Level 2

378 points

System Storage Taking Up Way Too Much Space in macOS Sierra

I've encountered a problem on my brand new MacBook, but haven't been able to find a solution after working on it for most of today. In a nutshell: When I go to "About This Mac > Storage" the System files were taking up a whopping 90+ GB of my hard drive. Here is a screen shot:

I also noticed that, unlike on my wife's MacBook Pro, I had no individual listing for iTunes. I could reach the iTunes folder through Documents on the left side, but the contents of the folder were grayed out. As an experiment, I copied then deleted my entire iTunes Library from within iTunes. After I did that, my Storage report looked like this:

Now the System files are down around 8 GB. (The Documents content jumped up dramatically because I copied my iTunes Library to the Desktop.) Unfortunately, I haven't found a way to establish the separate entry for iTunes in this window. When I move things back into iTunes, they count again toward the System storage amount. And I still don't have a separate iTunes entry.

I would like to be a huge fan of Optimized Storage, but this set-up of counting iTunes media as "system files" seems problematic. And I have no idea why it reports storage content accurately on my wife's Mac but not mine. Unfortunately Apple Support was not very helpful when I contacted them this afternoon. The agent suggested reinstalling macOS Sierra, which I did, but it didn't solve the problem. Some help would be appreciated, Apple!

MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2016), macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Sep 25, 2016 1:24 PM

Top-ranking reply

ishadoe

Level 1

63 points

Posted on Feb 23, 2017 11:39 PM

You have to take into account all the other files on your Mac, not just iTunes.

For example the text messages on my iPhone determine the size of the backup my iPhone does on the cloud.

You need to look into how many notes you have and how many text you sent on the macbook. iTunes isn't the only thing taking up space in the system storage tab. It would also be easier for us to help if you submitted a screenshot of the actual Documents>iTunes folder so we can see the size of the folder. That will give us all the info we need to determine the issue. My library is taking up space on my MacBook Air mainly because I use Apple Music and the library takes up space if I use it on my MacBook. Some files are stored on the mac. When I went to my iTunes Music folder in Finder I found what was taking up all the space. It was a movie I purchased on my MacBook Air. One movie was taking up 7GB of data. Go into iTunes and find the movie then select remove download and you can see in the iTunes folder in finder where the folder was removed and the space is now back when I go to System Information. I can delete it and still watch it on all my devices because of the purchase history option. Now what is taking up all the space is a folder titled Album Artwork.

My iTunes Library on my iMac is 4,185 albums, 176 days, 435.37GB so I'd say I'm doing great for having that available on my MacBook Air anytime I want and the System Storage is only now 35.1GB.

Do some digging around in Finder and I'm sure you will find the file(s) taking up all your space. Till then submit the screenshot with more info on the breakdown of the files within iTunes and I'll be able to tell you where to look next. There are a lot of folders you will need to look into if iTunes is not the issue. For instance you will have to go into your Caches folder and see what is in there. There is a lot that can be done, but I don't want to list them all here and misdirect you when you probably don't need to go into these folders.

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169 replies

Mar 16, 2018 2:32 PM in response to knoble125

Thank you knoble125 .

tcobes

Level 1

4 points

Apr 3, 2018 3:27 PM in response to bindex

Do you have any Adobe products on your computer? I had this problem and it was all my adobe preferences fault.

mofromro

Level 1

4 points

Apr 30, 2018 9:23 AM in response to Ample Apple

This was the answer, after weeks of deleting just about every file and every application available, and still having very low space. Thank you so much for posting.

mofromro

Level 1

4 points

Apr 30, 2018 9:24 AM in response to sa1tama

Would also add that it is termed, "Safe Boot". And it really works. Thanks again.

mofromro

Level 1

4 points

Apr 30, 2018 9:26 AM in response to Ample Apple

THIS IS THE ANSWER! Thank you so much for posting. It really works. It's also termed "Safe Boot".

kitty283

Level 1

8 points

May 15, 2018 2:02 PM in response to great.gizzards

I found my container the size of 3.89 GB but my system is taking up 36.15 GB

Jun 5, 2018 9:43 PM in response to Ample Apple

Definitely helpful! Freed 4 GB for me when I was originally down to 11GB. Thank you!

Flaxonis

Level 1

11 points

Jul 4, 2018 11:32 AM in response to bindex

System storage is taking over 300GB. Need help

Flaxonis

Level 1

11 points

Jul 4, 2018 11:42 AM in response to sa1tama

system still seems to be occupying 300GB+. either the command doesn't work, or it's cleanning up really slowly

cppshnrd

Level 1

4 points

Jul 6, 2018 12:59 PM in response to bindex

I have a similar problem; system files are very inconsistent in size, warying anywhere from 12gb to 98gb every time I reopen storage manager

avongugg

Level 1

20 points

Sep 1, 2018 6:51 PM in response to bindex

I have the same issue with system files eating reported as many gigabytes, but then when I recheck them they're back down to normal so I am not sure I understand why did jump up from time to time.

Kittylam

Level 1

4 points

Sep 8, 2018 3:33 PM in response to bindex

yes sir. take over 80GB how can i use my mac when it only available for like 30GB ? omg.

avongugg

Level 1

20 points

Sep 29, 2018 5:18 PM in response to ndessouky

Has anyone contacted Apple about this issue yet? I’d like to hear their explanation!

Oct 12, 2018 6:06 AM in response to bindex

Have the same at current for a user at my workplace. Has a 200gb+ System partition. Madness.

Have you had any replies on this? Clearly it's an issue for multiple user bases now.

Nov 14, 2018 8:29 AM in response to bindex

I have tried clearing all of my caches and restarting in safe mode. Nothing works. Please help!!! I have over 80 gigs in just "system". C'mon!

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System Storage Taking Up Way Too Much Space in macOS Sierra