2 different system storage figures

Question

2 different system storage figures

Under "About this mac"/ Storage/ it displays a "System" figure of 106.54 GB used out of the 256 GB SSD.

In Finder, it shows a "System" figure of 10.95 GB used.

It also shows a figure of 201.66 GB under "user's folder in Finder.

This is on a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina with the i7 chip, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD.

Mac OS High Sierra 10.13.6

More importantly, even if I delete files that consume a GB or more, within a short time the total space left decreases.

It sounds to me like there's a process that's creating large temporary files that are filling up my drive, but I can't see which one it is, nor do I know how to stop it.

Can anyone tell me how to find out this information?

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.13

Posted on Dec 27, 2019 6:02 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

SandyStevenson Author

Level 1

19 points

Dec 29, 2019 11:28 AM in response to etresoft

Hi,

I tried your software, and it was somewhat helpful. Even the free version did eliminate some possibilities and get me pointed in the right direction. If a person didn't have Apple Care it would definitely be worth exploring. However, I put in a support call to Apple and the responding agent was excellent. He spent 2 hours on the phone with me, and taught me some diagnostic tricks that were very helpful.

They do, however, involve going into some areas of the file system which should only be done under the guidance of an expert, because a false step can really mess up your machine.

Therefore, I won't repeat them here.

The result was that there were two copies of my photos library that were redundant, and taking up space on my internal SSD.

Several months ago I moved my photos library out to an external 5TB drive, so once those extra copies and some additional cleanup was done, I now have 90 GB free on my 256 GB SSD.

Deleting those libraries was not simple, however, because the photostream process had been interrupted and I had to be shown where to cancel it entirely.

Bottom line is, before you implement photostream, make sure you have lots of room on your primary drive, and don't cancel or interrupt it until its done and it has deleted its temporary files.

But I might save some folks a bunch of time, if they run into a drive that's filling up like mine was. Photostream is one of the first places you should look for the culprit.

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Answer 2

etresoft

Level 8

46,834 points

Dec 27, 2019 6:14 PM in response to SandyStevenson

None of those classifications are very accurate. In the case of the 106 GB system value, those files are often files that just haven’t been classified yet.

Also, with the new APFS file system, the operating system saves snapshots of the entire system. Even if you delete files, they are preserved in snapshots. The snapshots will be deleted eventually - sooner if you run low on disk space. The system will automatically free up disk space when it runs short.

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Answer 3

Dec 27, 2019 6:42 PM in response to etresoft

That's very useful information to have. Thanks for the prompt reply.

What's disturbing is that as I find and delete files, it frees up space for half an hour and then it fills up again.

It appears to me that there is a process creating temp files that needs to be stopped, but I don't know how to identify and stop it. A week ago I had 30+ GB left on the drive; now I have 3.5 to 4.5. Nothing I've downloaded is close to that size.

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Answer 4

etresoft

Level 8

46,834 points

Dec 27, 2019 7:11 PM in response to SandyStevenson

You don’t want to get that low in free space. However, what you describe is not typical behaviour. You will need to find out which app is doing this.

I wrote a little diagnostic program to help show what might be causing these problems. Download EtreCheckPro from https://www.etrecheck.com and run it. Create a new reply and use the "Notes" tool below to add your EtreCheck report.

EtreCheckPro also has a Storage tool that will safely show which folders are taking up your hard drive space. This may be more informative than the system tools. There are other tools like OmniDiskSweeper and Daisy Disk that perform similar tasks. I think EtreCheckPro is best because it makes it more difficult to access hidden directories that could be dangerous. You may need to go into those directories eventually, but people ask before deleting any files. Otherwise, you could damage your system, lose data, and/or lose access to apps.

The Storage tool might help you get control over your immediate storage problems. Your EtreCheck report will be more useful to figure out which app is consuming all of your disk space.

Disclaimer: EtreCheckPro is my own app. EtreCheckPro is free to use but has in-app purchases available. Downloading EtreCheckPro or using it could give me some form of compensation, financial or otherwise.

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2 different system storage figures

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