CGMcnet

Q: Space mgmt on Macbook Air 13"

I own a 120 GB macbook air and save all files, photos, videos, and music on a 1 TB external hard drive.  It surprises me that I only have 7 GB of space left on my mac.  What could be taking up so much space and how do I fix it?

MacBook Air, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Aug 19, 2016 3:20 PM

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Q: Space mgmt on Macbook Air 13"

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  • by Allan Eckert,Helpful

    Allan Eckert Allan Eckert Aug 21, 2016 7:12 PM in response to CGMcnet
    Level 9 (53,491 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 21, 2016 7:12 PM in response to CGMcnet

    If you download and install OmniDiskSweeper, it will tell you the files and folders which are using the most space on your Mac.

     

    The first step you need to do before starting any project to clean disk space is a complete backup of everything.

  • by CGMcnet,

    CGMcnet CGMcnet Aug 21, 2016 7:21 PM in response to Allan Eckert
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    Aug 21, 2016 7:21 PM in response to Allan Eckert

    Thank you for your reply.  I have been using OmniDiskSweeper because it was recommended by someone in this community on another post for the same issue.  It is a great tool to identify which files are taking up the most space.  I'm having trouble figuring out which files can be deleted and locating the files to delete them.  For example... iLife Asset Management is taking up 5 GB of space but the folder is hidden.  From my research, it appears that I can delete this folder and it won't do harm to my images. 

    Good point about the backing everything up.  I regularly back up to Time Machine.  Would this be sufficient?

  • by CGMcnet,

    CGMcnet CGMcnet Aug 21, 2016 7:51 PM in response to Allan Eckert
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    Aug 21, 2016 7:51 PM in response to Allan Eckert

    Also I'm doing the math and the storage space that the OmniDiskSweeper is showing me doesn't match the amount of storage that my mac is showing.

  • by Allan Eckert,

    Allan Eckert Allan Eckert Aug 21, 2016 8:00 PM in response to CGMcnet
    Level 9 (53,491 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 21, 2016 8:00 PM in response to CGMcnet

    Follow the directions at the link below to rebuild the spotlight index and see if that get things more in line.

     

    Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support

  • by CGMcnet,

    CGMcnet CGMcnet Aug 22, 2016 7:35 AM in response to Allan Eckert
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    Aug 22, 2016 7:35 AM in response to Allan Eckert

    I rebuilt the Spotlight index but nothing has changed.  I do see that the applications I am using for editing my images is taking up a lot of space. 

    The catalogs for Lightroom, updates, previews, etc takes up a lot of space.  I am sure I can clean up some of that but I have to be careful because I don't want to lose my images.  All my images are stored on the external hard drive.

    I also see that my mobile back ups are stored on the computer.  I assumed that was stored online in my cloud.  I have 50 GB of iCloud space that I pay for each month so I can keep this stuff off of my hard drive.  I really need to the space on the hard drive to keep my image editing software working efficiently. 

  • by CGMcnet,

    CGMcnet CGMcnet Aug 24, 2016 9:12 AM in response to Allan Eckert
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    Aug 24, 2016 9:12 AM in response to Allan Eckert

    I ran the Daisy Disk as recommended by someone at the Genius Bar.  It shows that I have 39.6 GB of hidden space.  Something is wrong.  That is a lot of hidden space.  The hidden space is not showing up in the OmniDiskSweeper and that is why it doesn't make any sense to me.  This is the missing information but what do I do with it now?

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Aug 24, 2016 9:25 AM in response to CGMcnet
    Level 9 (70,161 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 24, 2016 9:25 AM in response to CGMcnet

    iCloud is a syncing system, not an external storage system. If you delete them from the device/computer  they will be deleted from iCloud.

     

    Terminal commands

     

    Hidden files - show:

    defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -boolean true ; killall Finder

     

    Hidden files - hide:

    defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE -boolean false ; killall Finder