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Disc filling up
#55654 08/13/20 12:36 AM
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We've talked about this before but my disc space (125 gb) - system files, is filling up again and I don't know why. I looked at the Activity Monitor and there doesn't eem to be that much in use.

Is it safe to eliminate all caches and log files? If I check each one, I wouldn't know what I am looking at anyway.

If I get a program to do it (even if I have to pay), will it expect me to look at everything before I delete it? If so, I might as well do it manually and save the money.

I saw this online: Path to find caches:
~/Library/Caches

Paths to delete logs:
/Library/Logs
~/Library/Logs

I went there to the first one (caches) but didn't know what was safe to delete when I got there. Same will be for logs unless they can all go.


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Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55655 08/13/20 01:03 AM
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DAMN! I lost my post.

Hi, Rita.

First, you're confusing your HDD/SSD with your RAM. Activity Monitor shows RAM usage and has nothing to do with what's going on on your drive...UNLESS, of course, you see something in there that you don't think should be there.

I follow the same two paths to delete logs. I suggest trashing only the Diagnostic Reports folder you'll find in each location. What's left will probably be inconsequential, but check how much space it's taking up.

Depending upon your settings, the browser caches in ~/Library/Caches may clear automatically when you quit your browsers, and the rest are too cryptic for me to deal with, but again, check how much space they're taking up. You can clear both your Safari and Firefox caches from within the apps, so there's no need to bother with ~/Library/Caches as respects them.

As far as disk space goes, I suggest that you d/l GrandPerspective for Mac. (Donationware) It may show you something helpful about your disk usage.

Last edited by artie505; 08/13/20 01:31 AM. Reason: Expand

The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

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Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55656 08/13/20 03:16 AM
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Artie: I went to Grand Perspective and your review wasn't good! LOL!

I am still wondering even if it shows what's using all the space, do I still have to go through everything? That takes a lot of time. Would it ever show me something I shouldn't touch? Since I don't know the difference except for old downloads and documents, I wouldn't know what to delete anyway.

When I trash the diagnostics, do I trash the whole folder or just the insides?

R...


I went to
Originally Posted By: plantsower
We've talked about this before but my disc space (125 gb) - system files, is filling up again and I don't know why. I looked at the Activity Monitor and there doesn't eem to be that much in use.

Is it safe to eliminate all caches and log files? If I check each one, I wouldn't know what I am looking at anyway.

If I get a program to do it (even if I have to pay), will it expect me to look at everything before I delete it? If so, I might as well do it manually and save the money.

I saw this online: Path to find caches:
~/Library/Caches

Paths to delete logs:
/Library/Logs
~/Library/Logs

I went there to the first one (caches) but didn't know what was safe to delete when I got there. Same will be for logs unless they can all go.


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Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55659 08/13/20 06:22 AM
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Originally Posted By: plantsower
Artie: I went to Grand Perspective and your review wasn't good! LOL!

I am still wondering even if it shows what's using all the space, do I still have to go through everything? That takes a lot of time. Would it ever show me something I shouldn't touch? Since I don't know the difference except for old downloads and documents, I wouldn't know what to delete anyway.

When I trash the diagnostics, do I trash the whole folder or just the insides?

Hah! I thought I had posted about GP, but I missed it when I looked. My post dealt with a problem that APFS has introduced in a number of apps I run and isn't an indictment of GP itself.

If you select your Macintosh HD (or whatever its called) you'll get results that look something like this, and after a few runs you'll know what the major space users are without even hovering over them. The results don't show the hidden parts of your OS, but they'll give you an idea of what you've got. You'll know by their names if the major space users need to be investigated or not, so just run and post anything that comes up that seems unusual to you BEFORE you delete anything.

You can trash either the Diagnostic Reports folder or its contents. If you trash the folder it will grow back.

But BINGO! Maybe you just hit the nail on the head by mentioning old downloads. I've seen Macs whose users never cull ~/Downloads, which can get AWFULLY large, and considering that your HDD/SSD has got only 125GB, it may be your problem with no further looking.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55663 08/13/20 09:38 AM
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You could try WhatSize to see what is hogging all that space.


Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
Re: Disc filling up
jchuzi #55664 08/13/20 10:18 AM
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Originally Posted By: jchuzi
You could try WhatSize to see what is hogging all that space.

DAMN! Second post I"ve lost tonight...first ones in MANY months. mad

I'm willing to bet the farm that Rita isn't interested in investing $30 in this project, Jon.

DaisyDisk ($10), which all of a sudden just began working as expected for me, is a good alternative, but its GUI isn't at all easy to navigate.

GrandPerspective (Donationware) is Rita's best bet because its visual output is really easy to make sense of. I'm not certain that it shows all of /System- I think var is missing - but it should show enough for Rita's purposes.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55665 08/13/20 01:30 PM
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Rita just some clarification about cache files and log files.
  • Both are created by the system and both will be rebuilt/re-populated rapidly as part of the normal operation of MacOS
  • There are routine system tasks that automatically prune and condense the log files every night to keep them in control
  • Sometimes an application can start spitting out a stream of log messages that can cause the log files to grow out of control and eat up disk space. Even if you don't understand the messages, and few do, if you launch Console and look at the System log. If you find lots of repeated messages or repeated groups of messages, copy a group of and post them here. We may be able to figure out what, if anything, is going on.
  • Cache files are used by the system and various applications to speed loading. If you delete them they will be recreated the next time you launch the application or boot your computer.
  • Sometimes cache files can become corrupted and cause an inexplicable application error that can be solved by deleting the cache files. But that is rare.

FOR WHAT IT IS WORTH: Artie finds Grand Perspective more informative and I greatly prefer DaisyDisk. Both provide essentially the same information and the difference is in how the data is displayed. Which is preferred depends on how your mind visualizes the information. Daisy Disk does have one feature you might find useful. It specifically identifies "purgeable" files on the drive and provides a mechanism for deleting them.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Disc filling up
joemikeb #55670 08/13/20 03:38 PM
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Because it's free, I probably will try Grand Perspective first, but I do like the idea of purgeables being pointed out. When I look at Disk Utility, it shows purgeable as zero, but that is after I got rid of some stuff. It had a number before that. But, it doesn't delineate what is purgeable, or does it? I don't know how to access that if it does show it somewhere. That would be nice.



Originally Posted By: joemikeb
Rita just some clarification about cache files and log files.
  • Both are created by the system and both will be rebuilt/re-populated rapidly as part of the normal operation of MacOS
  • There are routine system tasks that automatically prune and condense the log files every night to keep them in control
  • Sometimes an application can start spitting out a stream of log messages that can cause the log files to grow out of control and eat up disk space. Even if you don't understand the messages, and few do, if you launch Console and look at the System log. If you find lots of repeated messages or repeated groups of messages, copy a group of and post them here. We may be able to figure out what, if anything, is going on.
  • Cache files are used by the system and various applications to speed loading. If you delete them they will be recreated the next time you launch the application or boot your computer.
  • Sometimes cache files can become corrupted and cause an inexplicable application error that can be solved by deleting the cache files. But that is rare.

FOR WHAT IT IS WORTH: Artie finds Grand Perspective more informative and I greatly prefer DaisyDisk. Both provide essentially the same information and the difference is in how the data is displayed. Which is preferred depends on how your mind visualizes the information. Daisy Disk does have one feature you might find useful. It specifically identifies "purgeable" files on the drive and provides a mechanism for deleting them.


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Re: Disc filling up
jchuzi #55671 08/13/20 03:43 PM
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Thank you. Something to think about also. Good to have a choice.


Originally Posted By: jchuzi
You could try WhatSize to see what is hogging all that space.


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Re: Disc filling up
artie505 #55672 08/13/20 03:46 PM
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Wow, that Grand Perspective graphic is PURDY!! LOL!

Last night, after I deleted a bunch of downloads, that Disk Message disappeared. It must have been those for the most part. I used to delete them regularly and then forgot about doing that type of thing.

I will trash the diagnostic reports now. Thank you!



Originally Posted By: artie505
Originally Posted By: plantsower
Artie: I went to Grand Perspective and your review wasn't good! LOL!

I am still wondering even if it shows what's using all the space, do I still have to go through everything? That takes a lot of time. Would it ever show me something I shouldn't touch? Since I don't know the difference except for old downloads and documents, I wouldn't know what to delete anyway.

When I trash the diagnostics, do I trash the whole folder or just the insides?

Hah! I thought I had posted about GP, but I missed it when I looked. My post dealt with a problem that APFS has introduced in a number of apps I run and isn't an indictment of GP itself.

If you select your Macintosh HD (or whatever its called) you'll get results that look something like this, and after a few runs you'll know what the major space users are without even hovering over them. The results don't show the hidden parts of your OS, but they'll give you an idea of what you've got. You'll know by their names if the major space users need to be investigated or not, so just run and post anything that comes up that seems unusual to you BEFORE you delete anything.

You can trash either the Diagnostic Reports folder or its contents. If you trash the folder it will grow back.

But BINGO! Maybe you just hit the nail on the head by mentioning old downloads. I've seen Macs whose users never cull ~/Downloads, which can get AWFULLY large, and considering that your HDD/SSD has got only 125GB, it may be your problem with no further looking.


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Re: Disc filling up
joemikeb #55673 08/13/20 04:11 PM
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
Artie finds Grand Perspective more informative and I greatly prefer DaisyDisk.

Clarification: I find GrandPerspective more informative than DaisyDisk for less sophisticated users like Rita, because its visual output is far easier to understand than DaisyDisk's, which requires digging rather than putting its complete output right in your face.

It takes some in-depth knowledge of the OS to get an answer from DD, while all you need is eyes to understand GP's output. (Except, as I said, GP doesn't show your entire OS, and I think it's var that's missing.)

Should I ever need such an app, DD is the one I"d go to, because IN THE END, it paints a more complete picture than GP does, even if it is less clear.

Note: The diagnostic reports I suggested deleting don't seem to ever clear on their own, and if they do, it's faaar less frequently than every night. I've looked at their folders at week's and month's ends on many occasions, and I"ve never once found them looking as if they had been cleared recently.

I didn't suggest that Rita, nor would I, myself, mess with any other logs (unless they were associated with an app I was trashing), and I always allow caches other than Safari's to clear on their own (unless I've got an issue that smells like cache clearing would be fruitful).


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55674 08/13/20 04:39 PM
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Originally Posted By: plantsower
Last night, after I deleted a bunch of downloads, that Disk Message disappeared. It must have been those for the most part.

Bet on it!

Particularly with a small drive such as yours, that ~/Downloads folder is kinda like a time bomb.

It can grow to a very large size very easily, very quickly, and totally without your being aware of it.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Disc filling up
artie505 #55675 08/13/20 04:52 PM
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I downloaded Grand Perspective and, as per usual, nothing works smoothly for me. After I downloaded it, it opened a window with the Grand Perspective icon and some readme files, etc., but never asked to be put into the application file. So, it is not there. I clicked on the GP icon and it opened op the squares but I couldn't figure out how to use them. I am also still getting the Disk is Filling up message again, so I don't know what to do. I am looking at all my files manually, and don't know of anything that I needs to be purged. confused Going on vacation Saturday and would really like to get this fixed. I don't want that message to continue popping up as I take my Mac with me to keep up on things.



Originally Posted By: artie505
Originally Posted By: plantsower
Last night, after I deleted a bunch of downloads, that Disk Message disappeared. It must have been those for the most part.

Bet on it!

Particularly with a small drive such as yours, that ~/Downloads folder is kinda like a time bomb.

It can grow to a very large size very easily, very quickly, and totally without your being aware of it.


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Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55677 08/13/20 05:08 PM
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Now I am getting the message: The document “Untitled” could not be autosaved. The volume “Macintosh HD” is out of space.

I think there must be a glitch. I don't have that much stuff on my Mac! Even when I had a lot more Gigabites, I never used more than 50.


Originally Posted By: plantsower
I downloaded Grand Perspective and, as per usual, nothing works smoothly for me. After I downloaded it, it opened a window with the Grand Perspective icon and some readme files, etc., but never asked to be put into the application file. So, it is not there. I clicked on the GP icon and it opened op the squares but I couldn't figure out how to use them. I am also still getting the Disk is Filling up message again, so I don't know what to do. I am looking at all my files manually, and don't know of anything that I needs to be purged. confused Going on vacation Saturday and would really like to get this fixed. I don't want that message to continue popping up as I take my Mac with me to keep up on things.



Originally Posted By: artie505
Originally Posted By: plantsower
Last night, after I deleted a bunch of downloads, that Disk Message disappeared. It must have been those for the most part.

Bet on it!

Particularly with a small drive such as yours, that ~/Downloads folder is kinda like a time bomb.

It can grow to a very large size very easily, very quickly, and totally without your being aware of it.


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Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55678 08/13/20 05:13 PM
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Originally Posted By: plantsower
I downloaded Grand Perspective and, as per usual, nothing works smoothly for me. After I downloaded it, it opened a window with the Grand Perspective icon and some readme files, etc., but never asked to be put into the application file. So, it is not there. I clicked on the GP icon and it opened op the squares but I couldn't figure out how to use them. I am also still getting the Disk is Filling up message again, so I don't know what to do.

GrandPerspective isn't as intuitive a d/l as many others. You've got to either copy & paste or drag & drop it from the open .dmg (d/l) file to your desired location.

When you finally install and launch it, hit "Scan," and select your HD. (It's supposed to remember history, but I've never seen that happen.)

Your getting the "Full" message again may be no more than a function of your having added GP to your Downloads folder. In your situation, I'd offload that entire folder to my external, and you've certainly got enough space and, maybe, partitions to do it. (How big is it, anyway?)


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55679 08/13/20 05:17 PM
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Originally Posted By: plantsower
Now I am getting the message: The document “Untitled” could not be autosaved. The volume “Macintosh HD” is out of space.

I think there must be a glitch. I don't have that much stuff on my Mac! Even when I had a lot more Gigabites, I never used more than 50.

Try to run GrandPerspective and post a screenshot.

It sounds as if something is out of whack, and maybe GP's output will help clear it up.

Too bad we can't screen-share.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Disc filling up
artie505 #55681 08/13/20 05:22 PM
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In the previous post you asked how big it was. If you are talking about GP, it's 3.1 mg. My external drive is 1 terabyte minus what I have saved on it which isn't that much.I don't know how much it is now.

Also, I re downloaded GP after I deleted it, and when I went to Finder so I could transfer it to my apps, finder just showed the GP window with it's icon and readme files, etc. I can't get to the regular finder window now unless I delete GP. There's no back arrow or anything so I can browse around my Finder like normal. I think I'd better ditch GP. But I still can't find the fill up disk problem. I did have quite a few windows open in Safari and since I closed them, I don't get that message. Also, I shut down ad rebooted

As far as screen sharing, we have an app for that on our Macs. Is it only for Macs on the same network?




Originally Posted By: artie505
Originally Posted By: plantsower
Now I am getting the message: The document “Untitled” could not be autosaved. The volume “Macintosh HD” is out of space.

I think there must be a glitch. I don't have that much stuff on my Mac! Even when I had a lot more Gigabites, I never used more than 50.

Try to run GrandPerspective and post a screenshot.

It sounds as if something is out of whack, and maybe GP's output will help clear it up.

Too bad we can't screen-share.


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Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55683 08/13/20 05:34 PM
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Originally Posted By: plantsower
In the previous post you asked how big it was. If you are talking about GP, it's 3.1 mg. My external drive is 1 terabyte minus what I have saved on it which isn't that much.I don't know how much it is now.

Also, I re downloaded GP after I deleted it, and when I went to Finder so I could transfer it to my apps, finder just showed the GP window with it's icon and readme files, etc. I can't get to the regular finder window now unless I delete GP. There's no back arrow or anything so I can browse around my Finder like normal. I think I'd better ditch GP. But I still can't find the fill up disk problem. I did have quite a few windows open in Safari and since I closed them, I don't get that message. Also, I shut down ad rebooted

As far as screen sharing, we have an app for that on our Macs. Is it only for Macs on the same network?

Nope, I asked how big your entire ~/Downloads folder is.

Yep, we'd have to be on the same network.

The GP .dmg window is already a Finder window. With it open, hit command-N to open a second Finder window in which you can navigate to your desired home for GP. I'd install it by copying it in the first window and pasting it in the second one, but you can drag & drop it too.

Safari tabs can grow to large sizes, but unless you've got a million of then open at the same time I wouldn't expect them to be problematic.

Something's up, and maybe we'll see it when you post a GP screenshot.

Last edited by artie505; 08/13/20 06:27 PM. Reason: Expand

The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

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Re: Disc filling up
artie505 #55684 08/13/20 06:50 PM
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Thanks for the tip for opening up the Finder. It worked. I would have never figured that out. I may do a screen shot of GP when I get a chance. I am in the middle of another nightmare of trying to restore an iPhone my husband bought on eBay. It wouldn't accept his new password. Called Apple and my carrier and they both said the phone was clean and unlocked. Why does it show a locked icon on top? Oh well, I am tired of trying to fix this so don't bother trying to help me there. After countless hours trying everything suggested online, iTunes is finally doing something. Fingers crossed. Otherwise, it's going back to eBay and he will buy a new, cheap Samsung he has his eye on.



quote=artie505]
Originally Posted By: plantsower
In the previous post you asked how big it was. If you are talking about GP, it's 3.1 mg. My external drive is 1 terabyte minus what I have saved on it which isn't that much.I don't know how much it is now.

Also, I re downloaded GP after I deleted it, and when I went to Finder so I could transfer it to my apps, finder just showed the GP window with it's icon and readme files, etc. I can't get to the regular finder window now unless I delete GP. There's no back arrow or anything so I can browse around my Finder like normal. I think I'd better ditch GP. But I still can't find the fill up disk problem. I did have quite a few windows open in Safari and since I closed them, I don't get that message. Also, I shut down ad rebooted

As far as screen sharing, we have an app for that on our Macs. Is it only for Macs on the same network?

Nope, I asked how big your entire ~/Downloads folder is.

Yep, we'd have to be on the same network.

The GP .dmg window is already a Finder window. With it open, hit command-N to open a second Finder window in which you can navigate to your desired home for GP. I'd install it by copying it in the first window and pasting it in the second one, but you can drag & drop it too.

Safari tabs can grow to large sizes, but unless you've got a million of then open at the same time I wouldn't expect them to be problematic.

Something's up, and maybe we'll see it when you post a GP screenshot. [/quote]


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Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55687 08/14/20 12:38 AM
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Originally Posted By: plantsower
I am in the middle of another nightmare of trying to restore an iPhone my husband bought on eBay. It wouldn't accept his new password. Called Apple and my carrier and they both said the phone was clean and unlocked. Why does it show a locked icon on top? Oh well, I am tired of trying to fix this so don't bother trying to help me there. After countless hours trying everything suggested online, iTunes is finally doing something. Fingers crossed. Otherwise, it's going back to eBay and he will buy a new, cheap Samsung he has his eye on.

I'll suggest that you quit playing with the iPhone and send it back forthwith.

As long as your husband didn't buy an "AS IS," based upon your story so far, you should have no trouble returning it as defective.

At the very least, contact the seller and ask what's up.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Disc filling up
artie505 #55689 08/14/20 04:40 AM
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Edit: Here is an image I took from Finder. I erased Catalina and Mojave but they are still taking up a lot of space apparently. I looked at the old post by JoeMike on how to really get rid of those partitions, but I found it very confusing. I hope there is a more simple way. I don't want to deal with my external HD to do this. imgur



Maybe it's a blessing in disguise that I keep getting that message that my disk is almost full because iTunes won't restore the new iPhone because of my lack of disk space.

When I went to the storage management window it says I have 5.14 gb available out of 46.31 gb. How come it shows that I only have 46.31 total gigs? I thought I had 120 gigs. Is it because the system and Safari and other huge apps take up the gigabytes just because they are on my Mac? Something is still screwy. I ran Malwarebytes but nothing seems amiss.

Originally Posted By: artie505
Originally Posted By: plantsower
I am in the middle of another nightmare of trying to restore an iPhone my husband bought on eBay. It wouldn't accept his new password. Called Apple and my carrier and they both said the phone was clean and unlocked. Why does it show a locked icon on top? Oh well, I am tired of trying to fix this so don't bother trying to help me there. After countless hours trying everything suggested online, iTunes is finally doing something. Fingers crossed. Otherwise, it's going back to eBay and he will buy a new, cheap Samsung he has his eye on.

I'll suggest that you quit playing with the iPhone and send it back forthwith.

As long as your husband didn't buy an "AS IS," based upon your story so far, you should have no trouble returning it as defective.

At the very least, contact the seller and ask what's up.

Last edited by plantsower; 08/14/20 05:04 AM.

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Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55690 08/14/20 06:21 AM
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Originally Posted By: plantsower
Edit: Here is an image I took from Finder. I erased Catalina and Mojave but they are still taking up a lot of space apparently. I looked at the old post by JoeMike on how to really get rid of those partitions, but I found it very confusing. I hope there is a more simple way. I don't want to deal with my external HD to do this. imgur



Maybe it's a blessing in disguise that I keep getting that message that my disk is almost full because iTunes won't restore the new iPhone because of my lack of disk space.

When I went to the storage management window it says I have 5.14 gb available out of 46.31 gb. How come it shows that I only have 46.31 total gigs? I thought I had 120 gigs. Is it because the system and Safari and other huge apps take up the gigabytes just because they are on my Mac? Something is still screwy. I ran Malwarebytes but nothing seems amiss.

BINGO! Really. (Finally wink ) That screenshot shows that you've been asking the wrong question all along.

Your problem is NOT that your 120 GB drive is filled up, it's that the 46.31 GB Macintosh HD partition into which you're booted is filled up.

So, yes, you've got to get rid of those Mojave and Catalina partitions, but NOT just erase them. You've got to entirely eliminate them from your drive, which, not to beat a dead horse, would be a snap if it were formatted APFS but will be more difficult if not impossible with your HFS+ format.

I'm going to yield the floor to joemike now, because he's far better versed with dealing with partitions than I am, but before I go, I'll suggest that you launch Disk Utility, select the TOP item (not one of the partitions), hit "Partition," take a screenshot of your current partition pie chart, then hit cancel without going any further, and follow that by posting the screenshot. The pie chart will give joemike a better idea of what you're dealing with, and the placement of the various partitions will dictate what you can and can't do with them.

Personally, I advise cloning Macintosh HD to your external, wiping your internal, and cloning Macintosh HD back to it, but without partitioning it. Your 120 GB drive is simply not big enough to support three separate OS's. It MAAAY be big enough for two, but I don't advise even that. If you want to experiment with a new version of macOS, install it on a partition on your external (which gets back to why I advised your dividing it into many small partitions lo, these many moons ago).

And as far as your not wanting to deal with your external goes, I can guarantee that joemike will advise you to clone Macintosh HD to it before you do anything about deleting partitions, because there's ALWAYS a risk of data loss when you deal with partitions.

Everything has now fallen into place, and nope, NOTHING is screwy!


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Re: Disc filling up
artie505 #55691 08/14/20 09:23 AM
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Artie is dead right on. You still have 120 GB on your drive, but you have cut it up into three partitions.. You are trying to run three operating systems on a drive that is big enough for one.

It is time to fish or cut bait. You need to either move on to Catalina, or make the decision to stick with Sierra until you buy a new Mac. Artie said to clone Macintosh HD to your external drive. My recommendation is to make a choice between Sierra or Catalina, (I strongly encourage Catalina). Tell me what your decision is and I can give you specific step-by-sep instructions from there, that will minimize any risk in the process of eliminating the other two operating systems, as well as th disk full error.


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Re: Disc filling up
joemikeb #55693 08/14/20 09:35 AM
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Wow! You're up early. smile

If it needs clarification, my suggested Macintosh HD IS Sierra, but I 100% agree with you that Rita should move up to Catalina. Other than kevs, who's a literal cornucopia of issues, nobody here has ever reported any problems either with the learning curve or the OS itself, and, as you've said on numerous occasions, the curve is only going to get steeper with each new OS release.

Perish the thought that Rita ever needs to buy a new Mac.


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Re: Disc filling up
artie505 #55698 08/14/20 06:44 PM
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Thanks, Artie, now onto JoeMike.


Originally Posted By: artie505
Originally Posted By: plantsower
Edit: Here is an image I took from Finder. I erased Catalina and Mojave but they are still taking up a lot of space apparently. I looked at the old post by JoeMike on how to really get rid of those partitions, but I found it very confusing. I hope there is a more simple way. I don't want to deal with my external HD to do this. imgur



Maybe it's a blessing in disguise that I keep getting that message that my disk is almost full because iTunes won't restore the new iPhone because of my lack of disk space.

When I went to the storage management window it says I have 5.14 gb available out of 46.31 gb. How come it shows that I only have 46.31 total gigs? I thought I had 120 gigs. Is it because the system and Safari and other huge apps take up the gigabytes just because they are on my Mac? Something is still screwy. I ran Malwarebytes but nothing seems amiss.

BINGO! Really. (Finally wink ) That screenshot shows that you've been asking the wrong question all along.

Your problem is NOT that your 120 GB drive is filled up, it's that the 46.31 GB Macintosh HD partition into which you're booted is filled up.

So, yes, you've got to get rid of those Mojave and Catalina partitions, but NOT just erase them. You've got to entirely eliminate them from your drive, which, not to beat a dead horse, would be a snap if it were formatted APFS but will be more difficult if not impossible with your HFS+ format.

I'm going to yield the floor to joemike now, because he's far better versed with dealing with partitions than I am, but before I go, I'll suggest that you launch Disk Utility, select the TOP item (not one of the partitions), hit "Partition," take a screenshot of your current partition pie chart, then hit cancel without going any further, and follow that by posting the screenshot. The pie chart will give joemike a better idea of what you're dealing with, and the placement of the various partitions will dictate what you can and can't do with them.

Personally, I advise cloning Macintosh HD to your external, wiping your internal, and cloning Macintosh HD back to it, but without partitioning it. Your 120 GB drive is simply not big enough to support three separate OS's. It MAAAY be big enough for two, but I don't advise even that. If you want to experiment with a new version of macOS, install it on a partition on your external (which gets back to why I advised your dividing it into many small partitions lo, these many moons ago).

And as far as your not wanting to deal with your external goes, I can guarantee that joemike will advise you to clone Macintosh HD to it before you do anything about deleting partitions, because there's ALWAYS a risk of data loss when you deal with partitions.

Everything has now fallen into place, and nope, NOTHING is screwy!


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Re: Disc filling up
joemikeb #55699 08/14/20 06:47 PM
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I posted recently about all the things that are going wrong with my Mac, including Spotlight not working anymore nor "all my files" showing up after I used OnyX. Terminal is acting wonky, too. All since I ran OnyX which I will delete after this.

If I d/l Catalina will it take care of all my woes? Will it make spotlight work again? Will it find the files that have disappeared off my HD?

Thanks. frown


Originally Posted By: joemikeb
Artie is dead right on. You still have 120 GB on your drive, but you have cut it up into three partitions.. You are trying to run three operating systems on a drive that is big enough for one.

It is time to fish or cut bait. You need to either move on to Catalina, or make the decision to stick with Sierra until you buy a new Mac. Artie said to clone Macintosh HD to your external drive. My recommendation is to make a choice between Sierra or Catalina, (I strongly encourage Catalina). Tell me what your decision is and I can give you specific step-by-sep instructions from there, that will minimize any risk in the process of eliminating the other two operating systems, as well as th disk full error.


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Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55702 08/14/20 07:24 PM
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Since you have already erased the content of the other partitions, these instructions are for rebuilding your internal drive as Sierra only. Hopefully, you are not so short on Storage space this will work. 🤞

FOLLOW EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING STEPS IN EXACT SEQUENCE
  1. PREPARE THE EXTERNAL DRIVE
    1. Open Disk Utility
    2. in the Disk Utility sidebar, select the external DRIVE
    3. On the Disk Utility toolbar select Erase then Name: External, Format Mac OS Extended (Journaled), Scheme: GUID Partition Map
    4. Click Erase (This will effectively erase all content on your external drive, including any partitions.
  2. CLONE SIERRA TO THE EXTERNAL DRIVE
    1. The exact process will depend on the cloning utility you use, whether it is Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper, but the process is fairly straight-forward. If you need help, let me know which cloning utility you are using.
    2. In either case you are cloning from Macintosh HD to External
  3. BOOT FROM THE EXTERNAL CLONE
    1. Go to System Preferences > Startup Disk
    2. Select the External drive
    3. Click on Restart
  4. PREPARE THE INTERNAL DRIVE
    1. Open Disk Utility
    2. in the Disk Utility sidebar, select the internal drive DRIVE
    3. On the Disk Utility tool bar select Erase then Name: Macintosh HD, Format Mac OS Extended (Journaled), Scheme: GUID Partition Map
    4. Click Erase (This will effectively erase all content on your internal drive and all partitions)
  5. CLONE SIERRA BACK TO THE INTERNAL DRIVE
    • Reverse the process used in step II preceding
  6. BOOT FROM THE INTERNAL DRIVE
    1. Go to System Preferences > Startup Disk
    2. Select the internal drive
    3. Click on Restart
  7. You should now be running Sierra from your internal drive and have the entire 120GB available. 👏


Once Sierra is working correctly, upgrading to Catalina is very straight-forward, if you decide to go that route.

Last edited by joemikeb; 08/14/20 07:29 PM. Reason: typo

If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

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Re: Disc filling up
joemikeb #55706 08/14/20 10:06 PM
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OK. I do have some questions but will wait until I am actually doing this after my vacation. I am still wondering if all is lost in "all my files" and with Spotlight and Terminal. Since I was able to clear out 14 gigabytes I no longer get the full disk error, but I still have the other problems. I am blaming OnyX for that.

I'm surprised you told me how to do this. I was under the assumption you were going to tell me how to download Catalina and forget about Sierra. I know that's what you want. smile We will see how this goes. If I completely screw it up, I will be asking for instructions on how to clear my internal HD and d/l Catalina! smile


Originally Posted By: joemikeb
Since you have already erased the content of the other partitions, these instructions are for rebuilding your internal drive as Sierra only. Hopefully, you are not so short on Storage space this will work. 🤞

FOLLOW EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING STEPS IN EXACT SEQUENCE
  1. PREPARE THE EXTERNAL DRIVE
    1. Open Disk Utility
    2. in the Disk Utility sidebar, select the external DRIVE
    3. On the Disk Utility toolbar select Erase then Name: External, Format Mac OS Extended (Journaled), Scheme: GUID Partition Map
    4. Click Erase (This will effectively erase all content on your external drive, including any partitions.
  2. CLONE SIERRA TO THE EXTERNAL DRIVE
    1. The exact process will depend on the cloning utility you use, whether it is Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper, but the process is fairly straight-forward. If you need help, let me know which cloning utility you are using.
    2. In either case you are cloning from Macintosh HD to External
  3. BOOT FROM THE EXTERNAL CLONE
    1. Go to System Preferences > Startup Disk
    2. Select the External drive
    3. Click on Restart
  4. PREPARE THE INTERNAL DRIVE
    1. Open Disk Utility
    2. in the Disk Utility sidebar, select the internal drive DRIVE
    3. On the Disk Utility tool bar select Erase then Name: Macintosh HD, Format Mac OS Extended (Journaled), Scheme: GUID Partition Map
    4. Click Erase (This will effectively erase all content on your internal drive and all partitions)
  5. CLONE SIERRA BACK TO THE INTERNAL DRIVE
    • Reverse the process used in step II preceding
  6. BOOT FROM THE INTERNAL DRIVE
    1. Go to System Preferences > Startup Disk
    2. Select the internal drive
    3. Click on Restart
  7. You should now be running Sierra from your internal drive and have the entire 120GB available. 👏


Once Sierra is working correctly, upgrading to Catalina is very straight-forward, if you decide to go that route.


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Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55707 08/14/20 10:49 PM
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Originally Posted By: plantsower
I'm surprised you told me how to do this. I was under the assumption you were going to tell me how to download Catalina and forget about Sierra. I know that's what you want. smile

We're just troubleshooters...and advisers if advice is solicited or if we feel it's appropriately given.

But basically, we're here to help you do what YOU want to do, i.e. stick with Sierra for the moment, not to impose our judgement on you. smile


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Re: Disc filling up
artie505 #55708 08/14/20 10:51 PM
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Right. But awhile back it was strongly suggested I upgrade to either Mojave or preferably Catalina. That's was I was referring to. It's fine.


Originally Posted By: artie505
Originally Posted By: plantsower
I'm surprised you told me how to do this. I was under the assumption you were going to tell me how to download Catalina and forget about Sierra. I know that's what you want. smile

We're just troubleshooters...and advisers if advice is solicited or if we feel it's appropriately given.

But basically, we're here to help you do what YOU want to do, not to impose our judgement on you. smile


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Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55709 08/14/20 10:52 PM
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Originally Posted By: plantsower
Right. But awhile back it was strongly suggested I upgrade to either Mojave or preferably Catalina. That's was I was referring to. It's fine.

I realize that, but in the end, it was still just advice for you to deal with a YOU see fit.

If you indicated even in the least that you were interested in upgrading, bet the farm that we'd be right on top of it.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Disc filling up
artie505 #55710 08/14/20 10:55 PM
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I know. In fact, when I thought there was no hope yesterday of fixing anything, I was ready to do the Catalina thing. I wish I wasn't so wishy-washy about it.



Originally Posted By: artie505
Originally Posted By: plantsower
Right. But awhile back it was strongly suggested I upgrade to either Mojave or preferably Catalina. That's was I was referring to. It's fine.

I realize that, but in the end, it was still just advise for you to deal with a YOU see fit.

If you indicated even in the least that you were interested in upgrading, bet the farm that we'd be right on top of it.


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Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55711 08/14/20 11:36 PM
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Originally Posted By: plantsower
I know. In fact, when I thought there was no hope yesterday of fixing anything, I was ready to do the Catalina thing. I wish I wasn't so wishy-washy about it.

I stopped at Snow Leopard...skipped Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, and Yosemite before finally taking the leap to El Capitan, and I dreaded what I'd find, but I guess I could say I was pleasantly surprised that even having skipped four versions of OS X I wasn't all that far behind.

Yeah, some apps had to be upgraded, and I had to go through system prefs to see what was new (and to make sure my security settings had been perpetuated), which is SOP after ANY upgrade, but the bottom line is that the learning curve was far less daunting than I"d feared, and I never had to post here.

Don't let the dread make you wishy-washy, and if you're worried about losing features, I can't say that you won't lose some particular things that you like, but I doubt that any of them will be critical rather then "Oh, darn!"

More: By the way, I suggest that even if you never look at any threads here other than your own, you follow joemike's threads on whichever forthcoming version of macOS he's beta testing...Big Sur at the moment. They're invaluable for getting a jump on what's coming! (Yeah, they get technical, but ignore that stuff and focus on his comments about features.)

Last edited by artie505; 08/15/20 12:08 AM. Reason: More

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Re: Disc filling up
artie505 #55712 08/15/20 12:29 AM
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Nobody's answered my question about if upgrading or clearing my hard drive will restore my "all my files" and spotlight. I'm kind of thinking it won't. I just pretended to save something on with my word processing program and when I tried to save it in a certain area (recipes), they were all gone! I wrote to the owner of Onyx who normally responds quickly but just crickets. I had other important things on there, too. More important than recipes. Uh oh. Well, they are on my external drive, but I will be wiping that when I make room for Sierra again or Catalina.

Joe Mike said to do the opposite to restore info from my ex drive to my HD but I'm not sure exactly how to do that. I'll look it up. I'll need to do that before I wipe it.


Originally Posted By: artie505
Originally Posted By: plantsower
I know. In fact, when I thought there was no hope yesterday of fixing anything, I was ready to do the Catalina thing. I wish I wasn't so wishy-washy about it.

I stopped at Snow Leopard...skipped Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, and Yosemite before finally taking the leap to El Capitan, and I dreaded what I'd find, but I guess I could say I was pleasantly surprised that even having skipped four versions of OS X I wasn't all that far behind.

Yeah, some apps had to be upgraded, and I had to go through system prefs to see what was new (and to make sure my security settings had been perpetuated), which is SOP after ANY upgrade, but the bottom line is that the learning curve was far less daunting than I"d feared, and I never had to post here.

Don't let the dread make you wishy-washy, and if you're worried about losing features, I can't say that you won't lose some particular things that you like, but I doubt that any of them will be critical rather then "Oh, darn!"

More: By the way, I suggest that even if you never look at any threads here other than your own, you follow joemike's threads on whichever forthcoming version of macOS he's beta testing...Big Sur at the moment. They're invaluable for getting a jump on what's coming! (Yeah, they get technical, but ignore that stuff and focus on his comments about features.)


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Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55713 08/15/20 12:44 AM
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Originally Posted By: plantsower
Nobody's answered my question about if upgrading or clearing my hard drive will restore my "all my files" and spotlight.

Joe Mike said to do the opposite to restore info from my ex drive to my HD but I'm not sure exactly how to do that. I'll look it up. I'll need to do that before I wipe it.

I haven't read through either all your earlier posts in this thread, or your other thread yet, but I will later. Maybe I'll d/l OnyX to see if I can see what you may have done.

If I'm understanding you, the info on your external can all be restored with drag & drop. As long as the OS on your internal is OK, you don't have to clone.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

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Re: Disc filling up
artie505 #55714 08/15/20 02:53 AM
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I plugged in my external hd and brought up SuperDuper. When in ex. drive 2015 Sierra I could see "all my files" in finder. I dragged it onto the desk top and it disappeared! I looked it up on Spotlight and it showed up but not the icon in Finder. I couldn't figure out a way to drag and drop so that it would show up on my internal HD. Regarding OnyX, there is a warning in Onyx not to do certain things if you have an SSD, so I was very careful to obey that while running it. I still lost data.


Originally Posted By: artie505
Originally Posted By: plantsower
Nobody's answered my question about if upgrading or clearing my hard drive will restore my "all my files" and spotlight.

Joe Mike said to do the opposite to restore info from my ex drive to my HD but I'm not sure exactly how to do that. I'll look it up. I'll need to do that before I wipe it.

I haven't read through either all your earlier posts in this thread, or your other thread yet, but I will later. Maybe I'll d/l OnyX to see if I can see what you may have done.

If I'm understanding you, the info on your external can all be restored by drag & drop. As long as the OS on your internal is OK, you don't have to clone.


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Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55715 08/15/20 03:13 AM
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Originally Posted By: plantsower
I plugged in my external hd and brought up SuperDuper. When in ex. drive 2015 Sierra I could see "all my files" in finder. I dragged it onto the desk top and it disappeared! I looked it up on Spotlight and it showed up but not the icon in Finder. I couldn't figure out a way to drag and drop so that it would show up on my internal HD.

I've got no idea what SuperDuper! has to do with this.

OK, you dragged "all my files" from 2015 Sierra on your external onto your desktop in Macintosh HD on your internal and it disappeared.

Where does Spotlight say it is? Does Spotlight have a "Show in Finder" option? Maybe if you right-click "all my files?"


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Re: Disc filling up
artie505 #55716 08/15/20 03:28 AM
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Spotlight on my internal HD doesn't work after using OnyX. When I dragged the "all my files" off of Sierra 2015 Ex. hd, that disappeared off of my sidebar not to return. I still have "all my files" on my internal HD but it's empty. I had SuperDuper uploaded because I was hoping I could transfer files from the Ex Drive to my Internal HD via SuperDuper, but nope. Not sure what JoeMike meant by doing it the opposite way from loading onto the ex drive. I probably misunderstood. It's probably impossible to transfer anything from the external drive to my internal drive.





Originally Posted By: artie505
Originally Posted By: plantsower
I plugged in my external hd and brought up SuperDuper. When in ex. drive 2015 Sierra I could see "all my files" in finder. I dragged it onto the desk top and it disappeared! I looked it up on Spotlight and it showed up but not the icon in Finder. I couldn't figure out a way to drag and drop so that it would show up on my internal HD.

I've got no idea what SuperDuper! has to do with this.

OK, you dragged "all my files" from 2015 Sierra on your external onto your desktop in Macintosh HD on your internal and it disappeared.

Where does Spotlight say it is? Does Spotlight have a "Show in Finder" option? Maybe if you right-click "all my files?"


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Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55717 08/15/20 05:33 AM
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Originally Posted By: plantsower
Spotlight on my internal HD doesn't work after using OnyX. When I dragged the "all my files" off of Sierra 2015 Ex. hd, that disappeared off of my sidebar not to return. I still have "all my files" on my internal HD but it's empty. I had SuperDuper uploaded because I was hoping I could transfer files from the Ex Drive to my Internal HD via SuperDuper, but nope. Not sure what JoeMike meant by doing it the opposite way from loading onto the ex drive. I probably misunderstood. It's probably impossible to transfer anything from the external drive to my internal drive.

It sounds like you tried to drag "all my files" from your external to your internal by dragging the icon in your Finder sidebar.

That doesn't work, because the icons in your Finder sidebar are aliases to items, not the items themselves, and when you dragged the alias from your sidebar all you did was delete it while leaving the actual item it represented in its original location.

It's absolutely NOT impossible to drag & drop from your external to your internal. (I spent all of May, June, and July doing just that while engaged in a hair-tearing [don't ask] music importation project.)

Just go to wherever "all my files" actually lives on your external (~/Documents?) and drag it from there, and it should show up on your internal desktop exactly as expected.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

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Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55719 08/15/20 07:49 AM
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Originally Posted By: plantsower
If I d/l Catalina will it take care of all my woes? Will it make spotlight work again? Will it find the files that have disappeared off my HD?

I expect that ANY system installation, including a reinstall of Sierra, will get Spotlight working again, but I very much doubt that it will find your missing files if they're truly missing. (See my post in your other thread.)


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Re: Disc filling up
joemikeb #55720 08/15/20 03:41 PM
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
Since you have already erased the content of the other partitions, these instructions are for rebuilding your internal drive as Sierra only. Hopefully, you are not so short on Storage space this will work. 🤞

FOLLOW EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING STEPS IN EXACT SEQUENCE
  1. PREPARE THE EXTERNAL DRIVE
    1. Open Disk Utility
    2. in the Disk Utility sidebar, select the external DRIVE
    3. On the Disk Utility toolbar select Erase then Name: External, Format Mac OS Extended (Journaled), Scheme: GUID Partition Map
    4. Click Erase (This will effectively erase all content on your external drive, including any partitions.

Since Rita's reformatting her external, I'll suggest that this is the perfect time for her to partition it into 5 x 100 GB partitions and 1 x 500 GB partition as step 5.

The drive is a 1 TB drive, and without partitioning will be pretty much wasted, particularly considering that her internal is only 120 GB and her entire installation sounds like it's now only around 25 GB.

The 5 small partitions will be suitable for the forthcoming Sierra clone and any other OS's she may want to give test runs, and the large one will be perfect for Time Machine should she ever go that route.


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Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55721 08/15/20 03:50 PM
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Originally Posted By: plantsower
Joe Mike said to do the opposite to restore info from my ex drive to my HD but I'm not sure exactly how to do that. I'll look it up. I'll need to do that before I wipe it.

I said to do WHAT????

When and where did I say that? The last thing I wrote was a set of instructions intended to restore your internal drive to a bootable condition - period. IF you have a bootable copy of Sierra on your external drive and IF the missing files are present on that drive then that is a different situation than the one I was addressing and I need to write you a different set of instructions.

NOTE 1: I have no idea what OnyX has to do with any of this, but it is a useful tool IF AND ONLY IF the version used is the correct version for the MacOS version you are booted from. Using the incorrect version of OnyX, or any other such utility, has a potential for doing more harm than good. If you are booted into Sierra you should be using OnyX 3.1.1.

NOTE 2: I suspect the shortage of storage and the attendant shortage of memory that causes is the reason why Spotlight is not working. There simply are not enough resources available to create the Spotlight index.

NOTE 3: My objectives in rank order would be:
  1. Restore your internal drive to a workable status
  2. If possible, recover your missing files
  3. Once the first two are accomplished and if you desire to do so, upgrade your system to Catalina
In order for me to construct a set of instructions to accomplish those objectives, I need you to answer the following questions.
  • Yes or No -- do you have a bootable copy of Sierra on your external drive?
  • Yes or No -- have you booted from the external drive to verify that it is bootable?
  • what steps did you go through to boot from the external drive?
  • Yes or No -- when you are booted from the external drive, can you see the missing files?
  • Yes or No -- are the missing files on the external drive?
  • Yes or No -- do you want to restore the internal drive to a workable condition?
  • Yes or No -- Once the internal drive is restored to a workable condition, do you want to upgrade to Catalina?


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Disc filling up
joemikeb #55730 08/15/20 10:06 PM
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Above you said:
CLONE SIERRA BACK TO THE INTERNAL DRIVE
Reverse the process used in step II preceding.


I thought that's what you meant by putting things from the external back onto my internal HD.

If it would be easier to just d/l Catalina, I am probably going to do that. This is very confusing to me and way to many steps. So, easier?

Yes or No -- do you have a bootable copy of Sierra on your external drive?
Yes or No -- have you booted from the external drive to verify that it is bootable?
what steps did you go through to boot from the external drive?

I powered off my Mac, attached the external drive and then powered back on and went into Sierra 2015.

Yes or No -- when you are booted from the external drive, can you see the missing files?
Yes, but I found them via the sidebar on Finder. And as I told Artie I moved them, not knowing they were aliases, onto my desktop and they disappeared. I don't know how to find the originals. or No -- are the missing files on the external drive?
Yes or No -- do you want to restore the internal drive to a workable condition?
Yes if it takes a lot less steps. or No -- Once the internal drive is restored to a workable condition, do you want to upgrade to Catalina?

I used OnyX version 3.3.1. which is the correct version according to the OnyX website. I have Sierra 10.12.6.

Like I also told Artie, I am on vacation so it will have to wait until I get back.




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Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55734 08/15/20 11:07 PM
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OKAY!

Given you have a bootable copy of Sierra on your external drive we can shortcut the process.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT GET AHEAD OF ME.

FOLLOW EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING STEPS IN EXACT SEQUENCE
  1. BOOT FROM THE EXTERNAL CLONE
    1. Attach your external drive to your computer
    2. While booted from the internal drive on your computer,
    3. Verify you have SuperDuper installed on the external drive
    4. if possible verify the missing files are on the external drive
    5. go to System Preferences > Startup Disk
    6. Select the Sierra 2015 as the boot drive
    7. Click on Restart (When this completes you should be booted from Sierra on the external drive)
  2. PREPARE THE INTERNAL DRIVE
    1. Open Disk Utility
    2. in the Disk Utility sidebar, select the internal drive DRIVE (Be sure you select the physical drive not one of the paartitions on the drive)
    3. On the Disk Utility tool bar select Erase then Name: Macintosh HD, Format Mac OS Extended (Journaled), Scheme: GUID Partition Map
    4. Click Erase (This will effectively erase all content on your internal drive and all partitions)
  3. CLONE SIERRA BACK TO THE INTERNAL DRIVE
    • I don't have SuperDuper as an exemplar but I believe you know how to use it correctly. Your target drive is labeled Macintosh HD
  4. BOOT FROM THE INTERNAL DRIVE
    1. While booted from the external drive go to System Preferences > Startup Disk
    2. Select Macintosh HD as the boot drive
    3. Click on Restart (when this completes you should be running Sierra from the internal drive on your computer and have a full 120GB available storage)
    4. If your missing files were on the eternal drive they will now e on your internal drive. If not, you should have had a backup system like Time Machine running regularly.
  5. IF YOU WISH TO UPGRADE TO CATALINA
    1. Open App Store
    2. Search for Catalina
    3. Click on Get
    4. Follow the on-screen instructions.
    5. Your computer screen will go blank several times and there will be excruciatingly long pauses but after 45 minutes or so...
    6. You will be prompted for your logon password and you will be running Catalina
      1. There will be a new folder on your desktop that you can ignore
      2. Your internal drive will have been converted to APFS and there will be four APFS volumes on your internal drive (all showing a capacity of 120GB -- I will explain what is going on if you are interested)
      3. As time goes on, you will find you need to approve all sorts of things as part of Catalina's increased security precautions
      4. You will need to immediately update OnyX, SuperSuper, and probably a few other applications.
      5. You will have entered the 21st century of Apple computing
      6. If you switch to Carbon Copy Cloner you can turn on APFS Snapshots which will provide some limited protection against inadvertent file loss.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Disc filling up
joemikeb #55735 08/15/20 11:23 PM
Joined: Sep 2009
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I don't exactly understand everything you meant (TYPICAL), but I will ask when actually I do this. I will do it when I get back from vacation. I didn't bring my external with me. Thanks, JoeMike. smile


Originally Posted By: joemikeb
OKAY!

Given you have a bootable copy of Sierra on your external drive we can shortcut the process.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT GET AHEAD OF ME.

FOLLOW EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING STEPS IN EXACT SEQUENCE
  1. BOOT FROM THE EXTERNAL CLONE
    1. Attach your external drive to your computer
    2. While booted from the internal drive on your computer,
    3. Verify you have SuperDuper installed on the external drive
    4. if possible verify the missing files are on the external drive
    5. go to System Preferences > Startup Disk
    6. Select the Sierra 2015 as the boot drive
    7. Click on Restart (When this completes you should be booted from Sierra on the external drive)
  2. PREPARE THE INTERNAL DRIVE
    1. Open Disk Utility
    2. in the Disk Utility sidebar, select the internal drive DRIVE (Be sure you select the physical drive not one of the paartitions on the drive)
    3. On the Disk Utility tool bar select Erase then Name: Macintosh HD, Format Mac OS Extended (Journaled), Scheme: GUID Partition Map
    4. Click Erase (This will effectively erase all content on your internal drive and all partitions)
  3. CLONE SIERRA BACK TO THE INTERNAL DRIVE
    • I don't have SuperDuper as an exemplar but I believe you know how to use it correctly. Your target drive is labeled Macintosh HD
  4. BOOT FROM THE INTERNAL DRIVE
    1. While booted from the external drive go to System Preferences > Startup Disk
    2. Select Macintosh HD as the boot drive
    3. Click on Restart (when this completes you should be running Sierra from the internal drive on your computer and have a full 120GB available storage)
    4. If your missing files were on the eternal drive they will now e on your internal drive. If not, you should have had a backup system like Time Machine running regularly.
  5. IF YOU WISH TO UPGRADE TO CATALINA
    1. Open App Store
    2. Search for Catalina
    3. Click on Get
    4. Follow the on-screen instructions.
    5. Your computer screen will go blank several times and there will be excruciatingly long pauses but after 45 minutes or so...
    6. You will be prompted for your logon password and you will be running Catalina
      1. There will be a new folder on your desktop that you can ignore
      2. Your internal drive will have been converted to APFS and there will be four APFS volumes on your internal drive (all showing a capacity of 120GB -- I will explain what is going on if you are interested)
      3. As time goes on, you will find you need to approve all sorts of things as part of Catalina's increased security precautions
      4. You will need to immediately update OnyX, SuperSuper, and probably a few other applications.
      5. You will have entered the 21st century of Apple computing
      6. If you switch to Carbon Copy Cloner you can turn on APFS Snapshots which will provide some limited protection against inadvertent file loss.


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Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55738 08/16/20 01:27 PM
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[quote=plantsower]I don't exactly understand everything you meant (TYPICAL), but I will ask when actually I do this. I will do it when I get back from vacation. I didn't bring my external with me. Thanks, JoeMike. smile
I tried to write the steps in such a way that you would not have to understand them, but could simply follow the instructions. I may have you following a different procedure than you have used in the past for certain functions, but there is method in my madness. I have used processes intended to minimize the risks of...
  1. Misunderstanding
  2. Error
  3. Overthinking

When you get back and are ready to start...
  1. Print out the instructions (You will need the printed instructions because you won't be able to view them on your Mac during the process)
  2. Read them carefully
  3. BEFORE YOU BEGIN ask questions about anything you do not understand. (NOTE: I will answer questions about the process, but not the "why". I don't want to complicate the issue.)
  4. Please don't take shortcuts.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Disc filling up
joemikeb #55740 08/16/20 03:14 PM
Joined: Sep 2009
Likes: 3
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Joined: Sep 2009
Likes: 3
Thank you. My husband tells me things that he thinks are very understandable and I still have questions. It's because he knows things I don't, and I need clarification.

Anyway, I already have your procedure on my word processor but didn't think to print it out - duh! I will. I won't take shortcuts as I don't know what I am doing. You may be surprised at my questions as it all seems obvious to you, but I will ask them anyway before I start. And, believe it or not, I don't care about the why here, though in other life situations I always need to know why or I am apt not to do something. I trust you, and will do what you say once I understand it completely. Until then.... Rita

******

Originally Posted By: joemikeb
[quote=plantsower]I don't exactly understand everything you meant (TYPICAL), but I will ask when actually I do this. I will do it when I get back from vacation. I didn't bring my external with me. Thanks, JoeMike. smile
I tried to write the steps in such a way that you would not have to understand them, but could simply follow the instructions. I may have you following a different procedure than you have used in the past for certain functions, but there is method in my madness. I have used processes intended to minimize the risks of...
  1. Misunderstanding
  2. Error
  3. Overthinking

When you get back and are ready to start...
  1. Print out the instructions (You will need the printed instructions because you won't be able to view them on your Mac during the process)
  2. Read them carefully
  3. BEFORE YOU BEGIN ask questions about anything you do not understand. (NOTE: I will answer questions about the process, but not the "why". I don't want to complicate the issue.)
  4. Please don't take shortcuts.


MacBook Pro - M2, Ventura 13.6
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Safari 16.6
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Re: Disc filling up
plantsower #55812 08/27/20 11:44 PM
Joined: Sep 2009
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I did a search about not finding "all my files" and found this on a forum and it worked!

"I found things returned to normal when I right clicked on AMF and selected "Show Search Criteria", I also had to select "This Mac" rather than All My Files. After that it displayed my files."

I still can't search those files using Spotlight, but at least I can see them now.

I am getting ready to go over your (JoeMike) new instructions to help me migrate to Catalina. Today or tomorrow, hopefully, I will be able to ask my questions and get clarification so I can do it without making mistakes.

*******



Originally Posted By: plantsower
I posted recently about all the things that are going wrong with my Mac, including Spotlight not working anymore nor "all my files" showing up after I used OnyX. Terminal is acting wonky, too. All since I ran OnyX which I will delete after this.

If I d/l Catalina will it take care of all my woes? Will it make spotlight work again? Will it find the files that have disappeared off my HD?

Thanks. frown


Originally Posted By: joemikeb
Artie is dead right on. You still have 120 GB on your drive, but you have cut it up into three partitions.. You are trying to run three operating systems on a drive that is big enough for one.

It is time to fish or cut bait. You need to either move on to Catalina, or make the decision to stick with Sierra until you buy a new Mac. Artie said to clone Macintosh HD to your external drive. My recommendation is to make a choice between Sierra or Catalina, (I strongly encourage Catalina). Tell me what your decision is and I can give you specific step-by-sep instructions from there, that will minimize any risk in the process of eliminating the other two operating systems, as well as th disk full error.


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