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

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Level 1

17 points

Log file keeps growing and has taken up to 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 108 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 and how to get it to stop? The logs keep coming back even when I delete them, too.

iPod touch, iOS 11.2.1

Posted on Dec 31, 2017 3:54 PM

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Answer 1

micheoff Author

Level 1

17 points

Feb 15, 2018 8:31 AM in response to merrychrismess

Hey, sorry you also have to deal with this! So, it's been a few months (with no Apple support to help me actually solve this issue...) 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.

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

278,263 points

Jan 9, 2018 11:47 AM in response to micheoff

What anti-virus software do you have? Elsewhere in the world of iTunes what it does when updating files is to write out a new temporary copy, delete the original, and then rename the newer file to take the name of the old one. In some cases antivirus software may block such actions, intending to do so temporarily, but iTunes doesn't check to confirm that the action was complete, so orphans are created. This has resulted variously in iTunes library corruption, failure to update user preferences, or multiple .tmp folder in the main iTunes folder. This could be a similar issue. Excluding the relevant folder from real-time scanning may help.

BTW under Edit > Preferences > Advanced make sure that Send diagnostic and usage data to Apple is not ticked.

tt2

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Answer 3

Jan 28, 2018 10:26 AM in response to micheoff

Literally the EXACT same thing is happening to me. Seriously ******* me off! PLEASE let me know if you figure this out. I’ve tried everything. :(

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