How can I clear out space from the system data on my Mac?

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Level 1

4 points

How can I clear out space from the system data on my Mac?

I currently have 140+ GB of storage being used by system data. This number keeps climbing and I am now at a point of having an unusable laptop. I've managed to clear out 10GB of space by clearing my cache and a few other misc folders, but it is still taking up way too much storage. My apps and documents only take up 68GB! Please help, I cannot see the "optimize" function so that's out and I have 2T of cloud storage of which only 400GB are used.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.2

Posted on Jul 9, 2025 6:01 AM

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Answer 1

Owl-53

Level 10

104,221 points

Jul 9, 2025 7:31 AM in response to Jenadolph

Let us guess, that is based upon your above figures : " 140+ GB of storage being used by system data " and " My apps and documents only take up 68GB "

This computer may have a 256 Capacity Drive

Is that right ?

If so and what follows is the more popular and effective ways to address this issue is to Start Over from Scratch

For Apple Silicon computer >> Use Disk Utility to erase a Mac with Apple silicon.

For Apple Intel computers >> Use Disk Utility to erase an Intel-based Mac followed by How to reinstall macOS

Always make a Time Machine Backup before proceeding

It is also suggest to Only Migrating the User Account and nothing more.

Emphasis on User Account Only

Reinstall the Needed and not the Wanted applications from the Apple Apps Store or Directly from the Developers

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