mabsTn
Level 1 (8 points)
Mac OS X

Q: storage management

Hello! I've got a few problems with the storage management, if I go to: Apple --> about this mac --> storage it shows me that the diagram of storage is almost full (most of the space is occupied by "applications"),

13036528_10209038048614068_854358348_o.jpg

 

but the numbers show a different story. I've rebuild the spotlight menu, and it reduced the "application space", but it still wrong, the numbers shown aren't the real ones form the different folders.

13035642_10209038053014178_1897684518_o.jpg

I think that all of this happened after the last software upgrade (OS X El Capitan, version 10.11.4, MacBook Air), what can I do???

P.S sorry for the images quality

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Apr 21, 2016 11:27 AM

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mabsTn

Q: storage management

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  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain Apr 21, 2016 11:44 AM in response to mabsTn
    Level 5 (6,763 points)
    Mac App Store
    Apr 21, 2016 11:44 AM in response to mabsTn

    Try this:

    Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes - Apple Support

     

    Edit: never mind.

    I wish we could delete our own posts. Or at least report them.

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Apr 21, 2016 11:39 AM in response to mabsTn
    Level 10 (141,674 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 21, 2016 11:39 AM in response to mabsTn

    The Foto indication is a summation of all the image files on the hard drive, not just those in your Fotos folder.  That would include image files inside the system and applications.  There are a lot of them, believe me. The same goes for Audio files.

    OTsig.png

  • by KimUserName,

    KimUserName KimUserName Apr 21, 2016 12:09 PM in response to mabsTn
    Level 4 (1,400 points)
    Notebooks
    Apr 21, 2016 12:09 PM in response to mabsTn

    Hi MabsTn:

     

    First let me say that I think Spotlight has a bug in it and sometimes get way out of whack, similar to your first picture. And when it does you will need to re-index spotlight, similar to your second screen print.

    Second the categories in About My Mac > Storage are not looking at the directories in your home directory.Screen Shot 2016-04-21 at 3.03.14 PM.png

    Spotlight goes through all your files (some are exempted, like hidden files, and system files) and give each one a category.

    The categories are Apps, Audio, Photos, Movies, Backups and Other.

    Screen Shot 2016-04-21 at 3.03.52 PM.png

    So if the file does not fall into 1 of the 5 categories, it becomes other.

     

    See this link labeled "What the "Other" Storage Space is" http://osxdaily.com/2015/01/15/other-storage-space-mac-os-x/

     

    So your Photos directory size will not be the same as the Photos category in About My Mac > Storage.

     

    Kim