Answers...

to commonly asked questions.

Freeing up space on Macbook

What's the easiest way to get rid of unknown other data/storage? Or better yet, how do you find those other data files?

___________

Screen Shot 2016-03-16 at 10.06.23 AM

Most likely, the “other” space being taken up is the result of iTunes making backups of your iOS devices. If iCloud backup is turned off, iTunes will back up a device automatically when the device is plugged in. The problem is that these backups are not deleted when a new one is created. Therefore they tend to build up over time.

To see if this is the culprit you’ll need to first go into the hidden user library. While in the Finder, under the word Go in the menu bar, hold down the option key. You’ll see a new line item called “Library”. This gives you access to the hidden library. Select it. That will open a new finder window. Now follow the path ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup.

I would suggest right clicking on the backup folder to get info in order to see the size of the folder. If this folder is extremely large in size, you just found the issue. Simply delete that backup folder. (then empty the trash) You won’t have a backup of your phone now but you’ll have more hard drive space.

If that doesn’t solve the problem then the next thing to try would be to download the great and simple program
Omni Disk Sweeper. This program allows you to see all the files on your mac in order by size. After it’s finished sweeping your mac, you should easily be able to tell what files are responsible.

Screen Shot 2016-03-16 at 10.25.55 AM

On certain rare cases, your mac will fall into a continue loop and save cache files over and over. These can build up quickly resulting in hard drive space being taken up. Usually, these can also be deleted without consequences.

If you’ve still not been able to find the answer, I’d be more than
happy to help you out online at no charge. I do remote sessions online and you can just sign up for a remote session from the front page of this web site. Plus, it would be fun to share my wife and mine sailing story with you on what an influence your videos have been on us. Let me know if I can help with anything Apple related.

This image is a theme.plist hack