Where is my disk space going?

Discussion in 'MacBook Air' started by bobtrotter, Sep 24, 2014.

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  1. bobtrotter, Sep 24, 2014

    bobtrotter macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Sep 23, 2014
    #1
    Hey, I am pretty new to the Mac world. Just purchased my first macbook air. As of today I suddenly lost about 8GB in hard disk space. Trying to figure out where it went. I have checked the About This Mac / Disk Space and everything is as it seems. I have also noticed that the "Other" section has increased from 8GB to 20GB in the last few weeks. Is this normal? I haven't downloaded any new apps and haven't really been downloading any media files. Just a bit of web browsing and coding in Xcode (also checked these files). Just wondering how I could of suddenly lost 8GB in space! Hope someone can help. :confused:
     
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  2. maflynn, Sep 24, 2014

    maflynn Moderator

    maflynn

    Staff Member

    Joined:
    May 3, 2009
    Location:
    Boston
    #2
    Download and use OmniDiskSweeper. It will provide a sorted list of what's consuming your space.

    Another option which is more comprehensive is to use this terminal command
    sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /

    I prefer to redirect it to a text file (this puts it in your Documents folder
    sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g / > ~/Documents/du.txt

    If you're using Time Machine, then some of the space is taken up by local snapshots, i.e., backups on your drive and not an external drive.
     
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  3. bobtrotter, Sep 24, 2014

    bobtrotter thread starter macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Sep 23, 2014
    #3
    Hey, just did that now. Doesn't seem to be anything old but I have just lost another 3/4gb in disk space in the last few minutes! The other folder has also gone from 20gb to 23gb! Seem like my space is being drained.

    ----------

    Space is definitely being lost to "Other", not sure why though. At this rate I'll be out of space by next week.
     
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  4. chrfr, Sep 24, 2014

    chrfr macrumors 604

    Joined:
    Jul 11, 2009
    #4
    What was the output of the command in the post above yours? That will give you the detail to find where your space is going.
     
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  5. bobtrotter, Sep 24, 2014

    bobtrotter thread starter macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Sep 23, 2014
    #5
    This was it


    1 /.DocumentRevisions-V100
    1 /.fseventsd
    0 /.PKInstallSandboxManager
    1 /.Spotlight-V100
    0 /.Trashes
    0 /.vol
    10 /Applications
    1 /bin
    0 /cores
    1 /dev
    1 /home
    4 /Library
    1 /net
    0 /Network
    15 /private
    1 /sbin
    5 /System
    14 /Users
    1 /usr
    1 /Volumes
    47 /
    47 total
     
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  6. bobtrotter, Sep 24, 2014

    bobtrotter thread starter macrumors newbie

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    Sep 23, 2014
    #6
    Fixed it! It was APP/OSx downloads waiting to be installed. Installed them, rebooted and vollia! 13GB back. Thanks for your help, found the problem with omni disk sweeper.
     
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  7. motrek, Sep 24, 2014

    motrek macrumors 68020

    Joined:
    Sep 14, 2012
    #7
    I also like a program called "Disk Inventory X". It's shareware and does a good job letting you drill down into what's taking up space.
     
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