Level 1

7 points

MacBook Pro SSD drive: need to free up space

Hi,

I have a MacBook Pro (late 2011), running OSX 10.7.5, with a 128GB SSD drive. The problem I have is that I am running out of space on my drive, even though I don't appear to be storing that much on it. When I view my usage in 'About This Mac', I get the following:

Audio=38.2 GB; Movies=0 GB; Photos=7.64 GB; Apps=12.73 GB; Other 41.06 GB

Backups are 0 and my Documents folder is only around 5 GB; my Trash and Downloads are empty too.

So the question I have is, what is this 41.06 GB (or minus the Documents folder around 36 GB)? I have searched through the system folders and I can't find anything that is accounting for this data.

I seem to recall from day 1 of owning this MacBook (my first MacBook I admit), that my drive has been filling up somewhere with gigs of data, and I can't seems to account for it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Dec 29, 2012 6:03 AM

23 replies

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,329 points

Dec 29, 2012 8:13 AM in response to ikeshima

The answer to your query:

"At what point exactly does Lion start deleting this hidden data? At 9 GB remaining, I got tired of waiting for this Lion to initiate this."

can be found in this discussion:

/https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3647696?answerId=17300513022#17300513022

Ciao.

Shootist007

Level 6

16,709 points

Dec 29, 2012 8:26 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

Your link leads no where.

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,329 points

Dec 29, 2012 8:33 AM in response to Shootist007

Bad edit on my part. Let me check.

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,329 points

Dec 29, 2012 9:11 AM in response to Shootist007

This one may work a little better:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3647696?answerId=17300513022#17300513022

Ciao.

ikeshima Author

Level 1

7 points

Dec 29, 2012 9:37 AM in response to ikeshima

Thanks for your help guys.

Today I did a RAM upgrade to 16GB, which in effect bumped the Sleepimage file up to 16 GB. On cancellation of this and subsequent deletion of the file, I have managed to recoup this space. In addition, I have used Omni Sweep to identify folders hording large files and delete those. There's still about 10 GB unaccounted for, but I'm guessing that this is system related somewhere and I won't torture myself any further trying to find what exactly they are for/where they are.

Aug 19, 2014 12:25 PM in response to ikeshima

Same thing happened to me. It was the system log file filling up with errors from an app. The system.log file was 80 GB (yikes!!!!) by the time it filled my SSD with this non-stop repeating error:

Aug 19 13:54:40 **********.amazon.sendtokindle.launcher[380]: /usr/bin/stkLaunchAgent.sh: line 10: /var/spool/stkPrinter/myprofile/stkPrint.log: No such file or directory

Aug 19 13:54:40 ********** com.amazon.sendtokindle.launcher[380]: /usr/bin/stkLaunchAgent.sh: line 72: /var/spool/stkPrinter/myprofile/stkPipe: No such file or directory

Aug 19 13:54:40 ********** com.amazon.sendtokindle.launcher[380]: /usr/bin/stkLaunchAgent.sh: line 10: /var/spool/stkPrinter/myprofile/stkPrint.log: No such file or directory

Aug 19 13:54:40 ********** com.amazon.sendtokindle.launcher[380]: /usr/bin/stkLaunchAgent.sh: line 72: /var/spool/

My drive was filling about a MB every 2 seconds. I located and opened (double-clicked) the log file located in YourSSDDriveName > private > var > log > system.log and when I watched the above error repeat in front of my eyes I knew the problem. It was obvious from the above it was the "Send To Kindle" app I had installed a long time ago. I searched my apps folder, located the uninstaller for that app and... uninstalled it. The log then ceased growing. Problem solved. I closed everything, trashed the log file, and restarted the computer. Done and done.

It actually took me a long time to figure that out (I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed) but there it is. Tip of the hat for the suggestion to install "GrandPerspective.app" to locate the problem. It showed the log file as the culprit. I had to trash a bunch of old programs so I had enough space to install and run it as the drive was filling, but it did the trick. Hope this helps someone else.

Thanks everyone!

maailun

Level 1

0 points

Jun 22, 2015 11:30 PM in response to ikeshima

Dear ikeshima

I have exactly the same problem as you had. Could you please tell me how should I delete that fille in a category "other".

I have almost 60 Gb of "other". Really dont get how you have managed it, and that much of usage appeared over night.

Thank you in advance

russ84

Level 1

31 points

Sep 17, 2015 8:35 AM in response to Shootist007

One of the good things about Time Machine is that it deletes the oldest backup so that you do not run out of space.

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MacBook Pro SSD drive: need to free up space