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Disk Inventory X was kind of nice, but it is painfully slow.

Are there any modern and faster alternatives?

I only care about the disk space, and not about the file type stats and about the graph which Disk Inventory X displays.

airsquared
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o0'.
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    The speed is primarily a function of disc size, number of files and disc speed. I doubt whether other applications can be significantly faster – nohillside Feb 09 '13 at 10:27
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    @patrix uh? If, for instance, it was badly coded, of course there might be faster alternatives. How can you know it is state-of-the-art? – o0'. Feb 09 '13 at 10:46
  • Edited to point out I only care about disk space and not the other fancy stuff. – o0'. Feb 09 '13 at 10:46
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    I didn't say it's state of the art. But traversing a filesystem and gathering statistics is bound to be slow due to hardware effects. And whether the application just reads file sizes or also the other stuff doesn't really matter. But let's see whether somebody comes up with answers. – nohillside Feb 09 '13 at 10:47
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    https://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnidisksweeper/ maybe? Not graphical though – nohillside Feb 09 '13 at 10:53
  • @patrix this would be great, if only was a little better (no command to move files to the bin, only to delete them immediatly). Still helpful though (post it as an answer, maybe?). – o0'. Feb 09 '13 at 13:03
  • "And whether the application just reads file sizes or also the other stuff doesn't really matter": in fact, the file size is often in a separate place than the file contents, and that makes a lot of difference on rotational disks. – Blaisorblade Jan 25 '14 at 15:08
  • http://alternativeto.net/software/disk-inventory-x/?platform=mac – Ohad Schneider Feb 24 '17 at 11:53
  • https://help.gnome.org/users/baobab/stable/problem-slow-scan.html.en Also lists some already mentioned reasons for slow scanning. (mentioned this as there's an answer below suggesting this tool) – anki Sep 20 '19 at 13:56
  • Parsing an entire hard-drive of files is bound to take at least some time. – Peter Nielsen Jan 18 '22 at 01:31
  • Disk Inventory X is objectively slow in many situations, in part b/c of its atrocious memory management -- here's an issue on its GitLab repo. Try WinDirStat on Windows, which is the app that gave Disk Inventory X's author the "idea" to create his app and gives a very similar output, and then tell me if DIX is slow in comparison when you've got a Windows box with just as many files. They both initially take a while, but WDS stays responsive throughout. Responses to UI clicks is leaps & bounds faster than DIX. – ruffin Dec 21 '22 at 15:19

10 Answers10

45

Starting with macOS Sierra, macOS comes with an built in app from Apple called Storage Management, which is a part of the System Information app. In different tabs it shows you the largest apps installed, as well as a folder viewer with their sizes listed. A special tab shows the largest files over all of your folders, which I find very practical.

To launch Storage Management open Spotlight Search by hitting ⌘ Command Space, type "Storage Management" and hit ⏎ Return.

Pros:

  • Free,
  • Fast,
  • Provided by Apple, so it knows what it's doing.

You can find more information here.

Allan
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Dr_Zaszuś
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    I mean it's pretty useless compared to these other tools. The storage app won't show or include ~/Library at all, which contained about 60GB of Spotify cache. – Allison Aug 16 '17 at 03:19
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    @Sirens Not true. In the Storage Manager click Documents -> File Browser and analyze the ~/Library folder if you wish. – Dr_Zaszuś Dec 04 '17 at 20:24
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    You can't analyse external disks with Storage Management, only your Mac HD – Seano Oct 19 '19 at 14:21
  • That's quite interesting: I had 69Gb on my mac air used by iOS iPhone back up and didn't know about that! – numediaweb Apr 25 '20 at 11:11
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    I have 578GB of "Other" which I can't expand... https://i.imgur.com/r5Surr0.png – opyate Jun 15 '21 at 13:11
  • It is the fastest and for me useful as first glance, but for decision taking in my opinion too limited. Although the question does not care about visualization, the visual feedback of dedicated Apps like GrandPersepctive and other mentioned are helpful to compare and evaluate relevance of certain files. Also, this alternative can't expand into important details. – leon Nov 02 '21 at 20:25
  • I think they removed Storage Management from the OS at some point? I can't find it, though I found some tutorials on how to try to hack it back in, which I'm not really interested in doing over just using a 3rd party solution. Bummed I never got to try it. – The111 Feb 16 '24 at 21:55
44

OmniGroup offers a free utility called OmniDisksweeper which lists files/folders sorted by size.

OmniDiskSweeper is really great at what it does: showing you the files on your drive, in descending order by size, and letting you delete them easily! It scans your disks as quickly as possible and shows you the facts — if a file doesn't make the cut to stay, just click the big Delete button and be done with it. It's a fast, easy way to find those large files cluttering up your drive and clearing them out for new, better things. Make sure you want them gone, though. There's no going back

nohillside
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    Orders of magnitude faster than Disk Inventory X, it would be great if not for some quirks, such as not being able to right click the files (to either open in finder or send them to the bin): it can only delete them. Still much better, though. – o0'. Feb 09 '13 at 13:12
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    Update: you can open the files, only using a specific icon down right or down left, but not right clicking, or through the menu bar. I reiterate: much better than the alternative, but it has so many UI mistakes... – o0'. Oct 13 '13 at 09:33
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    The problem with OmniDiskSweeper is that it does not display a visual tree map like Disk Inventory X. Without the tree map it is impossible to find large files in otherwise small folders simply by scanning the image for large rectangles. – mgd Nov 22 '14 at 09:33
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    For homebrew users: brew cask install omnidisksweeper – matt burns Nov 04 '16 at 11:51
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    Almost 7 years later, still using it! – o0'. Jun 21 '20 at 18:51
  • Not that OmniDiskSweeper is not modern - the version I used in 1996 looks very much the same – mmmmmm Apr 08 '21 at 09:30
  • @mmmmmm 1996? Anyway, the question is from 2013 and has primarily historical value (we even close similar questions nowadays). – nohillside Apr 08 '21 at 10:08
  • Yep 1996 - it was on NeXT - as were several other Omni programs – mmmmmm Apr 08 '21 at 10:10
  • @mmmmmm Ah right :-) – nohillside Apr 08 '21 at 10:19
  • this worked pretty fast! – Sonic Soul Jul 04 '23 at 15:42
  • It lists older downloads but that only goes up to MacOS 10.13. If I try and use the 'latest' version it complains that it needs MacOS 11. What to do for MacOS10.14? – adolf garlic Nov 21 '23 at 14:45
  • @adolfgarlic I see "Older versions by compatible macOS: 10.4 & 10.5 | 10.6 & 10.7 | 10.8 - 10.11 | 10.12 | 10.13", with links for each version, when clicking the link in the answer. Did you try the 10.13 version? If it doesn't work, a mail to Omnigroup might be required. – nohillside Nov 21 '23 at 14:57
  • @nohillside I tried the 10.13 version but it keeps crashing after running for a few mins. The support page to omni is sadly less than helpful. Even the link to the email address just directs you back to the support page. – adolf garlic Nov 22 '23 at 14:18
36

I think Disk Inventory is as fast or slow as any of the others. If the disk is big, it's slower than on a little one, and of course, on an SSD it is really fast. Although it is from 2006, I think it isn't bad coded, and it still works on my 10.9.

It gives more info than you need, but you can ignore that, as long as you find what you need. I guess what takes time is the reading of the disc, an app without the details of kind of info won't, as far as I think, really take much less.

I am using it for ages now, there was a time in Mavericks it didn't work, now it goes well. I recommend GrandPerspective, it seems to make the same (with more alternatives which you anyhow don't seem to need), but is fresher .

GrandPerspective: http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net

leon
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    Disk Inventory X is definitely slower than both OmniSweeper and GrandPerspective on my MacBook Pro with 500GB SSD. That said, GrandPerspective is IMHO a much better alternative to Disk Inventory X than OmniSweeper simply because GrandPerspective also includes the visual tree map without which it is virtually impossible to find single large files. With the tree map you can simply scan the image for large rectangles (large files or large folders). – mgd Nov 22 '14 at 09:44
  • ...and Disk Inventory X (which has served me well) constantly crashes during scan on OS X Mavericks. – mgd Nov 22 '14 at 09:50
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    Grandperspectiv is seeing frequent updates currently. This is the correct answer to the original question. – Eric Drechsel May 11 '16 at 05:42
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    brew cask install grandperspective – ccpizza Jul 07 '17 at 16:47
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    Yep, using now (2018, on High Sierra) GrandPerspective. The big difference with Apples Storage Management, is that it is more visual (every file has a box according to volume) and it does not make any suggestions. PD: @Pang, thank you for editing my bad English! – leon Jul 14 '18 at 21:29
  • +1 for GrandPerspective. Found it here and it's really good! Thanks! – BaronVonKaneHoffen Dec 05 '18 at 11:08
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    This should be the accepted answer. GrandPerspective maintains the visual feedback that is key to DiskInventoryX – Fernando Mazzon Jan 08 '19 at 22:34
  • @FernandoMazzon this "should be accepted" only if you didn't really read the question. I only care about the disk space, and not about the file type stats and about the graph which Disk Inventory X displays. – o0'. Jun 13 '19 at 09:17
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    Actually, the main purpose of GrandPerspective is, I guess, to free space. It shows you the bigger files (size is visible graphically), and you can open them, have a quick look, reveal in finder and delete them (also customize the toolbar to see that option fast). – leon Aug 20 '19 at 02:30
  • @o0'. It would not be an answer to your question if you would have written "I don't want to see another info". You get the info you care about and also have another info you don't ;) An option for only size would be, I guess, the finder, if you tick off type, date, name, etc. – leon Sep 18 '22 at 01:37
  • a new player, really fast, and with a nice visual logic, is DaisyDisk. 10 USD; for me a perfect option, because it also scans cloud drives! I use it to scan my 700 gb gDrives, and it does it relatively fast. https://daisydiskapp.com – leon Feb 06 '24 at 05:12
10

Thanks to brew formulae,

I'd recommend ncdu (https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/ncdu) for users who like a command line tool and baobab (https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/baobab) for users who like a graphical user interface.

installation commands for quick copy-paste:

ncdu

brew install ncdu

sample screenshot for ncdu:

enter image description here

baobab

brew install baobab

sample screenshot for baobab:

enter image description here

computingfreak
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4

Daisy Disk seems to be faster, but costs money. This process will always take longer than you want, though (I don't think OSX allows access to disk index files).

You can try one of the Linux based tools, such as PhileSight and see what happens too. Will be alot quicker if it works.

mfyameen
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  • I've been a Daisy Disk user for a good part of the decade. It's simple, clean, and Mac-like. However I can see why people would rather not spend $10 if there's a free alternative around. – fregante Apr 08 '21 at 01:17
4

I can heartily recommend ncdu if you're looking for a text (ncurses) based alternative. One of the fastest I've found.

elzi
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  • I found it easier to use than a GUI app; flat is better than nested (from the python philosophy); very handy for remote systems accessed via ssh! for macs available from homebrew — brew install ncdu, and for linuces available in debian/ubuntu repos: sudo apt install ncdu. – ccpizza Sep 02 '17 at 19:34
4

Use onboard tools:

Step 1: Open Finder
Step 2: In the menu bar select View → as List
Step 3: In the menu bar, select View → Show View Options
Step 4: Check the box next to Calculate all sizes

Source: https://9to5mac.com/2016/07/01/how-to-show-size-folders-finder-list-view-mac/

grg
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fosple
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2

Disk Inventory X doesn't work on Big Sur anymore... :(

I just installed Disk Space Analyzer from the App Store and it's free and works like a charm on Big Sur. Disk Space Analyzer screenshot

Nico
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1

The App Store versions of both [Disk Space Analyser] (https://apps.apple.com/au/app/disk-space-analyzer-inspector/id446243721?mt=12) and Daisy Disk are limited functionality compared to the versions available from the developers' websites:

The paid download versions of both cost the same, USD $9.99.

The App Store version of Daisy Disk also costs USD $9.99, but if you've bought it from the App Store you can get the download version for free. The App Store version of Disk Space Analyzer is free, but it's unclear how much functionality is missing (ie. they don't say).

Neither App Store version include hidden files, so aren't going to find those leftover caches. For that you need the download version.

They look pretty similar in UI and functionality. Daisy Disk seems to have a higher profile, and includes the ability to scan your cloud storage for Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive. Disk Space Analyzer includes the ability to copy or move selected files as opposed to just deleting them, which could be pretty handy (noting that that comparison chart is on the Nektony site so use your own judgement there).

paxromana
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0

The top alternative according to alternativeTo (as well as my own sample usage) is JDiskReport.

The thing I liked most about it is that it shows a clear status of the ongoing scan, as well as a time estimate for when it is expected to finish. The others I tried at best just show a "spinny" and you have no idea if the program is stuck or what.

This was actually a game changer in my case for two reasons:

  1. I realized I had an 8TB mounted network share those programs were scanning, which would have taken forever (assuming they didn't crash / run out of memory before).
  2. I had one folder with millions of files in it, which basically chokes out all such tools, but at least now I knew what that folder was so I could investigate further.
Ohad Schneider
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