Mom's MacBook Air 2010 Problem

[YJamie85]

My mom has a macbook air 2010, her startup disk is full. I don't know what to do for it. She often likes to download tons of apps, we're guessing thats' what's causing the built up in her ram. Another thing is whenever i delete unwanted files/pictures the trash can isn't getting full, but it's asking me for her admin password every time. How do I fix this? How do I lower the startup disk from not being so full?

 

[Freyqq]

delete stuff and empty the trash

 

[YJamie85]

delete stuff and empty the trash

Even when I delete stuff, it's deleted yes but the trash can doesn't get full. It stays empty.

As I right click -> Move to trash.
(It asks for the admin password. Once entered)
Trash can sound (but no trash in the trash can).

I've deleted every app that was in my mom's (iTunes Mobile App folder),
Every picture (it's been backed-up as well).

After all that, i then clicked:
Apple Logo > The About This Mac > Storage > (OTHER FILES: Yellow Tab) is to the end of the storage base.

The Macbook Air is 128GB SSD, she has only about 1.60GB left.
I have no idea what to do. It'd be nice to get an answer here though if not i might have to make a trip to the Apple Store. Hopefully you guys can help me though,

 

[Gav2k]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4s: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Sounds like the system is asking for the password to perminatly delete the files not move them to trash as there is no room!

Buy her an external hdd and move all of her pictures etc off the main drive!

 

[Stewart21]

Even when I delete stuff, it's deleted yes but the trash can doesn't get full. It stays empty.

As I right click -> Move to trash.
(It asks for the admin password. Once entered)
Trash can sound (but no trash in the trash can).

I've deleted every app that was in my mom's (iTunes Mobile App folder),
Every picture (it's been backed-up as well).

If you are deleting photos in iPhoto then you should know that they don't go to the normal trash, there's a trash folder within iPhoto. In iPhoto choose, iPhoto, Empty iPhoto Trash, then click OK to empty it.

Do a search for any large files and report what you find here. Where are you backing up to? If you are using Time Machine check that it is not storing backups on the startup drive.

Stewart

 

[YJamie85]

What about the Trash can issue?

(No matter how much I delete or what I delete, it doesn't show that the trash can is full. Therefore I cannot empty the trash can when it's already showing it's empty).

 

[Dweez]

delete stuff

This is the solution.

 

[YJamie85]

this is what's on my mom's mba's storage says.



As for the trash can: it isn't showing any signs of "having deleted files in it" so I cannot empty it.

 

[LostSoul80]

Download an run Monolingual and remove all the languages you don't need.
Also, check in /Library/Updates/ and delete everything but don't touch ProductMetadata.plist.

 

[James_C]

Jamie,

Did you do what Stewart suggested and emptied the trash in iPhoto ? You mentioned in your first post about deleted photo's not appearing in the OS X trash , which they won't as iPhoto has it's own trash bin.

 

[Cheffy Dave]

Since you don't really know what you are doing,get it done right, take it to the Apple Store

 

[Stewart21]

this is what's on my mom's mba's storage says.



As for the trash can: it isn't showing any signs of "having deleted files in it" so I cannot empty it.

Oh, Oh, the old "Other" thing. If you have Time Machine turned on but you are not regularly connected to an external backup drive that Time Machine is pointed to then Time Machine backups are stored on your startup drive until you connect to an external drive and do a backup. Connect and external drive, force a backup immediately then turn Time Machine off so it doesn't store local backups. Turn Time Machine on when YOU want to do a backup then turn it off again after backing up.

Stewart
Oh, find someone who knows what they're doing with a Macbook Air to help.

 

[YJamie85]

Apple fixed the problem
Thank you everyone for helping me out. The apple people also read your blogs here they said thank you for the help. Apple fans helping among apple fans, they appreciate it.

 

[robbie12345]

hd is full