cdg35
Level 1 (8 points)
Apple TV

Q: app storage

Screen Shot 2016-03-12 at 11.09.16 AM.pngokay so here is my question,  I am running el capitan, and have no additional third party apps installed, literally the base mac apps with iMovie, pages and sheets.  Why is my app storage almost 103 GB? and how do i clean it out.  I have deleted nonessencial apps i iTunes and and addition backups of iOS devices.  I would prefer not downloading any third party apps to clean up this mac.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2014), OS X El Capitan (10.11.3), iPhone 6s & iPad Air2 iOS 9.2.1

Posted on Mar 12, 2016 8:17 AM

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cdg35

Q: app storage

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  • by FoxFifth,

    FoxFifth FoxFifth Mar 12, 2016 8:27 AM in response to cdg35
    Level 7 (27,551 points)
    iPhone
    Mar 12, 2016 8:27 AM in response to cdg35

    One possibility is that the numbers shown are wrong. If so, re-indexing may correct that: Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes - Apple Support

  • by cdg35,

    cdg35 cdg35 Mar 12, 2016 8:41 AM in response to FoxFifth
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Apple TV
    Mar 12, 2016 8:41 AM in response to FoxFifth

    thanks you for your answer,  I followed the steps to to re-index and the app storage stayed the same, but the other numbers all changed?Screen Shot 2016-03-12 at 11.40.28 AM.png

  • by FoxFifth,

    FoxFifth FoxFifth Mar 12, 2016 8:59 AM in response to cdg35
    Level 7 (27,551 points)
    iPhone
    Mar 12, 2016 8:59 AM in response to cdg35

    You can open a Finder window, use File menu Find or command F and then in the bar that appears above the area where the files display set the criteria to Kind is Application to view only applications.

    If the size of each application doesn't display, use the Finder View menu > Show View Options and select size. Once size is displaying you can then click on the column header "Size" in the Finder window to sort the search results by size -- each time you click will switch the list between ascending and descending.

  • by cdg35,

    cdg35 cdg35 Mar 12, 2016 9:12 AM in response to FoxFifth
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Apple TV
    Mar 12, 2016 9:12 AM in response to FoxFifth

    so with this listing and sorted by decending order the biggest app info i have is only 2 GB and that is iMovie,  totaling all the apps up i am only at about 10GB?  i think it may be time to restore to factory settings and load my files on from a backup.

  • by FoxFifth,

    FoxFifth FoxFifth Mar 12, 2016 9:36 AM in response to cdg35
    Level 7 (27,551 points)
    iPhone
    Mar 12, 2016 9:36 AM in response to cdg35

    Personally, I don't find the About this Mac Storage display very useful as there isn't an easy way to get details. If what you are really concerned about is space on your hard disk (although that isn't at a worrisome level) you may want to open a new Finder window and navigate to the top level of the directory and then use command F and click in the "Kind" area, then click "Other" and change it to "File Size" and change the middle criteria to "is greater than" and search for large files that way in order to get an idea of what is taking up the most space on your drive.