Document Revisions are taking up 130 GB of space on my HD

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Document Revisions are taking up 130 GB of space on my HD

For the 2nd day in a row, I had a message pop up on my Macbook telling me something along the lines that I was running low on available space on my HD. It didn't give me any options to do anything.

So I checked 'About My Mac" > Storage, and 200 GB was taken up by 'Other'. I had no idea what could possibly be taking up so much space. Long story short, after downloading a second different app that checks what's taking up space on the HD, and how much, I discovered that "DocumentRevisions-V100" was taking up 131 GB! Wow. Screenshot: http://oi57.tinypic.com/2cfphep.jpg

1 - Can I delete all those document revisions without affecting or ruining the current file?

I rarely ever find myself going to File > Revert To and needing an old version of a file. And if I do, it's never all THAT important. So I don't think it would be a big deal if I deleted all of them. Of course, unless it affected my current files. Then there'd be a problem.

Note: I MIGHT have an idea of what's causing this. I have a certain Keynote file and nearly every day I'm opening it, copy & pasting pictures for design inspiration. The file is about 3.8 GB big and has around 2,000. If it saves a new version of this file every time, it must have definitely accumulated over time, right?

Note: I do not use Time Machine or anything for backing up. However, I do have MicroMat TechToolPro which I once paid for in attempt to save old files from a corrupt HD on a separate computer (didn't work) - but I still have the app on my Mac, and it seems to be backing up some of my stuff. 9GB total worth of 'Directory Backup'.

Basically - where should I go from here? I would like to clear up as much space as possible and this seems to be the #1 problem. If I can delete all or most of these Document Revisions, without affecting any of the current versions, I would appreciate any help in accomplishing that.

Thank you!

Note: I'm running Yosemite 10.10.4 - MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)

OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Jul 28, 2015 5:46 PM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Jul 28, 2015 7:19 PM in response to appleaskjm

This procedure will remove all previous versions of documents, but not the current versions.

Back up all data before proceeding.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

/.DocumentRevisions-V100

Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select

Services ▹ Reveal in Finder (or just Reveal)

from the contextual menu.* A folder should open with an item selected. Move the selected item to the Trash. You may be prompted for your administrator login password. Restart the computer and empty the Trash.

*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select

Go ▹ Go to Folder...

from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

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Answer 2

appleaskjm Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 28, 2015 7:25 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thanks for the assistance. Just prior to this, I went to that one Keynote file I mentioned in my original post. Opened it, clicked File > Revert To > Browse All Versions. Then in this "new" focused screen that appears, I move my mouse up to the top to reveal the toolbar, click File > Revert To > *hold down alt* Delete old versions. After I clicked that, nothing visually happened and there appeared to be some lagging. So I clicked Done. Then about 5 minutes later I checked About My Mac, and I noticed that I went from having around 8 GB free, to 130 GB of free space. It freed up 122 GB! All because of ONE file's versions! Ridiculous!

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