I have been trying to shrink my other space on my computer for a long time now. Somehow, I have 120GB of other space on my OSX partition and takes up about 40% of my disk space. I have no idea what is causing the other space to be so large. I don't have tons of files, just a lot of music, photos, and a few games which take up about 15gb. I've tried a few programs to clean it up but nothing really does, time machine is on and I backup every couple of days so the backups obviously aren't causing the other space. Any ideas or does anybody else have an obscene amount of other space?
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How much other space do you all have?
- Thread starter bkends35
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Why bother shrinking when you have 1/3 of a disk holding nothing already?
Anyways other is a lot of stuff but is most likely concentrated in
~/Documents
~/Library
~/Downloads
Also
~/Dropbox
~/Google\ Drive
if you use either service
Anyways here's what my breakdown looks like
Anyways other is a lot of stuff but is most likely concentrated in
~/Documents
~/Library
~/Downloads
Also
~/Dropbox
~/Google\ Drive
if you use either service
Anyways here's what my breakdown looks like
Attachments
I should've mentioned I was doing some spring cleaning and was down to about 20gb of free space and cleared out a lot of unneeded movies and such. In the future I might need to make my windows partition larger so I'll have less space for my OSX partition. I just don't understand how I can have 120gb of other stuff that I don't even know remotely what it is.
Edit: Also my google drive folder takes up about 3gb and my documents are only 3.5 gb.
I should've mentioned I was doing some spring cleaning and was down to about 20gb of free space and cleared out a lot of unneeded movies and such. In the future I might need to make my windows partition larger so I'll have less space for my OSX partition. I just don't understand how I can have 120gb of other stuff that I don't even know remotely what it is.
Edit: Also my google drive folder takes up about 3gb and my documents are only 3.5 gb.
Go to your home folder.
Set the view to list
Add the size column
Right Click > Show View Options
Check these two:
'Calculate all sizes'
'Show Library Folder'
That should show you where most of it is.
If it's not in your user folder then I dunno you might have some other account you forgot about or some app that just spewed garbage all over the place.
Attachments
Something does seem off there from your description of how much data you have. "Other" is basically everything that does not fall into one of the other categories on that graphic you posted. The OS itself for example is included in that. Mine is about 26GB.
Enter the command below in Terminal and post up the output so we can take a look. It will show you the root folders and space used in GB for each folder.
Code:
sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /You will be prompted for your password and it will take a couple minutes to run. The output will look something like this.
Code:
1 /.DocumentRevisions-V100
1 /.fseventsd
0 /.PKInstallSandboxManager
1 /.Spotlight-V100
0 /.Trashes
0 /.vol
8 /Applications
1 /bin
0 /cores
1 /dev
1 /home
9 /Library
1 /net
0 /Network
5 /private
1 /sbin
6 /System
26 /Users
1 /usr
1 /Volumes
53 /
53 totalThanks, for the respone. I ran the code and here's what it came up with...
1 /.DocumentRevisions-V100
1 /.fseventsd
10 /.MobileBackups
0 /.PKInstallSandboxManager
1 /.Spotlight-V100
0 /.Trashes
0 /.vol
24 /Applications
1 /bin
0 /cores
1 /dev
2 /Developer
1 /home
9 /Library
1 /net
0 /Network
6 /private
1 /sbin
7 /System
82 /Users
1 /usr
1 /Volumes
138 /
138 total
I'm assuming this is the amount of space everything takes up, my OSX partition is 300GB and this is showing 138 used meaning 160 should be available. Right now, it only should 97 available because of the other space. I'm the only user on my computer and have never had another user. I did reinstall OSX in August from a time machine backup, so it's a relatively fresh install. Any input on my other space would be appreciated.
138 total
I'm assuming this is the amount of space everything takes up, my OSX partition is 300GB and this is showing 138 used meaning 160 should be available. Right now, it only should 97 available because of the other space. I'm the only user on my computer and have never had another user. I did reinstall OSX in August from a time machine backup, so it's a relatively fresh install. Any input on my other space would be appreciated.
That command would show everything, even hidden folders, so yeah something is off here.
What does Disk Utility show as space used? That graphic space used you posted uses the Spotlight index and sometimes the index is corrupted and shows a wrong reading there. Check Disk Util and if it does not match the total shown in your earlier graphic, then reindex Spotlight by running the command below in Terminal and check again.
Code:
sudo mdutil -E /If that does not fix things, it is a bit of a mystery why this happens.
I have gone around and around with this with forum members before and there seem to be two things that fix it. The first is do a command-r boot to recovery and from there do a repair disk with Disk Utility and see if that helps or if that reports any errors.
If that does not fix it, the only sure way to fix it I have seen to to make an updated Time Machine backup then option key boot to the Time Machine local external disk. That will put you in a recovery console. From there use Disk Util to erase the entire drive by selecting the drive band name at the very top above Macintosh HD and erasing as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then quit Disk Util and restore from the Time Machine backup. That will put everything back and fix the missing space issue.
Context is everything. I have about 1.66 TB of 'other', and I am fine with that.
n.b.: I manage my space with Finder using "Calculate all sizes" described previously.
A.
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