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File copy in finder results in big files in /var/private/folders

I recently moved some big files from one of my external SSDs to another an noticed a very strange phenomenon:


During copying, files were written to /private/var/folders/.../shared-pasteboard/... , and the process useractivityd was the one reading the source files and writing those files. This went on to the point where I got warnings that my system volume was running low on memory.


Some investigating showed me that this has to do with Handoff - after I disabled it, the behavior did not occur anymore.


I like to use handoff, but it is not reasonable that it tries to store gigabytes of files in some hidden folder IMO.


Has anybody else seen this?

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Dec 14, 2020 2:33 AM

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Posted on Dec 14, 2020 4:11 AM

"moved" how?


I am guessing that you may have tried to "copy and paste".

Since one of the features of handoff is shared clipboard, that might explain it.


Can you try a simple test: turning handoff ON again, and copying files by dragging instead command-C/command-V, does it show similar behavior? [my money says it won't 😎]

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Question marked as Best reply

Dec 14, 2020 4:11 AM in response to krogalon

"moved" how?


I am guessing that you may have tried to "copy and paste".

Since one of the features of handoff is shared clipboard, that might explain it.


Can you try a simple test: turning handoff ON again, and copying files by dragging instead command-C/command-V, does it show similar behavior? [my money says it won't 😎]

File copy in finder results in big files in /var/private/folders

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