Apps taking a lot of space.

[Welling]

Hi,

on the "about my Mac" storage info, it says that "apps" takes up 56gb worth of space but when I right click the "applications" folder to see how much space it takes up, it says 10gb. so why is it taking up so much space according to the system info? how can I clean that up? please help.

 

[jav6454]

Check the Time Machine isn't making local back-ups.

 

[Basic75]

Not sure whether the contents of ~/Library/Application\ Support are counted.

 

[NoBoMac]

Wonder about ^^this as well.

What I think is adding to the number is "hidden" apps. Apps that the OS uses to do OS stuff. When I find all folders named "*.app" and get the disk space used by them, get in the ballpark of what About This Mac returns.

Hidden app example(s) attached (About This Mac > System Report > Software > Applications):

 

[Welling]

I Have checked everything and I have not found a fix yet!

 

[jav6454]

I assume you checked your Trash bin?

 

[Basic75]

Open the Terminal and use the "disk usage" command like this:

du -sk /Applications/*

and

du -sk ~/Library/*

Look for which folders are suspiciously large.

Continue to dig deeper until you find whatever's eating up your space.

If you want to know more about the du(1) command type

man du

in the Terminal.