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Please help most of my storage disappeared

FeliApple

FeliApple

macrumors 601
Original poster
Apr 8, 2015
4,138
2,611
I had 61 GB left on my 128GB 2015 rMBP 5 minutes ago and now I checked and system report indicates 14.43! GB left. I did not add anything, I did not download anything. I am on El Capitan.
The others folder is taking 70 GB. I entered a command on terminal and it indicated that my Users folder is 75GB large which is absolutely crazy. I have a 19GB video and maybe 1GB of other things. I created a thread with others storage being too large but I wat told it was system generated caches at that time. Other at that time was 12 GB and I had 90 GB left.
I have 14 now and I did not add anything. I am tired of having the system eat so much space for nothing. When I had 61GB, that folder -and the GB used - were already too large. Now it´s outrageous.
I deleted the video and now have 33. The 19GB previously stated were correctly cleared, but the rest must be like 1 GB in size. Not 60GB. I'm fed up of issues with Apple.
 
Last edited:
FeliApple said:
I had 61 GB left on my 128GB 2015 rMBP 5 minutes ago and now I checked and system report indicates 14.43! GB left. I did not add anything, I did not download anything. I am on El Capitan.
The others folder is taking 70 GB. I entered a command on terminal and it indicated that my Users folder is 75GB large which is absolutely crazy. I have a 19GB video and maybe 1GB of other things. I created a thread with others storage being too large but I wat told it was system generated caches at that time. Other at that time was 12 GB and I had 90 GB left.
I have 14 now and I did not add anything. I am tired of having the system eat so much space for nothing. When I had 61GB, that folder -and the GB used - were already too large. Now it´s outrageous.
I deleted the video and now have 33. The 19GB previously stated were correctly cleared, but the rest must be like 1 GB in size. Not 60GB. I'm fed up of issues with Apple.
Click to expand...

You can use an app like DaisyDisk (https://daisydiskapp.com) to scan the drive and get a graphical view of the files on your disk and their size. See if anything looks strange. I've used to before to clean up some unneeded files. Even just the free trial should work fine.
 
Rkuda said:
You can use an app like DaisyDisk (https://daisydiskapp.com) to scan the drive and get a graphical view of the files on your disk and their size. See if anything looks strange. I've used to before to clean up some unneeded files. Even just the free trial should work fine.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much I found the problem. But I don´t know how to fix it. Remember this 19GB video? I sent it to iMovie to edit it. I deleted it (from iMovie), but no space was cleared.
Daisy Disk reported 49GB are being taken by the iMovie Library and the Videos folder reports the same. In Finder, I found the iMovie Library in the Videos folder. Sure enough, it takes 49GB. I don´t know how it got to use that amount of space. Can I just delete that?
 
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Daisy Disk still reports the 49GB but it vanished from the iMovie library. It's somewhere else. Any ideas?
 
Have you emptied your trash? While that is obvious it is also the first place to check.
 
TonyK said:
Have you emptied your trash? While that is obvious it is also the first place to check.
Click to expand...
Yes. I swear I am not lying. This space is moving around the HD. Now it shifted from other to backups. I don´t know what to do. It is the exact same 49GB. Of course, I have no backups whatsoever.
Edit: It presents as a backup but DaisyDisk still reports the space belonging to iMovie. Per Finder, iMovie now takes 1MB. I did not do anything to make that space move.
 
OP:

Do you have Time Machine turned on?
Try turning it OFF, then reboot, then check again.

If that doesn't help, try this:
Download "DiskWave" (small and free):
https://diskwave.barthe.ph

Then... just launch it.
You'll see what to do next.
TIP: go to prefs and make normally-invisible files VISIBLE (so you can see ALL the files).
 
FeliApple said:
Yes. I swear I am not lying. This space is moving around the HD. Now it shifted from other to backups.
Click to expand...
This is normal. What you are seeing is when you empty trash, the file gets moved to a hidden /.MobileBackups folder that is used for Time Machine's local snapshots.

You can ignore it and let the OS manage that space, or turn Time Machine off for a moment then turn it back on and it will erase that snapshot.
 
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Weaselboy said:
This is normal. What you are seeing is when you empty trash, the file gets moved to a hidden /.MobileBackups folder that is used for Time Machine's local snapshots.

You can ignore it and let the OS manage that space, or turn Time Machine off for a moment then turn it back on and it will erase that snapshot.
Click to expand...

You don´t know how much I appreciate your help. You fixed it. Thank you so much!!!!! Back to 81GB left. May I ask you 1 more question?
I am seeing 6GB of caches now that seem useless in DaisyDisk. Can I/should I try to clear that or I should leave them as is because the system needs it? I ask because I have like 27GB of others that seem that kind of things and are useless.
Does the system really need 27GB of space to work? I am beginning to heavily doubt my decision to get this amount of storage. I bought it because I bought a 2TB HDD alongside the Mac.

Fishrrman said:
OP:

Do you have Time Machine turned on?
Try turning it OFF, then reboot, then check again.

If that doesn't help, try this:
Download "DiskWave" (small and free):
https://diskwave.barthe.ph

Then... just launch it.
You'll see what to do next.
TIP: go to prefs and make normally-invisible files VISIBLE (so you can see ALL the files).
Click to expand...

Thank you so much too!!!
 
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FeliApple said:
I am seeing 6GB of caches now that seem useless in DaisyDisk. Can I/should I try to clear that or I should leave them as is because the system needs it? I ask because I have like 27GB of others that seem that kind of things and are useless.
Does the system really need 27GB of space to work? I am beginning to heavily doubt my decision to get this amount of storage. I bought it because I bought a 2TB HDD alongside the Mac.
Click to expand...
I would not mess with that. There is a way to remove it, but it will just come back in a couple days and is normal.
 
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