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used space

etaf

etaf

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 24, 2008
61
2
Surrey, UK
Hi macbook Air 2019
still on Catalina

using a lot of space

she does use outlook - connected to gmail - not sure on the size

out of 121GB - now has 20.5 GB free (was down to 8Gb)

GB
application 29.94
desktop 0.008
docs 8.02
download 0.278
pictures 5.53
music 0.188
icloud 0.489
bin 0.79

Total 45.243

I assume a few system and operating system
About > storage>
-11.26Gb system -

and various others , but then OTHER 49.89GB

just wondered what can be done to purge any unwanted files

my macbook pro 2018 never seemed to have this issue
and my latest macbook pro 2021 (purchased about 9mths ago) - doesnt have an OTHER shown - running monterey - maybe later OS does not show issue

any suggestions ?
 
You’d have to dig into folders and files inside your macOS partition, sort it by size and check which one is the biggest offender, investigate a bit, and decide whether you can delete those large files or not. Apple’s built in utility for disk space analysis is close to being useless without being completely useless.

If you are an adventurous guy and you have a full backup of your MacBook internal drive (the entire drive), you can see if upgrading could improve the situation. And restore afterwards if you don’t like it.
 
thanks both

22gb under user
7,8gb on library
12,7 in system

You’d have to dig into folders and files inside your macOS partition, sort it by size and check which one is the biggest offender, investigate a bit, and decide whether you can delete those large files or not. Apple’s built in utility for disk space analysis is
Click to expand...

how do i list all the files by size - i juse seem to get 100's of folders to go through

Check Outlook.
Click to expand...
seems i can not find a group container folder , which is where outlook is meant to store files
 
Last edited:
There are a number of programs which can assist in space management.

DaisyDisk, GrandPerspective, CleanMyMac X

or just use the MacOS About This Mac/Storage.
 
etaf said:
thanks both

22gb under user
7,8gb on library
12,7 in system



how do i list all the files by size - i juse seem to get 100's of folders to go through


seems i can not find a group container folder , which is where outlook is meant to store files
Click to expand...
The Group Container folder is in the User/yourname/Library/Group Containers
folder, as a folder named (on my system); UBF8T346G9.Office:

OmniDiskSweeper <https://www.omnigroup.com/more>
will show where the space is being used, but there are two other things you can consider.
1. MS Outlook stores all of the attachments you sent and those that other people sent to you in the mail. That can add up quickly. Those can be deleted easily, but only message by message. Select a message with an attachment, go to the Message Menu and the Attachments sub-menu and select Remove all (You do have those files backed up on your SSD don't you?). It is probably easier to simply delete all of the older files. Anything older than 4 or 5 years can probably be deleted (your choice!). Check the Sent folder too.
2. How much RAM does that computer have? 8 or 16GB? If you have hibernation set to anything except 0 in the Sleep settings, the computer has a Sleepimage file the same size as the size of the RAM in the machine. The sleep settings below will cut that 8GB or 15GB Sleepimage file down to zero.

pmset -g Shows what you have set now.

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0 standby 0 autopoweroff 0
sudo rm /var/vm/sleepimage or sudo rm /private/var/vm/sleepimage
--Ignore any message saying there is no such file
Create a blanked zero-byte file so the OS cannot rewrite the file:
and make file immutable:

sudo touch /var/vm/sleepimage or sudo touch /private/var/vm/sleepimage
sudo chflags uchg /var/vm/sleepimage or sudo chflags uchg /private/var/vm/sleepimage

(sudo chflags nouchg ... to revert)
The sleep image file is actually in /private/var/vm/ but /var/vm/ is a symbolic link to that location.

sudo pmset -a proximitywake 0

sudo pmset -b tcpkeepalive 0
--This command may produce a warning saying some features may not work properly. This is fine, it simply disables Internet access during sleep. This is the same as disabling "PowerNap" Apple's badly implemented (demented?) attempt to have apps update themselves during sleep behind the users back.

sudo pmset -a standbydelaylow 86400

sudo pmset -a standbydelayhigh 86400
 
Last edited:
Thanks all
or just use the MacOS About This Mac/Storage.
Click to expand...
I have been using the About This Mac/Storage, which is where i got the OTHER from
About > storage>
-11.26Gb system -

and various others , but then OTHER 49.89GB
Click to expand...

The Group Container folder is in the User/yourname/Library/Group Containers
folder,
Click to expand...
yes that was where i was looking and could not find that folder in User/yourname/Library/

I'll look into downloading and trying OmniDiskSweeper

8GB ram

i will have to get her to go through outlook and see what she has , and needs to keep- I had hoped i could see the space on the Disk, like i do with windows - but not able to find finders

pmset -g Shows what you have set now.
Click to expand...
see attachment
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot 2022-12-06 at 11.04.39.png
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Download and run OmniDiskSweeper (its free) It will provide a sorted list of your files/folders and show you where all your space is going.
 
Im trying to fond a "Go To Folder" command that removes email cache and clears up GB of unneeded files.

I was recording a video (cmd_sft_5) the first day on my new MacBook Air and forgot to turn off the prompt and made a 65GB screen recording of me using the MacBook for several hours thus having only 4GB of free space left on a new MBA, which was was scary, luckily I found the problem and deleted the file.

I saved the part of me trying to figure out how to manage space and researching that "space gate" on the new M1 rumor and how to fix that for 20 minutes.
 
Not timemachine - I only run that onto an external drive ...... never onto the same harddrive - and this machine had not been backed up to timemachine until yesterday.... on my list to do , but never got around to it .....
 
etaf said:
Not timemachine - I only run that onto an external drive ...... never onto the same harddrive - and this machine had not been backed up to timemachine until yesterday.... on my list to do , but never got around to it .....
Click to expand...
Well, but this could be the reason - I think local backup is auto-enabled and if you have never backed up the machine to an external harddrive, it stores all backups locally on your internal drive.

Another culprit might be AutoSave and Versions (MacOS automatically saving versions of all the files you edit). This feature usually stores file versions in a hidden folder on your disk: /.DocumentRevisions-V100
You can find out more about this here:
 
etaf said:
I unticked the setting - But where would it be saved on the system - if i did nothing to setup
Click to expand...
Deleting snapshots using `tmutil` doesn't work, but Check how much disk space you have,

Run Onyx – Maintenance (Under 'Verifying:' select Delete APFS snapshots (local Time Machine snapshots), under 'Cleaning:' select only log messages and reports, do not select System or Applications, or anything except Log messages, and under Misc. Options:' do not select Fonts cache, Junk items, Recent items, or Trash)
then copy / paste this code in a terminal window

Code:
sudo tmutil thinLocalSnapshots / 10000000000 4

press enter
input your admin password
press enter
Check the disk space again
 
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