Q: Apps taking too much space on macbook

You may have a Spotlight muck-up and need to reindex your volume -> Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes.

If that doesn't help, call back.

Clinton

For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article. If the Storage display seems to be inaccurate, try rebuilding the Spotlight index.

Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:

          iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash

Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then restart the computer. That will temporarily free up some space.

According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of the data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.

When Time Machine backs up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of recently deleted files. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as  Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself. If you followed bad advice to disable local snapshots by running a shell command, you may have ended up with a lot of data in the Other category. Ask for instructions in that case.

See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.

You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) or GrandPerspective (GP) to explore the volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one. Note that ODS only works with OS X 10.8 or later. If you're running an older OS version, use GP.

Deleting files inside an iPhoto or Aperture library will corrupt the library. Any changes to a photo library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.

Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.

ODS or GP can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.

Back up all data now.

If you have more than one user account, make sure you're logged in as an administrator. The administrator account is the one that was created automatically when you first set up the computer.

Install the app you downloaded in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.

Triple-click anywhere in the corresponding line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:

sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper

sudo /Applications/GrandPerspective.app/Contents/MacOS/GrandPerspective

Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.

Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator. 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.

Tried everything and my macbook still makes no sense. If you add up the numbers below the graph you can see that it thinks its almost full. Yet i have only a 19 gigs of applications

I have the same problem on my MacBook Pro. Apps show as taking up 93Gb. Has anyone identified a solution that works for you?

I am having the same issues with mine... When I go to the apple icon and then to about my Mac, the graphic for my Applications folder shows that I have 86.87 GB's of space used on my 2013 MBA. However, if I go to my finder and "Get More Info" on my entire Application folder, it shows I am using 7.35 GB.

Wondering if anyone has any recommendations as to figuring this out without having to go back to an Apple store...

I too am having this issue. I first noticed the increase in disk usage after updating to El Capitan last night. I did not check my disk usage before the OS update however so it may not be related.

I had this issue and resolved it. Under System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy, I added my entire Disk. I then removed it and Spotlight re-indexed the drive. After it finished, my usage report was correct.

Thank you for your post. This resolved my problem.

why is my apps are taking so much space? and it stated there that my apps are taking 109GB and why it tells me that I have 87GB free storage? If my apps are 109BG, my storage should be less that 20GB, because my mac is only 128GB of storage. and I have done the spotlight thing hehe. Please, someone help me.

i did the spotlight index reset thing and it worked. i have a macbook pro 13" running El Capitan 10.11.3.

Thank you very much.

how do i re-index the drive please explain in better deatails thanks

Here's the link to the official apple support to help you. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716

I tried this spotlight re-indexing and it changed from apps space to other space, virtually the same amount total but still seems like way too much space taken up for a new computer with nothing on it yet. Any other ideas?

You might want to consider starting a new discussion. Since this one is a couple of years old, less people are likely to look at it. A new post would be much more visible. You can link to this one.