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System Storage Question/OS File Size

A

Appurushido

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 28, 2012
276
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So I went to look at my HDD space and I noticed the system is using/taking up 151GBs of space. Does that include installed software? Apps, photos, and my iPhone backup are shown in a different bar.

Does anyone know the approximate file size for macOS Sierra? Thanks in advance!
 
The system alone shouldn't take up much more than 8 GB. The rest is probably cache files - you could download the free version of Daisy Disk, which shows you exactly where your storage is used.
 
I just had an issue where a lot files showed in the System bar. The issue is I have Time Machine enabled and had not connected to my NAS for a while. The NAS is where my Time Machine backup resides. So until I connected, the updated files were getting held in some System area. As soon as I ran Time Machine, 100 GB more free space showed up.
 
Not sure if it helps, but I noticed my System files was taking up 100GB of space as well. I used DaisyDisk to take a closer look and about 75GB of System files were actually games installed by my Steam app. They all got shoved into the Library and it looks like they were inadvertently being labeled as system files.

Hope this solves a few mysteries for those wondering about system files taking up HUGE amounts of space.
 
Are you using a Beta version of Sierra? I've seen this problem before on iOS/MacOS whereby it keeps duplicating instal/updates till it fills the internal storage. If you are using Beta then stop, it's a Beta and not for people who rely on the software.
 
New_Mac_Smell said:
Are you using a Beta version of Sierra? I've seen this problem before on iOS/MacOS whereby it keeps duplicating instal/updates till it fills the internal storage. If you are using Beta then stop, it's a Beta and not for people who rely on the software.
Click to expand...

Unless new MB Pros ship with betas, I would say, no. Mine was a new 2017 13" MB Pro w/ TB when purchased. As Lincoln stated, it's probable some other software that I don't know that's lumped into the system file under HDD space.
 
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