Solution: Reclaim storage back from "System"

[flipin]

Thanks all. Another annoying WTF situation with a workable solution found here

Also: To KILL TM activity (I hope) go to choose disk in TM prefs and control click on the selected volume you were using- it brings up a remove disk button. With 'Back Up Automatically' unchecked, I hope my TM days are over- until they fix it rationally. But if it rises like Lazarus or any common zombie y'all have shown me the tools to smite its virus like growth. Thanks!

 

[SoYoung]

I have a strange problem with the System storage as well. When I go to about my mac to see my storage and click to show more details, the system category don't show the storage it uses, only a constant spinning wheel...Anyone have this problem?

 

[Weaselboy]

I have a strange problem with the System storage as well. When I go to about my mac to see my storage and click to show more details, the system category don't show the storage it uses, only a constant spinning wheel...Anyone have this problem?

Try running this command in Terminal to reindex Spotlight. That readout gets data from Spotlight and often a reindex will fix it. Give it 30 minutes or so to complete.

sudo mdutil -E /

 

[SoYoung]

Try running this command in Terminal to reindex Spotlight. That readout gets data from Spotlight and often a reindex will fix it. Give it 30 minutes or so to complete.

sudo mdutil -E /

Thanks for your reply but unfortunately it didn't work

 

[thesquale]

Finally a fix!! thank you so much. "system" went from 157Gb down to 50gb. awesome.

when i run that command in terminal, nothing happens ?
[doublepost=1513524637][/doublepost]

Thanks for the research and your post. After reading your comment, I dug around some more and read the man pages.

I found this post by @oatman13 with the command below to thin those local snapshots.

sudo tmutil thinLocalSnapshots / 10000000000 4

That 10000000000 there is how much you want to thin in bytes (so about 9GB). I tested the command and the
listlocalsnapshots as you suggested before and after and this completely removed all the snapshots from my MacBook. I suppose if you had more than ~9GB you could stick another zero on that command to make it ~90GB.

At any rate the thinLocalSnapshots command removes them all with one command.

how do you properly use that command ? when i use
sudo tmutil thinLocalSnapshots

Terminal replies by
Usage tmutil thinLocalSnapshots <mount point> [purge amount] [urgency]

? how can i know how much i want to delete ?

 

[Weaselboy]

how do you properly use that command ?

You need to copy/paste the whole line into Terminal. You will be asked for your password, then it may take minute or so for the command to finish.

sudo tmutil thinLocalSnapshots / 10000000000 4

 

[thesquale]

You need to copy/paste the whole line into Terminal. You will be asked for your password, then it may take minute or so for the command to finish.

sudo tmutil thinLocalSnapshots / 10000000000 4

command worked but was quite quick. 2 secs ? and then : Thinned local snapshots appeared on screen

 

[Weaselboy]

command worked but was quite quick. 2 secs ? and then : Thinned local snapshots appeared on screen

Sounds like you did not have many snapshots there to delete if it went that quickly.

 

[thesquale]

Sounds like you did not have many snapshots there to delete if it went that quickly.

probably. then i need to find what the issue is !! 700 Go system storage

 

[Weaselboy]

probably. then i need to find what the issue is !! 700 Go system storage

Yeah... something else going on there.

Run this and give it a minute to complete then post the results. It will show all the base folders and the space used by each, including hidden and system folders.

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

 

[thesquale]

Yeah... something else going on there.

Run this and give it a minute to complete then post the results. It will show all the base folders and the space used by each, including hidden and system folders.

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

thanks. willl let it run.

still running after 3 min !

 

[thesquale]

Yeah... something else going on there.

Run this and give it a minute to complete then post the results. It will show all the base folders and the space used by each, including hidden and system folders.

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

and here is the result :

1 /.DocumentRevisions-V100

1 /.fseventsd

4 /.PKInstallSandboxManager-SystemSoftware

2 /.Spotlight-V100

0 /.Trashes

0 /.vol

19 /Applications

1 /bin

0 /cores

1 /dev

1 /home

1 /Incompatible Software

7 /Library

1 /net

0 /Network

du: /private/var/db/ConfigurationProfiles/Store: Operation not permitted

du: /private/var/folders/81/6nf1n73n3bsd15sq12jhz8vc0000gn/0/com.apple.LaunchServices.dv: Operation not permitted

du: /private/var/folders/81/6nf1n73n3bsd15sq12jhz8vc0000gn/0/com.apple.nsurlsessiond: Operation not permitted

du: /private/var/folders/81/6nf1n73n3bsd15sq12jhz8vc0000gn/0/com.apple.routined: Operation not permitted

du: /private/var/folders/81/6nf1n73n3bsd15sq12jhz8vc0000gn/0/SafariFamily: Operation not permitted

du: /private/var/folders/fy/cg4sb2rj4ysgsd3q8gpcdf3m0000gq/0/com.apple.LaunchServices.dv: Operation not permitted

du: /private/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000y800007k/0/com.apple.nsurlsessiond: Operation not permitted

5 /private

1 /sbin

7 /System

869 /Users

1 /usr

1 /Volumes

910 /

910 total

 

[Weaselboy]

869 /Users

You have something going on in your user account there. Do you have 869GB of data in there?

sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g ~/

Run this and it will do the same thing for your users folder.

 

[bernuli]

One more reason why I don't use TM and will never use it.
I prefer CarbonCopyCloner -- a real backup program that doesn't muck and create invisible files on your main drive...

Time Machine has bailed me out more than once, and I don't find it all that invasive.

CCC is perhaps a better program but the simplicity of Time Machine makes it well worthy.

 

[thesquale]

You have something going on in your user account there. Do you have 869GB of data in there?

sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g ~/

Run this and it will do the same thing for your users folder.

and here is the result !

1 /Users/xxxxx//.android

1 /Users/xxxxx//.bash_sessions

1 /Users/xxxxx//.cups

1 /Users/xxxxxx//.dropbox

1 /Users/xxxxxx//.mitmproxy

1 /Users/xxxxxx//.oracle_jre_usage

0 /Users/xxxxxx//.Trash

1 /Users/xxxxx//Applications

125 /Users/xxxxx//Desktop

6 /Users/xxxxxx//Documents

1 /Users/xxxxxx//Downloads

5 /Users/xxxxxx//Dropbox

1 /Users/xxxxxx//GéoTortue

233 /Users/xxxxxx//Library

276 /Users/xxxxxx//Movies

143 /Users/xxxxxx//Music

81 /Users/xxxxxx//Pictures

3 /Users/xxxxxx//Public

869 /Users/xxxxxx/

869 total

 

[Weaselboy]

233 /Users/xxxxxx//Library

Something going on in the user Library folder.

You can keep drilling down by changing the end there.

sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g ~/Library

 

[AusAsh]

I tried this and no snapshots pop up to be able to delete. Am I doing something wrong?

After upgrading to High Sierra the "System" storage was 260GB (About This Mac -> Storage). I also used DaisyDisk to confirm that there were "200GB of hidden system files" that can't be shown or deleted.

Turned to our good friend Google and I found that Time Machine local backups were the reason and 'sudo tmutil disablelocal' command was supposed to help, if only "disablelocal" verb had not been removed from High Sierra. So back to square one.

Did some digging a.k.a. opened the manual for tmutil. I found that there were two useful verbs "listlocalsnapshots" and "deletelocalsnapshots". Used the first one to get the exact date stamps required for the second one and deleted all local snapshots manually.

Result: "System" went from 260GB to 60GB.

Step by step I went as following:

sudo tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

This resulted:

com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-09-27-005259
com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-09-27-104645
com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-09-27-114218
com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-09-27-124220

I took these four date stamps and followed the next command with each as following:

tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2017-09-27-005259

So in the end if i double checked with

sudo tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

there were no snapshots and after checking "About This Mac -> Storage" I was happy

Hope this helps!

 

[Strelok]

My System was using up a decent amount as well and I couldn't figure out why. I don't use Time Machine and I checked every folder. Turns out Battle.net, Diablo III, showed up under System for some reason. Uninstalled it and boom, my space is back.

 

[AusAsh]

Interesting! How would I find that?
[doublepost=1513618197][/doublepost]

Yeah... something else going on there.

Run this and give it a minute to complete then post the results. It will show all the base folders and the space used by each, including hidden and system folders.

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

Mine says cores is at 204. What is cores anyway? when I try to go down further into it, it just says:

Password:

204 /cores

204 total


[Process completed]

 

[Weaselboy]

What is cores anyway?

Are you a developer? Cores is where app tests put core dumps to show errors. You can just delete it.

 

[AusAsh]

Thanks!

I am not a developer..a bit of a Mac newb. How do I delete it?

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks!

I am not a developer..a bit of a Mac newb. How do I delete it?

You should be able to just select it in Finder and drag it to the trash, then empty your trash.

 

[AusAsh]

You should be able to just select it in Finder and drag it to the trash, then empty your trash.

I couldn't find a way to delete it from Finder, but I found this: sudo rm -f /cores/core.*

and it worked! Thank you so much for all of your help! I finally have control of my computer again!

 

[thesquale]

Something going on in the user Library folder.

You can keep drilling down by changing the end there.

sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g ~/Library

i think i found what it is. Iphones BACKUPS !!! will delete them

also in the movies folder, i have a Imovies projects twice for the same size : Imovie.Libray and Imovie.Events

thank you so much for your time and help !

 

[AusAsh]

I couldn't find a way to delete it from Finder, but I found this: sudo rm -f /cores/core.*

and it worked! Thank you so much for all of your help! I finally have control of my computer again!

Oof. Sorry--one more question. How do I stop it from overloading the cores folder? It happened again today, repeated the process and it was all good again.