Why does System Data keep increasing?

[Alpha Centauri]

Assuming you are just copying from one disk to the DAS you overwrite the contents of that drive with those of the source drive. There is no backup history. Snapshots allow you to replace a file from an earlier time which was replaced by a later backup.

Indeed, just a simple TM backup from the internal to an external. But I'm still not properly understanding. So if the destination drive get's overwritten due to space running out, are you saying that snapshots will backup the oldest data on the internal drive to preserve that overwritten data? Is there a limitation to the file size that snapshots can save?

I'll add that I initially started with a 4TB NVMe+enclosure for TM but am waiting now on a new enclosure and in the interim using a 1TB HDD. This would explain (if my above understanding is correct), that the 500GB gets overwritten quickly and the old data ends up as snapshots on the internal so quickly.

 

[HDFan]

So if the destination drive get's overwritten due to space running out, are you saying that snapshots will backup the oldest data on the internal drive to preserve that overwritten data? Is there a limitation to the file size that snapshots can save?

If you are referring to TM if the TM backup drive gets full it deletes the oldest backups when it runs out of space. Snapshots are a step in the TM process. Not sure about interaction between the TM disk and local snapshots. Could be that it switches between them as needed before they are written to disk.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

If you are referring to TM if the TM backup drive gets full it deletes the oldest backups when it runs out of space. Snapshots are a step in the TM process. Not sure about interaction between the TM disk and local snapshots. Could be that it switches between them as needed before they are written to disk.

Thank you, did find another article on Apple support. Looking at the history, and having 1.5TB space free on the internal, most of my snapshots are circa 30GB in size. By the sound of it probably created when doing macOS updates, yet i do manually do a TM backup to external prior to updating. Also likely snapshots also updated on its own schedule.

I do like the notion of retrieving latest, albeit limited data from within snapshots, if an external TM disc isn’t on hand. That’s why I was trying to understand the criteria of snapshots.

About Time Machine local snapshots - Apple Support

Time Machine lets you restore files from local snapshots of the files on your Mac, even when your Time Machine backup disk isn't available.

support.apple.com

 

[takMonica]

Yes, it's normal for System Data to increase over time even if you’re not installing new apps. This happens due to app caches, system logs, and temporary files accumulating. Regularly clearing caches and performing system maintenance can help manage this growth.

 

[Ledsteplin]

It goes up and down. Depends on what's going on.

 

[anthony13]

I've done all the things I've read about in this and various threads and mine is still sitting at 270GB. which seems large for a 1TB drive. It was as high as 400GB. Still not sure what is causing this.

 

[roadkill401]

I have concluded its apples way of getting people who bought a Mac with a 256 or 512 drive to upgrade. my Mac mini is used just for music. I don't install new stuff and this week I found out I can't use my Mac as the drive is full. figured out apple has installed 48gb of unwanted screen saver files onto the Mac. the sandbox in library duplicated entire directories of my user data files that have zero to do with what the sandbox needed to allow the apps to install. its a total joke.

 

[Espressoshot]

Here is the solution, hoping this will help someone with this headache. It is time machine related. follow these steps https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/view-apfs-snapshots-dskuf82354dc/mac . Apple, do better.

 

[roadkill401]

Here is the solution, hoping this will help someone with this headache. It is time machine related. follow these steps https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/view-apfs-snapshots-dskuf82354dc/mac . Apple, do better.

yea.. I can understand to keep maybe the past two, but at some point you don't need to keep everything. I was told by apple (that I promptly processed to forget until you sparked the deep buried memory) that these are stored to reduce the time it takes for you to restore from Timemachine. So effectively its like you don't need timemachine as they are keeping the backup local anyway.

 

[anthony13]

Here is the solution, hoping this will help someone with this headache. It is time machine related. follow these steps https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/view-apfs-snapshots-dskuf82354dc/mac . Apple, do better.

This didnt solve it for me. Im at 275gb, but sometimes it’s as high as 385. I’ve tried so many different things to no avail.

 

[Espressoshot]

yea.. I can understand to keep maybe the past two, but at some point you don't need to keep everything. I was told by apple (that I promptly processed to forget until you sparked the deep buried memory) that these are stored to reduce the time it takes for you to restore from Timemachine. So effectively its like you don't need timemachine as they are keeping the backup local anyway.

I had about 600 go that I cleared up. I realized my Time Machine had not been backing up because drive died but it said it was backed up so I had no idea. Little did I know all backups were being made locally. I still have almost 300gb I couldn’t clear don’t know what that is.

 

[Espressoshot]

yea.. I can understand to keep maybe the past two, but at some point you don't need to keep everything. I was told by apple (that I promptly processed to forget until you sparked the deep buried memory) that these are stored to reduce the time it takes for you to restore from Timemachine. So effectively its like you don't need timemachine as they are keeping the backup local anyway.

I had about 600 go that I cleared up. I realized my Time Machine had not been backing up because drive died but it said it was backed up so I had no idea. Little did I know all backups were being made locally. I still have almost 300gb I couldn’t clear don’t know what that is

This didnt solve it for me. Im at 275gb, but sometimes it’s as high as 385. I’ve tried so many different things to no avail.

I still have almost 300gb I couldn’t clear don’t know what that is but it solved about 70% of my storage issue. I will contact Apple to see how to clear further and do more research on it, this solution I found on my own

 

[Adora]

This didnt solve it for me. Im at 275gb, but sometimes it’s as high as 385. I’ve tried so many different things to no avail.

I had over 600GB blocked by System Data that wasn't deletable anywhere.

Then I deleted all APFS Snapshots (whatever that is) with Tinker Tool System, they weren't very large, but new ones appeared. I deleted those too and again new ones appeared, one of the last was over 400GB. All together I got my over 600GB back.

You have to choose the Volume "Data".

For Sonoma and Ventura you need Version 8. The latest version 9 is only for Sequoia. But the license is for both if you buy it.

TinkerTool System 8: Description

Product description for TinkerTool System 8

www.bresink.com

"You can download the product and fully test it for a limited time before you decide to purchase an unrestricted usage license."

 

[gilby101]

Then I deleted all APFS Snapshots (whatever that is) with Tinker Tool System

TTS is a useful tool, but you can delete snapshots with Disk Utility. Select the volume, then in the menus View > Show APFS snapshots. That will list them along with their sizes and you can delete them. Also with the terminal command tmutil.

The Time Machine snapshots should be deleted automatically after 24 hours - but only if Time Machine runs regularly, preferably every hour.

The "asr" snapshots must have been produced by some action of yours - you might want to investigate that.

 

[Fishrrman]

anthony wrote:
"This didnt solve it for me. Im at 275gb, but sometimes it’s as high as 385. I’ve tried so many different things to no avail."

Download DiskWave from here:

DiskWave Homepage

It's small in size and free.

Open DiskWave and go to the preferences.
Put a checkmark in "show invisible files".
Close preferences.

The DiskWave window shows you all your volumes and drives in plain English (no ridiculous graphical formats).
Click on any item "on the left". Give it time to "digest".
Now, look to the right, you'll see what's ON the volume, listed in order of "largest to smallest".
You can easily locate what's eating up your space.

What is it?

 

[Adora]

anthony wrote:
"This didnt solve it for me. Im at 275gb, but sometimes it’s as high as 385. I’ve tried so many different things to no avail."

Download DiskWave from here:

DiskWave Homepage

It's small in size and free.

Open DiskWave and go to the preferences.
Put a checkmark in "show invisible files".
Close preferences.

The DiskWave window shows you all your volumes and drives in plain English (no ridiculous graphical formats).
Click on any item "on the left". Give it time to "digest".
Now, look to the right, you'll see what's ON the volume, listed in order of "largest to smallest".
You can easily locate what's eating up your space.

What is it?

That's good for "normal" files. Maybe it helps him.

The Data partition where those APFS snapshots are stored has a strange name in there that consists only of digits and letters and it shows me only about 11 MB of data. On Macintosh HD the biggest thing is 36 Bytes.

In my case the files were in inaccessible folders. With this symbol:

A cleaner tool showed me a long list. I couldn't get in there, even with SIP disabled. So I went to the root account and in those folders were again hundreds of subfolders. Mostly there is no app that can show the size of those folders or even the normal accessible system folders.

This is what DiskWave looks for me:

 

[gilby101]

Mostly there is no app that can show the size of those folders or even the normal accessible system folders.

Try DaisyDisk (scan as Administrator) - it is much better for accurately getting to the detail. To me, DiskWave seems rather lacking (as well as being slow).

 

[anthony13]

I’ve never tried one of these disc cleaning programs because they have given me problems in the past.

I do have Dropbox installed, and recently had to manage some very large video files, I keep wondering if there is some sort of cache of them somewhere but I have looked everywhere.

 

[anthony13]

I’ve never tried one of these disc cleaning programs because they have given me problems in the past.

I do have Dropbox installed, and recently had to manage some very large video files, I keep wondering if there is some sort of cache of them somewhere but I have looked everywhere.

Finally found mine! it was in my user-library-cloud storage folder. It was some sort of snap shot of my dropbox, not linked to dropbox though. I do remember at one point I had the newer style dropbox file management that is currently not fully implemented (for those not familiar dropbox is going to change the way Mac OS works with it's app on the backend). I had that newer system then one day it reverted, so maybe if left these files.