Use omnidisksweeper
#USE OMNIDISKSWEEPER MAC OS#
#USE OMNIDISKSWEEPER FULL#
#USE OMNIDISKSWEEPER PASSWORD#
#USE OMNIDISKSWEEPER FREE#
When you're done with the app, quit it and also quit Terminal. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. It may take a few minutes for the app to finish scanning. The application window will open, eventually showing all files in all folders, sorted by size. Ignore any other messages that appear in the Terminal window. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid. The application is in the folder that opens. ☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.) ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways: Sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C: Install the app you downloaded in the Applications folder as usual. The administrator account is the one that was created automatically when you first set up the computer. If you have more than one user account, make sure you're logged in as an administrator. To see everything, you have to run it as root. When run as root, the application can access and size this and other locations on the drive.ODS can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking it only sees files that you have permission to read. Compare the Spotlight Database size to the previous screenshot. OmniDiskSweeper run as root using Terminal. Spotlight-V100 folder now shows over 800MB of content where before it appeared empty.
#USE OMNIDISKSWEEPER PASSWORD#
Once an administrative password is entered, the application will launch and allow you to scan the drive for all files. Assuming you have OmniDiskSweeper installed in your main Applications folder, that command is: sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper As with all sudo commands, triple-check the syntax before executing it (or simply copy/paste from here) as it is possible to cause irreversible damage to the OS and file system if the wrong command is entered.
#USE OMNIDISKSWEEPER FULL#
To give OmniDiskSweeper full access to all files on your drive, you must run the application from the Terminal using the sudo command, which stands for “Super User Do” and gives access to all files on a user’s drive. Since few people ever run as a fully priviledged “root” user, this means you’re almost always going to miss something, including system-level files or files and folders belonging to other user accounts on that Mac. When run normally, as above, Joe noted that OmniDiskSweeper only shows files that are visible to the user that ran it. Note also the size of the Spotlight Database as 0 bytes. It shows that the user’s Documents folder is the largest folder on the drive. OmniDiskSweeper run from the Applications folder. Thankfully he also found a solution which he shared with us and we now share with you.
#USE OMNIDISKSWEEPER FREE#
This allows a user to easily find the largest files on a drive and is great for clearing up free space (such as when preparing to migrate to a smaller solid state drive). However, in Mac Geek Gab 355, listener Joe found that it doesn’t always show everything. OmniDiskSweeper scans the files and folders of your Mac’s hard drive and displays a list, in order of file size, of the contents of your drive.
#USE OMNIDISKSWEEPER MAC OS#
This Classic Mac OS and/or macOS softwarerelated. Long time Mac Geek Gab listeners know that using OmniDiskSweeper is a fantastic (free!) way to find out what files are taking up all your precious hard drive or SSD space. It can be used to find and remove unused files in macOS, such as unused language files (.lproj).
