Startup Disk Almost Full (NOT THE PROBLEM!)

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Level 1

1 points

Startup Disk Almost Full (NOT THE PROBLEM!)

I keep getting the Startup Disk Almost Full error, but there is something else going on. I have 409.29 GB available out of 499.25 Capacity. Then, when I do almost anything…even open a Safari page, that available 409.29 GB suddenly starts fluctuating drastically. I have seen it drop to "zero"
…actually spelled out like that. That is when I get the warning, when the available memory drops to really low values.

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

When this first started I had 275 GB available and watched that disappear. I have since gone through and moved 134 GB of stuff to my Time Machine…1.5 times more than what I still have on my iMac's Macintosh HD. I have emptied the trash and restarted the computer. This has not solved or even improved the situation.

It is not a used capacity issue…something else is happening.

Has anyone else with this high of a percentage of available memory experienced a similar problem?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Jul 31, 2015 8:33 AM

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Answer 1

BobHarris

Level 9

53,315 points

Jan 7, 2017 1:28 PM in response to Jeff Axup

First, this is a user-to-user forum so you are not talking to Apple. If you wish to talk to Apple try

Mac OS X Feedback

<http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html>

They will not reply, but it does get read.

Also Optimizing storage is a Sierra feature, so your post should really be in the Sierra forum, not the Lion forum.

14GB is not a lot on today's computers and operating systems.

Another thing is that is you use a Time Capsule for Time Machine backups, then when you are not connected to the Time Capsule, the Mac will take Time Machine snapshots on your boot disk. The Finder does not report this space, as it is suppose to be deleted if the Finder needs the storage. However, the warning message may be coming from something that is not ignoring the snapshots. The snapshots will be copied to the Time Capsule when it is available again, and the snapshots deleted from your system.

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Answer 2

Jan 7, 2017 12:47 PM in response to mak_laufer

I have a similar issue. I am getting the "Your disk is almost full - Save space by optimizing storage." [Manage...] dialog.

But I have 14GB free. Sounds like a bug, or an extremely confusing analysis of a remote drive that doesn't matter by Apple.

The error message doesn't indicate WHICH drive. Really Apple?

Going to the manage screen just helps you delete things, which is not the issue.

The manage screen also doesn't let you turn off this error.

I am getting this error message about once an hour and it is driving me crazy. Any way to turn it off?

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Answer 3

Klaus1

Level 9

52,759 points

Jul 31, 2015 10:50 AM in response to mak_laufer

Hard drive space and ‘Other’:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202867

Also, try to rebuild the Spotlight index: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716

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Answer 4

BobHarris

Level 9

53,315 points

Jul 31, 2015 12:04 PM in response to mak_laufer

Was the error along the lines of "Your system has run out of Applications memory"?

This might indicate that an application or applications have used up all the virtual memory table space and OS X can no longer page things to disk. That is to say the swapfiles are full and OS X cannot manager any more virtual memory.

if this is the case, you might look at Applications -> Utilities -> Activity Monitor -> Memory to see what processes are using all the available virtual memory.

This was just a guess, so I could be totally wrong.

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