Zombie storage and phantom memory? 10.14.6 McbkAir 2015, core i5, 4gb

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Zombie storage and phantom memory? 10.14.6 McbkAir 2015, core i5, 4gb

Why is the Mac using 70% of memory with only Safari running, if then I launch iBooks the app sucks up another 1.5gb and 'can't communicate with helper app' dialog box pops up, if I close Safari and iBooks memory use goes down to about 50%, with no apps open?

The flash storage (121gb capacity) chart says 65gb is 'system', checking the individual folders on MacHD, 'system' is 10.7gb but my user folder is 60.6gb.

In my user folder the individual folders I can see and access only add up to 11gb. How do I find/edit/delete the 50gb I can't see?

Thanks!

MacBook Air

Posted on Nov 26, 2022 8:01 AM

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Answer 1

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PRP_53

Level 10

85,711 points

Nov 27, 2022 2:33 AM in response to thejoneses

Any Third Party Applications that will interfere with the normal operation of the OS, is an invitation for disaster and comprise the Operating System

Certain Applications maybe available on the Apple Apps Store - this only means the Developer is prepared to pay Apple a portion on each sale. What the Application may do to the computer is up to the User to check this out before purchase

Any of the below should be removed as per Developers Instructions

This will include CleanMyMac ,

MacKeeper,

Dr Cleaner Pro Plus

Read some of the posting and arrive at your own conclusions.

Specific to CMM, MacKeeper and Dr Cleaner Pro Plus

Some Contributors suggest restarting in Recovery Mode and choosing to Reinstall the Operating System over the existing installation.

This may or may not replace elements of the Entire Operating System including the Home Folder ( User Account ) and replace any corrupted or removed elements of the Operating System and make thing right.

Then there are Other Contributors ( like myself ) would suggest from this link Use Disk Utility to erase a Mac with Apple silicon.

Thereafter to start from scratch and install all Required Application directly from the Apple Apps Store or Directly from the Developer.

If going this route - I suggest Not using Startup Assist to migrate things back as this will probably Re-Introduce the existing issue that existed when the TM Backup was made

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Answer 2

PRP_53

Level 10

85,711 points

Nov 27, 2022 10:42 AM in response to thejoneses

To these Old Eyes here, would seem normal with Safari in Google Mail and Apple Mail both running and factor in the fact the Operating System is newly installed and Indexing everything on the drive.

Depending on the amount of Data on the drive, suggest keeping the machine Plugged in for a day or so to allow the indexing to complete without impacting the battery

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

240,071 points

Nov 26, 2022 11:07 AM in response to thejoneses

We cannot trust the Storage report as to where the usage really is, 4 suggestions, especially what “Other” or “system” is…

And apparently Apple has a new way of hiding files & more than a few find out the only way is to Backup, then Erase the Drive, or clone then clone back which seems to leave some huge temporary files behind!?

Have you emptied the trash lately?

You may find neuroanatomist's User Tip helpful: What is "Other" storage on a Mac, and how can I clean it out? - Apple Community.

Terminal code to clean DocumentRevisionsfolder…

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/313102/what-will-occur-if-the-documentrevisions-v100-folder-is-deleted

macos - What will occur if the .DocumentRevisions-V100 folder is deleted? - Ask Different (stackexchange.com)

System Memory OS 10.12.6 Sierra - Apple Community

4 suggestions…

Look for iOS backups…

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

OmniDiskSweeper shows you the files on your drive, largest to smallest, and lets you quickly Trash or open them.

https://www.omnigroup.com/more/

Purging local backups

Please note that although this doesn't affect your remote backup from Time Machine, this will get rid of the redundancy (at least until the next Time Machine backup) that a local backup disk will provide. If you need such redundancy or are worried about the recovery of your data then you would be best served to let macOS determine when to purge these files.

Start Terminal from spotlight.

At the terminal type tmutil listlocalsnapshotdates.

Hit enter.

Here, you'll now see a list of all of the locally stored Time Machine backup snapshots stored on your disk.

Next you can remove the snapshots based on their date. I prefer to delete them one at at time. Once my "System" disk usage is at an acceptable level, I stop deleting but you can delete all of them if you want to reclaim all of the disk space.

Back at the terminal, type tmutil deletelocalsnapshots YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS , where will be one of the dates from your backup. This will be in the form of xxx-yy-zz-abcdef. Try to start with the oldest snapshot.

Hit enter.

Repeat for as many snapshot dates as required

http://www.thagomizer.com/blog/2018/03/27/cleaning-up-time-machine-local-snapshots.html

tmutil deletelocalsnapshots / # deletes all the snapshots

Thanks to BobHarris file sizes, Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal:...

sudo du -hx | sort -h

sudo du -hx ~/| sort -h

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