'System' taking up 715GB+ in 10.13

[Liane@large]

HELP! I have started to get warning messages about capacity and noticed that my 'available space' was super low. I have cleaned out the usual junk manually and run CleanMyMac as well, moved some music folders off the hard drive etc etc.

The yellow 'system' bar still moves between about 600GB and 850GB!! When I delve a bit deeper I see there is a '609' next to /private as per the screenshot. Oh how I wish I knew what that meant. I have seen in some other threads where there was a big number next to /Users and a couple of play by play options with what to do there but this has got me beat.

Oh ... and no Time Machine snapshots

Can anyone offer some advice on what might be the haps here?

 

[dsemf]

/private is way too big. Run the du command again and add private to the slash. By extending the path at the end, you can drill down. Since a lot of /private is protected, hopefully the issue will be in unprotected directories.

DS

 

[Liane@large]

/private is way too big. Run the du command again and add private to the slash. By extending the path at the end, you can drill down. Since a lot of /private is protected, hopefully the issue will be in unprotected directories.

DS

Cheers ... I realise /private is too big but poking around in there is over my head, I don't know where to start in terms of what is actually needed and what is unnecessary bloat.

 

[Weaselboy]

Just keep drilling down...

sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /private/var

 

[Liane@large]

Just keep drilling down...

sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /private/var

It seems /private/var/root/Library/Logs is where the issue is? But when I try to 'go to' that folder it says it can't be found? What's next Obi-Weaselboy?

 

[Weaselboy]

Do a backup first just to be safe, then try this to empty that folder.

sudo rm -rf /private/var/root/Library/Logs

 

[Liane@large]

Cheers Weaselboy but what am I emptying? What is likely in that folder? Why could it be so big? Why can't I see it?

 

[Weaselboy]

Cheers Weaselboy but what am I emptying? What is likely in that folder? Why could it be so big? Why can't I see it?

I'm guessing you have some misbehaving app filling that folder with error logs. That private folder is usually things like swap files and protected so you don't break anything.

You could drill down one more time and see what app is causing this.

sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /private/var/root/Library/Logs

Here is the result of that command on my system to give you something to compare to.

1    /private/var/root/Library/Logs/RTCReports
0    /private/var/root/Library/Logs/AutoBugCapture
1    /private/var/root/Library/Logs/Sync
1    /private/var/root/Library/Logs
1    total

 

[Liane@large]

I'm guessing you have some misbehaving app filling that folder with error logs. That private folder is usually things like swap files and protected so you don't break anything.

You could drill down one more time and see what app is causing this.

sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /private/var/root/Library/Logs

Here is the result of that command on my system to give you something to compare to.

1    /private/var/root/Library/Logs/RTCReports
0    /private/var/root/Library/Logs/AutoBugCapture
1    /private/var/root/Library/Logs/Sync
1    /private/var/root/Library/Logs
1    total

I did that above ... that's where the 605 came from. Okey dokey ... have backed up ... here we gooooooo .....
WoW! I got this from terminal ...
rm: /private/var/root/Library/Logs: Directory not empty

But look at me now! And everything seems to be working ok. I can't thank you enough. Do you think that I will have to keep running that every time it creeps up? I just wish I knew what it was so I could get rid of it once and for all.

Unless I just did!

 

[Weaselboy]

Do you think that I will have to keep running that every time it creeps up?

You might. I suspect you have a misbehaving app loading you up with logs. I was hoping that first comment would give you a hint what app it is.

 

[Liane@large]

You might. I suspect you have a misbehaving app loading you up with logs. I was hoping that first comment would give you a hint what app it is.

Cheers ... the app doesn't seem to be obvious but I wish I knew a way to find out exactly what app it is so I could get rid of it. I just don't use that many apps outside the standard. Although I wonder if it's Vuze ...
ANYway ... all seems good now although when I restarted after last command it took 1hr 20 minutes to boot up. Couldn't even get it started in Safe mode. Panic ensued. But it came right in the end. You have saved me so much time!