In my storage tab on my mac it says I have 95gb of movies however under movies tab in finder there is only about 6gb. I have looked elsewhere but can't find any. Does anyone know where i can find the other 90gb?

For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article. If the display seems to be inaccurate, try rebuilding the Spotlight index.

Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:

iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash

In Photos:

File ▹ Show Recently Deleted ▹ Delete All

Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then restart the computer. That will temporarily free up some space.

According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation—not the mythical 10%, 15%, or any other percentage. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of the data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.

When Time Machine backs up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of recently deleted files. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself. If you followed bad advice to disable local snapshots by running a shell command, you may have ended up with a lot of data in the Other category. Ask for instructions in that case.

See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.

You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) or GrandPerspective (GP) to explore the volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one. Note that ODS only works with OS X 10.8 or later. If you're running an older OS version, use GP.

Deleting files inside a photo or iTunes library will corrupt the library. Changes to such a library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.

Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.

ODS or GP can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.

Back up all data now.

Install the app in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.

Triple-click anywhere in the corresponding line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

For ODS:

security execute-with-privileges /A*/OmniDiskSweeper.app/*/M*/* 2>&-

For GP:

security execute-with-privileges /A*/GrandPerspective.app/*/M*/* 2>&-

Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. You'll be prompted for your login password.

The application window will open behind other open windows. When you scan a volume, the window will eventually show all files in all folders, sorted by size. It may take a few minutes for the app to finish scanning.

I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.

When you're done with the app, quit it and also quit Terminal.

That display may be in error. Reindex Spotlight and see if there is any adjustment:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716

Ciao.

I don't understand how the Apple Recommended "answer" even applies to the question. It seems to be about something else entirely.

I have Herk1996's same problem, i.e., Movies stored on my HD that I can't find.

Have you actually tried the suggestions mentioned in the recommended answer? Because these are quite relevant.

Esquared:

Apparently you understand the long answer. I don't. (I also don't understand how a novice could appreciate the relevancy of the answer when it doesn't use the key word in the question, which is "movies.) Could you please explain a bit more. Thanks.

I'll be happy to. The point is, that the storage tab information gets all mixed up sometimes. It can report movies that simply aren't there for instance. This can be caused by a corrupt Spotlight index, hence the suggestion to let Spotlight create a new index.

The other tips by Linc Davis are about ways to free up storage space and/or to find large files (e.g. Movies) that can't be found easily with the Finder. The apps he mentions can assist with that.

Thank you. Your clarifications helped me understand enough of the article to try some of the suggestions. I appreciate it.

You sir, are a genius. I was having the same problem as OP and had somehow archived 99GB of movies in Itunes that I could not see anywhere, including every search option, until I used ODS as you directed above. 5 mins later, problem solved and 99GB back in play.

In 5 minutes, you solved a problem I've been trying to figure out for weeks.

Thank you!

Unfortunately, I don't have the option "show recently deleted" in my file menu. Is there another way??