20 Gigabyte InstallerSandboxes Folder

Question

Level 1

6 points

20 Gigabyte InstallerSandboxes Folder

Hello Everyone,

through using DaisyDisk, I found a 20 Gigabyte Folder called "InstallerSandboxes" on my MacBook. It's filled with hidden system files and located under /Library/InstallerSandboxes. It's been growing ever since I first discovered it.

I couldn't find anything about it on the web, except that it probably handles AppStore Updates. Does anyone know how to free up disk space in that regard, or just what these files do?

Thank you very much,

Pablo

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Sep 28, 2020 1:05 AM

Reply

Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

155,822 points

Sep 28, 2020 4:41 AM in response to P_o_th

That folder should not retain any contents, meaning it certainly should not be growing.

Delete its contents. If it continues to populate on its own I wouldn't know what to do about it.

Needless to say, if you are using, or have used at any time in the past, any non-Apple "anti-virus", "cleaning", or "Internet security" products including "banking security", anything at all in that broad category of utterly useless garbage, don't. A lot of things won't work if you do.

Reply

Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

155,822 points

Sep 28, 2020 5:12 AM in response to P_o_th

Since those folders are locked, I don't know if you will be able to delete them.

That doesn't change the fact that folder (.PKInstallSandboxManager) should be empty.

Reply

Answer 3

P_o_th Author

Level 1

6 points

Sep 28, 2020 5:04 AM in response to John Galt

So I best boot safe mode and then delete the files in the folder, is what you are saying? There is one in there that's called .metadata_never_index and another folder called .PKInstallSandboxManager. The folder contains several folder with the extension .activeSandbox. Should I delete everything or just the .activeSandbox?

Anyway thank you very much for your help!

Reply

Answer 4

P_o_th Author

Level 1

6 points

Sep 28, 2020 4:44 AM in response to John Galt

So you'd say it's safe to delete? Are there other ways, like booting in safe mode or something, that allow macOS to delete unneeded system files?

Reply

Answer 5

John Galt

Level 10

155,822 points

Sep 28, 2020 4:54 AM in response to P_o_th

I would certainly boot Safe Mode, but deleting contents of that folder is not one of the things it does. Booting Safe Mode will be instructive to determine whether that folder continues to populate with new content while in that mode.

Reply

20 Gigabyte InstallerSandboxes Folder

Similar questions