I am running of out of room on my MacBook Air, and I need to clean it up. I noticed that I have many backup files for OF.
Can I move them to an external hard drive? Also, can I make the backups to always backup on the external hard drive? And if that’s possible, how do I go about it?
Have you assessed just how much space would be saved by working on your OF backups as you plan - in comparison with other files on your MacBook Air… would it really be such a large saving?
If so, does this help; or this?
Good luck!
I saw that I have many 38MB files from OF. I am sure I have plenty of attachments because I use the email OF feature all the time.
When I look into the storage, my computer apparently has many files labeled “Other”. The majority are “Other.” I barely have any pictures, no movies, no games. Even the MSWord and pdf files do not occupy that much space. So I am on the hunt of what “Other” files could be.
Thanks for the tips. I will check out the links more carefully.
These techniques and software might also help you actually see what is taking up the space:
Are you just going through a general and thorough clean up?
Even then - you may want to check to see whether it really is a few older OF files that are bringing you close to a disk full condition.
Could there be something else going on that’s filling your HD up?
You probably have 512 GB total storage, do you?
In which case even one thousand 38 MB OF files would represent under 7.5% of your usage.
If they are really old and unwanted, you could ask the responsive tech support folk at Omni if and how to delete or archive them safely.
Good luck with your digging :-)
I have 120GB of which 4.44GB are currently free. I doubt that cleaning OF files will solve the problem, but I will give it a shot. I am really tempted to get a new mac especially because I am considering starting with DevonThink, but I love my MacBook Air.
Thanks for the links again. Great idea to also get in touch with the Omni folks.
@Anna_123, Yes - I think a new machine is a good idea… 120 GB is not very much, these days. Good luck!
Three suggestions:
Of course, you are keeping a TimeMachine backup of everything on a routine basis (right)? Any migration will be far easier when you do (and your peace of mind will be higher as well).
Any of the three options will be cheaper than a new computer.
–
JJW
Yes, I think a new machine is what I need. I store all my documents on google drive, and that’s a total of 3.5GB, which I do not think is so much. I do Time Machine backups on two external hard drives in case one of them crashes. One of them is also partitioned as a storage, so I had to dump some data there already.
I believe I have a lot of duplicate pdf files, but still 3.5GB is not that much. I do find it very puzzling why that’s a problem and what might be the “other” stuff on my computer that is taking so much space. I am not so technical to be able to hunt in details though, and DrJJWMac, I definitely won’t be able to upgrade my drive. I might be able to actually, but I would not feel comfortable doing so. I do admit that it the chapter version to getting a new mac though.
Daisydisk, suggested above by @MarkSealey, would give you a colorful, graphical view of how the space on your disk is used. Then you can click on any part that puzzles you to see more details about the files stored there. A very nice application, indeed! There is a free trial version, so if a one time information is enough for you, you could get it without any cost. And the application couldn’t be more easy to use. Simply press the button Scan.
You could of course also search in the Finder for files larger than a given file size, but as Daisydisk is so easy to use and gives you much more precise information, I think it’s a much better choice to use that application.
Regarding Devonthink - which I highly recommend - the free space you have today would probably be enough for using that application a long time. I have used Devonthink daily for years, and my collected Devonthink documents occupy less than 10 MB. Buf of course, I use it almost only for writing and gathering text information, not for collecting documents.
I just downloaded Daisydisk. Thank you for your suggestion @MarkSealey and @Jan_H for seconding it. That could be the solution to my problem. Apparently I have a ton of mail! How did I not think about it! Now I have to find out how to archive it, and if anyone has tips about this, please let me know.
I am still on the trial version of DevonThink, and I have not imported all my files. Currently the one database I have is more than 3GB, so I think it will be a large one.
Off to archiving emails.
I have used MailSteward for years. Very useful, reliable and with excellent support.
It’s wrong just to drag stuff around/out of Apple’s Mail app.
You could certainly archive it once a week, say, into MailSteward; then delete it safely from Mail.
Feeling happy at 35GB available at the moment. Thanks!
