Disk Storage Full — Cannot Back-up

Holly_needshelp wrote:

Hello,

my disk storage is full (although it says it had 600mb left) it won’t allow me to empty trash or open/delete any applications

I have important files that need backing up before I do anything and it won’t even register my hard drive. Please help!!

Boot to safe boot if necessary. 600mb is nothing.

I will let you do the math here:

SSD like to have 20-25% free storage to run efficiently

HDD like to have 10-15% free storage to run efficiently.

See used and available storage space on your Mac

https://support.apple.com/guide/system-information/see-available-storage-space-syspf9b375b9/10.14/mac/10.15

How to free up storage space on your Mac - Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206996

User tip: "Other and What Can I Do About It ?"

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-5142

Try something like OmniDiskSweeper for a GUI to get a good look at itemized file size and location:

OmniDiskSweeper http://www.omnigroup.com/more

SafeBoot https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

Takes noticeable longer to get to the login screen, does a 5-15 minute disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, including dynamic loader cache, etc. Login and test. Reboot as normal and test as caches get rebuilt.

In Safe mode third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled, it removes malware, etc hampering smooth operation, however a reboot will put it back to normal mode.

Did you try moving some files to an external storage?

In the meanwhile you About this Mac/ Storage / Managed / select Trash then "empty trash"

Lemme now how that goes!

regards

Martin

"cheap shots" at items to delete to get a little more space in a hurry:

The entire contents of your Downloads folder, by definition, is expendable (because any item can be downloaded again later).

A MacOS Installer image downloaded (into the /Applications folder) not yet installed will be 8 to 13 GB.

Xcode (if you downloaded it) will be about 20GB.

If you do not use iMovie it is about 3GB

If you do not use GarageBand is about 2.5GB.