OSX 10.14.5 Utilizing 106GB on SSD

[dgfreeman]

So I am trying to figure out why "System" is using 106GB of space on my SSD.

I had about 85GB taken up on my old HDD (which is now in my optical bay on 2012 MBP).
I installed a new SSD and used Carbon Copy Cloner to migrate over. I am currently using the old HDD for "external" storage of Garageband media (Loops, Instruments etc) as well as my iTunes Library. I also have it partitioned for a Time Machine Drive. I do not have photos on this computer and don't even have any garage band projects or anything. Wondering where all this "System" data is coming from.

 

[jbarley]

If you are using the APFS file system then maybe try listing the TM snapshots...
In a Terminal window enter "tmutil listlocalsnapshots /", minus the quotes of course.
Check back here with what you find.

 

[Honza1]

Local snapshots is one possibility - those should expire in 24 hours and be removed. Keep in mind that APFS keeps only one copy of a file and if same file is present on drive multiple times (like in snapshots) the same one location is linked to those locations. It is bit mess to figure out how much space a folder/file really uses. You can delete large file, but if it is on drive still left elsewhere (e.g., in snapshot but also elsewhere in your own location) no space may be vacated.

Second choice are your own data in various semi-system locations, like Library etc. That includes quite a bit of Application support. Like Garage band itself is large package in Applications - but it also has quite large folder of stuff in Library/Application Support. Few Gb actually. You put few such programs in and System grows a lot. Also, local copy of iCloud seems to count as system etc...

So it is not unusual that System is huge and does not mean anything is really wrong. I think Apple did not assume people will worry about System so much, they want to show you how much you have of specific, identifiable, files to know what to move to iCloud (and pay for the space ;-) )