A question for Mac users about memory (flash storage) usage of the system and how to reduce it

[pgk]

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I'm running 10.14.6 and the system is apparently taking up 92.54Gb which I am sure that it shouldn't. But no matter what I try (including 'cleaning' software) I cannot seem to find out why so much is used/required. Does anyone have any remedies?

[jankap]

You mean the system disk, Macintosh HD (as it is called in my laptop) needs 92.54 GB. My disk gives its maximum capacity and what is free. You or your system subtracted these numbers. 

Did you look into the system disk already? So double-click on the symbol and then double-click on users. Here you find your data. Another double-click on your username, and you find more recognisable files. For instance, the size of the file "Pictures" could be interesting.😁

Edited December 5, 2023 by jankap

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[pgk]

16 minutes ago, jankap said:

You mean the system disk, Macintosh HD (as it is called in my laptop) needs 92.54 GB. My disk gives its maximum capacity and what is free. You or your system subtracted these numbers. 

Did you look into the system disk already? So double-click on the symbol and then double-click on users. Here you find your data. Another double-click on your username, and you find more recognisable files. For instance, the size of the file "Pictures" could be interesting.😁

Yes if I look under myself as user there is 77GB of disk used but if I look through the files under my name they don't add up to anywhere near this. Something is taking up memory or appears to be and I have no idea what. I keep getting a message saying I'm running out of disk space. I've cleared mail out of anything old, purged Adobe caches but still I'm not recovering any significant disk space. I don't store pictures on my system disk only on external disks. So I'm baffled as to what is holding onto this memory.

Edited December 5, 2023 by pgk

[dpitt]

In the past when you emptied the trash containing an amount of disk space, all this space was released immediately.

With the last few Mac OS systems this is not true anymore. Disk space has become fluid, and it can take hours or even days before the free space is indicated as it should. Without going to much into detail, this has to do with the new APFS file system that optimizes disk space and can actually store more than the older systems, at the cost of processing and 'optimizing' time. Maybe your Mac is in this intermediate state.

So if you deleted a lot of GB recently chances are that they turn up in a few hours. Also, you can try using the Apple Menu/About this Mac/Disk Storage which in some cases will display more accurate results or trigger the cleanup process.

 

Edited December 5, 2023 by dpitt

[pgk]

I've deleted a lot of files and sometimes the free space shifts and varies depending on how I look to see what is available (as you state). However I don't think that the 'system' should take up two thirds of my SSD space so I'm still trying to figure why it thinks this is the case. Worst case scenario looks like a trip to the nearest Apple store.

[willeica]

1 hour ago, pgk said:

I've deleted a lot of files and sometimes the free space shifts and varies depending on how I look to see what is available (as you state). However I don't think that the 'system' should take up two thirds of my SSD space so I'm still trying to figure why it thinks this is the case. Worst case scenario looks like a trip to the nearest Apple store.

Paul, the game now is to sell you 'iCloud Real Estate' and/or new hardware. I've had the same issue with iMACs, iPads and iPhones. Trying to make space by deleting material is difficult and sometimes impossible. This is what market dominance looks like.

William 

[pgk]

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Finally figured that it was mail logging which had produced enormous files (invisible files). Now deleted and I've revoved over 30GB! Its working well again.

[jaapv]

A quick and easy way to solve problems like this is using "Space Lens"  and "Old and Large files" in CleanMyMac.

I once cleaned out 246 GB from my Macbook Air,. iCloud had been writing backups to my SSD,  choking it

[Lightwrangler]

Most likely the problem is Time Machine snapshots: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102154

Usually they get deleted by the system if disk space is needed, so there is no need to worry. But the issue can be irritating, if disk space gets smaller and smaller.

How to get rid of them: https://iboysoft.com/howto/delete-time-machine-backups.html#how-to-delete-time-machine-snapshots

But be aware the system is going to create new ones as long as you use Time Machine.

if you want to get a good overview about your Macs disk usage, DaisyDisk is the way to go: https://daisydiskapp.com/

Edited December 7, 2023 by Lightwrangler

[jaapv]

17 minutes ago, Lightwrangler said:

Most likely the problem is Time Machine snapshots: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102154

Usually they get deleted by the system if disk space is needed, so there is no need to worry. But the issue can be irritating, if disk space gets smaller and smaller.

How to get rid of them: https://iboysoft.com/howto/delete-time-machine-backups.html#how-to-delete-time-machine-snapshots

But be aware the system is going to create new ones as long as you use Time Machine.

if you want to get a good overview about your Macs disk usage, DaisyDisk is the way to go: https://daisydiskapp.com/

Actually Time Machine is supposed to use an external disk or in a pinch a partition.

[Lightwrangler]

Of course, but it uses your main disk to store snapshots, in case your TM disk is not available and in order to accelerate the backup process. Please read the Apple support document. To cite it: […] Your Time Machine backup disk might not always be available, so Time Machine also stores some of its backups on your Mac. These are local snapshots […] Time Machine saves one snapshot of your startup disk approximately every hour, and keeps it for 24 hours. It keeps an additional snapshot of your last successful Time Machine backup until space is needed. And in macOS High Sierra or later, another snapshot is saved before installing any macOS update.

Edited December 7, 2023 by Lightwrangler