trashing previous system folder

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trashing previous system folder

I just upgraded to Catalina, and by and large, it's working well. Before that I ran Mojave for a couple of years. Just before I upgraded to Catalina, I noticed the "Previous System" folder still on my HD and so came looking on line for any advice as to whether I could get rid of it. I found an article saying that, once the Mojave system was running OK for a couple of months, then it would be safe to trash this folder.

So I dragged it to the bin, yet was still asked for my admin password before it would go without a fight. I typed it in and so far so good. But when I came to empty the bin it came up with a series of reasons why various files couldn't be deleted because they were 'in use by the system.' But surely they were no longer needed, right? Anyway, after attempting to empty the trash so many times and having to abandon it due to the never ending series of 'skips', I dragged the previous system folder out on to my desktop. I installed Catalina, and then tried to trash that 'Previous System' folder again. Same problem.

So, in order for my trash to empty neatly when I want to, I have had to drag the "Previous System" folder back on to my desk top where it sits and taunts me perpetually. How do I get rid of it for good? Pleeeease!

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on Jan 20, 2020 6:01 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Level 9

68,576 points

Jan 20, 2020 10:49 PM in response to John the Greek

Before you do anything make sure you have good working backups in case something goes wrong.

Have you tried restarting the computer and then deleting the folder again?

Try doing it from Safe Mode.

The Catalina system files are now stored on a read-only volume. If the "Previous System" folder is/was located on that volume, then you will not be able to remove it while booted to Catalina. You will need to boot into Recovery Mode and use the command line to delete the folder. If you have another Mac, then you can put this system in Target Disk Mode and use the Finder to delete the "Previous System" folder. I'm not sure this is the case since it "appears" you have moved the folder to the Desktop.

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Answer 2

dl68

Level 1

24 points

Feb 1, 2020 8:45 AM in response to John the Greek

I have the same question as John the Greek. I am running macOS 10.14.6 on an iMac (18,3). I never noticed, or paid much attention to, the "Previous System" folder until recently. I am an average home-user and had my attempt to upgrade to Windows 10 on my VirtualBox virtual machine go horribly wrong and almost completely fill my 512 GB SSD storage. I managed to clean up my mess using DaisyDisk, and that's when I noticed the Previous System folder. (Mine is about 6 GB with over 4,000 files. That's a lot of those skip, stop, or continue messages that John referred to.) I can move the folder around from startup disk to Trash to Desktop, but I'm not allowed to delete the folder from the Trash or to delete it by using DaisyDisk or Trash It 7.5. I'm assuming this is because of System Integrity Protection.

I have seen at least one article stating that SIP can be turned off using a Terminal command, and then the folder can be deleted. However, as an average user, I rarely use Terminal for fear of doing something wrong that cannot be reversed. As someone said in an online post, Terminal assumes you know what you're doing--and I don't always do.

Is there an easy way to delete this folder? Or should I just forget about it and put it back where I found it? I don't really need the space as my internal SSD is only about 30% full.

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trashing previous system folder

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