Deleting Mac Mini 2012 'sleepimage' file?

oneinten · Apr 11, 2013

Hello,

Using omnisweep I attempted to reduce down my 50gb odd of 'Other' files before I clone it to a new SSD.

In doing so I deleted the 'sleepimage' file using omnisweep which was 8GB, although I have 16gb RAM installed. After reading up I thought the sleepimage file should be the otal size of your installed RAM?

I deleted the file, shut down my mac, restarted and then put it into sleep mode a few times,. and although the file hasn't come back, the folder insire the "VAR" folder hasn't either. It seems to go to sleep and walke up just fine.. but why hasn't my Mac Mini regenerated these files?

Drew017 · Apr 11, 2013

cheerup347 said:
Hello,

Using omnisweep I attempted to reduce down my 50gb odd of 'Other' files before I clone it to a new SSD.

In doing so I deleted the 'sleepimage' file using omnisweep which was 8GB, although I have 16gb RAM installed. After reading up I thought the sleepimage file should be the otal size of your installed RAM?

I deleted the file, shut down my mac, restarted and then put it into sleep mode a few times,. and although the file hasn't come back, the folder insire the "VAR" folder hasn't either. It seems to go to sleep and walke up just fine.. but why hasn't my Mac Mini regenerated these files?

If its working okay don't worry about it for now. If the files still haven't come back over the next week or two you can always repair permissions, or if you need to, just reinstall OS X.

oneinten · Apr 11, 2013

Hello, how do I repair permissions?

And if re-install os x. Will I need to format the drive or can I just repair the install? I'd rather not lose all my apps/media and have to make a backup.just yet

Bear · Apr 11, 2013

The sleepimage file will only get created if Safe Sleep is turned on. In general Safe Sleep is more commonly used on MacBooks so the battery doesn't get slowly drained while sleeping.

This can be turned on or off for any Mac. For your Mac mini Safe Sleep is most likely turned off so the sleepimage won't get recreated.

In other words, you probably don't have an issue on your Mac.

chrfr · Apr 11, 2013

Bear said:
This can be turned on or off for any Mac. For your Mac mini Safe Sleep is most likely turned off so the sleepimage won't get recreated.

In other words, you probably don't have an issue on your Mac.

No, on the 2012 Mini and iMac, hibernation/safe sleep is on, and the sleepimage file will always be created. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1757

Fishrrman · Apr 11, 2013

Launch terminal.

Enter this:
sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
(disables safe sleep)
Enter password when prompted.

Next, enter this:
sudo rm /private/var/vm/sleepimage
(removes sleep image from disk)
Enter password again, if prompted.

Finally, enter this:
pmset -g | grep hibernatemode
(prints to screen the current hibernatemode setting)

You should see:
hibernatemode 0
(Safe Sleep is disabled)

Safe Sleep should now be turned off, and the sleep image has been removed from the drive.

chrfr · Apr 11, 2013

Fishrrman said:
Safe Sleep should now be turned off, and the sleep image has been removed from the drive.

Last time I tried that, the sleepimage file came back anyway. Maybe it does as it should with 10.8.3.

benwiggy · Apr 11, 2013

Drew017 said:
If the files still haven't come back over the next week or two you can always repair permissions.

Repair Permissions does NOT recreate sleep images or any other sort of magic. Its usefulness is extremely narrow. It is not the universal panacea for all ills.

Fishrrman said:
Safe Sleep should now be turned off, and the sleep image has been removed from the drive.

But doesn't he want to get the image back? It's possibly worth mentioning what effect turning off Safe Sleep will have. If you run out of battery, you lose what you were doing.

cheerup347 said:
Using omnisweep I attempted to reduce down my 50gb odd of 'Other' files before I clone it to a new SSD.

"Other" files are not necessarily a Bad Thing. It's pretty much everything except music, video and apps.

GGJstudios · Apr 11, 2013

cheerup347 said:
Hello,

Using omnisweep I attempted to reduce down my 50gb odd of 'Other' files before I clone it to a new SSD.

This may help: Freeing up drive space in Mac OS X

If you're wondering what "Other" category in the Lion/ML storage tab is about, this may help explain:

What is this "Other" in the storage tab? What is eating my space

For space issues not explained by the above, there are a few things you can try, some of which may or may not apply:

Begin by restarting your computer as a first step. This sometimes resolves issues.
For Time Machine users on notebooks running Lion or later, space may be consumed by Time Machine local snapshots, which can be disabled.

OS X: About Time Machine's "local snapshots" on portable Macs
Check to see if some of the space is being used by your sleepimage file.
Check the System Memory tab in Activity Monitor to check page outs and swap used. If swap used is significant, restart your computer and track that value under your normal workload. If you have significant page outs under normal use, you could benefit from more RAM.
Search with Finder to see if the space is being consumed by a very large file or several large files. Adjust the 50GB in the illustration to whatever size you deem appropriate.
Use OmniDiskSweeper, JDisk Report, Disk Inventory X, DaisyDisk or GrandPerspective to see how space is being used on your drive. Some of these apps may show more detail than others, so try several.
Check your drive with Disk Utility: Using Disk Utility to verify or repair disks
Try re-indexing your drive: Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes

Here are a few resolutions found by others with the same question:

How OS X and iOS report storage capacity

maflynn · Apr 11, 2013

chrfr said:
Last time I tried that, the sleepimage file came back anyway. Maybe it does as it should with 10.8.3.

Here's what you need to do to fix this:

Set sleep mode in shell: sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
Remove the image: sudo rm /private/var/vm/sleepimage
Create a blanked file: sudo touch /private/var/vm/sleepimage
Make file immutable: sudo chflags uchg /private/var/vm/sleepimage

Source

oneinten · Apr 11, 2013

Hello,

I purchased the Daisy Disk app and i have found my 8.5GB sleepimage file is back, but can anyone tell me why it is 8.5GB if I have 16gb of ram installed?

I'll try and erase the file for good! but I'm thinking I might do a totally fresh install onto my SSD anyways and monitor the disk space regularly to see what it is that's hogging up the space!

oneinten · Apr 14, 2013

cheerup347 said:
Hello,

I purchased the Daisy Disk app and i have found my 8.5GB sleepimage file is back, but can anyone tell me why it is 8.5GB if I have 16gb of ram installed?

I'll try and erase the file for good! but I'm thinking I might do a totally fresh install onto my SSD anyways and monitor the disk space regularly to see what it is that's hogging up the space!

does anyone know if i Should have a 16gb sleepimage file?

benwiggy · Apr 15, 2013

cheerup347 said:
does anyone know if i Should have a 16gb sleepimage file?

EDIT: As pointed out in your other thread on the same subject, a MacMini shouldn't have any sleep image at all. So you probably should follow some of the advice above about how to disable sleep images.

Alternatively: the advice still stands: if there isn't an actual problem, then do nothing.

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