Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MacBook Air hard drive full

Big Stevie

Big Stevie

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 20, 2012
1,385
874
UK
I'm trying to find out what is taking up all the space on my 2020 MacBook Air M1.

Its 251GB HD is nearly full, with 160GB taken up with 'Other' files.
Mail is taking up 13GB so maybe that can be tidied up, but my Photos and Video files aren't taking up any more than 8GB, so is there an easy way of seeing what is taking up most of that 160GB so I can try and delete or move the largest files to iCloud please?


Screenshot 2022-11-17 at 22.59.15.png
 
Last edited:
Big Stevie said:
I'm trying to find out what is taking up all the space on my 2020 MacBook Air M1.

Its 251GB HD is nearly full, with 160GB taken up with 'Other' files.
Mail is taking up 13GB so maybe that can be tidied up, but my Photos and Video files aren't taking up any more than 8GB, so is there an easy way of seeing what is taking up most of that 160GB so I can try and delete or move the largest files to iCloud please?

View attachment 2114633
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, macOS's storage management is woefully inadequate. As a first step, hit the Manage button to get some clues, but if it's "System Data", some of it may be random junk that you have to clean out manually. It's really frustrating. My wife's MBA got its 128 GB SSD filled up with 20 GB of Messages and even more System Data, and I tried cleaning up as much as I could, but it still eventually filled up again. Eventually I installed a 256 GB SSD as a new clean install and will hope for the best.

Apple needs to deal with this. And they also need to manage Messages' iCloud hand off better too. There is no need for 20 GB of Messages to be local if you've set the machine to use iCloud.

Alpha Centauri said:
I've heard DaisyDisk being mentioned here in the past.
Click to expand...
If it happens again, I'll give that app a shot. Thx.
 
  • Like
Reactions: T'hain Esh Kelch and Alpha Centauri
Thank you.

I just can't see what is taking up the 160GB of 'Other'.

I'm using iCloud for most things, and I've deleted some files to make a little more space. The total video and photo files are of minimal size and are mostly in iCloud anyway.


Screenshot 2022-11-18 at 11.08.32.png


Screenshot 2022-11-18 at 11.12.09.png
 
Last edited:
If you used TimeMachine and it’s picking up an external, a copy of that external backup is on your internal. If that sounds insane, there is some logic to it. Speak to Apple. Anyway, open Disk Utility, highlight your user's volume group, look at Private Size to see how much space Snapshots are taking up.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ConvertedToMac
Ray2 said:
If you used TimeMachine and it’s picking up an external, a copy of that external backup is on your internal. If that sounds insane, there is some logic to it. Speak to Apple. Anyway, open Disk Utility, highlight your user's volume group, look at Private Size to see how much space Snapshots are taking up.
Click to expand...
Pretty sure snapshots would appear as reclaims or space with lines over it not the solid other block. But yeah. If snapshots are the cause the can be deleted with diskutil ap deleteLocalSnapshot (conmand from memory. Probably wrong. Will advice later if needed when at my desk)
 
Ray2 said:
If you used TimeMachine and it’s picking up an external, a copy of that external backup is on your internal. If that sounds insane, there is some logic to it. Speak to Apple. Anyway, open Disk Utility, highlight your user's volume group, look at Private Size to see how much space Snapshots are taking up.
Click to expand...
I have a 2 TB external drive that is included in Time Machine backups (intentionally), and about 1.5 TB of that external drive is used. A copy of that is definitely not on my internal drive, considering my internal drive is 1 TB. In fact, it only has around 225 GB used. (My attached Time Machine drive is 4 TB.) Note that the internal drive had more usage until I deleted my several local iPhone backups. However, those iPhone backups l show up under a different heading in Storage->Manage, which IIRC is "iOS" or something like that.
 
Last edited:
Ray2 said:
If you used TimeMachine and it’s picking up an external, a copy of that external backup is on your internal....
Click to expand...

I'm not using TimeMachine.

Ray2 said:
Anyway, open Disk Utility, highlight your user's volume group, look at Private Size to see how much space Snapshots are taking up.
Click to expand...

I'm not quite sure what any of the below means if I'm honest..

Screenshot 2022-11-18 at 14.10.00.png
 
casperes1996 said:
Pretty sure snapshots would appear as reclaims or space with lines over it not the solid other block. But yeah. If snapshots are the cause the can be deleted with diskutil ap deleteLocalSnapshot (conmand from memory. Probably wrong. Will advice later if needed when at my desk)
Click to expand...
Within DU, just right click on the snapshot to delete.
 
EugW said:
I have a 2 TB external drive that is included in Time Machine backups (intentionally), and about 1.5 TB of that external drive is used. A copy of that is definitely not on my internal drive, considering my internal drive is 1 TB. In fact, it only has around 225 GB used. (My attached Time Machine drive is 4 TB.) Note that the internal drive had more usage until I deleted my several local iPhone backups. However, those iPhone backups l show up under a different heading in Storage->Manage, which IIRC is "iOS" or something like that.
Click to expand...
APFS? Post BigSur? That’s when I first saw it in Beta, don’t know if it made production as I skipped it. My M1 was the first time I noticed it. But I do believe I’ve seen it on my GF's 2020 Intel Air. She’s not around, don’t know. Both of us are APFS on Monterey.
 
Ray2 said:
APFS? Post BigSur? That’s when I first saw it in Beta, don’t know if it made production as I skipped it. My M1 was the first time I noticed it. But I do believe I’ve seen it on my GF's 2020 Intel Air. She’s not around, don’t know. Both of us are APFS on Monterey.
Click to expand...
APFS for all attached drives (including Time Machine drive), on Monterey.

27" 2017 iMac Core i5 with 1 TB internal SSD, 2 TB external SSD, and 4 TB external Time Machine hard drive.
 
Ray2 said:
If you’re not using TM, it shouldn’t be an issue. Go to View and make sure you’re not hiding snapshots. If you’re not hiding, you don’t have any. They would appear directly under what you have shown. Sorry, keep looking.
Click to expand...

This?

Screenshot 2022-11-18 at 16.41.56.png
 
EugW said:
Unfortunately, macOS's storage management is woefully inadequate. As a first step, hit the Manage button to get some clues, but if it's "System Data", some of it may be random junk that you have to clean out manually. It's really frustrating. My wife's MBA got its 128 GB SSD filled up with 20 GB of Messages and even more System Data, and I tried cleaning up as much as I could, but it still eventually filled up again. Eventually I installed a 256 GB SSD as a new clean install and will hope for the best.

Apple needs to deal with this. And they also need to manage Messages' iCloud hand off better too. There is no need for 20 GB of Messages to be local if you've set the machine to use iCloud.


If it happens again, I'll give that app a shot. Thx.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I think MacOS supposedly will start freeing up space it knows it can without breaking things, only when the disk gets pretty full, but it doesn't tell you that.. I might be wrong on that but I thought that's how it works.. I use CleanMyMac X on mine to get rid of cache junk and to uninstall programs. It seems to work ok. I've kept up on it once in a while so cache junk doesn't get too built up. I guess with MacOS you're not supposed to have to resort to that, but to each his own.. I do go thru Messages and clear out pics and vids I've sent or sent to me if I've added them to my library. You do have to actively keep up on that or yeah like you said, they eat space. I do think it does offload pics and vids though in Messages as I've scrolled back and back and back and it has to wait and load things, like it's downloading from iCloud...who knows.. I've got the 1TB 13+ and I did put the 2TB ADATA in this MBA so I do have plenty of space. 128/256/512 or even 1TB just doesn't cut it for me on Mac.. My next machine is gonna be really really expensive..
 
CalMin said:
Daisy disk is great (and fast) but I find that I find more stuff with Grand Perspective

- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/grandperspective/id1111570163 (also here for free at https://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net - but seriously just give them the $3!)

It take longer to run, but I love that I see the whole drive at the file/folder level.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I've just installed Grand Perspective, I like how you can scan any part of your HD to see the size of files.
Unfortunately it only tells me what I already know regarding what is on my HD, I still can't fathom out what is taking up the 160GB of 'Other'.
 
Don’t know if mentioned but I had issue when using onedrive for work.
It just keeps adding.

So after a few mths you just gotta right click the onedrive diredtory and ‘free up space’ and it will give it all back.
Hope helps.
 
Dnzilla said:
Don’t know if mentioned but I had issue when using onedrive for work.
It just keeps adding.

So after a few mths you just gotta right click the onedrive diredtory and ‘free up space’ and it will give it all back.
Hope helps.
Click to expand...

I don't think I have that on my MacBook.
 
EugW said:
Unfortunately, macOS's storage management is woefully inadequate. As a first step, hit the Manage button to get some clues, but if it's "System Data", some of it may be random junk that you have to clean out manually. It's really frustrating. My wife's MBA got its 128 GB SSD filled up with 20 GB of Messages and even more System Data, and I tried cleaning up as much as I could, but it still eventually filled up again. Eventually I installed a 256 GB SSD as a new clean install and will hope for the best.

Apple needs to deal with this. And they also need to manage Messages' iCloud hand off better too. There is no need for 20 GB of Messages to be local if you've set the machine to use iCloud.


If it happens again, I'll give that app a shot. Thx.
Click to expand...
I’ve got Daisy Disk, but I find it confusing. My main disk/file viewer is Grand Perspective (App Store).
 
  • Like
Reactions: EugW
Well things have gone from bad to worse in just a couple of days..

Just a couple of days ago I deleted as many unwanted files as possible, and I managed to free up 12GB to space.
Today that free space has now reduced to just 636MB, and the 'Other' has jumped up to 174GB.

Mail popped up a message saying it can lo longer function as there is not enough space, and promptly closed itself down.

I have no idea what's going on..

Screenshot 2022-11-21 at 22.45.31.png



Screenshot 2022-11-21 at 22.45.19.png




I ran Grand Perspective which shows the largest file is my operating system at 11GB..

Screenshot 2022-11-21 at 22.52.16.png
 
It might make sense to do a backup to Time Machine and reinstall with restore from Time Machine, if you can’t figure out where all that junk is coming from. Or even better, backup all the important data separately, and do a clean install. Always make sure you have multiple backups though before attempting something like this.

After I did a clean install of my wife’s computer, the excessive storage usage on Other hasn’t come back. For now at least. 😐
 
  • Like
Reactions: rocketbuc
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back