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

Jan 25, 2019 8:00 PM in response to bindex

Attention any photographers on this thread!

I have this issue quite often and a lot of the time my Lightroom catalogue will be listed under 'System'. To clear your catalogue or transfer it somewhere else, go to; About This Mac > Storage > Manage... > Documents > File Browser > Pictures > Lightroom.

I have the incorrectly reported system storage issue at least once a month and this usually fixes it for me. However, this time my Lightroom catalogue is only taking up 11GB and my Storage still reportedly takes up 142.99GB... I don't use iTunes and haven't backed up my phone to my Mac lately or anything like that so I'm super confused as what's going on this time.

I even went to the Genius Bar 5 days ago and had it checked out. Got diagnostics run which all came back positive. We checked and I had 130GB free and the system was only taking up around 40GB. I haven't really done anything since so I'm extremely curious how my System has tacked on another 100GB ;/

Old Toad

Level 10

216,000 points

Oct 12, 2017 10:00 AM in response to glueware.com

Obviously it's wrong. Ignore that method and use the Info pane for each folder you want to know the size of.

Or try reindexing the hard drive with Spotlight.

Jan 11, 2018 5:04 PM in response to kjohnsonkc

Keep in mind that time machine doesn’t necessarily clear all of the local snapshots unless disk space gets low.

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".

Jul 4, 2017 7:08 AM in response to bindex

I've just had to delete my entire portfolio and asset folder from my mac and place in cloud storage to free enough space to use this, thanks to my system files. Why can I not view it to even confirm they are indeed system files?

Apr 30, 2017 10:46 PM in response to dianeoforegon

I cannot find the comment on how to delete the hidden Adobe cache file. Will you please tell me where to find it?

My ios system uses 342.97 GB and is growing. I use adobe photoshop and premier video editing so I may have lots of adobe cache files hidden.

Thank you!

P.S. I'm in Oregon too 🙂

Jan 11, 2018 4:25 PM in response to bindex

I just got off the phone with Apple Care with the same problem. I’ve Googled this problem and spent too much time on the phone with Apple trying to figure it out.

I don’t know if this is the solution yet...I’m still waiting for the Time Machine to finish it’s backup...but the Care rep I spoke to thinks the 9 days of local snapshots my computer was storing because my external drive was not attached was taking up all the extra space showing up under system.

Does this sound like it could be your problem?

I’ll update as I learn more. I sure hope the solution has finally been uncovered!

Jan 11, 2018 5:58 PM in response to richardagilbert

Right! That’s the problem. The Time Machine’s idea of “low” and mine are two different things. It just kept storing snapshots because I had a bit of storage left. It got to the point I couldn’t back up my phone because it took up so much space.

I can report once I did the Time Machine backup the hard drive stats went back to normal and I was able to backup my phone.

I’d say problem solved.

Doover72

Level 1

4 points

Jan 19, 2018 3:20 PM in response to Dj_Crawler

My systems folder would grow larger with everything I deleted of it. Time machine would not let me back up. So I ended up dragging anything I wanted to a external HD. Wiped the OS and reinstalled with the help of a Apple technician. It was the only way :) good luck guys !!

Jan 26, 2018 11:16 AM in response to bindex

I have just formatted my drive and installed High Sierra and everything was fine. I re-downloaded 36GB of Music purchase on iTunes and and about 42GB of photos from iCloud Photo Library. My system storage showed 7.9GB

When I reset my Mac, photos is only 9.68GB and System shows 39.9GB.

It’s definitely displaying my Photos Library as System, wish this could be fixed.

avongugg

Level 1

20 points

Sep 8, 2018 4:42 PM in response to Kittylam

I seem to recall that system files rise tremendously when there are pending updates that were automatically downloaded. One tome my son stem files were through the ruling and after updating they suddenly decreased to normal...

Please tell. Apple techs that you want to Escalade the tech support concern

Mar 16, 2018 9:53 AM in response to Don Kasun

Hi Don Kasun,
Sure. Try restarting your computer while holding down Command+R. This should bring up the option to reinstall OS. I hope that helps.
Best,
Krista

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.

Lutting

Level 1

8 points

Nov 20, 2018 6:10 PM in response to bindex

Open up files, go to file browser and go to library, most of that storage space would end up in the application support section.

shioma

Level 1

4 points

Feb 11, 2017 11:38 AM in response to bindex

You might want to have a look here: https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/50073

Tried out the solution by HevvyD and it worked. Purgeable space is almost nothing and System Files take up only around 30GB.

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System Storage Taking Up Way Too Much Space in macOS Sierra