"System" Taking Alot of Space

[Weaselboy]

Yeah I have High Sierra, anything I can do about it then?

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202301

If you have Time Machine on with High Sierra it still uses local snapshots, they are just stored differently.

Run this command in Terminal and it will remove them.

tmutil  listlocalsnapshotdates / |grep 20|while read f; do tmutil deletelocalsnapshots $f; done

 

[dtmnuclear]

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202301

If you have Time Machine on with High Sierra it still uses local snapshots, they are just stored differently.

Run this command in Terminal and it will remove them.

tmutil  listlocalsnapshotdates / |grep 20|while read f; do tmutil deletelocalsnapshots $f; done

I've tried manually deleting the snapshots and disabling TM via the tmutil commands, as well as running the snippet above (all with sudo privileges) ... to no avail. The system reports back that the snapshots were deleted, but when I list local snapshots for verification, they all (re)appear. I've posted a screen shot which captures this behavior. Any thoughts on how to force-delete these files? Also, Apple support was no help - they had me re-index my HD even though I assured them that it wouldn't fix my issue.

 

[Weaselboy]

as well as running the snippet above (all with sudo privileges) ... to no avail.

You don't need sudo for that. Try it without.

tmutil  listlocalsnapshotdates / |grep 20|while read f; do tmutil deletelocalsnapshots $f; done

I do see something odd though. Normally it only keeps these for 24 hours, and you have them going back days.

If this ^ code does not work, try turn off TM from System Prefs, then reboot then turn it back on and see what it shows.

 

[Macshroomer]

You don't need sudo for that. Try it without.

tmutil  listlocalsnapshotdates / |grep 20|while read f; do tmutil deletelocalsnapshots $f; done

I do see something odd though. Normally it only keeps these for 24 hours, and you have them going back days.

If this ^ code does not work, try turn off TM from System Prefs, then reboot then turn it back on and see what it shows.

Thank you huge! And I mean really huge, like 600GB of purgeable on my 2 day old iMac Pro ( long story ).

 

[Oleczek]

Hello there.
I have a similar problem but after trying all of the solutions in this thread it persists.
I have a Mid 2012 MacBook Pro Retina that I have just updated to High Sierra.
On my 500GB HD I have 300-335GB of System files (which fluctuates constantly), and that's after I turned off automatic backups.
iOS takes 36.5GB, apps 30GB, iTunes 22.6GB, etc ... Documents: 10.73GB - which is odd because in finder my documents show up to be 72GB, and it doesn't add up when I add everything up except apps.
Purgeable is around 6-7GB.

So anyways, do you have any ideas how to help me out here?

I am also experiencing slow downs that appear to be GPU related, but that's probably for a topic for another thread.

 

[Weaselboy]

I have a similar problem but after trying all of the solutions in this thread it persists.

Try running this command in Terminal and give it a half hour or so to complete. This will reindex Spotlight, which is where the data for that storage readout comes from.

sudo mdutil -E /

 

[alexmiller00]

This:

When a file gets deleted without any Time Machine backup, MacOS has a feature of a local Time Machine backup, which saves the file into the System section as shown in the About This Mac> Storage. The purgeable space is saved for whenever a local time machine backup needs to occur if in case any file had been deleted accidently from the system by the user. There is a way to disable this local time machine backup. Here are the following steps:

1. Open terminal
2. Type "df -h". This will show you a volume of MobileBackups if it was enabled and if this does apply to your system.
3. To disable your Mobile Backup, type "sudo tmutil disablelocal". When prompted for password then type in your password.
4. Check your Storage and see that the purgeable space has been deleted plus the System section has also shrunk to just contain the OSX.

To enable/re-enable the local Time machine backup:

1. Open Terminal
2. Type "sudo tmutil enablelocal". When prompted for password then type in your password. This will then start making a local time machine backup in the system. This will take a while. If you want a quick backup then type "tmutil snapshot".
3. Check your Storage to see that the backup has been made with minimal amount of purgeable space since the snapshot was made. Note that the system section has also increased at this point too to include the previous backup but this time without the space for the purgeable space reserved for this size.

That command doesn't really help on High Sierra 10.13.3 what I found was that the Time machine was creating Snapshots every so often which was attributing to purgeable space, I ran "sudo tmutil thinLocalSnapshots / 10000000000 4" and this gave me close to 150GB of Free space and left a few of the most recent snapshots alone. The issue is that the snapshots will continue over time so this command will need to be run when your space gets low again and your system is showing that "system" is consuming the space.

 

[rickybloomfield]

I've tried manually deleting the snapshots and disabling TM via the tmutil commands, as well as running the snippet above (all with sudo privileges) ... to no avail. The system reports back that the snapshots were deleted, but when I list local snapshots for verification, they all (re)appear. I've posted a screen shot which captures this behavior. Any thoughts on how to force-delete these files? Also, Apple support was no help - they had me re-index my HD even though I assured them that it wouldn't fix my issue.

View attachment 750240

Any luck with this? I'm seeing the exact same problem. Running any of the tmutil commands do nothing for me (TM is turned off). I now have no free space on my SSD, DaisyDisk shows 215GB of "hidden space" and System storage info shows 296GB of "System" usage.

 

[xnatex]

My mac says
disbalelocal: Unrecognized verb.
What do i do?

I know this post is old, but you misspelled disable. It's disablelocal, not disbalelocal.

 

[Gregg2]

I know this post is old, but you misspelled disable. It's disablelocal, not disbalelocal.

That'll get you a merit badge.

 

[OriginalAppleGuy]

Okay - so I found this thread because I saw another one just posted noting how big system was. So I checked mine and I'm shocked to see 335 GB used by system. I've done everything everyone has posted and nothing reduces it. Time machine files are in check and spotlight has reindexed. This is the craziest thing I've ever seen and am a bit miffed.

Anyone have any other ideas? Using HighSierra on a 2017 MBP.

 

[Weaselboy]

Okay - so I found this thread because I saw another one just posted noting how big system was. So I checked mine and I'm shocked to see 335 GB used by system. I've done everything everyone has posted and nothing reduces it. Time machine files are in check and spotlight has reindexed. This is the craziest thing I've ever seen and am a bit miffed.

Anyone have any other ideas? Using HighSierra on a 2017 MBP.

Try running this command in Terminal and give us the result. It will show the size in GB of all the base files, including any hidden and system files.

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

 

[OriginalAppleGuy]

Try running this command in Terminal and give us the result. It will show the size in GB of all the base files, including any hidden and system files.

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

Weaselboy - thank you very much for the reply. One thing I noticed after posting this is what's reported in "System Storage" doesn't seem to be just system storage. I downloaded OmniDiskSweeper as someone recommended. I found a couple things but also discovered the categories the OS reports are off. For instance:

Documents are 49.68 GB
iTunes 27.37 GB
Apps 22.81 GB
Mail 10.92 GB
Photo's 6.14 GB
Music Creation 4.58 GB
Other 3.79 GB
System is now down to 261.31 GB (The iTunes old device backups seemed to refuse to delete until they finally did)

But - I have 146.4 GB of Photo's in a directory which is a lot more than 6.14 GB reported. It has to be included in System. That leaves 114.9 GB to figure out.

The following is the result of running the DU under SUDO:

0  /.HFS+ Private Directory Data

1    /home

5    /Developer

3    /Garmin Nuvi Backup

1    /usr

1    /.abackblaze

1    /.bzvol

1    /Install

2    /.Spotlight-V100

1    /net

0    /.PKInstallSandboxManager

0    /.PKInstallSandboxManager-SystemSoftware

1    /bin

137    /Pics From Camera

0    /Network

1    /sbin

12    /Library

1    /From Kingston USB

14    /System

1    /Imported Movies From Camera

1    /.fseventsd

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

du: /private/var/folders/n_/vl74484x2yq3_38n2jvrkbjh0000gq/0/com.apple.LaunchServices.dv: Operation not permitted

du: /private/var/folders/s6/0mg_fv0d4jbc0ry4djwbntx40000gn/0/SafariFamily: Operation not permitted

du: /private/var/folders/s6/0mg_fv0d4jbc0ry4djwbntx40000gn/0/com.apple.LaunchServices.dv: Operation not permitted

du: /private/var/folders/s6/0mg_fv0d4jbc0ry4djwbntx40000gn/0/com.apple.nsurlsessiond: Operation not permitted

du: /private/var/folders/s6/0mg_fv0d4jbc0ry4djwbntx40000gn/0/com.apple.routined: Operation not permitted

du: /private/var/folders/yt/wsbp4j4516l4smgkc_nycq280000gp/0/com.apple.LaunchServices.dv: Operation not permitted

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

4    /private

1    /.DocumentRevisions-V100

0    /.vol

141    /Users

1    /Scripts

22    /Applications

1    /opt

1    /dev

1    /Photoshop Add Plugins

1    /lost+found

1    /Garmin Nuvi Working

0    /Volumes

26    /iTunes Music

1    /Firmware Updates Applied

1    /Pics From Elizabeth's Cell Phone

0    /cores

364    /

364    total

 

[Weaselboy]

From that output, I don't see anything wrong as far as space used. I think what is happening is just that storage readout graphic is wrong. Try running this command in Terminal to reindex Spotlight (give it time to complete), then check again.

sudo mdutil -E /

When the Spotlight index is corrupt it will cause that storage readout to be all wrong.

 

[OriginalAppleGuy]

I’ve re-indexed already.

Thanks for looking at it!

 

[xnatex]

From that output, I don't see anything wrong as far as space used. I think what is happening is just that storage readout graphic is wrong. Try running this command in Terminal to reindex Spotlight (give it time to complete), then check again.

sudo mdutil -E /

When the Spotlight index is corrupt it will cause that storage readout to be all wrong.

That one actually helped me recently. I got like 80GB back by fixing the corrupt index.

 

[Josekeitor]

From that output, I don't see anything wrong as far as space used. I think what is happening is just that storage readout graphic is wrong. Try running this command in Terminal to reindex Spotlight (give it time to complete), then check again.

sudo mdutil -E /

When the Spotlight index is corrupt it will cause that storage readout to be all wrong.

I've tried everything discussed in this thread and I can't seem to get back the storage under "System" running macOS High Sierra 10.13.5 on a mid 2015 MBP. I've also run OmniDiskSweeper on my SSD and it only shows 245.4 GB in use, however the storage display on my mac says there are 516.8 GB. Like I said, I've deleted the local TM snapshots and I've reindexed a few times with no luck, what can I do?

 

[Weaselboy]

I've tried everything discussed in this thread and I can't seem to get back the storage under "System" running macOS High Sierra 10.13.5 on a mid 2015 MBP. I've also run OmniDiskSweeper on my SSD and it only shows 245.4 GB in use, however the storage display on my mac says there are 516.8 GB. Like I said, I've deleted the local TM snapshots and I've reindexed a few times with no luck, what can I do?

Run this command in Terminal and give it a couple minutes to finish, then post the results here.

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

This will show all the base folders and space used by each, including some system and hidden files not shown by app like ODS.

 

[Josekeitor]

Run this command in Terminal and give it a couple minutes to finish, then post the results here.

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

This will show all the base folders and space used by each, including some system and hidden files not shown by app like ODS.

Here are the results

Joses-MacBook-Pro:~ JC$ sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /

0    /.HFS+ Private Directory Data

1    /home

1    /usr

1    /.Spotlight-V100

1    /net

0    /.PKInstallSandboxManager-SystemSoftware

1    /bin

0    /Network

1    /sbin

18    /Library

0    /.Trashes

15    /System

1    /.fseventsd

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

du: /private/var/folders/6t/yqcxg8js6q95mx6trl5xy8t80000gn/0/SafariFamily: Operation not permitted

du: /private/var/folders/6t/yqcxg8js6q95mx6trl5xy8t80000gn/0/com.apple.LaunchServices.dv: Operation not permitted

du: /private/var/folders/6t/yqcxg8js6q95mx6trl5xy8t80000gn/0/com.apple.nsurlsessiond: Operation not permitted

du: /private/var/folders/6t/yqcxg8js6q95mx6trl5xy8t80000gn/0/com.apple.routined: Operation not permitted

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

4    /private

1    /.DocumentRevisions-V100

0    /.vol

163    /Users

37    /Applications

1    /dev

254    /Volumes

0    /cores

489    /

489    total

Thank you for your swift answer! I actually don't know why some folders are kinda locked, they show up like that even on other programs that show the disk storage, seems strange to me.

 

[Weaselboy]

Here are the results


Thank you for your swift answer! I actually don't know why some folders are kinda locked, they show up like that even on other programs that show the disk storage, seems strange to me.

254 /Volumes

Something is off with Volumes there showing 254GB.

Run the command again like this to see what is going on in that folder.

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

Here is what mine shows. That Backup is an external drive.

sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /Volumes
1    /Volumes/Preboot
0    /Volumes/Backup
1    /Volumes
1    total

 

[Josekeitor]

254 /Volumes

Something is off with Volumes there showing 254GB.

Run the command again like this to see what is going on in that folder.

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

Here is what mine shows. That Backup is an external drive.

sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /Volumes
1    /Volumes/Preboot
0    /Volumes/Backup
1    /Volumes
1    total

Just ran it, here are the results, I have a windows partition, and I use a TM capsule but I've stopped backups to it since its out of storage.

254    /Volumes/Data

0    /Volumes/BOOTCAMP

254    /Volumes

254    total

If I go into that Data "folder" it shows this

254    /Volumes/Data/José’s MacBook Pro (3).sparsebundle

254    /Volumes/Data

254    total

 

[Weaselboy]

If I go into that Data "folder" it shows this

Is that Data an external drive named data for TM backups? Or is that actually a local folder? That sparse bundle is usually what TM uses for networked backups.

 

[Josekeitor]

Is that Data an external drive named data for TM backups? Or is that actually a local folder? That sparse bundle is usually what TM uses for networked backups.

Im guessing it is actually a local folder, since the backups for the MBP are done OTA to the disk in the TM capsule, don't see why they would appear in terminal if they are on the Time Machine's drive and I was not connected to it. Although the folder inside TM for the backups is actually called "Data" so IDK, I also looked inside TM and the backup for the MBP is currently only 863.8 MB

 

[Weaselboy]

I think that Data folder is your problem. I had a Time Capsule and it never showed up like that in a local folder. Can you see the date of that sparse bundle file to get a feel for when that happened?

I'm wondering is at some point you tried to copy the sparse bundle from the Time Capsule over to your Mac, and this is the leftover from that?

 

[Josekeitor]

I think that Data folder is your problem. I had a Time Capsule and it never showed up like that in a local folder. Can you see the date of that sparse bundle file to get a feel for when that happened?

I'm wondering is at some point you tried to copy the sparse bundle from the Time Capsule over to your Mac, and this is the leftover from that?

Seems it was created on May 21st 2018 with is close to when the file on the TM disk was created as well (May 26th). Im guessing TM didn't have enough storage? So I don't know why it created it locally but without being listed as a localsnapshot. Heres the code straight from terminal:

Joses-MacBook-Pro:~ JC$ stat /Volumes/Data

16777222 8597838141 drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 0 96 "Jul  6 14:09:37 2018" "May 21 16:00:07 2018" "May 21 16:00:07 2018" "May 21 15:48:05 2018" 4194304 0 0 /Volumes/Data