Mac Mini 2018 i3 - storage

[circatee]

This is going to sound odd. Alas, hear me out. I have a Mac Mini 2018 i3, with 128GB flash storage.
The hard drive will often get full/almost full. Now, if I restart the Mac Mini, more space becomes available.

Why is that, what is happening exactly?

The applications that I have on the Mac Mini are Microsoft Office suite, and Cisco Webex.
During my test today, there was actually no applications open, except Finder and the About this Mac \ Storage - so I could monitor the hard drive space.

Honestly, I don't understand why the available space goes down, and then once I restart the unit, I get more space back.

 

[netnewswireuser]

swap.

 

[circatee]

swap.

Confused with this response. Cannot replace the storage, as it is flash storage (soldered).

 

[netnewswireuser]

sorry, I meant "swap space", macOS uses disk space to map virtual memory... when you reboot the swap file is removed that's why you have more disk space available.

 

[circatee]

sorry, I meant "swap space", macOS uses disk space to map virtual memory... when you reboot the swap file is removed that's why you have more disk space available.

Ah, I see. Thanks.

So, in general, every so often, I should restart this Mac Mini?
Try running the OS from an external SSD (USB A connection). But, honestly, it was awfully slow.

 

[Fishrrman]

With a small internal SSD, you have to carefully manage space. A certain portion of the drive needs to be "left free" so that internal process like virtual memory disk swapping can use it. Also, some apps may need to write temp files to the drive, etc.

The internal should have:
- The OS
- Applications
- Home folder (but be careful what's "inside" the home folder, see below)

If you have an external SSD, you can "unload" some stuff to the external drive if you need to free up space. I'm thinking movies, music, and pictures. These can run from an external drive as well as they do from the internal.

Managing "more than one drive" is easy.
You will quickly learn "what goes where".

One other thing:
In the future, don't buy a Mac unless it has an internal SSD of at least 512gb.
Same for RAM -- 16gb is now "the minimum" one should consider for the "m-series" Macs.

 

[EugW]

System Data also fills up with junk on some systems, and Messages doesn’t manage downloaded attachments well if you’re using that. It’s easy to clear out iMessage attachments, but System Data is a royal pain as it’s sometimes random junk located all over the place.

Check out the Manage Storage feature on your Mac.