I'm trying to free up space, and notice that on my hard drive, under "Updates" there are several. Screen shot below. My question is this: can I delete some of them? Would the most recent update be all I need to retain?
Thanks in advance!
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
This stuff I think is related to the "receipts" a .pkg installer leaves behind (although most of that stuff is in /var/db/receipts).
If you want to experiment temporarily remove all that stuff and see what happens.
Why do you care that it is there at all? If you are so low on disk space that this amount would make a difference you have a much bigger problem.
If those are, in fact, receipts or if receipts are included in those, they are needed for the Permissions repair database. I wouldn't take the chance to mess with them.
I assume what you have listed is the /Library/Updates/ folder? If so, then yes, you can delete them. The only reason they'd be there is failed downloads. Otherwise, the OS deletes the updates from that folder after installing them. The one you should leave is:
ProductMetadata.plist
Actually Kurt, now that I remember, wasn't that location for updates deprecated after the early days of Snow Leopard in favor of Sys Prefs>Software Update>Installed Software? In my system, I'm seeing only a handful of relatively early updates there, with the rest in the Sys Prefs location.
Hi WZZZ,
In Snow Leopard and Lion, all updates installed through Software Update go to that folder. Once the installation is complete, they are deleted. If there's anything in there, either the download or the installation failed. Otherwise, except for the one .plist file, the folder should be empty.
Fortunately, some housekeeping has upped my storage space. But, going through my files, I'd noticed some items - such as this - which I'd like to remove if it makes any sense. :-)
That's interesting Kurt because I have always used Software Update, except on one occasion when a standalone wasn't available, only to see what's available, never to download or install. The presence of these in my system is a mystery then. A failed download or install from a standalone wouldn't go there, only those via SU?
I don't know if this makes any difference, but here are all the subfolders under "Updates":
Really appreciate the assistance.
Updates go to </Library/Updates>; that includes some receipts.
Receipts (not all) for installed updates go to </Library/Receipts>. They will have the same icon and .pkg file name extension as updates, but they're different.
You shouldn't touch items in </Library/Receipts>.
You may delete items in </Library/Updates>. However, you show those items as totalling 300MB. That's not even peanuts, that's sunflower seeds. You will gain nothing, and you're wasting your time on such trivialities; moreover, as a rule of thumb, you shouldn't delete anything from </Library> unless you know exactly what it does and why you won't ever need it.
Get an app like GrandPerspective, or WhatSize, or OmniDiskSweeper. Then you'll be able to figure out what is worth your time deleting to free space on your hard disk.
Receipts (not all) for installed updates go to </Library/Receipts>.
No longer in Snow Leopard. /var/db/receipts is the place.
Thanks to everyone for your input. I've studied all answers and am a much more informed user. I think that, in the end, I will simply leave it all alone. As X42342 pointed out:
Why do you care that it is there at all? If you are so low on disk space that this amount would make a difference you have a much bigger problem.
I currently have sufficient, although not ample, space. Tampering with system files is something I'd probably live to regret.
Again, a very interesting exchange of ideas. Thanks!
I just came across this discussion as I was searching for my own problem, 5.45 GB overall with my "updates" folder.....thanks for the above answers - time to free up some space! But why wouldn't Software Update delete them?
Can I delete previous "updates" from my hard drive?
