Macbook says "Startup Disk is full" but it isn't full

That is your system library, your user library is where you mail folder is. You can get to it by opening finder. Click "go" in the top menu bar, and hold "option" on your keyboard. Library will only show while holding option. Hope that helps.

I had this same problem and Evanderaha fix worked for me. One click I went from 81mb free on 250GB digital hard drive to 6.3GB free.

I did the get info on all the folders in my start up disc and they total about half of what the get info said was being used.

I have been over the past several months deleting old emails - I had like 80,000 in my "all mail" folder. It had many copies of same email. After reading Evander fix I too had trouble finding the folder he/she mentioned. So, I started deleting emails but it said that it could not delete emails because there is no room. No room to remove something??? Sigh....

Finally I found the folder he/she is talking about.

1. Open finder

2. Hold down OPTION key and click on go but continue to hold down the option key

3. You will see LIBRARY - dont let up on option key

4. Slide down and click on LIBRARY

5. This should take you to: Macintosh HD/Users/ (your home user with house icon) /Library

6. This will let you find MAIL in the next column to the right

7. Then in the next column to the right click on V2

8. Then click on MAILBOXES

9. Then in next column to the right find the RECOVERED items fold and delete that

10. Then at bottom right of your screen open up your TRASH and empty it.

11. Restart computer

12. Check your GET INFO for your Macintosh hard drive

13. Notice that your "All Mail" folder in Mail is now not so full anymore.

14. I deleted the "deleted" items folder and the "draft items" folders I found there as well.

Went from 81mb available to 19GB available.

I was freaking out because I am preparing a powerpoint for a meeting in 4 days and my beloved Macbook was sick.

THANKS EVANDEAHA

@EvanderAHA, thanks for the following:

I believe your culprit will be in your library folder, then mail folder, and In here we need to find and delete the recovered messages and an offlinecache file

...delete OfflineCache" at: "~/Library/Mail/(your email address here)/.OfflineCache

And delete "Recovered Files" Mailbox folder at "~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes/Recovered Messages (your email address here).mbox...

Thanks for the above info. I found the Recovered Messages folder & it was 48gb, which I'm currently deleting, however I can't find an 'offline cache' file and the message just keeps recovering, even after I delete the entire 'Recovered Messages' folder from my mailbox. Can you give me any more assistance to stop the message from continually auto-recovering?

I'm having a similar problem as everyone else here, except I've cleared out my mail, and my library only has 6.1GB in it. I've been having this problem for almost a year now and can't seem to fix it. I've used omnisweep and cleared out the big files, including iMovie and GarageBand. I have 48GB of "other" on my harddrive that I cannot find anywhere. I've emptied my trash and restarted my computer. I would love some help with this! Thanks.

I had the same problem and successfully fixed it, not by deleting anything in my Mailbox but emptying the Adobe's Media Cache Files that locates in my Application Support folder. Turns out it has been storing a big chunk of rendered clips from my Premiere Pro sessions.

Since I'm very wary of installing scanning softwares, I resorted to Right-Clicking to Get Info of each folder in Library until I identified the large file that occupied my startup disk. Might sound like a chore but I swear it wasn't that bad. This is not much but I hope it might help.

I have started getting the same message about startup disk being full. I connected my iPad to my laptop for the first time in about a year. My kids have been using it for games mostly. While the iPad was connected and syncing I kept getting the message that there was not enough space for all the files. I just kept clicking OK. Pretty much immediately after disconnecting the iPad, I got my first notice that my startup disk was full.

It says I have 1.0Gb free of 250GB. My Other is 96GB, Photos 58GB, Movies 54GB, Audio 34GB, Apps 7GB and Backups 22GB.

I do not have movies stored on my laptop, nor do I have tons of photos and music - make 1500 songs in iTunes.

I feel like this issue is somehow connected to the iPad,but don't know how. Any advice?

If you've already downloaded and run Omnidisksweeper (you'll find the link earlier in this thread) you will get some answers.

Your local iPad backups are stored in home/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup. Each is a numbered folder - you can check the sizes and dates and delete any older backups you don't want. You should keep at least one recent backup.

Matt

Thank you. I will try that.

Hi there

I've followed your suggestion as I'm getting a warning message about my startup disk being full. I've also noticed recently that when I go to sent items in mail, it is logging drafts of mails as I write them in my sent items folder. So my sent folder is full of multiple versions of an unfinished and unsent mail, and then the last one is the final draft that I did send. I thought this was weird but ignored it (as one does…)

Then I started getting the startup disk full messages and found your post.

Now comes the weird bit - when I follow your instructions and go to MacHD-Users, there is no library folder under my user name. but there is one under shared users and it's locked for me - no access. How can this be when I'm the Home user?? I'm worried I've been hacked or something sinister is happening. Any advice?

La Bloosa

For the drafts problem, that's often seen with Gmail accounts. Go into Mail Preferences - Accounts - Mailbox Behaviors, and turn OFF "Store draft messages on the server".

Your Library folder is hidden. You can get to it by holding down the Option key and clicking the Go menu in the Finder. But I wouldn't start messing with files in the Mail folder unless you are sure that is the problem - use Omnidisksweeper to check for other large files and folders first.

Matt

Ive literally deleted everything i can on my mac, and i tried go go computer>library>mail, but i dont actually have a mail folder! So im stuck again, and cant fix my computer - which is running extremely slow and can hardly be used due to lag 😟

Your Mail folder is not in the main computer Library folder, it's in your user's hidden Library. You can get to it by holding down the Option key and clicking the Go menu in the Finder - you'll see Library as a menu item and can click it to navigate there. However, don't just delete things from the Mail folder within the Finder - it's better to delete mail from within the Apple Mail app (providing you're actually using it! if not, you won't have any content to delete).

Matt

I had similar issue

Storage Information error ?

Solved by following this https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201716

Need to reindex spotlight

I have a the same error message about my Start Up disk. I have tried all of the suggestions in this thread and unfortunately nothing is working because I either can't find the files suggested to delete or what I can find is of no significant size. I have no space to download anything so I'm quite stuck.

My Mac details are:

OS X version 10.9.5

Memory 4GB

Flash Storage 121GB of which I have 1.76 GB free (46.21 GB is taken up by other)

I cannot find the below which you suggest to delete:

delete OfflineCache" at: "~/Library/Mail/(your email address here)/.OfflineCache

And delete "Recovered Files" Mailbox folder at "~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes/Recovered Messages (your email address here).mbox

I have managed to find my mail folder and within the V2 folder I have a mailboxes folder however I only have deleted messages which is taking up 12KB on my disk and outbox which is taking up 45KB.

Within the V2 folder I have individual folders for my 3 email accounts which then lead to the Inbox, Sent Items, etc for each account and a MailData folder which I don't really know what the items are in there.

I am unsure if this issue is to do with my Mail items.

Under 2GB free is not enough to run your system. You have two options - somehow find and delete/move large files off the system (have you run Omnidisksweeper?), or upgrade your storage. If you have a Macbook Air, you can find storage upgrades at OWC:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC

Matt