M1 Mac Mini hard drive is full

[Cassandle]

I bought an m1 Mac Mini when it was first announced in 2020. It’s a great machine and still does all I need. Unfortunately I cheaped out on the storage and got the 256GB model. Now it’s completely full and the system data has grown to over 50GB.

I’ve tried deleting files, optimising storage to iCloud. I even did what I never wanted to do and took my photos library off local storage and into iCloud. But the thing is just full and now I can’t even open certain apps.

I have 2 questions: 1) how do I fix it, and 2) how do I go about adding external storage to offload files like media? Presumably I’d need two drives - one for the data and another for backup? So then I’d need a hub as I’d need extra ports.

My alternative is just to get a MacBook Air but get a higher storage model.

 

[maflynn]

1) how do I fix it, and 2) how do I go about adding external storage to offload files like media?

1. You can't technically fix it - what you got at the time of purcahase is what you have to live with. You can get one of those cleaner macs, where it cleans up your drive removing the unneccessary cruft that accumulates, however what those apps do, you can. Just do a bit of research on what's safe to remove and what isn't and most importantly - backup your drive before you start.

2. buy an external drive, Just buy a USB-C or TB3 drive, they're pretty cheap. Use disk utility to format it, and then copy your data over to that drive.

 

[okkibs]

I'll suggest an alternative: The internal SSD of this Mini unfortunately cannot be upgraded. But there are sales on the base model M4 Mini now and Amazon just had it for $470 until a few days ago. This will double your memory and it comes with a swappable SSD. You can then get a 2TB aftermarket SSD from here: https://iboffrcc.com/products/pre-order-2tb-storage-for-mac-mini-m4-xnand4-module

Or with 500GB the M4 Mini is still priced okay to purchase that on a sale and call it a day if you can make do with that amount. A 1TB M4 Mini or M4 Air of course would be the optimal solution if you don't mind spending all that cash.

However I agree that adding an external SSD is the cheapest and quickest way to get your M1 Mini running again. And you can keep using this external SSD with other Macs as well should you decide to upgrade later.

The downside is that iCloud sync cannot be moved to an external SSD. If you want to sync your iCloud files you need to have enough free space available. Because first iCloud will download all your files and then afterwards you can "optimize" storage as Apple calls it which removes some rarely used files from the Mac again.

But if you got 150GB or more in iCloud then that will all end up being synced to your Mac first and you cannot move that to an external drive. There are inofficial ways to try that like moving your entire user folder to the external drive, or even booting MacOS off the external SSD but these configurations are prone to break and can leave you with a Mac that no longer boots up and logs you in at any point in time.

How do you fix your problem? You plug in an external SSD and format it to APFS and then move as many files as possible over. Again, nothing that's stored in iCloud can be moved and if your iCloud is too big you can only disable the files sync entirely.

Personally if it was me I'd buy an external SSD with 2TB and see if it solves the issue. If not, replace the Mini with a M4 Air or M4 Mini and used the 2TB SSD for backups. Either way you don't waste any money.

 

[MacCheetah3]

For external drives, I recommend USB4 models.

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

To save storage space on your Mac, you can move your Photos library to a different storage device.

support.apple.com

Change where your music files are stored on Mac

On your Mac, change where your Music files are stored on your computer. You can also manage your files and create folders for better organization.

support.apple.com

How to move your iTunes library to an external hard drive

If your Mac's hard drive is getting full, you can move your entire iTunes library to an external hard drive to free up space.

www.imore.com

Change Files settings in the Apple TV app on Mac

In the Apple TV app on Mac, set options for folder locations, automatic delete options, and more.

support.apple.com

 

[ChrisA]

I bought an m1 Mac Mini when it was first announced in 2020. It’s a great machine and still does all I need. Unfortunately I cheaped out on the storage and got the 256GB model. Now it’s completely full and the system data has grown to over 50GB.

I’ve tried deleting files, optimising storage to iCloud. I even did what I never wanted to do and took my photos library off local storage and into iCloud. But the thing is just full and now I can’t even open certain apps.

I have 2 questions: 1) how do I fix it, and 2) how do I go about adding external storage to offload files like media? Presumably I’d need two drives - one for the data and another for backup? So then I’d need a hub as I’d need extra ports.

My alternative is just to get a MacBook Air but get a higher storage model.

It is very easy to add an external drive. On the M1, the external can be almost as fast as the internal. The best plan is to buy a Thunderbolt enclosure for an M.2 SSD. Get the biggest one you can afford, at least 1TB. Then you plug it in and format it with APFS. Drag and drop your files from the internal storage.

You should have already bought a backup disk drive and set up Time Machine. This drive can be as slow as you like, a spinning disk is fast enough. Make sure it is at least twice as large and the amount of data you have or plane to have. Today a 4TB drive is cheap enough that it should be the minimum. TM keeps all versions of you files so it needs to be larger then the amount of data you have so that it can keep a version history.

 

[ChrisA]

I'll suggest an alternative: The internal SSD of this Mini unfortunately cannot be upgraded. But there are sales on the base model M4 Mini now and Amazon just had it for $470 until a few days ago. This will double your memory and it comes with a swappable SSD. ...

I know someone who actualy bough a new car because the shock absorbers were getting old and the ride was not as good as before. No doubt, the new car was better.

If this were a notebook computer, it might make sense to replace it because carrying an external drive is inconvenient. But this is a desktop. I have about 10TB attached to my Mac Mini M2-Pro. This would never fit in a notebook.

 

[Slartibart]

to add to @ChrisA : there is almost no problem to move macOS apps to an external SSD - the »almost« refers to brew installations or ports - depending on time dedicated - which depends on your knowledge - can be tedious IMHO. Even moving the Apple Photo library - if that is a source of storage space allocation - is trivial. Same for mp3/flac or video collections - Apple Music so is a different beast 🙂

 

[CharlesShaw]

I know someone who actualy bough a new car because the shock absorbers were getting old and the ride was not as good as before. No doubt, the new car was better.

In my 20's I had a friend working his first job after college and instead of doing laundry he bought new clothes for months. He kept them, and eventually did 35 loads of laundry and a huge amount of dry cleaning.

Since the OP has an M1, it's still got some life, so I agree with the external drive suggestion.

 

[okkibs]

I know someone who actualy bough a new car because the shock absorbers were getting old

And that new car cost how much for the comparison to the new M4 model that costs 500 bucks to make any sense? Don't you think there is quite a big difference between dropping 500 on a computer after 5 years vs. dropping 30k or something on a new car after 5 years? Not to mention a brand new car can last 15-20 years whereas no M1 is going to be supported anywhere that long.

The M1 Mini base model can be sold for around 200 bucks so the amount of money we're talking is more than one magnitude off from what cars cost.

I obviously understand what your point is and I did agree in my post that OP should start with purchasing that external SSD first. Yet a $500 computer upgrade every 5 or so years isn't that much money in my opinion and the M1 wasn't that crazy fast that upgrading to the M4 chip with double the memory would be a waste.

 

[AlixSPQR]

My alternative is just to get a MacBook Air but get a higher storage model.

Do this.

 

[JamesMay82]

I’ve upgraded my 2014 iMac 2 years ago to a Mac Studio and did 2 TB because I was fed up with external drives for my basics like photos and music etc..

Internal space is great but for a desktop the Samsung T7 drives are great. I would buy 1 for loading files and using daily and then a cheaper spinning HD for Time Machine..

 

[Jumpthesnark]

I have 2 questions: 1) how do I fix it, and 2) how do I go about adding external storage to offload files like media? Presumably I’d need two drives - one for the data and another for backup? So then I’d need a hub as I’d need extra ports.

I hope you already have a drive for backup! If not, then you're right, you will need to set up two drives.

First, you will need a drive in an enclosure (a couple TB will do, they're relatively inexpensive now), and set it up for Time Machine, which is very easy to set up and maintain. This can be a spinning HD, as speed is not crucial for this role. Back up your Mini before you do anything else. Please do this soon.

Then you will also need a different drive for all the data and apps you want to offload. This should be a faster drive (such as SSD) that connects via the fastest connection your Mini has. That's Thunderbolt 3/USB 4 (based on the specs for your machine, here). For an enclosure, you may even want to look into models by Satechi or others, that contain storage plus they add ports, card readers, etc.

You would want that second drive to be permanently attached to your Mini, because it would contain your apps and data, but the Time Machine drive can be connected or disconnected based on your backup schedule.

Once you back up and add external storage, you can transfer things like your photos to that second drive. Here's a how-to for photos and here's a useful video about how to move music files to an external drive. You would probably want to use method 2 from that video. You didn't mention what was taking up space in your Mini, and what was your greatest concern - photos, music, apps, other data or some combination - but no matter what it is, you should definitely back up your data (especially photos and important documents) soon. Good luck!

 

[Allen_Wentz]

...you should definitely back up your data (especially photos and important documents) soon. Good luck!

This. Full [more than ~80%] internal drives are a recipe for disaster. As an internal drive approaches full weird things may start happening and one may actually lose data. Especially since so many folks today think that buying less than ideal RAM is a good cost cutting move because the OS will just swap to SSD as necessary.

 

[eRondeau]

I won't repeat the same instructions others provided, but I have the exact same "base" M1 Mac mini (8GB/256GB). I bought an inexpensive external SSD (first 1TB, then 2TB) and kept all my music, movies, and photos on it. Only MacOS, Documents, and Downloads on the internal storage. Worked great for 4+ years and my internal storage never exceeded 70% capacity. YMMV of course but it can certainly work well like this!

 

[VitoBotta]

When I had my first M1 with only 256GB, I just bought a Samsung T5 Thunderbolt drive with 2TB capacity and installed macOS directly on it, so it became the system drive. It was pretty easy to set up and worked great until I upgraded to an M2 Pro a year or two later.

 

[Cassandle]

Thanks everyone for the advice.

Mac has pretty much ground to a halt now. I do have Time Machine backups, so hopefully I’ll be able to restore when this is all sorted out.

I did try and offload my media to an external drive a few weeks ago when I could see that the internal drive was getting full, but the drive seems to have failed - my mac won’t read it anymore. It’s made me a bit nervous of external drives to be honest.

I obviously need to do something to make the machine useable again. I’ll get another drive and see if that works.

My wife - who normally is against tech purchases, has said she’s happy for me to upgrade and said a 1TB Mini or MacBook Air is allowed, so I might also take the chance for a new toy whilst I have it 😂

 

[Boyd01]

When I had my first M1 with only 256GB, I just bought a Samsung T5 Thunderbolt drive

I have a whole stack of Samsung external SSD's, I work with huge datasets and use T7's like I used floppy disks back in the 1980's. 😄 The T5's are nice too, I just bought a pair of 8tb T5 EVO's which are great although not very fast as SSD's go. But the Samsung T5 is not a Thunderbolt drive.

"With Samsung V-NAND flash memory and a USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface, the T5 provides transfer speeds of up to 540 MB/s"

Portable SSD T5 1TB Memory & Storage - MU-PA1T0B/AM | Samsung US

Discover the latest features and innovations available in the Portable SSD T5 1TB. Find the perfect Memory & Storage for you!

www.samsung.com

 

[VitoBotta]

I have a whole stack of Samsung external SSD's, I work with huge datasets and use T7's like I used floppy disks back in the 1980's. 😄 The T5's are nice too, I just bought a pair of 8tb T5 EVO's which are great although not very fast as SSD's go. But the Samsung T5 is not a Thunderbolt drive.

"With Samsung V-NAND flash memory and a USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface, the T5 provides transfer speeds of up to 540 MB/s"

Portable SSD T5 1TB Memory & Storage - MU-PA1T0B/AM | Samsung US

Discover the latest features and innovations available in the Portable SSD T5 1TB. Find the perfect Memory & Storage for you!

www.samsung.com

Sorry, I confused the drives I have. I meant the X5

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"My wife - who normally is against tech purchases, has said she’s happy for me to upgrade and said a 1TB Mini or MacBook Air is allowed"

OK, HERE is "your answer".

Get a new m4 Mini.
Get a 1tb internal SSD.
AND... get 32gb of RAM (nothing less).

That will "keep you going" for a good while.
The m4 Mini is a dandy little Mac... quite fast, as well.
If you want to save a bit, buy from Apple's online refurbished store. BE CAREFUL as you go through the listings -- they can be confusing. Make sure the one you click on is the one configured as you want.

I bought my m4 Mini from the refurb store -- very satisfied.

Once the new Mini is up and running, clean off the old Mini and set it up to be "a spare", or something along that line.

 

[Cassandle]

OP wrote:
"My wife - who normally is against tech purchases, has said she’s happy for me to upgrade and said a 1TB Mini or MacBook Air is allowed"

OK, HERE is "your answer".

Get a new m4 Mini.
Get a 1tb internal SSD.
AND... get 32gb of RAM (nothing less).

That will "keep you going" for a good while.
The m4 Mini is a dandy little Mac... quite fast, as well.
If you want to save a bit, buy from Apple's online refurbished store. BE CAREFUL as you go through the listings -- they can be confusing. Make sure the one you click on is the one configured as you want.

I bought my m4 Mini from the refurb store -- very satisfied.

Once the new Mini is up and running, clean off the old Mini and set it up to be "a spare", or something along that line.

Thanks, you make a good argument though not sure about needing 32GB of RAM.

If I go for a new machine I’m between the Mini and the MBA. Totally different devices and use cases obviously - I do sometimes miss the portability of a laptop (pre-Mini I had a MBP for almost 10 years). Currently the refurb store in the UK has 1TB MBAs for only £180 more than the spec in a Mini, which feels like a better deal. I resent having to pay Apple £400 for an extra 750-ish GB of memory!

Plan for the M1 if I keep it would be as a backup/Plex server (if I ever get round to ripping my CDs)

 

[John V Keogh]

Check Library/Metadata/SpotlightKnowledgeEvents. Mine went up to 96 GB! You can delete the folder contents, not the folders and it will rebuild much smaller. (In Sequoia this is renamed to CoreSpotlight)

 

[JanetTheGreat]

Just get an external hard drive.

 

[IJustWannaTalk]

I did try and offload my media to an external drive a few weeks ago when I could see that the internal drive was getting full, but the drive seems to have failed - my mac won’t read it anymore. It’s made me a bit nervous of external drives to be honest.

What was the drive?
A new drive failing isn't normal, many, many people use such to expand storage capacity.

 

[Cassandle]

Thanks again. I’m going to get a Samsung T7 and offload stuff onto there.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Thanks everyone for the advice.

Mac has pretty much ground to a halt now. I do have Time Machine backups, so hopefully I’ll be able to restore when this is all sorted out.

I did try and offload my media to an external drive a few weeks ago when I could see that the internal drive was getting full, but the drive seems to have failed - my mac won’t read it anymore. It’s made me a bit nervous of external drives to be honest.

I obviously need to do something to make the machine useable again. I’ll get another drive and see if that works.

My wife - who normally is against tech purchases, has said she’s happy for me to upgrade and said a 1TB Mini or MacBook Air is allowed, so I might also take the chance for a new toy whilst I have it 😂

Personally I would first suspect your overfilled boot drive as the cause of any problems, including difficulties mating to an external drive. A full SSD is a very bad thing. You should be aggressively working to find ways to open up space on the boot SSD.

Edit: e.g. when you ask a computer to "move" a file to an external drive, all kinds of things occur behind the scenes that involve the CPU and the mass storage that the boot CPU is using, all of which take mass storage space, much more space than when the files are just sitting on the drive not being accessed. Trying to move large files off of an overfull drive is fairly likely to cause problems. My suggestion is that the first step should be to go carefully [and laboriously] through the storage on your boot SSD deleting those things that you can simply delete, starting with smaller things and emptying the trash frequently.