Mac Storage: 'Apps'

[Hoddo]

qube_TA said:

/Applications doesn't store everything App-wise, you have a ton of supporting stuff in Library and ~/Library

Application Support for example will have a lot of content.

On my machines these folders are far larger than /Applications. It depends upon what you have installed as to what's likely to be there.

It's worth noting that if you delete something from Applications it'll leave behind anything outside of that directory unless you manually delete those as well or use something like AppZapper to remove them automatically (handy for removing stuff like GarageBand that I was never going to use and is installed by default, takes up a load of space too).

I use AppCleaner for full deletion of apps. I do need to get rid of Garage Band, it is HUGE.

[NDA]

I assume (but don't know for sure) that if you delete Garage Band it will still be yours to download free from the App Store in the future. On that basis, let Apple store it if you're not using it.

[NDA]

I assume (but don't know for sure) that if you delete Garage Band it will still be yours to download free from the App Store in the future. On that basis, let Apple store it if you're not using it.

[qube_TA]

[Hoddo]

Update: I did a clean install of Yosemite and got brilliant results. As you can see my apps folder is now tiny (also removed Garage Band, iMovies etc).

One questions I now have is what on earth is in the 'Other' folder and what is typically stored in there?

[Hoddo]

Update: I did a clean install of Yosemite and got brilliant results. As you can see my apps folder is now tiny (also removed Garage Band, iMovies etc).

One questions I now have is what on earth is in the 'Other' folder and what is typically stored in there?

[jmorgan]

Documents? Downloads, rest that is not covered by the legend already shown?

I really see that display as an indication and if I want any more info then drill down in the finder or use an app to do it for you. Finder has quite a lot going for it and I only use a small part of it.

Not really for Yosemite but the gist is there
http://pondini.org/OSX/LionStorage.html

Rest of that site is useful as well.

[Riff Raff]

Hoddo said:

Update: I did a clean install of Yosemite and got brilliant results. As you can see my apps folder is now tiny (also removed Garage Band, iMovies etc).

One questions I now have is what on earth is in the 'Other' folder and what is typically stored in there?

It's worth bearing in mind that even if you do a clean install of OS X - by formatting the disk and then installing Yosemite - if you then restore your user account from a Time Machine backup, it puts back a load of junk left behind by applications you thought you'd deleted years ago. I was surprised to find that there was a load of stuff in the Library/Application Support folder that shouldn't have been there. As others have said, you have to clean it out manually, or use a cleaner application to do it. By default, you can't see these files using Finder, unless you enable viewing of hidden files.

[Hoddo]

Riff Raff said:

It's worth bearing in mind that even if you do a clean install of OS X - by formatting the disk and then installing Yosemite - if you then restore your user account from a Time Machine backup, it puts back a load of junk left behind by applications you thought you'd deleted years ago. I was surprised to find that there was a load of stuff in the Library/Application Support folder that shouldn't have been there. As others have said, you have to clean it out manually, or use a cleaner application to do it. By default, you can't see these files using Finder, unless you enable viewing of hidden files.

I though that may be the case, therefore I did both a Time Machine backup and a regular drag and drop backup on two separate hard drives and I will be starting a fresh.

I need to dig into the 'other' folder and see what I can find as I only did the clean install last night, dragged over the photo backup and suddenly I have 13gb worth of 'other' files.