iDisk Syncing takes up more hard drive space than expected in Mac OS X 10.5

Products Affected

MobileMe iDisk

Symptoms

As mentioned in this article, iDisk Syncing in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard creates a disk image of your iDisk locally that is roughly the same size as the storage space used on your iDisk. However, after enabling iDisk Syncing, you may find that the amount of free space on your Mac OS X volume is much lower than expected. Additionally, the amount of available space on your iDisk may be larger than expected.

Resolution

If the amount of space being used by iDisk Syncing is much larger than expected, or if the amount of reported free space on your iDisk is inaccurate, update to Mac OS X 10.5.2 or later. 

After updating to Mac OS X 10.5.2 or later, sync your iDisk by clicking the arrows next to the iDisk icon in the Finder. 

If this does not reclaim your space as expected:

  1. From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.
  2. From the View menu, choose MobileMe.
  3. Click the iDisk tab.
  4. Click Stop to stop iDisk Syncing.
  5. Wait for iDisk Syncing to stop.
  6. Turn iDisk Syncing back on.
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