System data 145 gigs?

[Radmcg]

I have 2016 MBP running Sonoma. Never pay much attention to storage until tried to download mail and couldn't. Anyway deleted files cleared some space but found system data 150 gigs. Tried removing cache, Time Machine snapshots, tried sorting finder by size really don't see anything huge tried everything I could find on the net. Decreased it from 150 to 145. Any suggestions. Even if it's a program I don't care at this point. One thing I haven't done a TM back up in months, but looked for snapshots and didn't find any. Am I missing something some where.
AHA
Rad

 

[Bigwaff]

How much used disk space does Disk Utility show?

 

[Radmcg]

499 gig total 28 gigs available in disk utility. System settings 499 GB total 471.9GB used 144.83GB in system data.

 

[Bigwaff]

iCloud Drive is enabled?

 

[Adora]

Hi,

I recommend the free Omni Disk Sweeper to get a better overview of your drive than using Finder:

Omni Labs — OmniDiskSweeper, OmniWeb, and OmniPresence - The Omni Group

Creators of Mac, iPad, and iPhone productivity software. Proud to bring you OmniFocus, OmniOutliner, OmniGraffle, and OmniPlan.

www.omnigroup.com

My Mac with 4TB storage is showing almost 160GB System Data and the Mac with just 1TB Storage is showing about 355GB System Data.

I have no clue what exactly is included in System Data. On one Mac Music for example is missing in the list but has an orange part in the storage bar, on the other Mac Music is only in the list and not in the bar. Both are the same offline Libraries.

One Mac shows much more for Applications than the other, although I try to keep them in sync.

Documents seems to be everything in the user folder that is not categorized by being in the right folder/library for example videos, photos, audios and the real Documents folder on top.

In /Library and /System is not enough to be declared as System Data and if I don't count the Logic folder what is listed as Music Creation anyway, it doesn't match at all, even to the Mac with lower System Data.

My iCloud Drives are completely stored offline too, but the list is showing only about half the data on it on both Macs in that list in System Settings. Maybe the other half is counted to Documents.

This is all very confusing. Is it possible that data is counted double and is in two categories?


I found out my Proton Drive that was stored in the hidden user library, in the folder named "CloudStorage", wasn't count as data at all. Everything was available offline and it was included in the purgeable(free) space. System Settings showed just too much free storage. Don't know if other cloud services like OneDrive and Dropbox etc. use that folder too. But if you anywhere find an option to purge all purgeable space, make sure your offline cloud data (except iCloud) isn't in there too and you have to download hundreds of GB or even more again.

 

[Queen6]

I'd just run Onyx Maintenance that will sort out the junk. Takes all the headache out of it...

Titanium Software | Operating System Utilities for Mac - OnyX

OnyX is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the startup disk and the structure of its system files, perform cleaning and computer maintenance tasks, uninstall applications, configure some hidden parameters of many Apple applications, and more.

titanium-software.fr

Both Find Any File & Omni Disk Sweeper are excellent tools, with the former being the more powerful.

Q-6

 

[Radmcg]

Wow thanks Queen6. Downloaded onyx ran maintenance reduced system data from 145 GB to 36. I have worked on this for months (when I had spare time). Thanks you very much.
Rad

 

[Adora]

I'd just run Onyx Maintenance that will sort out the junk. Takes all the headache out of it...

Titanium Software | Operating System Utilities for Mac - OnyX

OnyX is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the startup disk and the structure of its system files, perform cleaning and computer maintenance tasks, uninstall applications, configure some hidden parameters of many Apple applications, and more.

titanium-software.fr

Both Find Any File & Omni Disk Sweeper are excellent tools, with the former being the more powerful.

Q-6

I use Onyx too since many years and run the full maintenance once in a while. Never checked if it will help in this case. Will do this later today. And exactly compare with screenshots the storage overview in System Settings.

Tinker Tool System is also very powerful but not free. I tried to solve another problem with it, but every step has to be done at once and after rebooting for the third time, I got too annoyed and only finished a fraction of what is possible in there.

Edit: I ran it now on both Macs and saved the screenshots, also from Finder's drive info. Something changed but not much. I'll have a closer look later. Maybe it's because I already used Onyx every now and then before and parts of that Tinker Tool System just one or two days ago.

 

[Queen6]

Wow thanks Queen6. Downloaded onyx ran maintenance reduced system data from 145 GB to 36. I have worked on this for months (when I had spare time). Thanks you very much.
Rad

Your welcome 🙂

Q-6

 

[Queen6]

I use Onyx too since many years and run the full maintenance once in a while. Never checked if it will help in this case. Will do this later today. And exactly compare with screenshots the storage overview in System Settings.

Tinker Tool System is also very powerful but not free. I tried to solve another problem with it, but every step has to be done at once and after rebooting for the third time, I got too annoyed and only finished a fraction of what is possible in there.

Edit: I ran it now on both Macs and saved the screenshots, also from Finder's drive info. Something changed but not much. I'll have a closer look later. Maybe it's because I already used Onyx every now and then before and parts of that Tinker Tool System just one or two days ago.

Onyx as it's never dropped the ball. Mostly Mac's maintain themselves, but like all they need a little help from time to time. I've still got one of the ill fated 15" MBP's, last it was clean installed was the factory, updated the OS numerous times only tool I've used on it is Onyx.

Generally gift my old work Mac's, however the 15" 2011 is notorious for dGPU failure, equally I'm still waiting 13 years on for it to surprise me LOL...

Q-6

 

[Adora]

Generally gift my old work Mac's, however the 15" 2011 is notorious for dGPU failure, equally I'm still waiting 13 years on for it to surprise me LOL...

My 2017 15" MBP got unusable in 2022. Too many things damaged that it wasn't worth to get repaired.

I then switched back to my Late 2011 17" MBP. The Summer was very hot and the fans ran so loud that watching videos on YouTube wasn't really fun. It had been upgraded to 16GB and SSD long ago. The dGPU then failed in February 2023, shortly after the M2 MBPs came out and i bought a 16" M2 Pro only because of the screen size.

 

[cadec]

from my own experiences: glitches in iCloud can cause huge space usage on internal drive that it should not.

had to go through all sorts of rigamarole (don't remember details) to get rid of it and get iCloud working so it won't store on my limited size small internal SSD. I am sorry I don't remember the steps I took over a year ago.

I searched high and low and found some tips on iCloud taking up space on internal drive but no idea now. sorry. there are some solutions. but make sure you have all your iCloud contents backed up elsewhere.

 

[Queen6]

My 2017 15" MBP got unusable in 2022. Too many things damaged that it wasn't worth to get repaired.

I then switched back to my Late 2011 17" MBP. The Summer was very hot and the fans ran so loud that watching videos on YouTube wasn't really fun. It had been upgraded to 16GB and SSD long ago. The dGPU then failed in February 2023, shortly after the M2 MBPs came out and i bought a 16" M2 Pro only because of the screen size.

My 2011 15" is still soldiering on, I mostly use it for offline video these days. TBH it's always run relatively well and doesn't throttle. Times coming as the speakers are done and seems to be slowing down although the operating temps are low.

I disabled the dGPU via SW years back a precaution which has no doubt helped towards it's longevity. Given it's way down the list of priorities of use and it's age I'll just leave it be.

Q-6