93GB of "other" on my SSD. What could it be??

[bigpoppamac31]

I'm wondering if anyone knows what this "other" is in my storage section of About This Mac??

https://forums.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=536316&stc=1&d=1427071286

 

[GGJstudios]

If you're wondering what "Other" category in the 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 being consumed by Time Machine local snapshots, which can be disabled by entering the following command in Terminal: sudo tmutil disablelocal.
  About Time Machine's "local snapshots" on portable Macs​
• Check to see if some of the space is being used by your sleepimage file.
• 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:

• Encrypted drive
• Time Machine backup files and needed disk repair
• App filling log file
• App or file was 89GB
• Drive needed to be re-indexed
• Time Machine backup file
• Large app cache file
• Garageband files and video podcasts
• Oversized email being duplicated
• Another email issue
• 18.45EB of movies shown
• Duplicate movies in iPhoto app

Freeing up drive space in Mac OS X

 

[bigpoppamac31]

Well I just deleted the sleep image file and TM local backups are disabled. Not sure what else it could be. It's now at 89GB but that is huge.

 

[GGJstudios]

Well I just deleted the sleep image file and TM local backups are disabled. Not sure what else it could be. It's now at 89GB but that is huge.

Read through the rest of my post, including app suggestions in the 5th bullet point, and the last set of links that point to other scenarios that may guide you to the answer.

 

[bigpoppamac31]

Read through the rest of my post, including app suggestions in the 5th bullet point, and the last set of links that point to other scenarios that may guide you to the answer.

Well what if I took my Mac to an Apple Store and they could "clean" it for me??

 

[GGJstudios]

Well what if I took my Mac to an Apple Store and they could "clean" it for me??

It may not need "cleaning" at all... most Macs don't. A little exploration should uncover the answer. It's entirely possible the space is consumed by files you want to keep, but just haven't identified what they are.

 

[bigpoppamac31]

It may not need "cleaning" at all... most Macs don't. A little exploration should uncover the answer. It's entirely possible the space is consumed by files you want to keep, but just haven't identified what they are.

All my files are in their proper place. I'm usually very organized like that. I can't imagine having 89GB of randomly scattered files all over my hard drive. I'd never leave it like that.

 

[GGJstudios]

All my files are in their proper place. I'm usually very organized like that. I can't imagine having 89GB of randomly scattered files all over my hard drive. I'd never leave it like that.

"Other" files doesn't indicate they are "scattered" or that they are in a particular location, but simply classified as "Other", because they don't fall into one of the other categories. Did you read the links I posted that explain what "Other" files include?

 

[bigpoppamac31]

"Other" files doesn't indicate they are "scattered" or that they are in a particular location, but simply classified as "Other", because they don't fall into one of the other categories. Did you read the links I posted that explain what "Other" files include?

I skimmed it a bit. What if I just did a clean install of Mavericks and put all my content back manually?

 

[GGJstudios]

I skimmed it a bit. What if I just did a clean install of Mavericks and put all my content back manually?

It's very possible that nothing is wrong. You're not going to get rid of the "Other" category, and there's nothing inherently wrong with having space consumed by that category of files. Rather than skim, I recommend taking the time to read it. You may be trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist. There's not a problem with having "Other" files. The only problem you face is that you don't know what they are.

 

[bigpoppamac31]

It's very possible that nothing is wrong. You're not going to get rid of the "Other" category, and there's nothing inherently wrong with having space consumed by that category of files. Rather than skim, I recommend taking the time to read it. You may be trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist. There's not a problem with having "Other" files. The only problem you face is that you don't know what they are.

But how could I not know about 89GB of files?? That doesn't make sense.

 

[GGJstudios]

But how could I not know about 89GB of files?? That doesn't make sense.

It happens all the time, as evidenced by the threads I linked to.

 

[DeltaMac]

That is why you could use some of the apps that will show you what those files are - and most tell you where the files are located. That can help you decide what you should do next.
Or, when you discover where they are, and still are not sure - you can come back with THAT info, too. There's good folk that have some experience that will help answer your concerns.

 

[bigpoppamac31]

It happens all the time, as evidenced by the threads I linked to.

Well I noticed for example that when I "get info" on the Music folder it says 97.1GB but the About This Mac put it at 116GB. Why would that be? I know that movies or shows downloaded from iTunes are put into a folder within the Music folder.

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That is why you could use some of the apps that will show you what those files are - and most tell you where the files are located. That can help you decide what you should do next.
Or, when you discover where they are, and still are not sure - you can come back with THAT info, too. There's good folk that have some experience that will help answer your concerns.

Well I'm not good with Apps like that cause I don't want to mess around and end up deleting the wrong thing and screw up my system.

 

[GGJstudios]

Well I noticed for example that when I "get info" on the Music folder it says 97.1GB but the About This Mac put it at 116GB. Why would that be? I know that movies or shows downloaded from iTunes are put into a folder within the Music folder.

The "Other" category you're asking about isn't iTunes.

Well I'm not good with Apps like that cause I don't want to mess around and end up deleting the wrong thing and screw up my system.

Those apps I recommended only provide information. They don't delete anything.

 

[bigpoppamac31]

The "Other" category you're asking about isn't iTunes.

Those apps I recommended only provide information. They don't delete anything.

I just used the Music folder as an example. It's like that with the other folders as well.

 

[sjinsjca]

What if I just did a clean install of Mavericks and put all my content back manually?

Good grief, don't do that.

Have you run Time Machine to a backup disk recently? If not, your machine will be saving versions of all your changing files to its local disk. This is a great feature, but if you don't actually back up to an external disk at some point, it will chew up free space pretty quickly.

Also, have you emptied the trash recently?

 

[GGJstudios]

Have you run Time Machine to a backup disk recently? If not, your machine will be saving versions of all your changing files to its local disk.

You may have missed this:

Well I just deleted the sleep image file and TM local backups are disabled.

 

[bigpoppamac31]

You may have missed this:

Is there a Time Machine backup file located somewhere?

 

[GGJstudios]

Is there a Time Machine backup file located somewhere?

The link in the 2nd bullet of my first post answers that question and others about TM backups.

 

[bigpoppamac31]

The link in the 2nd bullet of my first post answers that question and others about TM backups.

Okay but that second link didn't tell me where the file(s) is located and if I can delete it.

 

[GGJstudios]

Okay but that second link didn't tell me where the file(s) is located and if I can delete it.

If you've disabled TM backups, they're no longer on your drive.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Well I just deleted the sleep image file and TM local backups are disabled.

How did you disable TM local backups?

My memory may be failing here, but I can't recall how this is done except by the Terminal command GGJstudios supplied. Is that what you did? Your comment that you don't like to use apps to measure usage because you might delete the wrong thing tells me you are not the sort to run Terminal commands.

Turning off TM deletes the local backups, but does not do it instantly. You can turn TM back on later after the locals have been deleted and resume.

You are not about to run out of space, so I would not get too OCD about this, and let OS X sort itself out.....or use one of the apps GGJstudios suggests, I use Whatsize.

 

[Eithanius]

All my files are in their proper place. I'm usually very organized like that. I can't imagine having 89GB of randomly scattered files all over my hard drive. I'd never leave it like that.

Do you happened to have any big-ass storage iDevices that is almost filled to the brim with photos or recorded videos and had iTunes backup your iDevices' contents...?