MacBook Air hard drive full

[casperes1996]

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..

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

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I'm not sure how to read the image you have posted there at the bottom, however, that large 11.3GB block, is not your currently running operating system. It is an app bundle for installing a new macOS Monterey. You can safely delete this .app unless you're using it to create a USB-installer for another machine or updating from Big Sur currently

 

[Big Stevie]

I'm not sure how to read the image you have posted there at the bottom, however, that large 11.3GB block, is not your currently running operating system. It is an app bundle for installing a new macOS Monterey. You can safely delete this .app unless you're using it to create a USB-installer for another machine or updating from Big Sur currently

Understood, thanks. Still not sure where the remaining 159GB of 'Other' is located though, maybe I need to take out to someone for repair.

 

[Marsikus]

What applications are you running? Recently I found one app (some photo duplicates remover) using immense amounts of RAM and ruthlessly swapping many gigabytes.

 

[casperes1996]

Understood, thanks. Still not sure where the remaining 159GB of 'Other' is located though, maybe I need to take out to someone for repair.

Start at the root of your disk. Enable showing of hidden files. (IIRC it’s command shift period. Might also have option in there) go through folder by folder checking how large it is until you narrow down and account for everything. It’s the manual approach but should work, not accounting for apfs snapshots which I believe we previously ruled out anyway

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Could this be improper swap disk use by an app? Would it show up in Activity Viewer?

 

[okkibs]

That space is very likely taken up by something in the, by default hidden, Library folder that sits within your User folder. You can make it visible by command+shift+.

Let Finder calculate the sizes of all folders and sort by size.

 

[casperes1996]

Could this be improper swap disk use by an app? Would it show up in Activity Viewer?

In theory yes, but should be cleared by a reboot. And probably wouldn't be allowed to use that much swap anyway, and the computer would be painfully slow
Believe more in Okkibs idea

 

[Big Stevie]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

Well I have now finally got this sorted. I didn't want to mess about too much with files I didn't recognise so I took my MacBook to a guy I know who does MacBook repairs, he found that over 100GB of the 'Other' files were communication logs from Mail to Apple servers. I must have inadvertantly activated this by mistake some time over the last 2 yrs. It has now been turned off. I would never have found this out myself and was well worth the £25 fee.

As pointed out by casperes1996, I also have an Apple OS Monterey file ready for when I update, which I will do tonight.

So now my HD looks like this..

 

[EugW]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

Well I have now finally got this sorted. I didn't want to mess about too much with files I didn't recognise so I took my MacBook to a guy I know who does MacBook repairs, he found that over 100GB of the 'Other' files were communication logs from Mail to Apple servers. I must have inadvertantly activated this by mistake some time over the last 2 yrs. It has now been turned off. I would never have found this out myself and was well worth the £25 fee.

As pointed out by casperes1996, I also have an Apple OS Monterey file ready for when I update, which I will do tonight.

So now my HD looks like this..

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Excellent!

Where is the setting for the Mail logs? I don't see it.

BTW, I wonder what the rest of "Other" consists of now. I just checked two different Monterey machines:

2014 Mac mini with 512 GB SSD - No Other or System Data storage usage listed at all. Messages is 19 GB.
2017 iMac with 1 TB SSD - System Data is 51 GB but I don't know of what that is comprised. Messages is 14 GB.

macOS is 15.42 GB on both of them.

 

[Big Stevie]

Excellent!

Where is the setting for the Mail logs? I don't see it.

I've really no idea, it's a bit beyond me. Just pleased it's sorted.

 

[harleymhs]

Just had this issue with my dad's MBA 2017 .. I had to erase and re install the OSX and restored from a TM back up and all set! ALL the grey area that was being used is gone now! ALL SET , before he had 9 GB left and now he has 08GB free! Easy to fix! Took me 2 hours and hes back up and running but with out being choked by OTHER !

 

[diego.caraballo]

Where is the setting for the Mail logs? I don't see it.

Mail > Window > Connection Doctor > Log Connection Activity

 

[EugW]

Mail > Window > Connection Doctor > Log Connection Activity

Thanks. I didn't even know that toggle existed.

It's already unchecked on my Macs (including the one with 51 GB System Data) and on my wife's previously problematic Mac too. However, in the case of my wife's Mac, I had already replaced the drive and reinstalled the OS, which fixed the problem on her Mac. If that option was checked before, that would have been unchecked (by default) by the macOS reinstall.

 

[larrylaffer]

I don't think anyone has mentioned this yet, but I'm a big fan of OmniDiskSweeper! It's a great way to quickly identify large files on your system. Also it makes me nostalgic for the days of OmniWeb

 

[Toutou]

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

“Install macOS Monterey.app” is not your OS, but an installer of Monterey. If you’re already on Monterey or newer and you’ve downloaded it manually by accident, or if you’re not going to upgrade soon, you can safely delete it. It’s in Applications, next to your other apps.

What else does Grand Perspective show? Do the files add up to 250 GB or does it look like something’s missing?

You can also make Finder show directory sizes, it’s a checkbox somewhere in Finder’s preferences. It takes a while for it to calculate and start showing the sizes, but after that they’re always kept up-to-date.
This has always been my go-to way of figuring out what’s where.

 

[Dnzilla]

Understood, thanks. Still not sure where the remaining 159GB of 'Other' is located though, maybe I need to take out to someone for repair.

I still reckon it’s something backing up onto your disk

Do you use anything that duplicates files on your computer..?
Onedrive/Google drive/some photo backup thing

You otherwise just gotta try looking in directory and check the size folder by folder to narrow down

For me it was MS onedrive cause it download files I use from the cloud and didn’t free space till I prompted..

 

[eRondeau]

A shot in the dark, but if you use Apple Mail select Mail > Window > Connection Doctor then ensure Log Connection Activity is UNCHECKED. If by some strange chance it's checked, uncheck then Show Logs and delete 'em. I've personally seen these logs grow to a single 600GB+ text file -- all of it shown as "Other".