on an iMac M1 running Sonoma 14.0, 16gb RAM, 1TB HD, 371 GB used.
Seems to be taking a very long time to work out the size of System Data - 1 ½ hours so far ...
Documents - 174gb, Photos - 52gb, Music - 57gb, etc those totals came up in moments.
iMac 24″, macOS 14.0
Thanks for the suggestions.
I tried those two tools but as I don't know what I'm looking at I shied away from junking files {I would have junked PCMWave file if I could!}.
So I did a re-install of Sonoma 14.0. First check of Storage in System Settings ran fine and System Data showed 6.34GB after a few seconds.
Thanks for the suggestions.
I tried those two tools but as I don't know what I'm looking at I shied away from junking files {I would have junked PCMWave file if I could!}.
So I did a re-install of Sonoma 14.0. First check of Storage in System Settings ran fine and System Data showed 6.34GB after a few seconds.
Thanks.
I reinstalled Sonoma 14.0 [leaving Spotlight on] and whatever was causing the loop disconnect for System Data has gone. Storage check in Settings only took a few seconds and System Data is a manageable 6.3GB.
Thanks for the advice. I worked out that Spotlight rebuilding was good to do but it wasn't getting at the problem because the System was keeping the loose ends to itself. I reinstalled Sonoma 14.0 and then the Storage check in Settings ran very quickly giving a figure for System Data after a few seconds.
System Data is not a category. It is an in-category. It is everything that cannot be categorized into the others.
Spotlight has to gather everything that matches the defined categories, then dump the rest as “System Data.”
Very often, items that make up “System Data” are actually your data that Spotlight could not identify. If Spotlight hangs up trying to group the contents, it will never finish resolving the uncategorized data.
Comatose Marmoset wrote:
on an iMac M1 running Sonoma 14.0, 16gb RAM, 1TB HD, 371 GB used.
Seems to be taking a very long time to work out the size of System Data - 1 ½ hours so far ...
Documents - 174gb, Photos - 52gb, Music - 57gb, etc those totals came up in moments.
It is not a perfect science—
you can file a bug report /submit your Apple Feedback here: Product Feedback - Apple
You can try rebuilding the Spotlight index and compare your results...
Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac
Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support
Same problem, System Data does not stop calculating. Mac Mini M2 Pro. 32GB Memory. Sonoma 14.4. Problem not there when I start in Safe Mode. Open Support Case on this. Apple Support says that as I used Migration Assistant from an old (Late 2014) iMac, it may have carried over some issue. Also said that this is a known issue that will be corrected in an upcoming software update (although was at 14.2.1 when case was opened, then 14.3, 14.3.1 and now 14.4, no resolution). Given I have another more troublesome issue also with an open case (Mailbox Behavior setting to delete Junk Mail after One Day does not work), I am considering Erasing the SSD completely then reloading OS X and my Applications. Any thoughts appreciated.
If it doesn't clean itself up, use a tool like GrandPerspective or Omni Disk Sweeper to identify large cache or log files or other system files.
+1 on Spotlight. IMO, for a major upgrade1 like Ventura > Sonoma, Spotlight should be disabled prior to the update.
Thanks for the suggestions and links, very kind.
I've filed a Feedback report.
Also started a Spotlight rebuild - started with my Documents folder and see the CPU is working at about 40%. Though I guess a Spotlight rebuild for the System Data folder would be more relevant?
Thanks for explaining that.
I will continue the Spotlight rebuilds in the hope all the loose ends get identified. [Though I suspect a completely fresh & clean install of the OS from scratch is going to be the best solution]
How long should System Data Calculating ... take?
