Lost space on SSD

[MSAM01]

The finder shows that my 1 Tb SSD is occupied by about 215 Gb. But the status line and the "storage" tab in "about this mac" show that i only have 140 Gb free.
Please look at the screen captures:
Why the system is so large?
How can I recover the lost free space?
I already ran "CleanMyMac", "repair permissions", defrag... deleted mobile snapshots - nothing helped.
Thanks

 

[kohlson]

Consider using something like Disk Inventory X (free) to get a visual representation of what's on your disk. There are other apps, too. But to really know, use the terminal and command lines. If you're not familiar, start with the the app approach. Or, if you have 10.12: About This Mac - Storage tab

 

[MSAM01]

Consider using something like Disk Inventory X (free) to get a visual representation of what's on your disk. There are other apps, too. But to really know, use the terminal and command lines. If you're not familiar, start with the the app approach. Or, if you have 10.12: About This Mac - Storage tab

Thanks! i did use "whatsize.app" - it shows the same (see picture): the ssd has 819GB used, 167 available, and the file list on the right shows less than 200GB total. I don't understand this.

 

[Weaselboy]

First try running this command in Terminal to reindex Spotlight. That should fix the incorrect System amount in About this... Give it time to complete the reindex.

sudo mdutil -E /

Then run this command and it will show all the base folders and size in GB, including some system folders those apps don't show. Post the output of this command for us to have a look.

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

 

[MSAM01]

First try running this command in Terminal to reindex Spotlight. That should fix the incorrect System amount in About this... Give it time to complete the reindex.

sudo mdutil -E /

Then run this command and it will show all the base folders and size in GB, including some system folders those apps don't show. Post the output of this command for us to have a look.

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

Many thanks!
I see a strange /.DocumentRevisions-V100 is it necessary? how can i delete it if not?

 

[DeltaMac]

Some info about that file here - which explains that file is used to keep previous versions of your documents.

The OnyX utility app is a good one, and can specifically clean out your DocumentsRevisions file.
You will notice that Titanium site has a different version of OnyX for each OS X version, so download the version for your system.
I expect that the cleaning of that file MIGHT take some time with more than 500GB of old versions to remove. (Be patient with that )

 

[Weaselboy]

Many thanks!
I see a strange /.DocumentRevisions-V100 is it necessary? how can i delete it if not?

Yikes... there is 564GB of data in there. That is used by some apps to store older versions on files so you can undo changes and go back to a previous version. You have some app misbehaving and filling up that folder.

Do you happen to be using Sketch? I see a lot of search results where Sketch causes this.

You can delete it with this command. Restart afterwards.

sudo rm -rf .DocumentRevisions-V100

 

[MSAM01]

Some info about that file here - which explains that file is used to keep previous versions of your documents.

The OnyX utility app is a good one, and can specifically clean out your DocumentsRevisions file.
You will notice that Titanium site has a different version of OnyX for each OS X version, so download the version for your system.
I expect that the cleaning of that file MIGHT take some time with more than 500GB of old versions to remove. (Be patient with that )

Can you pls tell me how to use Onyx for deleting this specific file? i'm afraid to do something wrong here. Thanks

 

[Weaselboy]

Can you pls tell me how to use Onyx for deleting this specific file? i'm afraid to do something wrong here. Thanks

There is no need for Onyx. Just run the command I gave you in Terminal, and it will delete it.

If you don't believe me, just Google "sudo rm -rf .DocumentRevisions-V100" and you can see I'm not trying to trick you.

 

[MSAM01]

There is no need for Onyx. Just run the command I gave you in Terminal, and it will delete it.

If you don't believe me, just Google "sudo rm -rf .DocumentRevisions-V100" and you can see I'm not trying to trick you.

Of course I believe you and thank you. I did exactly that, restarted the computer, and then ran "sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /" and the file is still there, as large as before. That's why i thought the Onyx might help.

 

[Weaselboy]

Of course I believe you and thank you. I did exactly that, restarted the computer, and then ran "sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /" and the file is still there, as large as before. That's why i thought the Onyx might help.

Try this....

sudo ls -l /.DocumentRevisions-V100

 

[MSAM01]

Hurayyyy! it's gone! you're a genius
Many thanks!

 

[Weaselboy]

Hurayyyy! it's gone! you're a genius
Many thanks!

I forgot the slash in there the first time. Sorry about that.

You still need to figure out what rogue app is causing this, or this is going to happen again.

You can open an app then make small changes to the file, then command-s save over and over and see if any app is sticking huge files in there. You can run this command over and over before and after to see if anything is getting added in there.

sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g //.DocumentRevisions-V100

 

[MSAM01]

I'll do that.
Thanks again Weaselboy