Macheads - 50gb of system data…

[jnorman]

So for months now 8 have been trying to figure out why I have 50gb of system data, and how to clean it up. I did manage to get rid of 8gb when I found copies of all the UAD plugins in Library/Application Support. Yesterday I finally found 41gb in Group Containers/group.com.apple.photos.photofileprovider/file provider services/photospicker - it had copies of a bunch of video files (I also do video editing on this machine.)

Now the machine (Mac mini M2 with Sedona) will not let me delete the files - error code -36, some data can’t be read or written. I tried using terminal with command sudo ram -i and dragging all the files into terminal, but it requested my admin password aand then wouldn’t accept it.

i am still new to Mac (after 30 years on windows), and am confused about how to proceed. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[jnorman]

Ha! I tried again this morning using the sudo rm -i command in terminal and it worked. I deleted all 40gb of files there, and rebooted. Oddly, there are still 25gb of system data - but i am gonna call this a win!

 

[LesBrown]

FWIW, I use the app Grand Perspective when I need to figure out where all my hard drive space went.

 

[JamesNorth]

Could it just be disk snapshots that macOS is taking?

 

[WJohnG]

Much of that “system data” is cached stuff and macOS will delete it if disk space is needed.

 

[Rainflower]

I just did a time machine backup. Then did a complete system wipe on my ‘18 intel mini. It really made system more responsive and enjoyable! Back to making music!

 

[jnorman]

Rain - Just so you know, Mac OS sticks a copy of Time Machine backups in system data. I found instructions on google that showed how to delete it from terminal.

 

[Rainflower]

Rain - Just so you know, Mac OS sticks a copy of Time Machine backups in system data. I found instructions on google that showed how to delete it from terminal.

even if you backup to an external drive? that’s interesting.
so, even though I wiped my machine, there is still a copy of my last time machine backup on the internal drive? taking up space? and previous time machine backups?
i will check this out later today…thanks for the heads up!

 

[jnorman]

Rain -

1. Open the Finder and go to Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
2. Type in this command:
   
   tmutil listbackups
3. Backups are displayed by date. Once you locate the backup you want to delete, make a note of its directory path, enter the below command followed by its path:
   
   sudo tmutil delete
4. Press Return to delete it.

 

[Dambo101]

I’m pretty sure it creates snapshots since APFS. You can view and delete them with disk utility.

View APFS snapshots in Disk Utility on Mac

In Disk Utility on Mac, view a list of APFS snapshots, copy information about the snapshots and delete them.

support.apple.com

 

[Rainflower]

Rain -

1. Open the Finder and go to Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
2. Type in this command:
   
   tmutil listbackups
3. Backups are displayed by date. Once you locate the backup you want to delete, make a note of its directory path, enter the below command followed by its path:
   
   sudo tmutil delete
4. Press Return to delete it.

returned result is : “No machine directory found for host”

I’m guessing that the fresh install i just did wiped everything..

 

[UniversalAudio]

returned result is : “No machine directory found for host”

I’m guessing that the fresh install i just did wiped everything..

I get the same and this is a 2 year old computer that was Monterey and I upgraded it to Sonoma.

 

[Rainflower]

I get the same and this is a 2 year old computer that was Monterey and I upgraded it to Sonoma.

did you do any time machine backups?
I’ve always done TM backups to an external drive. I never even considered that apple would be also making a copy to the internal drive..

 

[UniversalAudio]

did you do any time machine backups?
I’ve always done TM backups to an external drive. I never even considered that apple would be also making a copy to the internal drive..

Yes, I use TM. It tells you here.