Folder "/private/var/folders" constantly growing

Question

Level 1

8 points

Folder "/private/var/folders" constantly growing

I've got an iMac 320GB hard disc, running Mac OS 10.5.6. Suddenly last week I received a message that my start up disc was running out of space. I was sure that I had almost 80GB free, but when I checked the bottom of a Finder window, I was shocked because there was only 600MB. After I rebooted, I saw that a folder named "Recovered Files" had appeared into my Trash Bin, and when I deleted it, I actually got back my 80GB disc space!!! After using the app "WhatSize", I managed to locate the problem: the folder "/private/var/folders/YN". In this folder there is another one named "YN icJWtHzyrX6PuL7lG7E++TI" containing among others the folder "TemporaryItems". I don't know what is it, why is it named YN or what kind of temporary items are they, but they are constantly being created and named like ". &&expandTemp&&.", ". &&expandTemp&&.1", ". &&expandTemp&&.2" etc.. Each of them is 1-3.7GB large, ending up consuming my whole free disc space. After each reboot they are removed in the Trash Bin , as I explained before, in a folder named "Recovered Items", but soon after booting, they start being created again. I checked my Activity Monitor and confirmed through Disc Activity, that the disc is being constantly used at a rate of 25MB/sec both reading and writing. Please, I'd be glad to hear any suggestions. Thanks in advance.
P.S.1: Is there any way to find out which program keeps reading/writing on my disc?
P.S.2: My spotlight is behaving strangely (keeps indexing quite often, since the whole problem began). Is it somehow connected with that folder?

iMac 20", 2.4GHz, 2GB RAM, 320GB HD, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Mar 8, 2009 4:38 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Mar 9, 2009 3:26 PM in response to Mac Stefanos

I don't know why the peculiar names for the folders, but I do know what they are--there are different folders for every user (including some system "users") on your machine. Inside are stored various caches and temporary files. For instance, when you go to YouTube and watch something, the flv file actually streams into the temp folder called "TemporaryItems" (which will disappear, both the temp file and the folder itself upon a restart). You have some program which is constantly writing to the TemporaryItems folder.

There are a couple of things to try to find out what it is that is writing the files. One is to launch Activity Monitor, make sure "All Processes" is selected at the top, then click the CPU column head and watch to see what processes are popping to the top. Thus, when I play something at YouTube, the temp file gets written to the TemporaryItems folder, and simultaneously Safari pops up to the top of the Activity Monitor.

You can also try Terminal, use the "lsof" command. You lsof, then a space, then drag the temp file into the Terminal and drop it, and hit the return key. Here's what I get:

lsof /private/var/folders/90/90gu9daQFSitP4FD2179ck +TI/TemporaryItems/FlashTmp0
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
Safari 165 francine 24u REG 14,9 5658149 14718012 /private/var/folders/90/90gu9daQFSitP4FD2179ck +TI/TemporaryItems/FlashTmp0

The part you are interested in is the part under "COMMAND" and perhaps the part under "PID"--the first in this case is Safari, the second is the number "165"--you can then go to Activity Monitor and look for the process listed by name or by process ID. That should help you figure out what is causing the problem.
Francine

Francine
Schwieder

Reply

Answer 2

Mac Stefanos Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 11, 2009 4:52 PM in response to Francine Schwieder

Thank you very much for your advice, but I didn't have the chance to test it. Even before I read your post, I had began to uninstall several programs in order to find out which one was problematic. I uninstalled iWork, Adobe Suite and finally Office. Guess what! Only after I threw Microsoft Office away was the problem resolved. I don't know exactly what had happened and I have still not re-installed it in order to see what's going to happen. Apart from that, I the huge files were not created again, so I couldn't use your suggested command. Thanx again anyway

Reply