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The memory on my MacBook Air is nearly full, so much so I cannot do the OS upgrade. Everything runs really slowly. Everything is stored in the cloud, nothing local. I haven't got any fancy apps and I honestly think I have cleaned it as much as I can.
We have only 13GB available of 121GB
My wife and I both have our own profiles on the computer, and we both have MS Office programmes (Word, Excel, OUtlook and Powerpoint). Does having these across two profiles use twice as much storage and therefore contribute to the inexplicable storage problems? We could easily consolidate to one profile if needed but don't want to do that unless necessary.
Do you clear downloads / bin regularly. Cache on some Apps like streaming music can go crazy. Install files and iPhone backups that you don’t know about.
Daisydisk works really well to find hidden bits over different profiles that are unused. It’s a paid App but comes with a free demo.
Best thing is just clean OSX install but can be a bit of a hassle for those not confident.
Can the Hard drive be upgraded on your version of the Air?
From the Apple icon go to About This Mac, Storage, Manage. This will show you what is taking up the space.
You can also just go to Finder and check the folder sizes there.
Apps should only exist once (in the Applications folder) for all users.
Outlook on Mac has a habit of eating disk space, investigate as mentioned above.
Everything is stored in the cloud, nothing local.
I don't think that can be true. All apps are stored locally, along with all their data. Years of emails will probably be stored locally if you're using an app rather than a web browser. There's often a lot of app data that is redundant if you've always just upgraded the OS rather than a new install. I once found the 4Gb installer for a years-old version of Mac OS that hadn't been deleted after an update.
If all of your documents/photos/important stuff it's backed up to iCloud, it's a relatively painless task to reinstall the OS copy and across your documents. Then you just need to re-download the apps you use regularly.
One easy thing to check is that you don't have all your photos on it. In the Photos application go to preferences, iCloud tab.
If iCloud photos is checked, ensure "Optimise Mac Storage" is selected. This will reduce space taken up by photos. Blurb on the setting reads: "If your Mac is low on space, full-resolution photos and videos are automatically replaced with smaller, device-sized versions. Full-resolution versions be downloaded from Cloud at any time."
Caveat: I know nothing about Macs.
What you're describing here isn't "memory," it is disk space. (OK yes, it is memory but that's a word with multiple meanings and could be misleading.) A 120GB disk is on the small side so really the 'correct' issue is to install a bigger one, though whether Apple have done something fruity to prevent you from that I do not know.
In the Windows world the first thing I'd be doing is scanning the disk to get a picture of what's going on. I use a standalone app called Treesize which gives me a hierarchical view of the file structure, from earlier posts it sounds like there might be something similar included in the Mac's OS. (I need to run it as Administrator to properly access system areas and other files I don't own, maybe this is a consideration on the Mac also?)
From there I'd drill down to look for usual suspects: log files which aren't purging and have run amok; temp file directories; internet cache; download folders; previous OS installers / backups; massive apps that I haven't used in years and can be uninstalled; media ("stored in the cloud" may well still have a cache or even a full copy on local storage); etc etc, any other anomalies. iTunes library? Don't just randomly delete things you don't understand though, ask here first.
You asked about multiple profiles. It's entirely possible that your wife's profile contains, say, every photograph she's ever taken ever, but I'd expect that merging two profiles into one shared profile is unlikely to make much if any difference.
Start with this;
From the Apple icon go to About This Mac, Storage, Manage. This will show you what is taking up the space.
If that does not reveal what's going on then good Mac equivalents of this;
In the Windows world the first thing I’d be doing is scanning the disk to get a picture of what’s going on. I use a standalone app called Treesize which gives me a hierarchical view of the file structure.
Include Omni DiskSweeper and Daisy Disk
I'm not a Mac user but I worked with a woman who was astonishingly stupid (she literally did not understand how to make toast). She was complaining that her computer wasn't running properly. It turns out that iTunes had been set to automatically rip every music CD to the hard disc so every time she played a CD, a brand new copy of it would be added to the hard disk.
Obviously, CDs aren't a thing anymore, but it's worth checking that there isn't some other automatic process doing something similar. For example, Dropbox automatically adds every photo and video on my phone to Dropbox. That's good, but I do have to manually delete all the garbage once a month or so.
really the ‘correct’ issue is to install a bigger one
correct solution, that should've said.
Does having these across two profiles use twice as much storage and therefore contribute to the inexplicable storage problems?
No. Multiple profiles add a bit, but not much. If you haven't got anything big on your HD and it's still using 100Gb then something's gone a bit wrong and it's hiding somewhere. Not sure how to locate it though.
You have emptied the bin, haven't you? I just checked mine and there's 10Gb in there.
this is the thing to do. Report here or paste a pic up of what it says if you need further help.From the Apple icon go to About This Mac, Storage, Manage. This will show you what is taking up the space.
121GB is tiny these days but if all documents really are stored in the cloud, you haven't got loads of apps loaded & you're not editing 4K drone vids it should still be ok!!
can you used cloud-based email rather than storing everything locally? Or archive/delete old ones? Email storage can get massive if you've got years worth, especially if they have attachments etc.
this does save a lot of space but from memory, your Mac will offer to do it anyway once local storage starts running low? But if not definitely do this!If iCloud photos is checked, ensure “Optimise Mac Storage” is selected. This will reduce space taken up by photos.
it's not the year 2000 anymore, I don't think this is ever really necessary nowadays!!Best thing is just clean OSX install
it’s not the year 2000 anymore, I don’t think [A clean OS install] is ever really necessary nowadays!!
Perhaps not, but it's also easier than it's ever been and potentially quicker than searching through ~/Library carefully deleting all the folders that are redundant whilst ensuring you don't delete system files accidentally.
Everything in iCloud, wipe/reinstall, restore from iCloud. Easy (assuming you haven't forgotten your AppleID password 😉 ).
Time Machine can also do backups and it'll be quicker if all your files are saved locally but I'm not sure if reinstalling from a Time Machine backup also reinstates all your junk files?
we're talking about a Mac, not an iPhone/iPad. You can neither back it up nor restore it from iCloud.Everything in iCloud, wipe/reinstall, restore from iCloud