How do I clear the system storage?

[Puppuccino]

I have an early 2014 Macbook Air running macOS Catalina and looked at the storage I have left on it.

It's a 128GB model so very small, doesn't store too much but it's fine. However I'm running low on storage and checked the storage tab under the 'About this Mac' option.

Apparently I have 50GB+ of 'system storage'? How do I check what is being stored there so I can hopefully delete some stuff to free up some space from my computer?

 

[Fishrrman]

Do you use time machine?
Could this be "local backups" or "local snapshots" eating up your disk space?

I prefer and recommend CarbonCopyCloner (or SuperDuper) as backup apps, rather than tm.

How to find out what's eating up the space:
Download DiskWave from here:

DiskWave Homepage

It's small in size and free.

Open DiskWave and go to the preferences.
Put a checkmark in "show invisible files".
Close preferences.

The DiskWave window shows you all your drives in plain English (no ridiculous graphical formats).
Click on the drive items on the left.
Now, you'll see what's ON the drive, listed in order of "largest to smallest".
You can easily locate what's eating up your space.

 

[revmacian]

I have an early 2014 Macbook Air running macOS Catalina and looked at the storage I have left on it.

It's a 128GB model so very small, doesn't store too much but it's fine. However I'm running low on storage and checked the storage tab under the 'About this Mac' option.

Apparently I have 50GB+ of 'system storage'? How do I check what is being stored there so I can hopefully delete some stuff to free up some space from my computer?

When was the last time you did a clean install? I may be out of line here but I don't think so. A clean install can clear out some clutter. I have a 2019 MacBook Air with 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD and my System Storage is showing as 10.98GB. I wonder if a clean install of macOS will be beneficial. I would recommend against attempting to clear anything out of the System Storage.. too easy to make a mistake and some of those items may be protected by SIP anyway.

 

[Puppuccino]

When was the last time you did a clean install? I may be out of line here but I don't think so. A clean install can clear out some clutter. [...] I wonder if a clean install of macOS will be beneficial. I would recommend against attempting to clear anything out of the System Storage [...]

I don't think I ever have to be perfectly honest. Perhaps I could try it, it may work I suppose.

I bought my Macbook new (not direct from Apple) but have always just updated the OS over the years so there is probably some stuff from older versions maybe lying around.

 

[revmacian]

I don't think I ever have to be perfectly honest. Perhaps I could try it, it may work I suppose.

I bought my Macbook new (not direct from Apple) but have always just updated the OS over the years so there is probably some stuff from older versions maybe lying around.

Oh, well in that case I would do a full backup of all personal data and perform a clean install of macOS. I know it's a bit of a hassle to set everything up again but I'm quite certain it would help to reduce the size of your System usage. Please be sure to fully back up all personal data first. I do these types of installs every couple of years or so and it does help to reduce clutter.

 

[Honza1]

This keep repeating about every week or so. Little searching would find this question answered again, and again, and again...
Snapshots...
Except when macOS fails for some reason, you should not need to do anything. This space will be eventually cleared by the system. It was on my system always - except when my SSD failed recently. If the space is really needed, system will clear it up earlier. It should be transparent, you should not do anything...
Now, there are cases when this fails. In which case CarbonCopyCloner can delete snapshots for you - including those created by macOS itself (CCC can create its own snapshots). If you believe you have issue, you can use CCC to remove snapshots. Once in a while old snapshot is forgotten and left behind - properly behaving snapshots are deleted after ~day or two without user intervention.
Few notes:
1. Even if Time Machine is off, system will create snapshots. Why? I have no clue...
2. How & why can macOS forget about old snapshot is not clear. And how it should be fixed without command line (or CCC) is not clear. Seems like something which could be fixed on reboot by system as part of boot process, but does not seem to be done.

If all fails or you are really impatient your choice is to use CCC (or Superduper) to clone your system disk to external disk, boot on that external disk, erase internal drive and clone the system back. Or, clone system disk, erase internal drive and install fresh macOS. Then migrate only what you need. But that is repeating what is said above very well already.

Good luck and make sure you have, ideally, two WORKING backups before you start deleting/erasing anything.

 

[apkmodi]

Do you use time machine?
Could this be "local backups" or "local snapshots" eating up your disk space?

I prefer and recommend CarbonCopyCloner (or SuperDuper) as backup apps, rather than tm.

How to find out what's eating up the space:
Download DiskWave from here:

DiskWave Homepage

It's small in size and free.

Open DiskWave and go to the preferences.
Put a checkmark in "show invisible files".
Close preferences.

The DiskWave window shows you all your drives in plain English (no ridiculous graphical formats).
Click on the drive items on the left.
Now, you'll see what's ON the drive, listed in order of "largest to smallest".
You can easily locate what's eating up your space.

Thank you for sharing something interesting