Documents Storage On Imac

I have a 2013 iMac and I’m trying to free up storage space. When I go to manage storage, it says I have 76 GB in documents. I have checked my login and the other user and we have very minimal documents, nowhere near 76 GB. How might I discover why the iMac is saying I have so much in documents?

 

I'm not a Mac users so I don't know what is meant by "documents". That is, I don't know if that means user files, or if it includes system files too.

But I would ask, are you running out of free disk space?

I note there are several disk mapping programs available that will provide an image of your drive to help show where the space is being used. Disk Map is one but again, not being a Mac user, I have not experience with it.

You may need to wait until a Mac users comes by, or you may be better off asking this question on a site dedicated to Apple systems.

 

disk map looks fine,
another tool, called GrandPerspective, is also pretty good and is open source
http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/

oh, ok, i think i understand... i just got a newish mac mini about a month ago, late 2012 with sierra on it, 10.12.6
i have not used it much except for doing stuff on the internet that requires a more up to date OS and browsers.
my main mac is still 10.6.8, snow leopard.

on my mac mini, looking at the "manage storage" function under the "about this mac" option.
it showed that i have 1.17 GB in "Documents",
though when i look at my actual documents folder, i have 317KB there.

you need to click on to highlight "Documents" in the side bar, this brings up a new window with 3 options.
-> large files -> downloads -> file browser
clicking on each one shows you different things. the file browser heading is the one you want.
it actually shows you the folder structure and what is stored in each of the folders it watches.
those being -> desktop / documents / downloads / music / pictures / movies / applications / public
so your 76GB's is a combination of the above 8 folders that apple considers "documents" for their purpose of managing storage, and, thereby, making life easier for you.

the heading "applications" in the side bar shows only the apps that you have installed.

it is neither this nor that, just apple's way of thinking.

good luck with it.