You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

User profile for user: 19me37
19me37 Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

I am told I do not have enough room to upgrade to the new system on my MacBook Air

Is there a way to get more memory?


Posted on Dec 4, 2020 7:37 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: BDAqua
BDAqua
User level: Level 10
245,393 points

Posted on Dec 7, 2020 6:12 AM

We cannot trust the Storage report as to where the usage really is,4 suggestions…


Have you emptied the trash lately?


Look for iOS backups…

/Users/[USERNAME]/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup


OmniDiskSweeper shows you the files on your drive, largest to smallest, and lets you quickly Trash or open them.

https://www.omnigroup.com/more/


Purging local backups

Please note that although this doesn't affect your remote backup from Time Machine, this will get rid of the redundancy (at least until the next Time Machine backup) that a local backup disk will provide. If you need such redundancy or are worried about the recovery of your data then you would be best served to let macOS determine when to purge these files.

Start Terminal from spotlight.

At the terminal type tmutil listlocalsnapshotdates. 

Hit enter.


Here, you'll now see a list of all of the locally stored Time Machine backup snapshots stored on your disk.

Next you can remove the snapshots based on their date. I prefer to delete them one at at time. Once my "System" disk usage is at an acceptable level, I stop deleting but you can delete all of them if you want to reclaim all of the disk space.


Back at the terminal, type tmutil deletelocalsnapshots YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS , where will be one of the dates from your backup. This will be in the form of xxx-yy-zz-abcdef. Try to start with the oldest snapshot.

Hit enter.

Repeat for as many snapshot dates as required


http://www.thagomizer.com/blog/2018/03/27/cleaning-up-time-machine-local-snapshots.html


And a fifth...

Mail >Window>Connection Doctor, uncheck Log Connection Activity.

View in context

Similar questions

5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: BDAqua
BDAqua
User level: Level 10
245,393 points

Dec 7, 2020 6:12 AM in response to 19me37

We cannot trust the Storage report as to where the usage really is,4 suggestions…


Have you emptied the trash lately?


Look for iOS backups…

/Users/[USERNAME]/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup


OmniDiskSweeper shows you the files on your drive, largest to smallest, and lets you quickly Trash or open them.

https://www.omnigroup.com/more/


Purging local backups

Please note that although this doesn't affect your remote backup from Time Machine, this will get rid of the redundancy (at least until the next Time Machine backup) that a local backup disk will provide. If you need such redundancy or are worried about the recovery of your data then you would be best served to let macOS determine when to purge these files.

Start Terminal from spotlight.

At the terminal type tmutil listlocalsnapshotdates. 

Hit enter.


Here, you'll now see a list of all of the locally stored Time Machine backup snapshots stored on your disk.

Next you can remove the snapshots based on their date. I prefer to delete them one at at time. Once my "System" disk usage is at an acceptable level, I stop deleting but you can delete all of them if you want to reclaim all of the disk space.


Back at the terminal, type tmutil deletelocalsnapshots YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS , where will be one of the dates from your backup. This will be in the form of xxx-yy-zz-abcdef. Try to start with the oldest snapshot.

Hit enter.

Repeat for as many snapshot dates as required


http://www.thagomizer.com/blog/2018/03/27/cleaning-up-time-machine-local-snapshots.html


And a fifth...

Mail >Window>Connection Doctor, uncheck Log Connection Activity.

Reply
User profile for user: 19me37
19me37 Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Dec 7, 2020 5:48 AM in response to BobTheFisherman

I followed through with the Apple instructions except for downloads of .jpg, .pdf, etc. files and I wonder if I delete those files will the information be gone or will the files that are executed be deleted and the results left (such as pictures moved to photos) be still there? I assume that the pictures will remain but the original .jpg will be deleted---anyway that is the way it should be. If I understand the process I will have to go through all the files and delete the ones that have been executed and save the ones that are just saved for later reference. Thank you in advance for the answer, 19me37

Reply
User profile for user: 19me37
19me37 Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Dec 13, 2020 6:26 AM in response to BDAqua

Thanks for the response to my inquiries as everything was very helpful. I did come to realize that the best answer is to upgrade to the new model after going through the different suggestions. This has happened many times over the years since my first Apple in 1976. The difference is that technology is changing much faster than in years past and it is harder to keep up with. I feel it is time to be in the beginning instead of playing catchup.

Reply

I am told I do not have enough room to upgrade to the new system on my MacBook Air

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.
Learn more Sign up