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OS X Lion reports incorrect disk usage info

If I choose about this mac, more info (system profile), and then storage at the top. I get a snapshot that says I am using nearly 260 gb, when every I only have 120 gb in data. In addition, Lion says I have nearly 250 gb for other. Does anyone have a similar problem? Can I fix it or is this a bug?

Thanks.

User uploaded file

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.1)

Posted on Sep 2, 2011 1:39 PM

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15 replies

Sep 17, 2011 10:04 AM in response to brooklynbridge

i ran daisydisk to see what was on my drive and it reported 97GB of .mobilebackups.


Read about it here http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2011/07/mac-os-x-10-7.ars/18


if you want to disble the feature:

go in to Terminal and enter: sudo tmutil disablelocal followed by return, and after entering you password and hitting return again, it should delete the local snapshots

Sep 19, 2011 10:39 PM in response to brooklynbridge

I suspect that the "Other" disk usage is for Snapshots and these get thinned automatically when the disk reaches a certain usage. You can turn off Snapshots in the TM preferences by sliding the big switch to the OFF position..


Also note that disk usage in MacIntosh HD Get Info does not show the Snapshot usage , whereas Disk Utility and Activity Monitor includes it. Best to look at the bar diagram in About this Mac as in this thread.


I recommend Pondini's information on these and many other subjects...


http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/30.html

Sep 10, 2016 9:02 AM in response to brooklynbridge

My wife's computer shows *only* other. This morning it was different. After she got a message saying her startup disk was full, I checked and found her 1TB drive on her 27" late 2012 El Capitan system had:

Other 521.03 GB

Apps 360.31 GB

Movies 52.03 GB

Photos 3452 GB

Audio 30.7 GB

Backups 8.4 GB


I noticed that iPhotos is 57.23 GB, & iTUnes is 258.11 GB. Odd, those don't match.

I deleted everything in her 42.7 GB movies folder, and turned off her computer.

Even though the "re-open" tab wasn't clicked, apps re-opened.

When I checked again, *everything* was "other". I ran diskutility with no change.


So I bought DaisyDisk, and it scanned for an hour. I decided to try it on my computer, and the scan took a second or so. I couldn't guess which apps were "other", so I dragged some to the bottom and deleted them. I hope I didn't delete anything my wife needs. I rebooted her computer. Not it shows 23.28 GB Apps & 719.98 GB other. The rest is shown as unused, so I opened Photos, and yes, there are photos there, even though DiskUtility doesn't know about them.


Any suggestions about what to do next?

OS X Lion reports incorrect disk usage info

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