After MAC OS 12 Monterey update that System Data Folder swelled to incredible 320 GB

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities.

Could you please take a screenshot of what you are seeing, Take a screenshot on your Mac - Apple Support, and upload it to Apple Support Communities?

I'd also recommend reading Free up storage space on your Mac - Apple Support.

Cheers,

Jack

Me too.

Bought an expensive m1x MacBook to replace my 2015 running big sur. 500gb on a 1tb. Tried to migrate to the new MacBook running Monterey. Migration assistant failed saying I need 1.2 tb on the new 1tb MacBook.

Senior advisor told me to upgrade my old MacBook to Monterey. Swelled it to 980gb. Apple took images and promised to call me back. No call back. They sent me to genius bar and closed the case. "genius" told me to replace it with a 4tb machine to be able to accommodate my 500gb footprint from big sur.

Apple support refused to tell me their analysis.

Huge coverup by Apple. Apple's gonna pay.

Good for you. It's not about "getting lucky" it's about not blindly deleting files. The OP and whoever else looks at this thread can do their own research. I looked into both before using them.

Clearly, it's not just me that uses these apps with no problems:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253309995?answerId=256195209022#256195209022 -> HW Tech's suggestion

Ran into it as well though with only ~60 GB system data after Monterey update.

I followed these instructions "System data taking 170GB storage space - Apple Community" and got it shrinked down to 29 GB.

Best, r.

If there has been an Abort or Failed Installation of Big Sur or Monterey - there might be a additional Volume that is a leftover from the Failed or Aborted Installation .

Suggest Disk Utilities >> View >> View ALL attached Drives. and provide a Screen Shot

Should above not apply to this computer >>

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

In Monterey the “Other “ category is named “ System Storage “.

Free up storage space on your Mac

OmniDiskSweeper Safe to use

GrandPerspective 

How to delete Time Machine snapshots on your Mac

See used and available storage space on your Mac

Locate backups of your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

The final word from Apple on Managing the " Other " Category

Other: Contains files that don’t fall into the categories listed here. This category primarily includes files and data used by the system, such as log files, caches, VM files, and other runtime system resources. Also included are temporary files, fonts, app support files, and plug-ins. You can't manage the contents of this category. The contents are managed by macOS, and the category varies in size depending on the current state of your Mac.

Any Third Party Applications that will interfere with the normal operation of the OS, alter, modify, remove or delete or attempt to do so is an invitation for disaster and may require a Reinstallation of the OS.

This includes AntiVirus, Disk Cleaners, Disk Optimizes, UnInstaller etc.

Any of the below should be removed as per Developers Instructions 

This will include CleanMyMac , Would suggest take a moment to read the first 600 posting specific to this Application and the reconsider the value of it

This will included Norton Antivirus , Sophos Av Software

Intego AntiVirus, McAfee, MacKeeper, Avast AntiVirus

Ad Guard, Webroot

The The Built in Security  is all that is required.

I just did some major digging and found that I had two Adobe Acrobats installed on OS Monterey. One just called "Acrobat" and the other Acrobat DC. "Acrobat" was running behind the scenes and making my 2019 MacBook Pro fan constantly run and was downloading 400 GB at a time. Was able to figure out two solutions:

1. It was downloading HUGE files my library in Adobe Acrobat CoreSync folder. Like 300 - 400 GB. So deleted those .log files.
   1. user/library/application support/adobe/acrobat/DC/acrobat/Eureka/AcroCoreSync/CreativeCloud/CoreSync
2. Uninstalled previous version of Acrobat.

Seems ok so far. Fan is quiet and it's not downloading massive amounts of storage so far. Fingers crossed!

UPDATE: OK, so it's definitely Adobe Acrobat DC and Acrobat. I just reinstalled from the Adobe Creative Cloud and my fan is running and it's downloading like crazy. Getting this app off my computer ASAP. It just downloaded 1.9 GB in 4 min to my CoreSync folder as a .log

You have to not only "uninstall" it from Adobe Creative Cloud and then run the Acrobat Installer in the Adobe Acrobat DC folder.

Hello, I have similar problem. System date in my Macbook Pro on macOS Monterey takes more than 228,14GB. It's crazy that is almost a half of internal SSD. Has anyone found a solution yet? I have emptied the trash bin and I have also run CCleaner app and nothing changed.

I also have this problem. Almost 2/3s of my drive is taken up with system data storage ... I basically have no computer to use at this point ... not sure if it's connected to Monterey or this bash shell vs zsh shell ... which I do not understand well enough to use the single help document I've found.

I just noticed this issue today as well. My problem is on a MacBook Pro 14 inch 2021 that I just bought on Tuesday, November 16th. I updated the MacBook to the latest public release of Monterey. Then I manually copied over the data I needed from my old MacBook; Therefore, I didn't load a backup of my previous MacBook Pro. I am showing 280.92 GB of System Data on a 500 GB drive. I just closed all the apps on my laptop, restarted the laptop, and now it shows just 120.9 GB of System Data. That is an improvement, but this is 24.2% of the hard drive wasted on System Data.

I took my new MacBook Pro into an Apple Store today due to issues with the trackpad and gestures. I was advised to try doing a clean install of the OS. I checked my storage and it shows 22 GB of system data. The Monterey OS is only taking up 15.69 GB. This is on a clean install. Either the OS is not figuring up the storage correctly or the OS has a major issue.

It's the same on my end as well. I updated to Monterey and now I have 160 GB of System Data. I just have Xcode on this Mac. I tried a few 3rd parties in order to scan and clean the disk but no luck. Better wait for Apple to figure it out.

What do you get when you Control (right) - click on the boot drive and select "Get Info" from the contextual menu?

Let us know what it shows. Then Control (right) - click on the System folder and do the same.

Hi

. . . I am able to recover 40 GB of system data . . .

(I apologize for my poor english)

I was having the same problem with my big pig. I was very worried .. I thought maybe updating Monterey would solve this problem ... After the update I saw 20+ vacancies I was happy at first but soon I realized That place was actually the OS installer. Files that were removed after installation.

Following these steps, I am able to recover 40 GB of system data.

This space was previously 124+ I didn't take any screenshot before.

I first run the following command in the terminal and it creates a 20GBs file in the user's folder. (I don't remember where I got this command from .. I guess some stack overflow)

dd if = / dev / urandom of = temp_20GB_file bs = 1024 count = $ [1024 * 1024 * 20]

I deleted this file.

I once again created several small files to see how much space could be occupied.

dd if = / dev / urandom of = temp_5GB_file_1 bs = 1024 count = $ [1024 * 1024 * 5]
dd if = / dev / urandom of = temp_5GB_file_2 bs = 1024 count = $ [1024 * 1024 * 5]
dd if = / dev / urandom of = temp_5GB_file_3 bs = 1024 count = $ [1024 * 1024 * 5]
dd if = / dev / urandom of = temp_5GB_file_4 bs = 1024 count = $ [1024 * 1024 * 5]

All the files here are with different names (temp_5GB_files_X, this is X not much writing change)

Then I thought of making a big file of 20 GB.

dd if = / dev / urandom of = temp_20GB_file_1 bs = 1024 count = $ [1024 * 1024 * 20]

But I could not create a file of such a large size but I could create a file as large as the space was available.

At this level .. I only had 233MBs of space left. And the System Data was still using 124+GBs.

I rebooted my MacBook in Safe Mode, pressed Shift on Reboot and put it in Safe Mode .. I noticed .. System data was reduced from 124 + GBs to 87GBs.

Here I run the same command to create temp files on the terminal to capture this space.

dd if = / dev / urandom of = temp_20GB_file_safe_1 bs = 1024 count = $ [1024 * 1024 * 20]
dd if = / dev / urandom of = temp_20GB_file_safe_2 bs = 1024 count = $ [1024 * 1024 * 20]

This picture is a sample .. I didn't screenshot any image before.

And it can help me capture as much space as possible.

Remember that the larger the space, the larger the file.

I rebooted into normal mode.

I was happy that now the system data is using only 86GB of data .. it has not been expanded.

See above - System Data is using only 86+GB. all above listed information is exact as expected.

Now I checked in the system storage .. which files are using space ..

And this made unhide hidden files.

I opened finder and hit

Command + Shift + .  (dot)

Other than Library folder.. all files in my user are 56+GB (excluding my temp_files)

and this Library folder is taking. all of the (hidden system data kind of information.)

Inside this Library.. Developer (XCode) taking 65GB.. Andrdoid SDK (17GB) and Mobile sync in Application support folder is taking 28GB.. so.. Library is showing absolutely correct data.

... further more.. in diskutil list

In a rough calculation.. out of 500GBs ssd..

100GB is for bootcamp
400GB is for my macOS
-out of 400GBs..
My second drive is 100GB est
-Out of 300GB
OS is 15.8GB
OS update and snapshot 15.8GB
My user folder = 265GB
some preboot and Recovery firmware = 2GBs
=== So 265+16+16+2 = 300GB (est)


So far now.. everything is pretty clear. I hope this might help to understand.. where all of the space is going.

if you don't need XCode.. remove that folder.

if you are taking many backups os IOS Devices.. Remove them and keep the latest one.