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DaisyDisk VS. built in built in tools?
- Thread starter kat.hayes
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The new storage tab in "about this Mac" in High Sierra is certainly useful. Daisy Disk does pretty much the same thing but does it graphically. Both allow you to delete files. There are big differences though.
1. The Apple tool groups things together by function: Documents, iTunes, Mail, Photos, iBooks, Music Creation, etc. It can be very confusing. Documents includes the Movies and Downloads Folders and who knows what else. If you click on Photos it may give you the message: "optimize photo library" which I think means store everything in iCloud. It tells me that I have 288 GB of photos as I have the "Download Originals to this Mac" selected" in preferences. I haven't a clue as to where these 288 GB of pictures are as my Pictures directory is only 50 GB.
2. Daisy Disk works on a folder rather than a functional basis. It is more informative in the sense that the Documents folder is your Documents folder, Photos is photos, etc. It can be run as administrator which should show files that the Apple tool does not (I have not confirmed this). However the current version shows ~110 GB of "Hidden Space", which they explain here:
https://daisydiskapp.com/manual/4/en/Topics/HiddenSpace.html?subtopic=StillHiddenSpace
As for "old" files the Apple tool allow you to sort on the last access date only. If you right click a folder in Daisy Disk it takes you to the finder for that folder so all of the Finder sort fields are available.
If you want to find quickly find your biggest files to delete and aren't concerned about where they are then the Apple tool is great at finding them. If you want to see system files (see above for reservations), or want to work on a folder basis then Daisy Disk is better.
Most of the time I use Daisy disk since I know when I delete something exactly what file in what directory will be deleted.
1. The Apple tool groups things together by function: Documents, iTunes, Mail, Photos, iBooks, Music Creation, etc. It can be very confusing. Documents includes the Movies and Downloads Folders and who knows what else. If you click on Photos it may give you the message: "optimize photo library" which I think means store everything in iCloud. It tells me that I have 288 GB of photos as I have the "Download Originals to this Mac" selected" in preferences. I haven't a clue as to where these 288 GB of pictures are as my Pictures directory is only 50 GB.
2. Daisy Disk works on a folder rather than a functional basis. It is more informative in the sense that the Documents folder is your Documents folder, Photos is photos, etc. It can be run as administrator which should show files that the Apple tool does not (I have not confirmed this). However the current version shows ~110 GB of "Hidden Space", which they explain here:
https://daisydiskapp.com/manual/4/en/Topics/HiddenSpace.html?subtopic=StillHiddenSpace
As for "old" files the Apple tool allow you to sort on the last access date only. If you right click a folder in Daisy Disk it takes you to the finder for that folder so all of the Finder sort fields are available.
If you want to find quickly find your biggest files to delete and aren't concerned about where they are then the Apple tool is great at finding them. If you want to see system files (see above for reservations), or want to work on a folder basis then Daisy Disk is better.
Most of the time I use Daisy disk since I know when I delete something exactly what file in what directory will be deleted.
