What's taking up my disk space?

I have an iMac with a 500-gig drive. All my photos and videos are on an external drive. According to "info" the internal drive has 384Mb of disk space left! For the life of me I can't find what is taking up all the disk space and it's driving me crazy. Any way to find what directory, or directories are chewing up all the disk space? I have OS X 10.6.8.

no, it works in Snow Leopard. I used Snow Leopard before I installed Lion. Being new to mac, you will find these links helpful: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343, http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/, http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/

Similar Messages

What is taking up my disk space?

I have a Mac Book Pro, and I have almost no disk space left. I think I know where the problem is...I take a lot of pictures. But when I load them to iPhoto, it saves them in multiple folders: Original, Modified and Recovered. Can I delete one or more of these folders? The last time I tried something like that, I lost all of my thumbnails in iPhoto, making it useless. I compressed a folder then un-compressed it, and they were all gone. I really don't know what to do here. Can anyone tell me exactly what's going on?

You are in the Leopard Server forum. You may find better answers in the iLife forum.

How do i find out what is taking up so much space on my hard drive

Hi,
My hard drive has a capacity of 27GB abd i only have 3GB available. How can i find out what is taking up so much space?

Look at these links.
Where did my disk space go?
http://www.macfixitforums.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Forum38&Number=770243
Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html
Increase HD Free Space
http://macosx.com/forums/howto-faqs/275191-how-easily-increase-hd free-space-laptop.html
How to free up my disk space
http://www.macmaps.com/diskfull.html
 Cheers, Tom

HT201656 In itunes my iphone shows up as having nearly 8G of "Other"...what is taking up all this space?

In itunes my iphone shows up as having nearly 8GB of "Other"...what is taking up all this space?
On the iphone itself under settings, general, usage it indicates 12.7GB used and only 840MB available. I have one app (Audible) that is taking up 1.6GB, photos&camera take up 636MB, Spotify takes up 495MB, everything else takes up less less than 100MB each and totalling less than 2.5GB.
So if Audible is taking up 1.6GB and Spotify is taking up 636MB and all other apps take up 2.5GB this combined totals around 5GB. I have a 16GB iphone 4s.
16GB minus 5GB (my calculated usage) equals 11GB remaining. Allow for some required space utilization (let's say 3GB) and that leaves 8GB remaining. Why does my phone indicate 840MB available? That seems to equate to the amount shown in itunes that indicates 8GB of "other".
What is this 8GB of "other" that is taking up so much storage space on my iphone?
Thanks in advance.
John

johncdaly1955 wrote:
In itunes my iphone shows up as having nearly 8GB of "Other"...what is taking up all this space?
Other is usually around 1 GB...
A ' Large Other ' usually indicates Corrupt Data...
First Try a Restore from Backup...
But... if the Large Other Persists, that is an Indicator of Corrupt Data in the Backup...
Then a Restore as New is the way to go...
Details Here > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414
More Info Here...
maclife.com/how_remove_other_data_your_iphone
More Info about ‘Other’ in this Discussion
https://discussions.apple.com/message/19958116

How do I get rid of the "other" space that's taking up my disk space?

So my mac has been constantly giving me notifications about how my hardrive space is almost full. So I went into my storage space to find out what was taking up so much space on my laptop to find that this "other" seems to be taking up the most space. So I was just wondering how I can decrease this or how I can get rid of it?

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—not the mythical 10%, 15%, or any other percentage. 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. Ignore any other messages that appear in the Terminal window.
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.

In Shared services, Log Files taking lot of Disk space

Hi Techies,
I have a question. Its like the Logs in BI+ in Shared Service Server is taking lot of Disk space about 12 GB a day.
Following files are taking more space
Shared Service-Security-Client log ( 50 MB )
Server-message-usage Service.log ( About 7.5 GB )
why this is happening. Any suggestions to avoid this.
Thanks in Advance,
Sonu

Hi Techies,
I have a question. Its like the Logs in BI+ in Shared Service Server is taking lot of Disk space about 12 GB a day.
Following files are taking more space
Shared Service-Security-Client log ( 50 MB )
Server-message-usage Service.log ( About 7.5 GB )
why this is happening. Any suggestions to avoid this.
Thanks in Advance,
Sonu

What is taking up all my space?

I have an 16 GB iPad mini that says its using 6 GB of space, but my apps don't even come close to that amount of space. How can I find out what is taking up all my space? I know people will say to back up my iPad and restore, but I don't want to upgrade to iOS 7, so that is not an option for me. Thanks so much in advance!

If you are still on iOS 6 on your mini, you may have gotten the auto-pushed iOS 7 update download on your device. Check your device under Settings>General>Software Update. If you have a button there labeled "Install" for the iOS 7 update, the update has been pushed to your device by Apple without your knowledge or permission, then extracted from an approx 1GB download file to a ~3.1GB installation package which is now using ~3.1GB of your storage space. It happened to my iPad mini along with an 8GB iPhone 4 (~2.5GB - 3GB of space robbed from an 8GB device) as well. The actual size of the update after extracted can vary between ~2.5GB to over 3.1GB depending on the device.
See the following topics & links:
*Auto-pushed iOS 7 @ CNET
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57604701-37/ios-6-holdouts-complain-about-larg e-unwanted-ios-7-download/
*How do I delete auto download of ios7 (linked work-around on page 2)
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5379403?start=0&tstart=0
*How do I stop my iPad 3 from automatically downloading iOS upgrades (work-around)
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5385718?start=0&tstart=0
*Apple Forced iOS7 update on my iPad2 !
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5378130?start=0&tstart=0

I connected to itunes and it says i have 2.11 GB of space taken up under OTHER , i cant figure out what is taking up so much space can anyone help?

i connected to itunes and it says i have 2.11 GB of space taken up under OTHER , i cant figure out what is taking up so much space can anyone help?

I believe the new IOS 8 system takes up 1.3 Gb on it's own. Then plus anything else you may have loaded.

Just got the iPod Classic. What is taking up 12GB of space when it says it's empty? (Hoping to clear it)

Just got the iPod Classic. What is taking up 12GB of space when it says it's empty? (Hoping to clear it)

rockindon wrote:
What is taking up 12GB of space when it says it's empty?
The operating system and space reserved for the iPod to carry out its tasks, such as remembering what you have played and how many times you've played it (this information is Synced back to your iTunes Library at each Sync.) There is also a slight discrepancy in the way that storage size is calculated, which accounts for some of that 12GB.
rockindon wrote:
(Hoping to clear it)
You cannot.
You still have 148GB for storing your music, vidoes and Podcasts. That's quite a lot.
My music library is currently 115.78GB and is a mixture of songs at various Bit Rates. (The higher the Bit Rate, usually, the better the quality.) It has more than 17,000 songs and will play (non-stop) for 58 days.
If your Library becomes (or already is) larger than this, it is possible to set iTunes to automatically manage the content, by removing (for example) recently played songs (except any specific ones you always want on your iPod) and then to put back onto the iPod songs that haven't been played for a while.
If you would like any detail on how this is done, let us know.
In the meantime, enjoy your iPod.
Create your Library of music and - my advice is - to use Sync to add everything to your iPod. In other words, do not use Manually Manage. In the long run, Sync is easier. You can still fully control what is on the iPod using Sync. Again, if you need help, this is the place to ask. Generally speaking, the more points a user has, the more people feel that have been helped by that user.

What is taking up all the space on the hard drive?

My 500GB iMac is only 18 months old, and only has 115GB available. The two big users of space for me are iTunes, and iMovie, which between them account for 175 to 200GB. But what is taking up all the rest? I have a lot of photos in iPhoto, but am not sure how to find the usage of those, and doubt they account for a huge chunk. I use lots of apps, but do not have a significant number of additional programs, nor any presentations, spreadsheets, or other big users of space.
I would appreciate any suggestions for places to look for bug users of space. Also, are there any programs as there are in Windows for disk optimization?

I didn't mention iTunes, because it shouldn't have it's own trash. iMovie has it's own trash for what you trim from the original content when creating a video. This allows for undoing changes. Once the project is complete, you probably don't need those deleted clips - and they can take up a lot of space. I am not aware of this behavior changing in the new iMovie, but it may not have the same interface for clearing the trash as the previous versions.

VZ In Home Agent - Taking up all disk space

First off, my issue is resloved. Just throwing this out there for Verizon to take a look at.
My disk space would go from 250+ GB free in a few hours to 0 GB free. I couldn't figure it out.
After playing around a few days I found out it was the VZ In Home Agent. I had blocked it's access to the internet one my firewall popped up.
Removing the block on it thus cleared the issue out. There is a major flaw there. Not sure what it was attempting to connect for but it was taking up 250GB worth of my HD.
I have uninstalled all things Verizon since then.

Sounds like someone while making their programs forgot to place a cap on the size of the log files? I've seen that happen on a few web servers where if there was an issue with MySQL and PHP, would cause the MySQL Error logs to grow up to 700GB big in a matter of an hour before the server ran out of disk space and programs failed to run.
========
The first to bring me 1Gbps Fiber for $30/m wins!

What is taking up hard drive space?

hello.
I have a power mac (pre intel) quad core desktop running 10.5.8.
I have noticed it being very sluggish lately.
From taking 5 minutes to boot up, to browsers taking longer to launch(with the color wheel spinning longer until the browser is fully ready), to inputing text into fields in a browser window(the text gets entered a second or two after typing). Even when I open a finder window, the icons for every file, as well as the size listing of each file/folder will take like 10 seconds to start loading one at a time. I never noticed that before.
So I opened disk utility, and noticed that I have filled up 160GB out of the 233GB that this hard drive has. That seemed like a really high number.
So I added up the total size of the home folders in all 4 users on this computer, and they add up to 27GB. The system folder is 4 gigs, and the main Library folder at the top level is 51 gigs. I don't think there is anything left. That adds up to 82GBs. Where is the other 78GBs coming from?
I know I'm missing something, but I can't figure out what.
Even still, I don't know that this is the reason for my computer to act sluggish, but now I'm curious how I'm filling up so much hard drive space.
Any thoughts on finding this info out, and/or fixing the sluggish issue?
Thanks!!

On the space issue, has everybody emptied trash? You each have your own and if somebody doesn't... There's varous utilities for scanning drives for space usage. Some are free, others not. I think Omnidisksweeper is free. Search the Discussions for this subject and the others will probably be mentioned.
A few GB are kind of hidden and not accounted for, I think. Some cache files, etc.
160? I mean only 160? That's peanuts by modern standards.
Slow computer. Might start by verifying hard drive with Disk Utility. Installing and using Applejack would be good too. Are you sure everybody is logged out and didn't leave a ton of applications running in their account?
I'm too lazy to remove the old formatting from my boilerplate post on this:
*Quick checks*
Have you emptied the Trash?
*Reading on hard drive space issues*
[Erasing free space results in erroneous full disk warning|http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=459623&seqNum=9]
[Where did my disk space go?|http://www.macfixitforums.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Forum38&Number=770243]
[X-Lab: Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk|http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html]
[Amazing Disappearing Drive Space|http://www.pinkmutant.com/articles/TigerMisc.html]
[Increase HD Free Space|http://macosx.com/forums/howto-faqs/275191-how-easily-increase-hd free-space-laptop.html]
[How to free up my disk space|http://www.macmaps.com/diskfull.html]
[Baby Boomer's Apple Discussions post|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10189607#10189607]
*Utilities for investigating drive space usage*
[Disk Inventory (free)|http://www.derlien.com/]
[OmniDiskSweeper (free)|http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/download/]
[WhatSize|http://www.id-design.com/software/whatsize/] (now shareware and only useful on <20GB drives until you buy it)
[GrandPerspective|http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/]

Why is Lightroom taking up local disk space while publishing?

I have a relatively large photo catalog (200k photos +) that I am in the process of paring down with the help of Lightroom 5. Along the way I have kept certain groups of photos published to Flickr using Smart Photosets so that if I eliminate a duplicate photo from the catalog I will be able to "re-publish" and eliminate that duplicate from the published collection.
My Catalog Files, My Backups, and the actual image files that are referenced in the catalog are all located on an external drive. I did this so that I could have everything on one drive for the time being while I eliminate a ton of photos from the catalog.
The issue that I am running into is that while a collection is being published to Flickr I get a message popping up telling me that I am low on disk space on my local (C) drive and that I need to free up some space. This is odd because everything is located on the external drive (catalog and image files) and I am publishing to Flickr.
I am just trying to figure out if there is a default somewhere that is causing Lightroom to create new thumbnails or previews somewhere on my C drive while I am publishing images to Flickr or something like that. Any idea what sort of data might be accumulating in the process here? And is there anyway to move it all or eliminate it for the time being while I am finishing the elimination of duplicate files from my catalog?
Thanks!

woodyardae wrote:
If this is a temp file issue I would love to know where I can find these and get rid of them or perhaps a setting that I could change so that they are dumped more frequently automatically.
Temp files created by Lightroom are cleaned up by Lightroom, or should be anyway.
Is your C: drive short of space? If so, that should definitely be remedied pronto.
If not, then you got some other issue...
Rob

What to do with low disk space warning?

My Time Capsule is blinking amber because of low disk space. Isn't it supposed to delete the oldest files to make more room? What should I do at this point?

Nothing. That warning is separate from Time Machine.
It's useful if you're using your Time Capsule for other data, but Time Machine will take care of running out of room for backups all by itself.

Media Cache Folder taking up 80GB disk space

Hi everyone,
I recently bought a Sony VAIO S with Adobe Premiere Elements 8 preinstalled, and ripped my CD collection into iTunes. I opened Premiere Elements and created a project to see what sort of features were included, but didn't import any media or capture any video.
I (even more) recently found that my disk space had dropped by roughly 80 GB, seemingly due to the Adobe Media Cache folder. It would seem that Premiere has been running some sort of background service (my suspicions are on ElementsAutoAnalyzer.exe, a program that reappeared briefly after I 'cleaned' the cache folder) that has imported my AAC iTunes music collection into the Media section in Premiere, and in the process uncompressed all 7 GB of my 256KB/s AAC music into 80GB of 16bit/48KHz PCM, copied to the Adobe Media Cache Folder in C:\Users\me\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Common\Media Cache\Media Cache Files
My questions are:
- Can I delete the Media Cache Folder without causing problems with Premiere?
- Can I prevent Premiere from adding all my media automatically (and uncompressing it in the process)? I don't mind not having all my music in the 'Media' sidebar of Premiere, I can just import the music I need.
Specs (if they help): Sony VAIO S, Intel i3 330M, GMA HD, 4GB RAM, Win 7 HP 64 bit. Premiere Elements 8.0.1. I also have PSE installed.
Thanks in advance,
Jim.

Hello again Bill,
     Scratch disks are on F:
     Win 7 64 Q8400 @ 2.66 8GB ram
     (sata) don't know if that's the controller
     C: 150GB velociraptor system & programs 17 free (until I delete cache)
     F: 500GB 7200rpm scratch 262 free
     G: 1TB 7200rpm   raw 202 free - having to off load occasionally to archive disk,
      I hope I have followed Harm's recommendations on allocation of disks, only have the three separate.
     Thanks for the fast responce.
     Dennis

What's taking up my disk space?

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