Systems Data taking up over 100 GB

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Level 1

4 points

Systems Data taking up over 100 GB

I’ve been trying to clear space on my computer, and I deleted 60 GB worth of apps and documents, emptied the trash, and checked my storage space. As I looked at it, the systems data section got larger and larger, as if it was downloading something, until it had completely filled up the hard drive again and took up the 60 GB I had just cleared out. What is going on? How do I get that space back and why does it keep growing to fill the space I’m clearing?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.7

Posted on Aug 12, 2024 5:23 PM

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Answer 1

padams35

Level 4

3,639 points

Aug 13, 2024 12:39 PM in response to bryn215

Maybe it is a timemachine local snapshot for restoring the data you just deleted?

About Time Machine local snapshots - Apple Support

If that isn't the problem I would recommend install DasiyDisk, OmniDiskSweeper, or similar. Those are pretty good at finding unexpectedly large files in odd locations. Sometimes just knowing what is taking up space is half the battle.

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Answer 2

g_wolfman

Level 4

3,512 points

Aug 13, 2024 2:15 PM in response to bryn215

So, APFS handles files a bit differently, esp on a SSD. The space that "refilled" is probably the emptied trash...but it's probably also marked by the OS as "purgeable space" that will be reclaimed on demand to avoid unnecessary SSD allocations and de-allocations. It might be freed up on reboot when the OS clears all the storage buffers if you don't want to wait for it to happen naturally...

If you right-click on your system drive and "Get Info", what does it say about used, free and purgeable space?

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

251,309 points

Aug 13, 2024 8:06 AM in response to bryn215

Could it be Log files?

Open Activity Monitor in Utilities> View>All Processes>Disk tab, sorton Bytes written.

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Systems Data taking up over 100 GB

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