Selina97
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Macbook Air app storage problem

I have a 256gb Macbook Air with OS X Mavericks 10.9.5. Everything is running fine except that when I open up my storage information it says that apps are taking up 100gb of space, however, when I go to my finder > applications > get info it says that my applications are only taking up 11gb. I don't have much space left on my hard drive so this is a bit of an issue of me and also kind of confusing. How can I have 100gb of applications taking up space on my computer when I only have 11gb worth of applications?

 

I only have the default applications and Google Chrome, Skype, uTorrent, Photoshop and Lightroom installed.

 

Is there any way that I can reduce the gb spent on applications without deleting anything?

 

Thank you!

MacBook Air, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), Bought last year

Posted on Jan 3, 2015 2:11 AM

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Selina97

Q: Macbook Air app storage problem

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  • Helpful answers

  • by dominic23,

    dominic23 dominic23 Jan 3, 2015 7:11 AM in response to Selina97
    Level 8 (42,122 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 3, 2015 7:11 AM in response to Selina97

       Re-index Macintosh HD.

     

     

       Spotlight reindexing will take a while to finish.

       System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy

     

       http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409

     

       You will see a new category  “Other” in the Storage Display.

          About “Other”:

       http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202867

     

       Note:

       If Macintosh HD is not shown on the Desktop,  click on an empty spot on the Desktop to activate Finder.

     

       Finder > Preferences > Sidebar > Devices > Hard disks

       Enable it clicking inside box beside "Hard disks" to place a checkmark.

     

       Best.

  • by Selina97,

    Selina97 Selina97 Jan 4, 2015 1:17 AM in response to dominic23
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 4, 2015 1:17 AM in response to dominic23

    Hi,

     

    Sorry, I am just a little confused about reindexing. What is reindexing and what does it do? This won't delete anything of mine will it?

     

    Thanks

  • by Lexiepex,

    Lexiepex Lexiepex Jan 4, 2015 1:31 AM in response to Selina97
    Level 6 (10,536 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 4, 2015 1:31 AM in response to Selina97

    Aside from your question:

    I propose to uninstall uTorrent: the app broadcasts your data thus making you vulnrable, and software downloaded is often "manipulated" to do more than the official version.

    As Dominic says your problem is probably gone by having Spotlight make a new index.

  • by dominic23,

    dominic23 dominic23 Jan 4, 2015 3:15 AM in response to dominic23
    Level 8 (42,122 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 4, 2015 3:15 AM in response to dominic23

    Spotlight reindexing will not remove any of your data.

     

    Spotlight is Mac's search engine.

     

    When you create  a new file, spotlight creates a database of it's name,contents and metadata.

    This makes search possible.

     

    Sometimes this database-index- can get corrupted.

    Deleting the corrupted index will force Spotlight to make a new index corruption free.

    That makes the stats produced seen in Finder and Disk Utility  accurate.

     

    Dragging Macintosh HD into the privacy pane of Spotlight,confirming it in the dialog box that appears and removing it by clicking

    the "-" sign at the bottom of the window will delete the existing index and thus force Spotlight to create a new index.

     

     

    Best.