System Data Taking Up Over Half My HD - Sequoia 15.6.1

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Level 1

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System Data Taking Up Over Half My HD - Sequoia 15.6.1

I use my M2 2022 Macbook for work and school. Often using Adobe apps like Illustrator, Photoshop, Premier. Honestly I'm not even sure asking here will provide any solution whatsoever, because not even reddit has an answer.

This is literally an INSANE amount of data! Why on earth is there no straightforward way to determine what is taking up so much space on my computer? Why do I have to rely on 3rd-party apps when Apple expects people to drop $3k/year on the "latest and greatest"?

I'm utilizing iCloud. I'm utilizing OneDrive. I do not use Time Machine. I am not the only person dealing with this obscene, inoperable amount of data taking up my Mac hard drive. Is this a ploy to get people to buy a new laptop and upgrade their hard drives? Apple, what's good??

[Edited by Moderator]

MacBook Air

Posted on Sep 26, 2025 9:41 AM

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Answer 1

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neuroanatomist

Level 9

56,193 points

Sep 26, 2025 10:22 AM in response to kaitybclem

Most of the time, the data taking up space on your drive are your own data. If you need to free up space, the best approach is to move some of your data to an external drive or cloud storage. Do NOT install apps that purport to ‘clean’ or ‘optimize’ your Mac, in most cases they do far more harm than good. Essentially, System Data is a catch-all category for files on the Mac that are simply not categorized as something specific like Apps, Documents, TV, etc. For the most part, these files are created and saved by various apps on the Mac, often in the ~/Library folder. One example is MS Outlook attachments.

You can try the ‘nuclear option’: make a Time Machine backup, erase the Mac, reinstall macOS, transfer only the User account(s) in Setup Assistant, then reinstall only necessary apps.

How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

Transfer to a new Mac with Migration Assistant - Apple Support

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