Hi. I keep filling my 250GB hard drive, and it's mostly System Data. It's a 2020 iMac just updated to Sonoma 14.4.1. I updated the OS hoping that would help the issue but it hasn't.
Could someone kindly advise what's the best way of dealing with this? Thanks.
Since your Mac is running macOS Sonoma, one thing you can check that may be using System Data is local snapshot ... even if you only periodically use Time Machine (TM). In theory, when you disable TM, local TM snapshots will get deleted ... but I haven't found that to always be the case.
Further, these snapshot can occur for the following reasons:
To check if any snapshots exist, you can do so via the Disk Utility, as follows:
Since your Mac is running macOS Sonoma, one thing you can check that may be using System Data is local snapshot ... even if you only periodically use Time Machine (TM). In theory, when you disable TM, local TM snapshots will get deleted ... but I haven't found that to always be the case.
Further, these snapshot can occur for the following reasons:
To check if any snapshots exist, you can do so via the Disk Utility, as follows:
Okay, I think it is time to do the following. I suspect parts of the VPN could have been left behind.
It will help us get a good idea of what is causing your problem if you provide a report of your system, that way we do not have to play 20 questions with you. The report we are requesting does NOT provide any personal information and is extremely safe to use. Please navigate to www.Etrecheck.com and download the free version of EtreCheck. Once you have you downloaded the app and installed it, please run the report and save it. This report will help us get a good idea what has been installed on your system and help us be able to diagnose what may be wrong.
When you have your report, you can attach it when you reply to this message and we can then review it and help you determine what is needed to get your system running well again.
For instructions on how to download your EtreCheck report and attach it to your reply to this message please click How to use the Add Text Feature When Post… - Apple Community It is helpful to us if you download the report to your Desktop.
If your Time Machine backup is disconnected or you are having issues with Time Machine?
check for APFS Snapshots, as per > View APFS snapshots in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support
BTW, do you have any of the following third party apps installed on your Mac?
· Antivirus Apps
· Cleaning Apps
· Security Apps
· VPN Apps
· Maintenance Apps
If so that is likely the issue.
I know... but I've had trouble with Time Machine filling up my hard drive on a previous iMac. That's why I don't have it turned on now.
So if it's not Time Machine filling up my iMac... what is? I've checked for older versions of apps (there's none) and have no TV shows or podcasts saved. 6GB of Music and 17GB Documents. After a very aggressive cleanup (and trashing and restarting) I still have 120GB System Data on a 250GB drive. That's unusual, don't you think? And how can I clear up some space?
Nothing that's not 'stock' except for Microsoft Office and Adobe InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. A couple of browsers. There was one VPN I used up until last year but I uninstalled it when I changed jobs.
Thanks for trying to assist. I am in the middle of a project and have decided to wait until it's finished to diagnose this issue. I suspect you're right about the VPN thing... I happened upon my startup tasks and there were 4 for 'Teams Viewer' which is part of a few things my ex organisation set on my Mac when we all started working from home during Covid. Plainly I haven't uninstalled things correctly. I'm going to contact my ex employers IT team to ask what else I can remove. Cheers.
Time Machine is turned off. I use it rarely to backup to an external drive but it's not doing local backups. There are no APFS snapshots visible.
If you are not doing backups to Time Machine or another external HD how are you backing up?
I back up manually to an external hard drive using Time Machine when I feel I need to.
Backing up using the method you are using is not reliable and eventually will result in lost data. At a bare minimum backups using Time Machine should be done daily.
Almost half my hard drive is system data?
