How do I free up space in the "System" folder?

Just so you know, this is not Apple support and we are not Apple employees. We are all other end users like you.

Unfortunately, you cannot manage the contents of the Other category; it is a very confusing new "feature" and here is Apple's official explanation:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/system-information/syspf9b375b9/11.0/mac/11.0

As for what you can delete, here is an Apple article:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206996

Note that most of the space hogging files are usually photos, movies, videos and also Time Machine snap shots (which the OS creates when the TM drive is not plugged in - it is supposed to clear those out once you allow TM to update).

What is “Other” storage on a Mac, and how can I clean it out?

How to free up storage space on your Mac

I have a similar issue. Roughly 110 Gb is stored on "Other." This is more than all my personal data (pictures, music, documents, email, etc) combined. And I'm reaching the limit of my available 250 Gb storage.

I tried Apple support and the person I spoke with wasn't much help. Then I tried making hidden files visible, checking them out, and discovered that the Library folder in my Home/Username folder had over 100 Gb. So my question to Apple support is, how can I identify which of the files in this Library folder need to be kept, and which can be removed?

Thanks Bobowa,

Yeah, I get it. The thing is, I've already tried the other stuff, off-loading photos, music, etc. into the cloud. But the 100 Gb in the hidden "Library" folder is more than all my other data combined. I can't believe that 100 Gb is actually needed. It would be nice if there's another end user who has figured this out, or if Apple could actually provide some help with this.

Aryae

Every Application installed occupies space and each Application will create cache files and temp files. Each Driver will occupy space and so on and so forth. All this added to the OS and all that entails and it can very quickly add up to a significant amount of space.

It really comes down to the User managing the Space on the drive. We have provided ways to slim-down the occupied space but in the end, only the operator of the machine can decide on what to keep and what to remove for areas under their direct control

You do realize that putting files in the cloud does not free up space on your computer? iCloud is a syncing service and as such, the files still take up space on your computer- if you delete them on your Mac, they will disappear from the cloud. The best way to make space on your drive is to actually move them to an external hard drive and then delete them from your Mac.

Dropbox allows you to upload the to cloud and delete the content of the file from your hard drive. I was able to free up about 20 GB that way. And I believe that iCloud has a similar utility.

Today I was able to get in touch with an Apple operating system specialist. He helped me to identify the big folders on the Library folder that I could safely delete. That freed up an additional 60 GB. So my problem has been resolved.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. All the best.

How do I free up space in the "System" folder?

There isn't any space to "free up" in the System folder.