Why does "Other" category constantly increase in size on iMac hard drive?

The space used will always increase unless you delete things (it's like a purse, if you keep putting stuff in it will fill up unless you take stuff out)

Increasing memory will have no effect whatsoever, the files are stored on your hard drive. You can have a larger hard drive fitted if you want, that will increase the amount of time until it is full. There is no reason for you to do this however.

grayneko wrote:

Will this just continue to increase a little over time, given that I don't have any serious problems with my Mac? Also, does having more memory help with preventing increase in space usage?

It depends. If you never create or download any files, then it should reach a fairly stable point, although it's important to understand that disk space these days is not something that can be relied on to remain close to a fairly fixed value... it can fluctuate, sometimes by a noticeable amount, in the course of normal use. It's best not to worry about this, and just use the computer.

If you're not creating or downloading files and it continues to increase indefinitely, there's probably a problem somewhere that will need to be addressed, like the runaway log file problem I mentioned.

If you're creating and downloading files at a greater rate than deleting them, then your drive will eventually fill up. It may take longer than the lifetime of the computer for that to happen, or it might happen quickly, depending on your patterns of usage and size of the hard drive. If it fills up in the course of normal usage, you can either clean off some of the files you have created or downloaded, or you can get a larger drive.

When you ask about whether more memory would help, if you are talking about RAM, then no, that won't help. If you mean a larger drive, then yes, that would give you more space, but is unnecessary until you start running out.

Also, does having more memory help with preventing increase in space usage?

Space usage over all, No.

However, the /private/var/vm/swapfile[s] may stay small assuming you do not run apps tons of concurrent apps along with apps that are just plan memory hungry (photo/video editing apps come to mind). I have 16GB in my Macbook Pro, last reboot was 5 days ago, and I have about 1GB of swapfile[s]. Now what I run on my Mac and what you run will be different, so it is difficult to tell. But in general swap usage goes down as RAM goes up.

However, DO NOT add RAM just to reduce your storage usage. That is not worth the money. On the other hand, if you have "Money to Burn"...

Seriously, you add RAM if you are experiencing performance problems running lots of concurrent apps that you really need to be running, or are running apps that really demand lots of memory.

Csound1 wrote:

Second, you clearly haven't read the site I referred you to

I have found a tendency for IT experts have very narrow fields of vision once they think they know the way forwards. It is not necessary for them to read any site prior to drawing a conclusion regarding the content.

I completely agree. The same applies to discussion board denizens who assume they have all the answers. It might be nice were we to all back up and not be aggressive with one another. After all, we're all here offering advice with the intention of helping.

For the record, I didn't read the site because I was right in the middle of watching the race at Sachsenring. MotoGP always takes precedence over internet arguments. 🙂

By the way, Thomas, your arguments regarding A/V are no different than any A/V arguments on any platform. No package of which I'm aware catches everything, period. And as for my protection, my biggest use of A/V software on my Mac is to clean USB sticks that have been mounted on clients' Windows systems to ensure they're clean before being presented to a different client system. It has proven to be an incredibly useful tactic, as the USB stick has often come back from a Windows system infected with some nonsense, triggering a full lockdown and cleanup. Those USB stick infections happen despite A/V software running on the Windows client.

What I call reboot (because I'm old and that is what we called it back in the frontier days), Apple calls it Restart..., but effectively the operating system starts its RAM usage from scratch, and one of the things Mac OS X does is delete existing /private/var/vm/swapfile[s] and start over again.

Apple menu -> Restart...

The same would happen on Apple menu -> Shutdown, then later power up the Mac.

Sleep would not affect swapfile[s], as the operating system is not restarting, it is just napping.

NOT factor settings. Definitely Not. I call that a "Nuke and Pave" 😁

grayneko wrote:

I read about that--regarding apps that use up a lot of memory will eventually use up more hard drive space--and that's why I try to use only one or two at a time. Oh, and when you say reboot, do you mean restarting your computer? Or resetting your computer to factory settings?

Well, my friendly feline, you're not wrong when you think about hard drive space being used, but maybe not in the context you thought. When you're using apps that require more total physical memory than the system has installed, the system has to 'page out' to the swap file. The swap file (or partition, depending on the OS) is generally on the boot drive. Once you're constantly swapping between real and virtual memory, performance suffers. Apps such as Photoshop or video rendering suites are notoriously memory-heavy applications. If often using apps that cause the system to swap, it can be hugely beneficial to increase the system RAM.

So, while the disk usage is only temporary during paging operations, it still has a significant impact on the system.

grayneko wrote:

With my previous computer, a PC laptop, I was able to maintain a fairly empty hard drive, and it lasted for many years. I hope my Mac has the same lifespan and even longer.

It should. The hard drive will die at some point - all hard drives die sooner or later, and modern drives don't last as long as drives in decades past - but you just replace it and go on with life. I've recently done that with my 2010 MacBook Pro, and it's working as well as ever. (Better, actually, because all the photos I take had come close to filling the old drive, and now I have a bigger and faster drive.) Make sure you maintain a good set of backups.

As for my question regarding memory: yes, I only meant RAM. I asked mainly because down the road I might install Photoshop, but apart from that, I probably won't be installing any more RAM than what I already have. So far, so good.

Don't worry about RAM until it becomes an issue. You'll know in 10.7 by examining the page outs and page ins in the Memory tab in Activity Monitor. As a rough rule of thumb, a page outs number that is 10% or more of the page ins number is too high, and indicates you need more RAM. If you end up upgrading to Mavericks at some point, you'll have a memory pressure graph in Activity Monitor instead, and will simply need to keep an eye on that. If it gets too high, and goes to yellow or red, you could benefit from more RAM.

If you don't see these signs of low RAM, adding more RAM is a waste of money. Note that you shouldn't ever make the mistake of thinking that low free RAM numbers mean anything... modern versions of Mac OS X, especially Mavericks, will do their best to fill RAM with cached data, since free RAM is wasted RAM.

grayneko wrote:

I read about that--regarding apps that use up a lot of memory will eventually use up more hard drive space--and that's why I try to use only one or two at a time. Oh, and when you say reboot, do you mean restarting your computer? Or resetting your computer to factory settings?

Reboot and restart mean the same thing.