My storage space

[Amon Green]

I have a MacBook Air mid-2012 and it has always had problems with storage. It has a 121 gigabyte capacity, but something seems to use all of it up. I only have a couple of small games and a few movies, but nothing too big. I've done the math in finder and can't seem to find what is taking all of my storage. It is really frustrating and I hope someone could help. Something is always missing in finder that takes up tons of storage. If you need more information, comment and I'll reply. All websites I find only tell you how to free up a couple of gigabytes, but nothing this major. Please get back with me with some answers if you have the same problem or if you know how to fix it. I only have 5 gigabytes left so time is of the essence.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

Is TM off?

 

[Amon Green]

Hi,

Is TM off?

What is TM? Sorry I didn't reply soon

 

[honestone]

Believe it stands for Time Machine. I have no experience with Time Machine, as I use SuperDuper! for my backups.

What OS are you using? That could help us with trying to offer some assistance.

It is possible that some application (maybe "running" in the background) is eating up a lot of space.

Just for your information, I have a mid 2013 13" MacBook Air, with a 251 gig SSD (I am running with the latest version of El Capitan, OS 10.11.6), and I have never had "strange" storage issues (Interestingly, the "advertised" capacity is 256 gig, but it actually has a 251 gig SSD). By the way, you state that your machine's internal drive has a 121 gig capacity. Is that correct (and also a similar "anomaly" like my machine, as assuming it came with an SSD, the "advertised" size is 128 gig)?

Finally, have you been making backups to an external device? That could be important, as another option would be to Erase and Format the internal drive, and then do a clean, "virgin" installation of the OS. Leave Time Machine off after that, and re-boot your machine. With just the OS running, see what happens regarding usage of space. If nothing changes, then an application (maybe one or more of the games) is the cause of the space "gouging". You can recover "stuff" from your last backup, but some of that will most likely contain the culprit (or culprits). If the space usage increases with just the OS running, then there could be an issue with the internal SSD, but I am not sure about that.

If you have no external backup, it might be wise to start making them.

 

[Amon Green]

Believe it stands for Time Machine. I have no experience with Time Machine, as I use SuperDuper! for my backups.

What OS are you using? That could help us with trying to offer some assistance.

It is possible that some application (maybe "running" in the background) is eating up a lot of space.

Just for your information, I have a mid 2013 13" MacBook Air, with a 251 gig SSD (I am running with the latest version of El Capitan, OS 10.11.6), and I have never had "strange" storage issues (Interestingly, the "advertised" capacity is 256 gig, but it actually has a 251 gig SSD). By the way, you state that your machine's internal drive has a 121 gig capacity. Is that correct (and also a similar "anomaly" like my machine, as assuming it came with an SSD, the "advertised" size is 128 gig)?

Finally, have you been making backups to an external device? That could be important, as another option would be to Erase and Format the internal drive, and then do a clean, "virgin" installation of the OS. Leave Time Machine off after that, and re-boot your machine. With just the OS running, see what happens regarding usage of space. If nothing changes, then an application (maybe one or more of the games) is the cause of the space "gouging". You can recover "stuff" from your last backup, but some of that will most likely contain the culprit (or culprits). If the space usage increases with just the OS running, then there could be an issue with the internal SSD, but I am not sure about that.

If you have no external backup, it might be wise to start making them.

Thanks for the tips, the computer is running on the public beta of macOS Sierra. I've never made an external backup and I believe that it was advertised as 128 gig. I do plan on getting and external drive, but I was hoping that I could figure out what it was that is taking up so much space.

 

[honestone]

Running a public beta of an OS could be contributing to the space issues you are having. What OS were you using before? And, for example, if it is El Capitan, do you still have a file called "Install OS X El Capitan" some place?

Again, it would be wise to 1) make a backup to an external device, 2) boot the machine via Command+R, 3) use Disk Utility to Erase and Format the internal SSD, 4) do a clean, "virgin" installation of whatever OS it "has" (should be the last one you were using), and 5) re-boot your machine to that OS. Again, leave Time Machine off, and see what happens just running your machine with only the OS and the installed Apple apps.

 

[Cory Cooper]

In addition to honestone's advice, we cannot support beta versions of Mac OS X, as most of us aren't testing them and they haven't been officially released out of beta. Since you are running a public beta of Sierra, you could try the Apple Developer Forums for help.

C