chrismfan602

Level 1 (4 points)

Notebooks

Q: System taking up 155GB of storage?

When I returned to my mac at night, I got the notification that my startup disk is full. Coming to check, I saw that the "system" is taking nearly 155GB of storage. I have tried searching the entire drive for large files, but did not come across anything other than what classifies as "documents".

MacBookAir6,2
Intel Core i5 Dual Core, 1.4GHz
256GB Flash
8GB RAM
MacOS Sierra 10.12 16A323

MacBook Air, macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Oct 11, 2016 7:56 PM

I have this question too

Solved

Level 9 (52,793 points)

Mac OS X

A:

Run ODS as root per these instructions by WZZZ:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4159295?tstart=0

This will show all files including the ones that one cannot see. You must do this as administrator.

DO NOT MAKE ANY CHANGES WHILE ODS IS RUNNING AS ROOT!

Ciao

Posted on Oct 13, 2016 7:48 AM

Q: System taking up 155GB of storage?

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Helpful answers

by dominic23,

dominic23 Oct 12, 2016 2:57 AM in response to chrismfan602
Level 8 (42,122 points)

Mac OS X

Oct 12, 2016 2:57 AM in response to chrismfan602

    Try re-indexing Macintosh HD.

    Storage categories shown are based on Spotlight index.
    This will take a while. Wait until it is finished.
    System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409
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by OGELTHORPE,

OGELTHORPE Oct 12, 2016 4:22 AM in response to chrismfan602
Level 9 (52,793 points)

Mac OS X

Oct 12, 2016 4:22 AM in response to chrismfan602

Download from the Internet OmniDiskSweeper and Grand Perspective (both free) and open them. They will show all of your files and the respective sizes.

Transfer to an external HDD the files you do not want on your Mac or delete them.

Do not forget to empty trash. Only then is space allocated for additional data.

https://www.omnigroup.com/more

http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/

Ciao.
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by chrismfan602,

chrismfan602 Oct 12, 2016 4:26 AM in response to dominic23
Level 1 (4 points)

Notebooks

Oct 12, 2016 4:26 AM in response to dominic23

That didn't help, but thanks.
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by chrismfan602,

chrismfan602 Oct 12, 2016 4:28 AM in response to OGELTHORPE
Level 1 (4 points)

Notebooks

Oct 12, 2016 4:28 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

The problem is not my files, I only have about 60GB of files in the entire "Users" folder, and the rest is taken by the system. None of the 155GB of files showed up in either Finder or those apps. Also, trash is already empty.
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by OGELTHORPE,

OGELTHORPE Oct 12, 2016 4:34 AM in response to chrismfan602
Level 9 (52,793 points)

Mac OS X

Oct 12, 2016 4:34 AM in response to chrismfan602

The point of running the applications that I listed will show you what you actually have on your MBA. That particular display is not to be trusted due to an apparent bug in the program. In addition, a Spotlight reindex does not always correct the display.

Ciao.
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by chrismfan602,

chrismfan602 Oct 12, 2016 7:25 AM in response to OGELTHORPE
Level 1 (4 points)

Notebooks

Oct 12, 2016 7:25 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

I'm sorry, if there's something I'm missing, could you point it out?
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by OGELTHORPE,

OGELTHORPE Oct 12, 2016 9:04 AM in response to chrismfan602
Level 9 (52,793 points)

Mac OS X

Oct 12, 2016 9:04 AM in response to chrismfan602

Both applications will tell you what you have on your MBA. If you click on a category in the ODS application, you will get a breakdown of that particular category. If you keep on doing it, you will eventually arrive at the smallest elements so a given file. You yourself should be able to determine if there is something missing by comparing with the file via Finder. here is the output from my MBP:
Ciao.
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by chrismfan602,

chrismfan602 Oct 12, 2016 7:11 PM in response to OGELTHORPE
Level 1 (4 points)

Notebooks

Oct 12, 2016 7:11 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

As I showed in my previous reply, there is nothing to be found in ODS, other than exactly the files I expect. In fact, ODS shows only 101GB used, while finder/disk utility shows 227GB used, more than double of what files I can see in ODS are.
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by OGELTHORPE,

OGELTHORPE Oct 13, 2016 3:26 AM in response to chrismfan602
Level 9 (52,793 points)

Mac OS X

Oct 13, 2016 3:26 AM in response to chrismfan602

That is the point, ODS is accurate, that display is not.

Ciao.
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by chrismfan602,

chrismfan602 Oct 13, 2016 3:26 AM in response to chrismfan602
Level 1 (4 points)

Notebooks

Oct 13, 2016 3:26 AM in response to chrismfan602

Update: It seems that it is still increasing, (rapidly).
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by OGELTHORPE,Solvedanswer

OGELTHORPE Oct 13, 2016 7:48 AM in response to chrismfan602
Level 9 (52,793 points)

Mac OS X

Oct 13, 2016 7:48 AM in response to chrismfan602

Run ODS as root per these instructions by WZZZ:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4159295?tstart=0

This will show all files including the ones that one cannot see. You must do this as administrator.

DO NOT MAKE ANY CHANGES WHILE ODS IS RUNNING AS ROOT!

Ciao
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Link to this post