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I am cleaning up a bit. I know how to search for files of a certain size (see below). Is there a way to search for folders above a certain size? Shell commands are ok, but gui is preferred.

To search for files above a certain size:

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If you don't see the "file size" option, select "other", it will be there.

then:

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This is great for files, but it does not include directories/folders. Also, please don't delete files that you do not know what they are for. Some are low level system files and can cause problems.

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2 Answers 2

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I recommend using a disk space analyzer application for this purpose, specifically because of the concerns you bring up.

Some options include DaisyDisk (Free to try, Full Version US$9.99) or GrandPerspective (free), OmniDiskSweeper (free)

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  • Thanks - I'll look into those two. In the past, I've bought some apps that are supposed to "clean-up" after deleting programs, but I found those rather unreliable. I presume these are better... Have you used either of them?
    – ICL1901
    Commented Nov 19, 2014 at 22:56
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    These do a different thing - they just tell you the size of each directory and its sub directories - some e.g. OmniDiskSweeper allow you to delete (not Trash) any selected directory tree see apple.stackexchange.com/a/5360/237 for more
    – mmmmmm
    Commented Nov 19, 2014 at 23:06
  • @DavidDelMonte I've used both, i prefer the way DaisyDisk shows the used space.
    – ghoppe
    Commented Nov 19, 2014 at 23:08
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    @Mark Thanks for adding OmniDiskSweeper, I've also used that and it works well. But what you've said about DaisyDisk and GrandPerspective is not true. DaisyDisk has a drop location where you can collect unwanted files for deletion. GrandPerspective has a delete button on the toolbar as well.
    – ghoppe
    Commented Nov 19, 2014 at 23:11
  • Thanks all, I tried almost all of these and loved DaisyDisk. So that's my choice. I appreciate the help.
    – ICL1901
    Commented Nov 20, 2014 at 1:53
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I would do this from a terminal window like so:

substitute whatever byte value you're interested in for where I have 100000 below

run this command from the directory you're interested in checking the subdirectory sizes of (from root / if everything)

du -k * | sort -nr| awk '$1>100000{print}'

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  • Thanks Levi, and welcome to Stack Exchange. Would your du command capture system/app files as well? Thanks
    – ICL1901
    Commented Nov 20, 2014 at 0:36

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