Do you feel ripped off?

[whoknows87]

So I have a 2012 Air , Yes 2012 that was originally purchased with 128GB of flash storage, I noticed lately the machine stutters a little, I don't do any editing or run heavy programs on it. I checked my system settings and storage to see if there are things I can unload to amp up the machine a bit , and noticed out of the 128GB the current system is using 58GB ( Currently on High Sierra).. should a system take up almost half of the storage? doesn't seem right to me at all. I know the updates are optional , but some applications require updates otherwise your machine is obsolete

maybe it's time for an upgrade, but still... doesnt seem right to me

 

[filmbuff]

Do I feel ripped off that my 6 year old laptop with the cheapest storage option is low on storage?

 

[Anonymous Freak]

No, that's not "ripped off" - that's "six year old minimum spec computer still running the latest OS acceptably, if a bit slow." Meanwhile, my 2013 Windows convertible can't run the latest version of Windows at all (in theory it can run the first update of Windows 10, the "November Update" but it has severe video corruption running that one.) It runs the original Windows 10 release badly, and only runs Windows 8 acceptably.

Imagine if your Air could only run up to El Capitan effectively, and Sierra was the highest you could load on it at all, and it had severe video corruption.

No, you weren't ripped off. Even Apple considers your model "Vintage" now.

 

[mpe]

Now consider this. You could actually purchase the 2012 Macbook Air with 64GB SSD back then. I am sure many people did. Isn't that sad?

But at least you can easily upgrade the SSD in these models.

 

[smirking]

I checked my system settings and storage to see if there are things I can unload to amp up the machine a bit , and noticed out of the 128GB the current system is using 58GB ( Currently on High Sierra).. should a system take up almost half of the storage? doesn't seem right to me at all. I know the updates are optional , but some applications require updates otherwise your machine is obsolete

Most of that 58GB is probably from your files. Look at any folders named Library for a hidden source of "System" files that might be bloating up your storage.

My storage report reports back 351GB for my system files. There's no way those are all from High Sierra and they're not. I've got 20 years worth of email amounting up to 40GB of storage in my /Users/me/Library folder before I even get to programs I've installed eating up space. Some of these programs are long gone. I see files in there dating back to 2003.

I also have an older backup MBP with a nearly clean system. The System and Library folders on that machine eat up less than 15GB.

 

[yngwietiger]

Not really. I have a 128GB drive in my 2012 A1466 (I bought brand new in March 2013). I still have about 37GB free, and I see at least 20GB that I could free up if pressed. (And that's not even including the ~7GB Mojave installer).

Compared to Windows, this thing is great! Every other Windows PC we've ever had seems to suck by 2 years old. Of course, this costs about 2X as much as a typical home PC (I bought mine from Amazon for ~1100), but it's still doing relatively well after 6 years.

Of course, the battery is kinda weak by now, but that's understandable. I just ordered a replacement for around $80.

My main complaint has to do with the power cord. I don't know why they have to make them with such cheap plastic. Mine has been splitting for years. I keep taping it up, and then it splits some more, repeat, etc. Seems like a common problem. And then they try to charge you $80 for a new one. However, I was able to find one (OEM) for around $50, still pricey for what it is.

All in all, I've been very pleased though. It's nice to not have to replace your machine every 2-3 years, and deal with all of the frustrations that come along with that.

 

[agentsmithone]

I don't feel ripped off but I do sometimes feel like I could have skipped the 16GB RAM upgrade on the 1399 USD model.

 

[Ploki]

Wipe it and reinstall it.
My El Cap install on 2008 Unibody MacBook takes 10GB of space.
I can't remember how much Mojave takes, but a clean install is not much more than that. The installer is ~4GB, do you think it expands into 50GB?

Your system is full of trash because you never cleaned it, and this is the result.

 

[jazz1]

Go to About this Mac under the Apple icon in the upper left hand corner. Choose Storage, choose manage. Found a ton of stuff to delete. Otherwise, ask Ploki said wipe in and reinstall, after backup of course.

Credit due to another thread that directed me to a YouTube video.

 

[hans1972]

So I have a 2012 Air , Yes 2012 that was originally purchased with 128GB of flash storage, I noticed lately the machine stutters a little, I don't do any editing or run heavy programs on it. I checked my system settings and storage to see if there are things I can unload to amp up the machine a bit , and noticed out of the 128GB the current system is using 58GB ( Currently on High Sierra).. should a system take up almost half of the storage? doesn't seem right to me at all. I know the updates are optional , but some applications require updates otherwise your machine is obsolete

maybe it's time for an upgrade, but still... doesnt seem right to me

Have you considered that some of that space is local Time Machine backups?
[doublepost=1545582296][/doublepost]

So I have a 2012 Air , Yes 2012 that was originally purchased with 128GB of flash storage, I noticed lately the machine stutters a little, I don't do any editing or run heavy programs on it. I checked my system settings and storage to see if there are things I can unload to amp up the machine a bit , and noticed out of the 128GB the current system is using 58GB ( Currently on High Sierra).. should a system take up almost half of the storage? doesn't seem right to me at all. I know the updates are optional , but some applications require updates otherwise your machine is obsolete

maybe it's time for an upgrade, but still... doesnt seem right to me

Have you considered that some of that space is local Time Machine backups?

 

[Plett]

So I have a 2012 Air , Yes 2012 that was originally purchased with 128GB of flash storage, I noticed lately the machine stutters a little, I don't do any editing or run heavy programs on it. I checked my system settings and storage to see if there are things I can unload to amp up the machine a bit , and noticed out of the 128GB the current system is using 58GB ( Currently on High Sierra).. should a system take up almost half of the storage? doesn't seem right to me at all. I know the updates are optional , but some applications require updates otherwise your machine is obsolete

maybe it's time for an upgrade, but still... doesnt seem right to me

While I do not think ripped off is the word I would use. I do think that those who don't really understand what they are buying and finding out that their minimal spec drive is being used by the system could be considered misleading.

Clearly those on this forum likely know how things work, but if my wife or daughter was shopping on their own that is something that is not mentioned in the keynotes is it? Would be nice to see net useful drive space with minimum system space has been backed out, kinda real world expectation for folks.

 

[smbu2000]

I'm sure a lot of that extra stuff is your files, applications, etc. I have a fresh install of Sierra on a 1TB drive (pulled from a late 2013 MBP in an OWC envoy pro) in an external USB3 case and when I boot from it, system information says it has 980.9GB free of 999.7GB. That means the install is using 18.8GB.

My internal drive is filled with all of my files and applications and other stuff that I've transferred over the years, so it shows my "system files" at over 62GB.

You can always re-install macOS and start fresh. Just move your files/applications over again after. I'm not sure why you would feel ripped off.

 

[OLDGUYWITHAHIFI]

So I have a 2012 Air , Yes 2012 that was originally purchased with 128GB of flash storage, I noticed lately the machine stutters a little, I don't do any editing or run heavy programs on it. I checked my system settings and storage to see if there are things I can unload to amp up the machine a bit , and noticed out of the 128GB the current system is using 58GB ( Currently on High Sierra).. should a system take up almost half of the storage? doesn't seem right to me at all. I know the updates are optional , but some applications require updates otherwise your machine is obsolete

maybe it's time for an upgrade, but still... doesn't seem right to me

What is not right is Apple STILL ships computers with 128gb of storage. 128 GB was not enough even back in 2012.

 

[flowrider]

Actually 128GB wasn't the cheapest option back in 2012. 64GB was, I bought one, it's my travel machine. My home machine is a cMP. Anyway, I thought I could live with it on my road warrior, and use an external HDD when I needed to. That didn't work out for me. Within a couple of months I upgraded the internal SSD to 480GB with a Transcend Jet Drive.

Lou

 

[whoknows87]

60GB for system? What am I missing here
[doublepost=1546020641][/doublepost]

Go to About this Mac under the Apple icon in the upper left hand corner. Choose Storage, choose manage. Found a ton of stuff to delete. Otherwise, ask Ploki said wipe in and reinstall, after backup of course.

Credit due to another thread that directed me to a YouTube video.

 

[revmacian]

60GB for system? What am I missing here
[doublepost=1546020641][/doublepost]

When is the last time you did a wipe and reinstall on that laptop? Don't forget to make backups first!

Here is my Mac mini late 2014 base model running Mojave. I did a fresh install of Mojave a couple months ago and it seemed to help quite a bit.:

 

[NoBoMac]

I'd take the "classification" information in the Apple screens with a grain of salt. Tons of threads on the board where people are getting weird numbers and types due to Spotlight index issues.

Case in point, my Mac is showing 74GB for Apps, but when go into something like OmniDiskSweeper, my OS section is only about 32GB. And that's on the high side due to some heavy apps/tools (Xcode, MS Office, Java JDK).

ADD: also, if using TimeMachine and have not plugged a drive in in a while, you will have several GB of backups sitting on the drive waiting to be synced to external.

 

[auxbuss]

60GB for system? What am I missing here
[doublepost=1546020641][/doublepost]

TimeMachine local snapshots, perhaps. (I delete them, so I don't know whether they are included in that figure.)

To display TM local snapshots, run: `tmutil listlocalsnapshots /`

Also, try restarting in Safe Mode. That might sort things out.

 

[ctwentytwo]

So I have a 2012 Air , Yes 2012 that was originally purchased with 128GB of flash storage, I noticed lately the machine stutters a little, I don't do any editing or run heavy programs on it. I checked my system settings and storage to see if there are things I can unload to amp up the machine a bit , and noticed out of the 128GB the current system is using 58GB ( Currently on High Sierra).. should a system take up almost half of the storage? doesn't seem right to me at all. I know the updates are optional , but some applications require updates otherwise your machine is obsolete

maybe it's time for an upgrade, but still... doesnt seem right to me

I was in the same boat. Mojave will only take up 25-30ish GB.

But you can get the new 2018 MBA for only $999 from B&H or Amazon currently. Should make your descision easier.

 

[johannnn]

No way the “system” is taking up 60GB. Download OmniDiskSweeper (https://www.omnigroup.com/more/) and see where the big files are.

 

[Velin]

The other posters have it right. Make a USB Mojave install disk. Boot from the USB, go to disk utility. Wipe your hard drive, and partition it using the new APFS file system. Once that's done, run the installer and install Mojave. Don't use backups from Time Machine or any other type of system backup. Instead, migrate your data manually from a backup. And install fresh apps.

Your machine will be vastly superior, with a lot more space, after a truly clean install.