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Sep 21, 2016 4:34 PM in response to Agnes Rouleby joe_7399,Hi Agnes Roule,
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!
It sounds like you have 500 GB of "Other" content on your iMac.
This category includes things like Mail messages and media attachments, cache files from Safari or other browsers, audio or video attachments to Messages, system log files, temp files, etc.
If you have 250 GB of space left on your drive, you shouldn't be getting any error messages regarding storage.
However, you can search your computer for large files, delete attachments and other files that may be in your Downloads folder to free up space on your internal drive (usually called MacIntosh HD).
Important: You must have a backup of your computer before making any significant changes to it.
Do you have a recent Time Machine Backup?
Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac
The resource below explains how to use the Finder Application to find large files, and how to delete trash.
Important: If you don't know what a file is, or the file is in a Library folder, don't delete it.
Remember, you have three trash cans on your computer. One is in the Mail application, one is in the Photos application, and the third is your main System trash. If you put items in the trash, but don't delete the trash, they are still taking up space on your computer. (It's like throwing something in the trash can in the kitchen, but not taking the trash out to the curb!)
If you have large files that you don't want to delete just yet, you can move them to an external drive to free up space on your iMac.
OS X El Capitan: Increase disk space
Agnes Roule, the information here should get you started. If you have any specific questions about the information in the resources we've shared, please reply back to this post for clarification.
Enjoy the rest of your day! -
Sep 21, 2016 7:15 PM in response to Agnes Rouleby BobHarris,OmniDiskSweeper (free download)
<http://www.omnigroup.com/more>
When using OmniDiskSweeper, or any utility that shows all your files... See the following article if you want to run it as root
<http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/how_to_recover_missing_hard_drive_space>
Boiler Plate Warnings:
If you have a recurring, running out of disk space, problem, then OmniDiskSweeper may help identify where the space is going. Posting the suspected locations and files will help the forum help you to figure it out. Remember, we cannot see into your disk, you have to give us information to work with.
DO NOT delete files in your Home Folder -> Library tree as there are things like your iPhone backups, your email messages, your application preferences, etc… If you think you have found something in your Home Folder -> Library that can be deleted, you should ask first.
DO NOT delete files outside your home folder, as you may end up deleting something essential to Mac OS X, and turn your Mac into an expensive “Door Stop”.
I will point out that you will find some very large files in private -> var -> vm (these are the Mac OS X virtual memory paging files (swapfiles) and where Mac OS X stores the copy of RAM when your Mac is put to sleep). The swapfile(s) get deleted on reboot, and the sleep image is just going to be created again when you put your Mac to sleep.
If you think you have found something to delete outside your home folder, it would be best to ask first before deleting. There are many examples of people deleting files outside their home folder, or renaming files, or changing the ownership or file permissions, and then their Mac stops running. Do not be one of those people. Ask first.
