Space Gremlin

Find large files eating up space on your hard drive

HOME   FEATURES   FAQ   MODES   SUPPORT

FAQ

  1. What's the difference between App Store and Pro mode?
  2. I purchased Space Gremlin and it won't install / failed to run.
  3. I purchased Space Gremlin on an older computer and now own a new computer. Do I have to buy it again?
  4. I downloaded Space Gremlin Pro and it won't import my license.
  5. How do I delete files in Space Gremlin?
  6. Why does Space Gremlin show less Free Space then what's available in Finder?
  7. What is Restricted Space?
  8. How do I scan Restricted Space?

  1. What's the difference between App Store and Pro mode?

    Please visit the License Modes page for a full explanation of the different versions of Space Gremlin. If you have purchased a copy of Space Gremlin from the Mac App store, you can download Space Gremlin Pro and unlock it by importing your app store license.

  2. I purchased Space Gremlin and it won't install / failed to run.

    There are several reasons that an app purchased on the Mac App Store might fail to launch. If you're having trouble opening Space Gremlin or you see an error message that your license failed, please try redownloading Space Gremlin from the Mac App Store again.

  3. I purchased Space Gremlin on an older computer and now own a new computer. Do I have to buy it again?

    You can always install Space Gremlin on any new computers you buy. If you log in the Mac App store on your new computer, you can select the Purchases tab and redownload Space Gremlin or any other app store purchases you've previously made.

  4. I downloaded Space Gremlin Pro and it won't import my license.

    If you see an error message when trying to import your license, it may be because you haven't moved Space Gremlin Pro into your /Applications directory. While Space Gremlin Pro is in your /Downloads folder or /Desktop, it may not be able to copy the license file over. If you are still seeing an error make sure you download a fresh copy of Space Gremlin from the Mac App Store to ensure your license is valid.

  5. How do I delete files in Space Gremlin?

    Space Gremlin currently only lets you move files to the Trash, from which you can empty at a later time to recover free space on your drive. This mechanism is safer as it allows OS X to catch any files that you maybe shouldn't be deleting. Many novice users may not realize that deleting their System folder might end badly for them, and going through safe steps to remove files will help catch potential problems.

  6. Why does Space Gremlin show less Free Space then what's available in Finder?

    If you have Time Machine enabled on your Mac, you'll probably notice that Finder is reporting more available free space on your disk then what Space Gremlin is reporting. In some cases this can be as much as 20 GB or more. The reason for the discrepency is that Finder ignores any local Time Machine snapshots that it has saved to the disk. Finder treats these files as temporary, because the next time you connect to your Time Machine backup disk, these files will be moved over and deleted. The best way to delete these local backups is either to connect to your Time machine disk and let it perform a backup, or to simply disable Time Machine and then re-enable it.

  7. What is Restricted Space?

    The Restricted Space block in Space Gremlin refers to data on your disk that Space Gremlin cannot access. If you have a 100 GB disk that is completely full, but Space Gremlin can only find 80 GB worth of files, then 20 GB will be marked as restricted. In general there will be 3 types of data contained within a restricted block.

    1. System files. There are many files protected by the system from being accessed by a normal user. This includes the Spotlight data and system caches as well as root files. These files can be accessed by scanning in root mode.
    2. Time Machine snapshots. Local time Machine snapshots are located with the .MobileBackups folder under your main disk. Snapshots can be anywhere from 50 MB to 20 GB of data depending on how long its been since you've done a backup. These files can be accessed by scanning in admin mode.
    3. File system metadata. This data will grow as the number of files on your disk grows. This data is not reported by Space Gremlin in any mode.

  8. How do I scan Restricted Space?

    Scanning Restricted Space requires you to open Space Gremlin as the root user. This feature can only be used by downloading Space Gremlin Pro and importing your app store license. To use this mode you'll need to open Space Gremlin using the Terminal. Assuming you've placed Space Gremlin Pro in your /Applications/ directory you can paste the following command into Terminal.

    sudo /Applications/Space\ Gremlin\ Pro.app/Contents/MacOS/Space\ Gremlin\ Pro
    You will be prompted to enter the password for your system. Once the application launches, you can scan any of your attached disks and you should be able to now view files that were once Restricted.

    While running Space Gremlin as the root user, you should avoid using the Move To Trash feature inside the app to delete files. This will place files into the root Trash folder under /private/var/root/.Trash, which will not be deleted when you empty your normal Trash folder. If you accidentally move items to the trash while running in root mode, you will need to manually delete those files. You can permanently delete them by running the following command in Terminal

    sudo rm -R /private/var/root/.Trash