com.apple.mediaanalysisd files filling drive in macOS 15.1

I never use the Photos Library feature, but this folder still randomly generates new files. So, my solution is as follows:

```bash

rm -rf /Users/zen/Library/Containers/com.apple.mediaanalysisd/Data/Library/Caches

ln -s /dev/null /Users/zen/Library/Containers/com.apple.mediaanalysisd/Data/Library/Caches

```

So far, I haven't noticed any side effects.

18 feb...

70G /Volumes/MyHomesVol/MyHome/Library/Containers/com.apple.mediaanalysisd

So it is still rising, but not as out of control as it once was.

looks to have been tidied up in 15.2, my 18GB is now 344MB

and the total System Data has reduced from 130GB to 27GB so other things must have been done

however still got an issue with the size of utmapp as 28GB

Is there any update to this? I am on 15.2, and com.apple.mediaanalysisd is taking up 145 GB on my SSD.

Is there no official answer to this? Is it supposed to be this large? Is this a bug? Are these cache files, will it shrink over time?

It should not require a 3rd party app to ensure that Apple software does not put a device in a critical

(full disk) state.

Software like mediaanalysisd should be looking at space levels where it is saving stuff & stop doing so

at 90% disk full! Anything else is really dangerous!

However one thing has gotten better with, ($ sw_vers)

ProductName: macOS

ProductVersion: 15.2

BuildVersion: 24C101

& that is that df at least seems to actually show correct usage & free space.

Sadly in my case a "du -shx" on,

/Volumes/MyMountedSSD/MyUserName/Library/Containers/com.apple.mediaanalysisd

is right now,

239G /Volumes/MyMountedSSD/MyUserName/Library/Containers/com.apple.mediaanalysisd

which is my home dir.

& it shows in "df" as,

/dev/disk8s1 1000G 1000G 0B 100% /Volumes/MyMountedSSD/

(names changed to protect the guilty)

15.3 is now available so here goes a reboot & hope that someone in Apple has actually

fixed a few more things!

I'm on 15.3, have a MacMini M1 and can't keep up with cleaning this thing out. It just keeps filling and filling. Super frustrating. This is obviously something Apple needs to address. I don't think there is anything we can do here except throw it in the trash, empty the trash, click "me too," and send feedback to Apple via apple.com/feedback. Do you part! Report, report, report!

I installed 15.3.1 a few weeks ago. My internal SSD has 87GB free, so that's fine.

com.apple.mediaanalysisd is still occupying 74GB, but it's on an external 1TB disk (linked by an alias) so it's not hurting anything.

According to ⌘-I, it hasn't been modified since I moved it six weeks ago, so I guess the alias isn't working. However, no new folder with that name has appeared.

--Gil

While it's true that upgrading to the newest version of macOS cleans up some of this mess, but it is not a permanent solution. I've been on macOS 15.3.2 for a few weeks and after the upgrade, I was able to reclaim about 50GB of space but I'm already down to just 200MB (yes, M, not G) and no amount of restarting helps. My com.apple.mediaanalysisd folder is currently 40GB and contains a lot of symlinks to my entire user directory so it seems to be scanning everything. Whatever it's doing, it's doing it wrong. The system shouldn't have the privilege or right to consume all available space for some fringe benefit that 1) isn't user-controlled 2) is completely out of control.

This is to say, upgrading your OS will NOT resolve this issue permanently, it's a temporary remedy.

This is an update since my radical move on 8 Jan 2025 of com.apple.mediaanalysisd to an external drive, replacing it with an alias:

• com.apple.mediaanalysisd has not grown much, from 74 GB to 74.6 GB.
• The usual quirks and curious behaviors of my system software seem to be continuing apace. Some things don't work, but then some things have not worked from time to time all along. I have noticed nothing startling.
• The Photos app, in contrast, has hung up several times, taking 'way too long to perform a simple task (e.g., rotate an HEIC), requiring a Force Quit followed by a Relaunch. In each case, however, after the Relaunch, the Photos app performed the same previously requested task, or another sufficiently similar, in a reasonable amount of time.

That is all.

--Gil

P.S.: I am running Sequoia 15.3.

I have exactly the same problem. Everytime I start to use my macbook, I feel it is warm because of the CPU cost of mediaanalysisd.

Note that this now applies to 15.3 it still has broken com.apple.mediaanalysisd

Sounds like you may very well be onto something! 👍

2024 nov post, finally this is addressed in 15.3

Mine had gone al the way up to 69GB when it filled my hard drive!

One week ago today I installed the 15.3.1 update on my M1 iMac. Over this week, my mediaanalysisd directory has swollen up to 48G, so it's the same as ever.