Log file keeps growing and has taken up 120 GB of hard drive space!

For Christmas I was given a new 128 GB iPod touch (IOS 11.2.1) and ever since I first plugged it into my laptop (an ACER Aspire M5) and synced it to my iTunes account I've been steadily losing gigabytes of space, and it wasn't until yesterday when I suddenly lost 190 GB of hard drive space and had 0 BYTES free that I noticed it. I deleted a bunch of stuff off my computer without realizing that there was something wrong (thinking that maybe I really HAD just somehow used up 190 GB since I last checked months ago) and within the hour I went from having 20 GB free to 0 BYTES again.


I deleted just enough space so I could download TreeSize to try and figure out WHAT it was that was taking up so much space only to find four log files under C:\Users\Micheoff\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\Logs that had accumulated 190 GB! One of them was 120 GB alone! I tried deleting all of them because I thought they were viruses disguised as Apple logs and three of them did, but one couldn't be deleted because of something called Distnoted.


Anyway, since then that one log keeps growing! It went from being 20 GB to 98 GB in one day and I don't know what it is or what has gone wrong for something that looks like a simple log file can rapidly take up so much hard drive space. Can anyone help me understand what's happening?

iPod touch, iOS 11.2.1

Posted on Dec 29, 2017 9:33 PM

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Posted on Feb 15, 2018 8:34 AM

Hey, sorry you also have to deal with this! So, it's been a few months but I think I've figured out part of the reason why the logs are happening! Whenever I open iTunes two different programs open called Distnoted and SyncServer. These programs are apparently supposed to close whenever you close iTunes (I think they're the programs that create backups for your iTunes library, but I'm not sure). However, they don't close anymore like they used to. Instead they stay open and take up a LOT of CPU, and either I have to turn my laptop off or open my task manager and manually close them and get them to stop.


Now, a few weeks ago, when I went to delete one of the log files (you can delete all of them, it's what I've been doing weekly) it told me it couldn't be deleted because the file was open in Distnoted. So I was like, "Okay, I don't know what that is, but I'll just skip this file and delete it later." And then by the next day that file had grown to 20gb because I hadn't turned my laptop off and, apparently, Distnoted had been open the whole time.


So I think it's safe to say that those two programs are causing it, but I have no idea how to fix it other than manually closing them in the task manager every time I open/close iTunes (I close Distnoted and Syncserve the second I open iTunes, because apparently it doesn't stop you from listening to music if they're not running). It's tedious, but until Apple actually has a resolve for this issue it's what I have to do.


If you can, you should pass this info on to them. I'd also see if you're running Distnoted and/or Synserver as well and close them, then delete the log file (because it doesn't screw anything up to delete logs, apparently). Cheers.

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Log file keeps growing and has taken up 120 GB of hard drive space!

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