About this Mac -- Storage reading incorrect

[nobodyjustwalks]

Was reading another post which made me launch About this Mac to look at my storage used and came across something odd. Screenshot attached. In iStat and if i use "get info" or disk utility, I see that most of my HD is free, which is the correct reading.

But for some reason in About this Mac it says that I have 178.87 GB of apps?? When I really have about 16 GB.

Anyone have any ideas why only About this Mac is off?

Thanks!

 

[FumbleDuck]

Its not the "local snapshots" feature of Time Machine is it? This is where Time machine will use the free-space on your drive to store backups of your data - the space used for this purpose is not generally reported as used (except in the storage tab).

If you or your programs need that space, it is immidiately made available. Instead of wasting the space, it just uses it for a good purpose.

However, I thought the storage tab (in your picture) colour-coded the space used for backup in purple so I dont know why you have it as all "apps".

Maybe its some other program you have creating a large cache ?

EDIT: I have disabled this feature of Time Machine because I just didnt fancy it. It was one of the options in the Cocktail app that I have.

 

[maflynn]

Download and use OmniDiskSweeper. It will provide a sorted list of what's consuming your space.

If you run it with sudo (As shown below), it will include some system files that it woud not normally have access to scan. That is a more accurate representation of what's consuming your drive.

sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper

Another option is to use this terminal command
sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /

I prefer to redirect it to a text file (this puts it in your Documents folder
sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g / > ~/Documents/du.txt

Like the sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper command, it will scan all directories, but produce a text file as opposed to showing the results in a window

 

[Weaselboy]

Anyone have any ideas why only About this Mac is off?

That reading gets whacky when your Spotlight index is corrupted. Run the command below to reindex Spotlight (it takes a while to finish) then that screen should show the correct amounts.

sudo mdutil -E /

 

[nobodyjustwalks]

Its not the "local snapshots" feature of Time Machine is it? This is where Time machine will use the free-space on your drive to store backups of your data - the space used for this purpose is not generally reported as used (except in the storage tab).

If you or your programs need that space, it is immidiately made available. Instead of wasting the space, it just uses it for a good purpose.

However, I thought the storage tab (in your picture) colour-coded the space used for backup in purple so I dont know why you have it as all "apps".

Maybe its some other program you have creating a large cache ?

EDIT: I have disabled this feature of Time Machine because I just didnt fancy it. It was one of the options in the Cocktail app that I have.

Thanks for the response FumbleDuck. I don't have Time Machine enabled.

----------

Download and use OmniDiskSweeper. It will provide a sorted list of what's consuming your space.



If you run it with sudo (As shown below), it will include some system files that it woud not normally have access to scan. That is a more accurate representation of what's consuming your drive.

sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper

Another option is to use this terminal command

sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /



I prefer to redirect it to a text file (this puts it in your Documents folder

sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g / > ~/Documents/du.txt



Like the sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper command, it will scan all directories, but produce a text file as opposed to showing the results in a window

Thanks for the response maflynn. I'll give Omni a try. Didn't know they were based out of the NW. Looks like a well made app.

----------

That reading gets whacky when your Spotlight index is corrupted. Run the command below to reindex Spotlight (it takes a while to finish) then that screen should show the correct amounts.

sudo mdutil -E /

Thanks for the response Weaselboy. I'll give this a try. Strange how the Spotlight index gets corrupted when Spotlight's supposedly indexing away in the background and everything's working fine. Or so one thinks. lol.

 

[matreya]

Thanks for the response FumbleDuck. I don't have Time Machine enabled.

You DO have some form of backup routine, right? Because otherwise you're eventually going to lose all your data otherwise...

 

[nobodyjustwalks]

About this Mac -- Storage reading incorrect

You DO have some form of backup routine, right? Because otherwise you're eventually going to lose all your data otherwise...

Yes I do. I back up my documents to a couple of cloud storage providers, which is why I don't use Time Machine. But I'm thinking I'm going to start using it just incase something goes wrong with my system, that way I can roll back to a previous date. I'd hate to have to reinstall everything.

**Forgot to post back that my issue was resolved using the Terminal command above. MR to the rescue. Such a great forum.