what is storage "other" and how big should it be?

Another possibliity--

You must either change to "As Admin" mode when WhatSize first starts up, or remeasure after doing that. Otherwise, you'll still see the "As User" version.

Have done this. This is the result:

Aha! There's 217 GB of .MobileBackups (local snapshots). They're made when Time Machine is ON, whether the backup disk is connected or not. They're only kept for a week, and will be deleted automatically if your drive gets over 80% full. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #30 for the gory details.

But those won't be backed-up anyway, so shouldn't prevent a backup. Your estimated size of full backup (under the exclusions box in Time Machine Preferences > Options) should be roughly 152 GB, and a full backup will be a few GBs less (since Time Machine omits some other things, too, like system work files, most caches & logs, trash, etc.).

You also have 5.6 GB in private, which is fairly large. You might want to check your log sizes, per the green box in OSX Log Files

aha!

i'm guessing then that the backup won't happen because the backup disk is quite full (from previous backups) NOT because the system is confused about the required capacity.

i'm also guessing that this means there isn't a major problem.

thanks for your help once again.

Jon

jonfromengland wrote:

. . .

i'm guessing then that the backup won't happen because the backup disk is quite full (from previous backups) NOT because the system is confused about the required capacity.

Probably. See what the message says, especially the numbers it includes. If you've forgotten, click the red "i" icon on the TM Preferences window to display it. If it's no longer there, try another backup.

Then see #C4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting. That should explain what's going on. If not, post back with the message details (a screenshot is fine); how large your Time Machine drive (or Time Capsule) is, and if there's anything else on it (if so, how much)?

backups now taking place, hence problem solved.

thanks very much once again.

jon

Great! Glad it's sorted out, and thanks for the feedback.

I've discoverd that what ate my storage was my dropbox cache. it was stuck in the other file. I had 20G in dropbox cache.

i noticed the same issue here i have a 750 gb memory on a macbook then recently i noticed that my storage was showing a huge inscreasing in the "Other" storage that went from 5gb to 245gb in the "other" so i was very mad and surprise because i dont have that many movies or music on my computer but every day was increasing so today i decided to turn off the snapshots from time machine and thanks to omni disk sweeper i found out that that storage call "other" were all my back ups from itunes and my iphone so i went and delete many of them and left the recent ones like todays and yesterdays and my 250gb that were storage on the "other" went down to 69gb i still have to figure if those are from my left over from my bakc ups or is something else there to but at least i recovered many of those "OTHER" gb's that were consuming my memory so i hope all of you get to resolve this issue

Hi Pondini...

I am not an advanced user, really.

I have reviewed your page: Where did my disk space go?

I have a huge other space on my MBP mid 2009 running 10.7.5. I don't get it.

Also I have several iphoto libraries totally probably 95gigs. A lot more than the three gigs mentioned below.

Here is my screen shot:

I do empty my trash regularly. I have nothing in my download file. I did verify disk and it is ok.

When I do the /volumes prompt I get this: just my HD.

It is killing me I have 170+ gigs of other and I am not sure if it is real or not.

Any thoughts?

Thanks for any help you can provide. Have a great day.

j.

I forgot to mention I do only use iphoto and imovie. I do create lots of movies that are stored in itunes (Itunes folder is 87gigs), but I only keep one years worth of movies on the IHD (just checked movies folder it is 175 gigs). Also, I toggle TM on and off quite a bit because I don't like it running if I am making a movie (stresses computer out I think). My TM preferences says TM Keeps (don't say keeps local snapshots).

So roughtly:

500 total space

itunes is 87gig

movies are 175gig

iphotos are 90gig

That is 350.

So that is 150 left over. But I only have 50gigs left.

Where is the other 100? Can't be 100gigs in operating data right?

I do back up 5 iphones and 1 ipad to computer... but I don't know how to find how much space those are taking, can't be 100 gigs right?.

Thanks for any insight 😉

Tigervision wrote:

. . .

When I do the /volumes prompt I get this: just my HD.

Ok, good, so you've ruled out a few things.

Have you gone through the rest of the suggestions in the link? Unfortunately, there are a lot of possibilities there.

Tigervision wrote:

. . .

I toggle TM on and off quite a bit because I don't like it running if I am making a movie (stresses computer out I think). My TM preferences says TM Keeps (don't say keeps local snapshots).

When you turn TM off, it will delete them immediately, and stops saying it keeps them. When you turn it back on, it will start making them again. But they're not shown in Other -- they're in the separate Backups category (shown as zero in your earlier post).

Where is the other 100? Can't be 100gigs in operating data right?

Other does include the operating system, but all sorts of other stuff as well, per The Storage Display.

I do back up 5 iphones and 1 ipad to computer... but I don't know how to find how much space those are taking, can't be 100 gigs right?.

See the last item in the yellow box of the link.

Thanks Pondini-

I checked the mobile synch back up.... it is 10Gigs total.

You know I was using an external HD in february to put together a very complex movie in imoive.... for the first time over that month I got like 4 kernal panics (It was a very complex movie that was an hour long and spanned years of video). It happened because of the EHD I believe - only did that when it was connected. I wonder if this is something with the log crashes? I looked at your OSX log files page.

I went to Library/Logs and that folder is only 215Mb.

I can't find the private/vard/log folder though because it is hidden. Not sure I want to mess with it either.

Not sure if you have any new insights with this new info.

Also, my MBP only has one account, administrator.

Appreciate your time and website.

Thanks. Have a great day.

Tigervision wrote:

. . .

I can't find the private/vard/log folder though because it is hidden. Not sure I want to mess with it either.

As noted in the green box in the Log Files link, use Go > Go to folder. And it's /private/var/log (or just /var/log).

Pondini Florida, USA

I'd be the first to agree that Apple's documentation, in general, is skimpy at best.

Pondini, ...wonderful posts in this thread,...keep it up with informative "documentation obesity" 😍