.DocumentRevisions folder is taking up 68 GB of space. Is there anything I can do about this?

Question

.DocumentRevisions folder is taking up 68 GB of space. Is there anything I can do about this?

Hi,

I'm running out of space on my macbook pro internal hard drive and am confused by the 198GB of 'other' files listed.

Using Omnidisksweeper, I've found that the '.DocumentRevisions' folder is taking up 68 GB of space. Is there anything I can do about this? I've googled this but it seems there are a lot of people talking about deleting the folder without really understanding what it is used for. I don't want to mess up my machine just to save a few gigs, but would like the space back if there is a safe way to do it.

I use an external drive for Time Machine backups. Not sure if this has any bearing upon the discussion

Cheers,

Anthony

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,2

Processor Name: Intel Core i7

Processor Speed: 2.2 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 4

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 6 MB

Memory: 16 GB

Boot ROM Version: MBP81.0047.B2A

SMC Version (system): 1.69f4

Serial Number (system): ----------

Hardware UUID: ------

Sudden Motion Sensor:

State: Enabled

Posted on Oct 9, 2015 5:34 AM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,535 points

Oct 9, 2015 9:00 PM in response to AnthonySmith81

For information about document versioning, see this support article. The database that stores past versions of your documents has become excessively large.

Back up all data before making any changes.

It may not be easy to solve the problem without deleting the whole database, clearing all past versions (but not the current ones.) Often there is one document, or perhaps a few, that is large and has a long revision history, taking up most of the space. It could be a Pages document or a Keynote presentation with a lot of graphics, for example. If you know or can guess which document that is, delete most or all of its past versions as instructed in the support article linked above.

If the problem isn't solved that way, see below. All past document versions will be cleared. Current versions won't be affected.

Quit all open applications except the web browser.

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 ▹ Open

from the contextual menu. A Finder window should open with an item named ".DocumentRevisions-V100" selected. Move the selected item to the Trash. You may be prompted for your administrator login password. Restart the computer and empty the Trash.

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Answer 2

Oct 11, 2015 5:13 AM in response to Linc Davis

Hi- Thanks Linc,

I've managed to delete the ''/.DocumentRevisions-V100'' folder, but it does not appear in my trash and no HD space is freed up. When I do a ''get info'' in the trash icon it is listed as ''298GB for 0 items''.

Do you have any idea about this?

Thanks in advance,

Anthony

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Answer 3

Oct 12, 2015 2:46 AM in response to AnthonySmith81

As a note to the above comment (and for anyone else having the same problem)- today I put a small file into my trash bin. This allowed me to select the 'empty trash' command (previously greyed out as the trash bin was empty).

To my surprise, emptying the trash also emptied the hidden (larger) files which had previously been a problem.

Problem solved.

Thanks again for your help Linc 🙂

Anthony

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