System Storage Taking Up Way Too Much Space
This question seems to need to be updated (since you can't reply to the same question posted a year back or even a few months back). Apple needs to address the issue adequately (detailed post on all of what's in System Data when looking at Storage, and let us know what can safely be deleted, OR better yet, improve optimization). I've read for full days over the past two years about this issue. Now that I have an M1, the problem impacts every update I make since I've owned the computer. What sense does it make to buy a brand new M1 and, within a couple of months, have to hunt down why System Storage takes up over HALF of my space? (Yes, I've signaled Apple, and they must know since this issue has existed since 2015-2016, according to the forums I've been in). They always want to blame it on some software when even without adding software, System Data still takes up large chunks of space.
With that said, has anyone created a LIST of where to look for files that can safely delete to clear up this problem?
I've read and done a few, such as:
- Mail documents (subfolder under Mail folder that contains file attachments in your e-mails, make sure that you've saved those you want to keep before doing this, with the best habit being to save them when you read the mail and then deleting file attachments using the function in the Mail App [when it chooses to work])
- Cache (subfolder in Library)
- Cookies (via Preferences of Safari)
- Locations where apps such as Adobe (I don't have) or others keep caches or hidden data
- And there are other locations; check with Apple support.
I'd appreciate it (and I think the over 1900 people I saw that have had this issue over the past few years would probably appreciate it as well). This will be my second go around trying to clean up my M1 just to be able to update a 4 GB update so the Mac can communicate with my iPhone.
Thanks!
PS. I hope macOS Ventura will fix this (or have improved optimization) in October.
iMac 24″, macOS 12.6
