Storage problem!! 13" inch new 2011 macbook air

[Nictjai]

Dear members,

I have just purchased the new 13" inch macbook air with a storage of 128 GB internal flash drive. However the problem is the amount of GB used for "other" storage on my MBA is huge! It's taken over a full 11.3 GB (see picture) of my total storage available, I have tried everything to free up space in this partition however it does not work!

Does anyone know how to solve this problem? How do I delete files in my MBA "other" partition?

Thank you all in advance !!

 

[DaLurker]

Run DaisyDisk and it will help you figure out where your space is going

Link

 

[Mlrollin91]

Other includes all your settings, documents, iOS Applications and other random stuff. I have 18GB of other because of 8GB in iOS apps..plus everything else.

 

[EvenStranger]

As I understand it, if Lion's installed, it's doing Time Machine backups to itself until you can plug in a drive to offload the backups. Once the backup is made to the external drive, the internal backup files are erased and the disk space is freed up again.

 

[Cynicalone]

Other could be anything that doesn't fit into the predefined categories.

Apple really should not have included a vague graph like that. It just adds confusion for less experienced computer users.

 

[xkmxkmxlmx]

Other could be anything that doesn't fit into the predefined categories.

Apple really should not have included a vague graph like that. It just adds confusion for less experienced computer users.

And how does it clear confusion for more experienced computer users? lol...

 

[KnightWRX]

Run DaisyDisk and it will help you figure out where your space is going

Link

Or open terminal and type in the following command :

sudo du -akx / | sort -nr | head -20

Other includes Lion itself btw. At 11 GB, it's not huge at all.

 

[Cynicalone]

And how does it clear confusion for more experienced computer users? lol...

Experienced users should understand that the "Other" category is a catch all. It covers the OS, the sleep image file, the swap files, etc. A less experienced computer user sees "Other" taking up GB's of space and wonders what it is and how do you get rid of it.

 

[ZBoater]

Most people would FREAK at this one..

----------

Run DaisyDisk and it will help you figure out where your space is going

Link

This is a VERY nice app. thanks for the tip!

 

[xkmxkmxlmx]

Experienced users should understand that the "Other" category is a catch all. It covers the OS, the sleep image file, the swap files, etc. A less experienced computer user sees "Other" taking up GB's of space and wonders what it is and how do you get rid of it.

Yes, I *get* what you're saying...

I doubt even most (present OP excluded) unexperienced users are wondering how to "get rid" of it, rather than what it means. But even knowing what it means doesn't mean you know what it consists of (which was my half joking point...).

Not to mention the fact that it is broken. For instance, it doesn't seem to like certain MKV files. So those are all of the sudden not 'movie' files and are now 'other' files.

 

[coopiklaani]

if you are talking about a brand new mac, that's where your OS sleeps. don't panic, mine looks even worse

 

[Cynicalone]

Yes, I *get* what you're saying...

I doubt even most (present OP excluded) unexperienced users are wondering how to "get rid" of it, rather than what it means. But even knowing what it means doesn't mean you know what it consists of (which was my half joking point...).

Not to mention the fact that it is broken. For instance, it doesn't seem to like certain MKV files. So those are all of the sudden not 'movie' files and are now 'other' files.

I agree it does seem broken.

It is a good idea in a way, just poorly implemented.

 

[theSeb]

I agree it does seem broken.

It is a good idea in a way, just poorly implemented.

I would suggest formatting the whole hard drive. That will sort out the "storage problems". </sarcasm>

Now I understand why Apple is trying to stop the user from seeing the file system completely.

 

[dtbadsjw]

As I understand it, if Lion's installed, it's doing Time Machine backups to itself until you can plug in a drive to offload the backups. Once the backup is made to the external drive, the internal backup files are erased and the disk space is freed up again.

I have external hdd back ups are saved at, but internal back up files are still there...I can't even located where they are.
What am I doing wrong??

 

[3bs]

As I understand it, if Lion's installed, it's doing Time Machine backups to itself until you can plug in a drive to offload the backups. Once the backup is made to the external drive, the internal backup files are erased and the disk space is freed up again.

Yes but the local snapshots appear as part of "backups" in the storage info not part of "other"

I have external hdd back ups are saved at, but internal back up files are still there...I can't even located where they are.
What am I doing wrong??

You're probably not doing anything wrong. For some reason on Lion it creates local snapshots even when connected to the hard disk you backup with using Time Machine. It should delete those local backups when you need space so I'm told that you shouldn't worry about them. But it was annoying me so I turned off automatic backups and now just manually back up whenever I want to and this way avoid having local snapshots being created.

 

[xraydoc]

I have external hdd back ups are saved at, but internal back up files are still there...I can't even located where they are.
What am I doing wrong??

You're not doing anything wrong, really. But you shouldn't be doing anything at all, actually. Don't think about it. The Mac does not need to be micromanaged like that. When the OS no longer needs the backup files, they'll be removed automatically. Some of this space is also used for "Versions" copies of edited documents.

As long as you have enough free space to do what you needed, then let the OS do its thing. Like with RAM, lots of free space is wasted space. The OS will remove backups some time after saving them to Time Machine.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Run DaisyDisk and it will help you figure out where your space is going

Link

What a beautiful app. This app is mesmerizing. lol.

 

[ZBoater]

I found an app called Spacie in the appstore. The price of DaisyDisk was putting me off. Spacie is not as pretty but very functional. And its $2.

 

[KnightWRX]

I found an app called Spacie in the appstore. The price of DaisyDisk was putting me off. Spacie is not as pretty but very functional. And its $2.

du is free.

Sometimes I cherish my Unix skills, I get to save so much money rather than having to spend it on a bunch of apps that does the same thing my dear 30 year old free commands do.

 

[ZBoater]

du is free.

Sometimes I cherish my Unix skills, I get to save so much money rather than having to spend it on a bunch of apps that does the same thing my dear 30 year old free commands do.

I hear ya. But sometimes I just want to click. I've been assimilated...

 

[deeddawg]

I found an app called Spacie in the appstore. The price of DaisyDisk was putting me off. Spacie is not as pretty but very functional. And its $2.

So use DiskWave or GrandPerspective, both free.

Not all apps are on the appstore.

 

[onefish2]

I think its bogus. I just ran this and its shows 665MB for music. Movies shows 276MB. Again I have no movies on here and finally photos. I have none and it shows 579MB. I have no movies, music or photos, So why does that show up.

I am am an experienced user. I have been running OS X since the 10.1 days back in 2001.

 

[kittycat97]

I have an extreme problem...

219.78 GB is ALL OTHER!
out of 319.21 GB !

This macbook Pro is brand new, how is this even possible?I don't have anything on here that should be causing this! PLease help!

Thanks

 

[henrydoown]

Storage problem!! 13" inch new 2011 macbook air

Use system tool and fix this storage problem.

 

[bogatyr]

For those with 10-15GB in other, that doesn't seem out of the ordinary. 10-15GB is fairly low - remember the OS and all extra things it requires storage for (hibernate, TM, etc) are in Other. I'd expect it to always be at a minimum of 10-15GB.