Can't open Disk Inventory X. Help

You appear to be running the app from the virtual volume of the mounted DMG file. This doesn't always work. Drag the app to either the Applications folder (best) or into the Downloads folder and launch it again using the Control-click or Right-click open option.

FYI, you never want to completely run out of Free storage space on macOS because bad things will happen (unable to delete any files to free up space on an APFS volume, or file/data corruption if using HFS+ file system). If you have less than 20GB of Free storage space, then you need to either delete or move some files from the boot volume now (Downloads folder is a good place to start). Ignore the "Available" storage value shown everywhere in macOS since it is very misleading & does not mean what you think it does. Look at the Free space value for the "Data" volume listed in Disk Utility.

None of these utilities will show all of the storage usage due to privacy & security limitations even when you give them Full Disk Access. Plus the APFS snapshots are not part of the mounted file systems, so you need to use the instructions in the following Apple article to view APFS snapshots:

View APFS snapshots in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

What is not clearly mentioned in that article is you must have selected the "Data" volume first before clicking the "View" menu in order to be able to select the "Show APFS snapshots....." option, otherwise that option will be grayed out.

Phinney wrote:

Hi, A while back I needed help clearing out unneeded stuff on my MacBook Pro and it was here I believe that someone recommended Disk Inventory X for seeing on a colorful graphic everything that was taking up space on hard drive and how much space. And then for removing a lot of it. It worked really well. It was a life saver. So now I'm back in the same position. I only have a little space left so I went to the Disk Inventory X that I had earlier downloaded and it would not open. Something about 'we can't verify it doesn't have malware.' And the only options were cancel that action and eject disk or eject something. So I downloaded again and I'm getting same message. Is there any way I can use this again? If not, is there a similar app or software I can get to do the same thing? Thanks! I'm attaching screenshot.

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/ce433ff0-0ab5-47f9-9dca-82a7b4f57850

There are others to choose from if you have issue.

If it is directly from the Developer you can assume it is safe. If it is not from the "App Store" it will throw a warning. Typically you hold the Option key to continue, or Control click....This is not an issue.

ref: Open a Mac app from an unidentified developer - Apple Support

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

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

Edit...

Phinney Said:

"Can't open Disk Inventory X. Help"

-------

Opening an App from an Unidentified Developer:

Get the “Anywhere” Option to Show:

1. Open: Terminal (Go to: Go menu > Utilities > Terminal)
2. Use: this Command: sudo spctl --master-disable
3. Press: return
4. Close: Terminal
5. Try this Once More (Screenshot 1.)

Once you run that Command:

1. Open: System Settings
2. Click: Privacy & Security
3. Scroll to: Security
4. Select: Anywhere
5. Try this Once More (Screenshot 2.)



Screenshot 1:

Screenshot 2:

Phinney wrote:

I have off-loaded anything I can find to off-load and still I have about only 18 GB available, up from 14 yesterday.

Ignore the "Available" storage value since you may have much less actual immediately usable Free storage space. See my other post here where I explain the difference between them:

macOS Storage Terminology Explained -- HWTech - Apple Community

Did you give the app Full Disk Access? Even with Full Disk Access, those apps may be unable to access certain areas. I know the OmniDiskSweeper app actually lets you know that certain folders are not completely scanned....I don't know about any of the other apps. A lot of data can be hidden away in the hidden Library folder located in your home user folder. iPhone/iPad backups are stored there as are some cloud based items and other things. In fact some cloud based file syncing services may just redownload stuff you relocate, so consider that as well.

Do you make copies of any data on the same APFS volume? If so, then you need to delete every copy instead of just one copy since the APFS file system does not make a physically separate copy of items you duplicate on an APFS volume. This is meant to help conserve the limited storage space of SSDs and also to minimize the wear on an SSD. I wish I could provide a link that simply explains this feature of APFS volumes, but most articles go off into other areas which would just cause confusion.

Basically if you have a folder called "MyStuff" that contains 10GB of data and you decide to copy that entire folder to another location on the same APFS volume and call it "MyStuff-copy", it will not consume any more storage space than the original 10GB since there is just one physical copy of the data on that APFS volume. Only a new link was created to that data. The amount of Free storage space will not change even though you just "copied" 10GB of data. So if you later decide to delete the "MyStuff-copy" you will not show any change in the amount of Free storage space. You would also need to delete the "MyStuff" folder as well before you will see the Free space value increase by 10GB (depends on whether any APFS backup snapshots exist which would still hold that deleted data....the Available storage value will show an increase of 10GB though, but that space may not be able to be used right away, hence why I suggest ignoring the "Available" value).

If you only have a 120GB SSD for your system, then most likely you need to get another laptop with more internal storage, or you need to move the large folders (Photo Library, Video Library, Music Library, etc.) to an external drive (Apple has articles addressing relocating these Libraries). Even a 250GB drive may not be sufficient depending on how much data you need to store.

”[…]Yes, I looked at that and anywhere was already checked. Thanks though, good to know about that.”

———-

Verified Developer:

Surprised this didn’t fix it, as it’s a matter of verify the Developer. Selecting “Anywhere” you ought to able to use it, unless it’s a corrupt download. So, if applicable, save what need be, and the reinstall this:

1. Go to: Applications menu
2. Drag & Drop: it into the Trash
3. Restart: your Mac
4. Log in: as the same user
5. Install: this app once more
6. See if you get this error

Before this install...

Create a Second Time Machine Backup First:

Create a Time Machine Backup of your Mac, prior to all of this. That way you can have something to restore your Mac from, should the reinstall not work. If it does not work, the restore from the backup you’ve just created.

Phinney wrote:

Figuring out what is safe to remove is the tough part as a lot of it has names that are indecipherable to me. Also, let's say there's a long list of photos or videos -- you have to open each one to see what it is. There is no preview. Oh well.

You should not be deleting anything which you did not place onto the system yourself. These types of apps are only meant to show you where the largest files & folders reside. Some items such as iPhone/iPad backups should be fairly easy to identify. Some other data may be more difficult to identify since the data is only meant to be used by the app which created the data, but the parent folder usually gives you a clue to the app which created it. You should use your apps to manage their data storage including deleting any data as that is the only safe method.

I make copies of stuff but on an external HD from La Cie. Plugs into computer. Then I delete. Doesn't free up too much though.

If they are small files then that is expected. If they contain large amounts of data, then that data is likely contained in the hidden APFS backup snapshots I mentioned in my previous post. At some point that AFPS backup snapshot will be deleted automatically which will release the storage used by that data.

I don't think I copied any data on the same APFS volume as I don't know what an APFS volume is. But that is interesting that if I make copies of things and then remove the copy it won't affect space.

Basically if you copy or duplicate a file/folder to another location on your internal boot drive, then it will be on the same APFS volume (unless you created other APFS volumes).

Phinney Said:

"Thank you for your reply. Appreciate the time you took to help me. I tried that first set of instructions and I think it messed up at some point. But I was eventually able to open the Disk Inventory. Not sure what I did to get access but so far so good. Thanks also for the in-computer tip about checking the "anywhere" circle. That's a great idea."

-------

You are welcome. Any success in using the "Anywhere" button for this issue? Excellent job troubleshooting!