bit more iffy. Some installers let you specify the installation location and these too can safely be placed on a secondary drive.
Those that automatically install in the Application folder of the boot drive - I'd hesitate to move them. The problem isn't that they won't run properly; what I'm concerned about is updates. If a programmer/vender expects the program to be placed in the boot drive Applications folder then its updater will probably expect it to be there too and the update will fail. To reduce confusion I'd keep these programs on the drive where they were installed and make an alias of them to the secondary drive.

Folder size is twice that of its contents????

Startup Disk > Users > Username
My Username folder shows a folder size that is just about double the size of all of its visible folders. I can see this when viewed in the Finder in List View with Folder Size Shown as my default View setting.    Any idea how I can figure out what is going on?
thanks
Brad

Topher,
Before I saw your reply, I emptied my trash and that brought the folder size down to what it should be to match its contents. I should have remembered that. None the less, I did what you suggested once I read your message and here it is:
total 2240
drwxr-xrwx 34 brad 503       1156 Feb 27 16:13 .
drwxr-xr-x   7 root admin      238 Dec 1 08:00 ..
-r--------   1 brad 503          7 Dec 1 07:48 .CFUserTextEncoding
-rw-r--r--@ 1 brad 503      12292 Mar 1 16:22 .DS_Store
drwx------   5 brad 503        170 Mar 1 16:42 .Trash
drwxr-x--x   4 brad 503        136 Apr 19 2011 .adobe
drwxr-xr-x@ 3 brad 503        102 Apr 27 2011 .autodesk
-rw-------   1 brad 503        546 Feb 15 2012 .bash_history
drwxr-xr-x   6 brad 503        204 Aug 28 2014 .blurb
drwx------   3 brad 503        102 Feb 27 2014 .cache
drwxr-xr-x   4 brad 503        136 Feb 27 2014 .config
drwx------   3 brad 503        102 Dec 6 2010 .cups
-rw-r--r--   1 brad 503    1109647 Sep 23 2011 .fonts.cache-1
drwxr-xr-x   2 brad 503         68 Jun 18 2013 .gs5
drwxr-xr-x   3 brad 503        102 Sep 6 2011 .local
-rw-r--r--   1 brad 503        239 Sep 6 2011 .mailcap
-rw-r--r--   1 brad 503        368 Sep 6 2011 .mime.types
drwxr-xr-x   3 brad 503        102 Dec 18 2012 .viewcd
-rw-r--r--   1 brad 503         90 Apr 17 2013 .vuescanrc
drwxr-xr-x   8 brad 503        272 Jun 26 2014 .wapi
drwxr-xr-x   4 brad 503        136 Dec 4 12:23 Applications
drwx------@ 3 brad 503        102 Dec 20 11:44 Creative Cloud Files
drwx---rwx@ 40 brad 503       1360 Mar 1 16:48 Desktop
drwx---rwx+ 7 brad 503        238 Nov 12 18:30 Documents
drwx------+ 3 brad 503        102 Feb 20 16:42 Downloads
drwx------@ 4 brad 503        136 Feb 22 22:43 Google Drive
drwxrwxr-x   5 brad admin      170 Dec 7 18:07 Incompatible Software
drwx------+ 66 brad 503       2244 Mar 1 15:07 Library
drwx------+ 5 brad 503        170 Sep 21 19:42 Movies

User folder larger than Macintosh HD

I am trying to merge my user onto an iMac with an existing user. I checked the size of my Time Machine backup and it looked like there was ample room on the target machine. However, when I attempted to move my user using Migration Assistant, I was told that there was not enough space. As it turns out, my user folder is occupying more space than what Macintosh HD reports it is using. I have used both Finder and Disk Utility to confirm this. I have attached screenshots of the finder results for both Macintosh HD and my user folder. I am on OS X Yosemite version 10.10.3, on a 24-inch early 2008 iMac (this is the machine that I will be getting rid of).I've tried the following suggestions, but so far the problem persists:
Starting up in the Recovery partition and repairing Macintosh HD, but it said there was nothing wrong with the disk.
I have repaired disk permissions several times
Run fsck from Single User Mode, all to no avail.
I've manually deleted the .DS_Store files from Macintosh HD and my user folder and then relaunched Finder
I have also attempted to force Spotlight to reindex my entire hard drive
So at this point I'm at a loss to explain the discrepancy in size and don't know of any other options. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

I used Disk Utility to repair permissions and this is what I got.
'Warning: SUID file "usr/libexec/load_hdi" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DiskManagement.framework/Versions/A/Resources /DiskManagementTool" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DesktopServicesPriv.framework/Versions/A/Reso urces/Locum" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Install.framework/Versions/A/Resources/runner " has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Admin.framework/Versions/A/Resources/readconf ig" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Admin.framework/Versions/A/Resources/writecon fig" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "usr/libexec/authopen" has been modified and will not be repaired.
ACL found but not expected on "System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/Sites".
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/OwnerGroupTool" has been modified and will not be repaired.
ACL found but not expected on "Users/Shared".
ACL found but not expected on "Users".
ACL found but not expected on "Users/.localized".
ACL found but not expected on "Users/Shared/.localized".
I can't tell what it means cos I'm just a regular user with no Unix knowledge. Anyway, now other computers on my network can't see me as a User, only sees the Shared Folder. Could it be because I upgraded to Leopard ?

Folder Size Exceed Disk Size

I am using Western Digital 2TB external HDD for Time Machine backup for 3 Mac. The remaining disk space now is 733GB. I am confused that one of the backup folder occupy more than 2TB. And the other 2 folders are still calculating since I started about 6 hours ago.
My 2 questions are:
1) Why the folder size is 3.13TB which is more than the physical size of the harddisk
2) Why it is taking such a long time to compute the disk space for the other two folder

Hi,
Actually, it may be a display error, anyway I would record this issue.
Although, I would give you some short description about this issue.
Files would have two properties about size:
Size: is the actual size of the file in bytes.
Size on disk: is the actual amount of space being take up on the disk.
I believe Windows Explorer is invoking GetCompressedFileSize function to retrieves the actual number of bytes of disk storage used to store a specified file. If the file is located on a volume that supports compression and the file is
compressed, the value obtained is the compressed size of the specified file.
We can see everything works well in Windows 8 and previous versions. To prove this is a misread issue, let’s use GetCompressedFileSize function to see if we can retrieve the right value of compressed file size.
Here is the first picture in Windows 8:
The second is in Windows 8.1, but we use PowerShell script to retrieve the right value:
About the whole process, you can refer to this article:
Get the size of a file on disk
http://www.powershellmagazine.com/2013/10/31/pstip-get-the-size-of-a-file-on-disk/
GetCompressedFileSize function
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa364930(v=vs.85).aspx
So, I think it just don't read the compressed file size successfully, so it use the "Size" value directly to calculate the Size on disk.
Hope this could make it clear.
Alex Zhao
TechNet Community Support

Folder size in OS 10.4.7?

I've upgraded an eMac to 10.4.7, but now there is no way to calculate folder size in the Get Info window. Other users say that there is a box to check on the View Options submenu, but there is nothing on the submenu I see.
Is this possible in 10.4.7 or is it a problem with the 4 year old eMac?
Thanks for any help. I need to clean up some files that take up lots of disk space, but need to know where the biggest hogs are located.
-wayne

But what do you mean by not deleting things?
Many files located outside your home folder are necessary for Mac OS X to run correctly, and shouldn't be deleted; this includes several folders which aren't visible in the Finder by default. Basically, if you don't know what a specific item's purpose is, don't delete it.
(15354)

Trying to compress Mail folder size

I like to archive all my emails, but I noticed that the folder for Mail was getting rather large (4GB). I thought if I manually removed all the various attachments, it would make the folder size a little more manageable. But after trying with a few of the archive mailboxes (even though the attachments have successfully been removed), it seems the size of the folders are still the same. Does Mail still save the attachments despite not having them attached to messages? Am I going about this the wrong way? I don't want to lose the actual correspondences but most of the attachments are unnecessary. Please help. Thanks.

Hi , and a warm welcome to the forums!
Depending what you want to archive...
First Quit Mail, then I'd backup these two Mail folders, by right clicking on them in the Finder, then choose Archive/Compress.
Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail
Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail Downloads
(Could be a different folder here if you chose such in Mail Prefs)
Right click on that Mail folder, choose archive, you'll get everything in the folder, and the folder itself in a file called Mail.zip, move it to a safe place, same for the Mail Downloads folder... only the plist is separate.
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

User folder size confusion

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