Start Up Disk Full, But Can't Find Hidden Audio Files

[Tanner]

So this may be a silly problem... But I keep getting the "startup disk is almost full" message. It says about 107GB are audio and about 104GB is in the "other category".
I've gone to my music folder and found that I only have about 50GB worth of music in there (including Pro Tools, Logic, iTunes, and Ableton files). Can anybody point me in the right direction where the other 57GB of audio files might be??
And yes, I've emptied my trash, downloads, deleted unnecessary caches, etc...
Help would be much appreciated!!

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

-Did you do a full install of all of those audio apps - including all additional content? Logic can install many GBs of loops and instruments into Macintosh HD > Library > Application Support > Logic and Macintosh HD > Library > Audio > Apple Loops.

-Did you have a lot of third-party audio plugins installed? They can add many files, especially anything that uses impulse responses and/or numerous presets.

-Do you have a Gmail account?

C

 

[Tanner]

Thanks Cory!
-I've deleted a lot of the apple loops that were installed with Logic and Garage band.
-I only have a handfull installed, so they shouldn't be causing a problem.
-Yes I have a gmail account

 

[Kaveman]

Have you emptied your iPhoto Trash?

I use Grand Perspective to locate those blocks of large files.

 

[Tanner]

Yes. I've emptied everything. And the audio files along with "other" files seem to be the only problem...
I'll try grand perspective though and see if that helps

 

[Cory Cooper]

Yes, Grand Perspective can show you what is taking up all that space and we can go from there.

Is your Gmail setup in Apple Mail as IMAP? If so, I have seen it gobble up GBs of HD space very quickly by keeping local copies on your Mac and/or runaway log files. I have the steps to fix the runaway log files around here somewhere. Let me know if you find the Other files are indeed the log files and I will find and post it.

C

 

[Marceline]

So this may be a silly problem... But I keep getting the "startup disk is almost full" message. It says about 107GB are audio and about 104GB is in the "other category".
I've gone to my music folder and found that I only have about 50GB worth of music in there (including Pro Tools, Logic, iTunes, and Ableton files). Can anybody point me in the right direction where the other 57GB of audio files might be??
And yes, I've emptied my trash, downloads, deleted unnecessary caches, etc...
Help would be much appreciated!!

Here is a good article on cleaning other storage on Mac. It says, "other storage" can include:

1. Documents like PDF, .psd, .doc, etc.
2. Mac OS X system and temporary files.
3. Cache files like user cache, browser cache, and system cache.
4. Disk images and archives like .zip and .dmg.
5. App plugins and extensions.
6. Everything else that doesn’t fit into the main OS X categories.

The guide describes how to get rid of each type of "other" items. Hope it helps!

 

[honestone]

Here is a good article on cleaning other storage on Mac. It says, "other storage" can include:

1. Documents like PDF, .psd, .doc, etc.
2. Mac OS X system and temporary files.
3. Cache files like user cache, browser cache, and system cache.
4. Disk images and archives like .zip and .dmg.
5. App plugins and extensions.
6. Everything else that doesn’t fit into the main OS X categories.

The guide describes how to get rid of each type of "other" items. Hope it helps!

That article recommends using CleanMyMac, which is not a good choice. It has been known to cause issues. Here are some better choices:

1. The excellent freeware program Onyx, available from here:

https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html

Make sure to get the right version for the Mac OS one is using.

2. Another good program is AppCleaner. Again, it is free, and it finds all the files associated with an application that one is deleting, and thus all that extra stuff can be removed also. It's available from here:

https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/

3. Finally, if one wants a graphical view of files on their system, there is GrandPerspective, which is also free. It's available from here:

http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/

The other thing is to have deleted EMails permanently removed. I am doing that just about every time I use Outlook 2016 when checking my EMail, and the process is really simple. But I don't know how to do it with other EMail programs (Apple's Mail program is what a number of folks around here use).