Where is all this stuff hiding?

Question

Level 1

4 points

Where is all this stuff hiding?

My 256GB hard drive is almost full on my late 2013 Macbook Pro and I wanted to start gaining more memory- so, first things first, I backed up all my photos on an external hard drive and deleted everything on iPhoto (almost 10,000 photos). Unfortunately, it still says I have over 40GB of photos and over 60GB of videos and there is absolutely nothing in my iPhoto library (or recently deleted items or trash)? It also says I have almost 80GB of OTHER? Why the **** do I need 80GB of OTHER and what is it?

My question is WHERE IS THIS STUFF HIDING? I can't seem to find any photos, videos, or this so called OTHER 80GB of whatever anywhere and I desperately need space on this computer. Still kicking myself in the *** for not ponying up and getting the 512GB, but oh well...

Anyone who can shed some light on this subject please let me know.

Thanks!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Aug 4, 2015 10:49 PM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,308 points

Aug 4, 2015 11:07 PM in response to bparkervail

If you want to empty iPhoto then trash the iPhoto Library, don't empty it. If you tried deleting 40 gigs of material from iPhoto at one go it probably failed.

The rest of the query is best asked on the Yosemite forum.

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Answer 2

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

Aug 5, 2015 3:56 AM in response to bparkervail

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 3

bparkervail Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 5, 2015 10:03 PM in response to bparkervail

Thanks for your replies- unfortunately, I still am unsure what I did wrong. I cannot find any of the 40GB of photos or 60GB of videos anywhere on the computer....not in my iPhoto library or in recently deleted or in trash. Where can I find this content so I can permanently delete it? Should I just restore my last backup and start again? This isn't supposed to be that difficult I thought...

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Answer 4

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,308 points

Aug 6, 2015 12:27 AM in response to bparkervail

Did you empty the trash? Assuming you did there are some possibilities:

1. Deleting from the iPhoto Library failed - solution, trash the Library, don't delete from it

2. There's a second library on there somewhere - solution: find it. Check out an app like Grand Perspective http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/It will show you what's taking up space on your disk.

3. The material is actually gone and the report you're seeing is wrong - solution: Rebuild the Spotlight Index as Klaus 1 suggests.

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Answer 5

bparkervail Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 10, 2015 10:04 PM in response to Yer_Man

My trash is empty, and I rebuilt my spotlight as suggested. Rebuilding it didn't really get rid of the pictures and video content- instead it is now categorized as "other" stuff taking up the same amount of storage. So I downloaded that Grand Perspective app and it's telling me that 182GBs are located here: Users/"me"/Pictures/iPhoto Library.migratedphotolibrary

But every time I open iPhoto, there is absolutely nothing there! I know you guys said to delete the "iPhoto Library" and not the photos individually, but I already deleted the pictures and now I'm unsure how to delete the actual library.

Thanks again for your help and I apologize for my lack of knowledge in this matter.

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Answer 6

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Aug 10, 2015 10:47 PM in response to bparkervail

drag the library to the trash and empty the trash

Be positive that this is what you wan to do as there is no undo for it

LN

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Answer 7

bparkervail Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 10, 2015 10:55 PM in response to bparkervail

UPDATE: went into hard drive and deleted both the "iPhoto Library" folder as well as the folder titled "Photos" and freed up more space. Now I only have 96GBs of "Other" and 86GBs of "backups". When looking into the Grand Perspective map of my hard drive, the only really concerning amount of data (46GBs) is in the "users/"me"/Library/Application Suppport folder. The other weird thing is that when I go into the "About Mac" folder and look at "Storage", it says I only have 45GBs of free space on my "Macintosh HD", but when I open my hard drive and go into the "Macintosh HD" drive, it says I have 138GBs of free space. Feel like I'm getting close to figuring this out.....

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