Where did all the storage space go? OmniDiskSweeper doesn't seem to have an answer

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Level 1

8 points

Where did all the storage space go? OmniDiskSweeper doesn't seem to have an answer

Hi everyone,

I recently started getting the dreaded startup volume almost full messages on my MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014).

Here's what the storage bar looks like in the about this mac window -

But OmniDiskSweeper only reports 76.9 GB of total data on my drive!

I've cleaned trash, caches, language files etc at this point using Monolingual & Dr. Cleaner and am totally confused at this point as to what is it that is taking up so much space on system.

What is it that OmniDiskSweeper is unable to scan? I can only count about 70GB of data on adding up all the folders on the root of my drive and ODS confirms that on sizing my HDD.

Posted on Jul 26, 2015 4:56 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 26, 2015 5:02 AM in response to ivishu

Have you tried rebuilding your spotlight index? I've seen that suggestion a couple of time.

Paul

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Answer 2

Jul 26, 2015 5:21 AM in response to Paul Conaway

how do i rebuild my spotlight index??.. i dont know where all my space has gone to too

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Answer 3

Jul 26, 2015 5:22 AM in response to royohmzzz

Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes - Apple Support

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Answer 4

Jul 26, 2015 5:28 AM in response to royohmzzz

I haven't done this in a long while but open up the spotlight preference pane. Go to the privacy tab and Add the internal hard drive to the list of items you don't want spotlight to index. Make sure you select the drive "Macintosh HD" not a particular sub folder. Once you have the HD on the list to exclude exit out of the system preferences. Now relaunch system preferences and remove the "Macintosh HD" item you just added. You will see spotlight reindex your HD. Let me know if that works it has been years since I have done this. Also your spotlight index might not be what is cause the loss of disk space, let us know if this doesn't solve your issue.

Paul

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Answer 5

ivishu Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 26, 2015 5:52 AM in response to Paul Conaway

Thank you for your responses guys, however in my case the reported size difference is so huge that I doubted the spotlight re-index would solve it, however I still went ahead and did it.

The only difference is now ODS reports a total size of 74.7 GB instead of the previous 76.9 GB which could also be due to some other cleanup I've been doing in the past hour, still no idea where the “Other” space is being used, something that ODS is unable to answer.

Here's the updated snapshot of system storage -

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Answer 6

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Jul 26, 2015 6:00 AM in response to ivishu

There is a bug in that display program. Compare ODS results with other sources in your MBP, such as categories in Finder. For example does ODS show a total (74.7GB) that is consistent with Macinrosh HD?

Ciao.

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Answer 7

Jul 26, 2015 6:02 AM in response to ivishu

Thanks for trying that. At least it Spotlight indexs weren't your problem. Launch Activity monitor and switch to the memory tab. At the bottom there should be a memory pressure graph and to the right of it some numbers. What size is your swap file? (swap used) also is your memory pressure in the green?

Paul

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Answer 8

Jul 26, 2015 6:08 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

Ogelthorpe, would you recommend another disk space application. There are a few out there that while not free are fairly inexpensive.

Paul

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Answer 9

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Jul 26, 2015 6:17 AM in response to Paul Conaway

I like to use Grand Perspective (also free) in conjunction with ODS. It takes a visual approach which at times is more effective in spotting problems.

If one still is unable to reconcile or identify the problem, then in those rare instances both ODS and GP can be run in 'root' and that occasionally leads to a solution.

Reindexing Spotlight is a good suggestion, but there are those occasions where it does not correct the display. This seems to be one of them.

Ciao.

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Answer 10

Jul 26, 2015 6:32 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

Thanks. The spotlight search is one of my first suggestions on something like this. It is also something that I can easily check off my diagnostic list. Narrowing down what the actual issue is the key to solving these sort of issues.

Paul

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Answer 11

ivishu Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 28, 2015 1:19 AM in response to Paul Conaway

Thank you for your suggestions Paul, here's the screenshot with pressure graph and swap size, not significant I'd say -

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Answer 12

ivishu Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 30, 2015 3:11 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

I think ODS is doing it's job correctly, I pulled up the info for all major folders on my hard drive and they roughly add up to 77-78 GB which is what ODS reported, honestly I have no idea where all the other space has gone 😐

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Answer 13

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Jul 30, 2015 3:35 AM in response to ivishu

The display which you posted is not to be relied upon. As I said before, it has a bug. If you download Grand Perspective (free) and open it, it will corroborate ODS.

Click on the HDD (COMMAND + I) on your desktop (usually called Macintosh HD). What is the total USED space?

Ciao.

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Answer 14

ivishu Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 30, 2015 12:25 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

Grand Perspective gives similar results, however when I ran it as sudo, I got weird output, it started reporting volume size as 432GB for my 256GB drive!

Here's the normal mode shot -

and when ran via sudo things went haywire -

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Answer 15

ivishu Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 31, 2015 1:36 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

Finally!

Turned out it was file versions database located at the root as a restricted hidden folder /.DocumentRevisions-V100 that was taking up close to 170 GB of space on the drive, it didn't turn up in ODS scans probably due to permission issues.

However thanks to your suggestion of looking at Grand perspective I was able to figure this out albeit a bit late on giving some attention to the visuals that the app provided -

Major 2 chunks - large yellow area on the left and one with red, green, yellow etc blocks next to it are all revision files saved by Mac OS, I went ahead and deleted the versions folder which should be recreated as I restart my mac now, it freed up around 166 gigs on my drive.

Thanks a LOT for your inputs everyone!

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