Every time I open my MacBook Air, I'm down *another* gig of storage. Where is it going? I open a finder window for the Mac hard drive and tell it to calculate sizes. That's only 61 gig, of 102 filled. What and where are the missing 41?? How can I deal with this?
MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)
For information about the Other category in the Storage display, please see this support article. If the display seems to be inaccurate, try rebuilding the Spotlight index.
Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:
iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash
In Photos:
File ▹ Show Recently Deleted ▹ Delete All
Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then restart the computer. That will temporarily free up some space.
According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation—not the mythical 10%, 15%, or any other percentage. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of the data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.
When Time Machine backs up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of recently deleted files. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself. If you followed bad advice to disable local snapshots by running a shell command, you may have ended up with a lot of data in the Other category. Ask for instructions in that case.
See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space. A common waste of space is old iTunes backups of mobile devices. As illustrated in this support article, select the Devices tab in the iTunes preferences window, select the backups you want to delete, and click Delete Backups. Keep at least one backup of each device that you still use.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) or GrandPerspective (GP) to explore the volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one. Note that ODS only works with OS X 10.8 or later. If you're running an older OS version, use GP.
Deleting files inside a photo or iTunes library will corrupt the library. Changes to such a library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.
Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.
ODS or GP can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
Install the app in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
Triple-click anywhere in the corresponding line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
For ODS:
security execute-with-privileges /A*/OmniDiskSweeper.app/*/M*/* 2>&-
For GP:
security execute-with-privileges /A*/GrandPerspective.app/*/M*/* 2>&-
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any one of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. You'll be prompted for your login password.
The application window will open behind other open windows. When you scan a volume, the window will eventually show all files in all folders, sorted by size. It may take a few minutes for the app to finish scanning.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.
When you're done with the app, quit it and also quit Terminal.
For information about the Other category in the Storage display, please see this support article. If the display seems to be inaccurate, try rebuilding the Spotlight index.
Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:
iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash
In Photos:
File ▹ Show Recently Deleted ▹ Delete All
Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then restart the computer. That will temporarily free up some space.
According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation—not the mythical 10%, 15%, or any other percentage. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of the data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.
When Time Machine backs up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of recently deleted files. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself. If you followed bad advice to disable local snapshots by running a shell command, you may have ended up with a lot of data in the Other category. Ask for instructions in that case.
See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space. A common waste of space is old iTunes backups of mobile devices. As illustrated in this support article, select the Devices tab in the iTunes preferences window, select the backups you want to delete, and click Delete Backups. Keep at least one backup of each device that you still use.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) or GrandPerspective (GP) to explore the volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one. Note that ODS only works with OS X 10.8 or later. If you're running an older OS version, use GP.
Deleting files inside a photo or iTunes library will corrupt the library. Changes to such a library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.
Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.
ODS or GP can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
Install the app in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
Triple-click anywhere in the corresponding line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
For ODS:
security execute-with-privileges /A*/OmniDiskSweeper.app/*/M*/* 2>&-
For GP:
security execute-with-privileges /A*/GrandPerspective.app/*/M*/* 2>&-
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any one of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. You'll be prompted for your login password.
The application window will open behind other open windows. When you scan a volume, the window will eventually show all files in all folders, sorted by size. It may take a few minutes for the app to finish scanning.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.
When you're done with the app, quit it and also quit Terminal.
Thank you for the info about Omni Disk Sweeper. The attached screenshot is what I got when I ran it as you described.
What is .MobileBackups.trash? How do I get rid of it?
It is madness to use so much disk space for backups that it becomes difficult to use the computer for everyday things.
I have now put the Trashme folder into the trash as you suggested in the following post:
Re: .mobilebackups.trash not deleting automatically
Now I cannot delete the trash. I can't even open the Trashme folder. The computer tells me I don't have permission.
I unlocked the Trashme folder (which is in the trash). I unlocked some of the sub-folders. And I deleted all the contents.
So, I have 1600+ folders in the trash. They are 0k. But they cannot be deleted.
This is an improvement. But I do want to be able to delete the trash without having to skip all the locked folders.
Also, am I going to have to deal with this every few months when the .MobileBackups.trash overflows again?? TimeMachine has been great, but it isn't worth that much hassle!
If you are determined to delete these local backups and are willing to use Terminal, you might try the method suggested in this article:
Always backup your computer before attempting such interventions. It is also my understanding that Time Machine will delete these local snapshots when a full backup is performed. Good luck.
This is a good article. However, my problem isn't with .MobileBackups. That was only 2.8 g.
My problem was with .MobileBackups.trash, which was 32.3 g. It put me well over the supposed 20% free rule. And it did not disappear when I ran a new TimeMachine backup. I mean, it's trash. It should go away, or I should be able to make it go away.
This is a bug. Maybe it came with OS X 10.11 (El Capitan). It needs to be fixed.
Meantime, I'd like a workaround.
Understood. It looks that you are not the first to confront this issue. Have a look at this thread and see if that seems useful:
Please hold down the option key and empty the Trash.
The option+empty trash doesn't work either. I spent half the morning on the phone with a senior helpdesk person from Apple. We tried many things without success. She has escalated the problem to "the engineers." If I learn anything useful, I'll post it. She thought it would be a couple days.
If anyone from Apple ever calls you, which is no better than even money, he or she will probably tell you to erase the startup volume and restore from a backup. You can do that now, if you don't want to wait. It will take hours, but the problem will be solved. Ask if you need guidance.
Otherwise, see below.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It makes no changes to your data. The instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Please triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
sudo find {/,}.Tr* -flags +restricted -prune | pbcopy
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any one of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing the key combination command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting. You'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. Type carefully and then press return. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. Confirm. You don't need to post the warning.
If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator. Log in as one and start over.
Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear below what you entered.
The output of the command will be automatically copied to the Clipboard. If the command produced no output, the Clipboard will be empty. Paste into a reply to this message.
The Terminal window doesn't show the output. Please don't copy anything from there.
If any personal information appears in the output, anonymize before posting, but don’t remove the context.
The output is below, Linc. I am not getting notifications when you post. I will try to remember to check this regularly. In the output on Terminal, these lines were followed by "...Permission denied".
Do you have any idea why the .MobileBackups.trash folder was getting so big? That was really the cause of all this mess.
Thanks so much for your help.
Sue
.Trash/Trashme/Computer/2015-10-29-125244/Volume/System
.Trash/Trashme/Computer/2015-10-29-125244/Volume/usr
.Trash/Trashme/Computer/2015-10-29-223425/Volume/System
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-03-184651/Computer/2015-11-01-202949/Volume /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/XProtect.meta.p list
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-03-184651/Computer/2015-11-01-202949/Volume /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/XProtect.plist
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-03-184651/Computer/2015-11-01-202949/Volume /System/Library/Extensions/AppleKextExcludeList.kext/Contents/_CodeSignature/Cod eDirectory
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-03-184651/Computer/2015-11-01-202949/Volume /System/Library/Extensions/AppleKextExcludeList.kext/Contents/_CodeSignature/Cod eRequirements
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-03-184651/Computer/2015-11-01-202949/Volume /System/Library/Extensions/AppleKextExcludeList.kext/Contents/_CodeSignature/Cod eResources
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-03-184651/Computer/2015-11-01-202949/Volume /System/Library/Extensions/AppleKextExcludeList.kext/Contents/_CodeSignature/Cod eSignature
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-03-184651/Computer/2015-11-01-202949/Volume /System/Library/Extensions/AppleKextExcludeList.kext/Contents/Info.plist
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-03-184651/Computer/2015-11-01-202949/Volume /System/Library/Extensions/AppleKextExcludeList.kext/Contents/Resources/en.lproj /InfoPlist.strings
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-03-184651/Computer/2015-11-01-202949/Volume /System/Library/Extensions/AppleKextExcludeList.kext/Contents/Resources/KnownPan ics.plist
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-03-184651/Computer/2015-11-01-202949/Volume /System/Library/Extensions/AppleKextExcludeList.kext/Contents/version.plist
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-03-184651/Computer/2015-11-01-202949/Volume /System/Library/Sandbox/Compatibility.bundle/Contents/_CodeSignature/CodeDirecto ry
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-05-064802/Computer/2015-11-04-072604/Volume /System
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-05-064802/Computer/2015-11-04-072604/Volume /usr
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-07-220633/Computer/2015-11-07-063856/Volume /usr
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-12-183522/Computer/2015-11-12-140245/Volume /System
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-12-183522/Computer/2015-11-12-140245/Volume /usr
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-16-183920/Computer/2015-11-16-162620/Volume /usr
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-18-164925/Computer/2015-11-17-153552/Volume /System
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-18-164925/Computer/2015-11-17-153552/Volume /usr
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-18-183447/Computer/2015-11-18-164925/Volume /System
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-21-091806/Computer/2015-11-20-190806/Volume /System
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-21-091806/Computer/2015-11-20-190806/Volume /usr
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-25-155303/Computer/2015-11-24-143641/Volume /usr
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-11-28-165206/Computer/2015-11-28-143924/Volume /usr
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-12-04-092734/Computer/2015-12-02-054126/Volume /usr
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-12-11-063304/Computer/2015-12-10-193421/Volume /usr
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-12-16-082912/Computer/2015-12-15-094239/Volume /System
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-12-19-163417/Computer/2015-12-19-054553/Volume /System
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-12-19-163417/Computer/2015-12-19-054553/Volume /usr
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-12-22-212128/Computer/2015-12-21-202220/Volume /usr
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2015-12-31-053924/Computer/2015-12-29-060242/Volume /usr
.Trash/Trashme/MobileBackups_2016-01-03-104934/Computer/2016-01-02-142853/Volume /usr
<Email Edited by Host>
This procedure will temporarily disable System Integrity Protection, a security feature of OS X that is preventing the Trash from being emptied. After you empty the Trash, the feature will be re-enabled. Nothing else will be changed.
Start up in Recovery mode. In the OS X Utilities screen, select Get Help Online. A copy of Safari will launch. While in Recovery, you'll have no access to your history or bookmarks, but you won't need them. Load this web page.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:
csrutil disable
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Quit Safari. You'll be returned to the OS X Utilities screen.
Select
Utilities ▹ Terminal
from the menu bar. A Terminal window will open. Paste into the window by pressing the key combination command-V.
Wait for a new line ending in a hash sign (#) to appear below what you entered. If it doesn't appear, press return.
Quit Terminal to return to the main screen.
Restart as usual. You should now be able to empty the Trash. As soon as you've done that, start up in Recovery mode again and load this page in Safari. Run the following command in Terminal as before:
csrutil enable
Restart as usual again.
After a month of working on this problem, here’s my summary:
Bottom line: No one can explain why the folder .MobileBackups.trash grew to consume a quarter of my hard drive. I had no trouble in the first 2 1/2 years I owned the computer. Why did it start getting bloated 6 months ago? No one knows. (I have gotten considerable help from Apple Support.)
My problem: 6 months ago I had about 50 gb of free space on my hard drive. A month ago I was down to 18 gb free. It seemed that every time I opened my computer, the free space was down another gigabyte. I had no idea why.
To find the size of hidden folders:
After it works for awhile, it will give you a list of all folders, including hidden folders, and their sizes. I discovered that the folder .MobileBackups.trash was taking up a quarter of my hard drive. .MobileBackups itself was a reasonable size, but the trash was out of control.
Mobile backups (also called local snapshots) are a useful function of TimeMachine. They allow you to recover a previous version of a file you worked on a little bit ago, in between TimeMachine backups. Of course, local backups stop being useful when its trash doesn’t empty.
To DISABLE local snapshots:
To ENABLE local snapshots, open Terminal and enter the command: sudo tmutil enablelocal
Also, if you turn TimeMachine off and then back on again (MacintoshHD>Applications>System Preferences.app>TimeMachine), local snapshots will again be enabled.
There is a post about local snapshots at: http://www.howtogeek.com/212207/how-to-free-up-space-used-by-time-machines-local -backups-on-your-mac/
After you turn off local snapshots, I recommend that you wait a month (or more?). The folders are programmed to delete themselves. Maybe they will go away on their own. I don’t know whether waiting works. But the method for getting rid of .MobileBackups.trash outlined below will leave (empty) folders that cannot be deleted.
If you really want to delete .MobileBackups.trash immediately:
However, the contents of the folders will be deleted. But there will be folders left that cannot be deleted. Ever. I have tried numerous suggested commands from Apple Support staff and from Linc Davis here on the user support pages. Nothing worked.
The final suggestion from Apple is to erase OS-X. Then they will help me “manually bring your data back onto the computer, test the issue and if all works well, then migrate your applications back onto the computer.”
I am not going to go through that certainly laborious process. I have parked the Trashme folder (zero k, but cannot be deleted) in the MacintoshHD folder so I don’t have to look at it.
I hope that Apple Support will try to figure out why .MobileBackups.trash got so big in the first place.
Storage disappearing
