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User profile for user: grumpyoldman2
grumpyoldman2 Author
User level: Level 1
52 points

Why is my MacMini always full? System Settings/General/Storage Lies!

System Settings/General/Storage says my Mac Mini has,


Mac HD (int 256Gb) 36.57Gb used of 245.11Gb

JohnD (ext 1Tb) 791.57Gb used of 1Tb

JohnDMacMiniBackup (ext 2Tb) 992.69Gb used of 2Tb


In a terminal window as root,


df -H


<<See Additional text!!! >> ARG this is so frustrating!


System Settings/General/Storage says my Mac Mini has, Mac HD (int 256Gb) 36.57Gb used of 245.11Gb JohnD (ext 1Tb) 791.57Gb used of 1Tb JohnDMacMiniBackup (ext 2Tb) 992.69Gb used of 2Tb In a terminal window as root, df -H Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity Mounted on /dev/disk3s1s1 245G 11G 34M 100% / devfs 214k 214k 0B 100% /dev /dev/disk3s6 245G 20k 34M 1% /System/Volumes/VM /dev/disk3s2 245G 6820M 34M 100% /System/Volumes/Preboot /dev/disk3s4 245G 3195k 34M 9% /System/Volumes/Update /dev/disk1s2 524M 6312k 505M 2% /System/Volumes/xarts /dev/disk1s1 524M 5636k 505M 2% /System/Volumes/iSCPreboot /dev/disk1s3 524M 2367k 505M 1% /System/Volumes/Hardware /dev/disk3s5 245G 226G 34M 100% /System/Volumes/Data map auto_home 0B 0B 0B 100% /System/Volumes/Data/home /dev/disk3s3 245G 1020M 34M 97% /Volumes/Recovery /dev/disk6s1 1000G 792G 209G 80% /Volumes/JohnD /dev/disk5s2 2000G 993G 1007G 50% /Volumes/JohnDMacMiniBackup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-07-28-012602.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1730G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-07-28-012602.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2025-01-09-080248.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1784G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2025-01-09-080248.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-10-09-011513.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1747G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-10-09-011513.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-06-08-024203.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1700G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-06-08-024203.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-12-13-080431.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1760G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-12-13-080431.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-10-01-234244.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1741G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-10-01-234244.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-10-23-015850.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1756G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-10-23-015850.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-12-27-045826.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1777G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-12-27-045826.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2023-10-28-144728.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1650G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2023-10-28-144728.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-03-14-041712.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1674G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-03-14-041712.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2023-08-31-080108.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1639G 1007G 62% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2023-08-31-080108.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-12-24-043933.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1775G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-12-24-043933.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-03-21-070004.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1676G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-03-21-070004.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-05-03-063738.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1688G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-05-03-063738.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-10-29-152718.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1759G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-10-29-152718.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-03-28-114148.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1678G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-03-28-114148.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2023-07-26-140802.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1626G 1007G 62% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2023-07-26-140802.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2023-11-04-162954.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1653G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2023-11-04-162954.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-08-04-062708.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1735G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-08-04-062708.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-12-26-050338.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1777G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-12-26-050338.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-06-29-110858.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1713G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-06-29-110858.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-05-10-105921.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1689G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-05-10-105921.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-12-25-045421.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1776G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-12-25-045421.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-11-27-202114.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1755G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-11-27-202114.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-10-16-020349.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1748G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-10-16-020349.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2023-08-09-212244.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1627G 1007G 62% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2023-08-09-212244.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-03-07-003558.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1669G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-03-07-003558.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-07-06-143354.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1717G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-07-06-143354.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-04-11-193317.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1682G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-04-11-193317.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-07-13-183408.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1721G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-07-13-183408.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-12-23-040906.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1774G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-12-23-040906.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2023-10-21-123403.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1651G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2023-10-21-123403.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2023-11-25-173146.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1656G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2023-11-25-173146.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-09-03-131240.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1739G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-09-03-131240.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-04-18-235128.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1684G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-04-18-235128.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-04-26-034717.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1686G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-04-26-034717.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-07-20-221759.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1726G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-07-20-221759.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-05-17-150826.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1692G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-05-17-150826.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-06-22-085935.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1708G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-06-22-085935.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-12-20-035408.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1770G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-12-20-035408.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-12-22-040630.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1773G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-12-22-040630.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2023-08-02-181053.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1623G 1007G 62% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2023-08-02-181053.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2023-09-23-155531.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1648G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2023-09-23-155531.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-02-14-134827.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1657G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-02-14-134827.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-02-28-195917.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1665G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-02-28-195917.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-12-21-040926.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1771G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-12-21-040926.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2025-01-07-121909.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1777G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2025-01-07-121909.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-02-21-170310.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1658G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-02-21-170310.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-06-15-054729.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1704G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-06-15-054729.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2023-09-12-134814.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1643G 1007G 62% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2023-09-12-134814.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-05-31-234702.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1698G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-05-31-234702.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2023-08-17-005151.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1631G 1007G 62% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2023-08-17-005151.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-05-24-182041.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1696G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-05-24-182041.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2023-08-24-045611.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1635G 1007G 62% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2023-08-24-045611.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-04-04-154405.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1681G 1007G 63% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-04-04-154405.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2024-11-20-160218.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1764G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2024-11-20-160218.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2025-01-11-071824.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1785G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2025-01-11-071824.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2025-01-12-080209.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 1786G 1007G 64% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2025-01-12-080209.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2025-01-15-113837.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 996G 1007G 50% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2025-01-15-113837.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2025-01-18-004701.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 995G 1007G 50% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2025-01-18-004701.backup com.apple.TimeMachine.2025-01-19-090612.backup@/dev/disk5s2 2000G 994G 1007G 50% /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/2025-01-19-090612.backup It looks like there are lots of "hidden" backup files on the internal drive, but it says they are on the external drive. in /Volumes/.timemachine/B0E8FC8F-C206-4778-88DA-B1119BD2E320/ apparently dated for backups but if I do a du -sh on them it's the external backup that has "activity" not the internal drive. It reminds me of a song... "Where has all my disk space gone long time passing, it's gone to apple every one..." I'm also trying du from cron & getting this... du: /Volumes/JohnD/johnd/Library/Containers/com.apple.mediaanalysisd/Data: Operation not permitted  44K /Volumes/JohnD/johnd/Library/Containers/com.apple.mediaanalysisd du: /Volumes/JohnD/johnd/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/: Operation not permitted Needless to say /Volumes/JohnD/johnd/Library/Containers/com.apple.mediaanalysisd/Data is full of crap I really don't want happening on this machine!!!


I'm also trying du from cron & getting this...

du: /Volumes/JohnD/johnd/Library/Containers/com.apple.mediaanalysisd/Data: Operation not permitted

 44K /Volumes/JohnD/johnd/Library/Containers/com.apple.mediaanalysisd

du: /Volumes/JohnD/johnd/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/: Operation not permitted


Needless to say /Volumes/JohnD/johnd/Library/Containers/com.apple.mediaanalysisd/Data is

full of crap I really don't want happening on this machine!!!

Mac mini, macOS 15.2

Posted on Jan 19, 2025 4:45 AM

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User profile for user: grumpyoldman2
grumpyoldman2 Author
User level: Level 1
52 points

Jan 19, 2025 5:01 PM in response to Ronasara

OK, thanks.

But that is an incredibly sad indictment on current Apple software.


Personally I find that du/df are most accurate, allowing for the obtuse permissions.


Hopefully there will be more info emanating from someone in apple, but I understand that is

somewhat unlikely here.


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User profile for user: woodmeister50
woodmeister50
User level: Level 7
20,707 points

Jan 20, 2025 5:29 AM in response to grumpyoldman2

To actually see where and what items are taking up space there are two free apps you can use and both are free.


The first is Omni Disk Sweeper which will scan your disk and give you a simple hierarchical text listing of the items that are using space.


The second is an app called Grand Perspective which gives you a graphical view of what is taking up space. Clicking in different areas of it will expand to those areas and so forth.


You can look and using these apps and see specifically what is using space and get back to us with the largest of the items and perhaps we can shed some light on what is going on what can and cannot be removed. Keep in mind what you are looking for are items that take up gigabytes of space. There might be directories with lots of files but actually do not use up a lot of space, i.e, a directory with 20,000 files but the files are only 1 or 2 KB are not what you are looking for.


FWIW, I use Omni Disk Sweeper to scan my drives every now and then when I decide I need to do some house cleaning: finding things left behind by apps I no longer use, old libraries of previous versions of apps, etc. Note, this is not one of those "automatic" cleaning apps and items are manually removed by the user, which should know what they are doing before doing so.



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User profile for user: grumpyoldman2
grumpyoldman2 Author
User level: Level 1
52 points

Feb 9, 2025 6:48 PM in response to grumpyoldman2


It's a Miracle!

Apple have descended from the Ivory tower & fixed it!

Albeit days after an update to 15.3


It gets better!

They have even fixed (for a while I'd expect - but don't bet on it!) df & du to show more

accurate data about space usage. The person in Apple that actually did this deserves

accolades!


df...

Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity Mounted on

/dev/disk3s1s1245G 11G 174G 7% /

/dev/disk3s5 245G 52G 174G 23% /System/Volumes/Data

/dev/disk8s1 1000G 769G 231G 77% /Volumes/MyHome

/dev/disk7s2 2000G 993G 1007G 50% /Volumes/MyMacMiniBackup


du -shx WhatImInterestedIn...

23G /Volumes/MyHome/me/Library/Containers/com.apple.mediaanalysisd

9.0G /Volumes/MyHome/me/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/


Those are not unreasonable numbers - at least I'm happy with them for now!


Please convey my congratulations to the person in Apple that fixed these problems

that should never have happened & we look forward to better communication with

Apple & improvement in their technical support...


Who have 2 options for all problems,


Reboot


Log off removing all iCloud sync, then log back in.


Sorry there's a third now, total reinstall!


They really do not work!

Good programming does!


Analysis of all cache files is required - please get the software engineers (another name for

programmers) on to it, it's called appropriate maintenance!


Do not assume that 3rd party stuff & community user advice will solve bad programming

practice!


Thanks for listening (at last)


It's appreciated when it happens!


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Why is my MacMini always full? System Settings/General/Storage Lies!

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