"About this Mac" quits out when it's calculating Storage
After setting all DropBox files to be on line and not on my hard drive.. I went to About this Mac to check if I had more storage. It had worked previously but now it quits out when it's calculating Storage. I restarted the computer but that did not fix it. All the dropbox files are finished syncing.
iMac 27″, macOS 11.1
Boot into Safe Mode by booting with the Shift key held down and check there to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.
NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing the following;
• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed
• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)
• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically
• Disables user-installed fonts
• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files
Boot into Safe Mode by booting with the Shift key held down and check there to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.
NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing the following;
• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed
• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)
• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically
• Disables user-installed fonts
• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files
But the graphical representation is not straight forward. The "system" amount can also include the Library, user library and other files. Pictures can also be images in the system and applications. Nothing is straighr forward in that graph.
The Other category is a potpourri of files which include:
• System temporary files
• macOS system folders
• Archives and disk images (.zip, .iso, etc. - often found in the Downloads folder)
• Personal user data
• Files from the user’s library (Application Support, iCloud files, screensavers, etc.)
• Cache files
• Fonts, plugins, extensions
• Other files that are not recognized by a Spotlight search
• Media files that cannot be classified by Spotlight as a media file because they are located inside of a package
They can be located anywhere on your hard drive. The files that you have control over are located in the Applications, Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Music and Movies folders.
NOTE: you can empty the Downloads folder after the apps and/or updates that were downloaded have been installed or applied. Many users have found a couple of Gigabytes of files in their Downloads folder which are no longer needed.
The Info pane for any file, folder or volume is the most accurate method of determining size.
If I want to know an accurate figure about consumed and available storage on my Mac, I don't depend on that Storage panel. Instead, I click once on the startup drive icon on the Desktop, press option+command+i, and review the Available and Used statistics.
Thank you Viking. That is good to know. I'm not seeing that it shows you where storage is being used. I've been trying to get my macs to NOT store Dropbox folders. I indicated in dropbox for them to be on the web only but for some reason they keep showing up as taking up storage on my iMac and lap top. I was able to see where it was in "About this Mac" BUT all of a sudden Storage Calculating files just quits out. I don't know how to fix something like that. I'm wondering if I need to reinstall the system software. It's a brand new mac and I don't feel like having glitches this early in the game.
I found that I had several gigs worth of files in the Mail library download file. It kept a copy of all attachments. I pull off and file any attachments I need. I didn't realize they were also being stored. That actually is where my trouble began. I navigated to that folder and deleted all the attachments that had come in with mail for the past 3 years. After I emptied the trash I wanted to see how much weight I lost ;-) ... When I went to About this Mac ... storage... it started to just crap out. Thank you all for sharing the ways I can find how much storage I'm using. I REALLY want to fix the bug of the About this mac crashing. I just got the computer on Thursday. I don't want to start off with an already gimpy system.
OH Thank you! I will try this. It's like the old "rebuild your desktop" from way back!
Darn! It did not work. It's odd. I do hold down the shift right away but then it very quickly goes to the log in. So it's not doing all it's background searching .
If you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable and try again. The cable turns it into a wired keyboard.
"About this Mac" quits out when it's calculating Storage
