High Sierra system takes 182GB? ***?

Is this a recent upgrade to High Sierra or have you been running it for awhile?

Did you just notice this, or ongoing?

I have seen anywhere from 12 to 350+ GB in Mail logs if you have checked Log Connection Activity.

Mail>Window>Connection Doctor>Log Connection Activity

If you click Show Logs in will take you straight to the folder in Finder. Verify log file size.

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Logs/Mail

Depending on where you look for information the results may vary.

Via 'About this Mac' in the  menu Finder the panel that makes an

appearance then, offers several items; the Storage would show all

the bits and pieces used by all system parts including partitions.

Or Disk Utility can show you a different aspect of how storage is used.

Some information from Activity Monitor can reflect another viewpoint.

And IF you can see the hard drive icon on the desktop, use Get Info

to see how that lets you see another perspective.

Each vintage or series of operating system has differences; and these

also affect how you can view them. And too if you had Etrecheck utility

that can be run and generate a report, that also shows you more if you

have a paid version. The report may also be posted in your discussion.

When you select About this Mac and then select the Storage tab you will see something like this:

What does your laptop show?

It may be you have multiple high memory tabs in browsers, or gaming overheads, or even a fault.

Not being able to see what's on your Mac, I can't say what's going on, but it certainly isn't right. I have High Sierra on two drives. One with numerous large production apps, and the other pretty much an install of HS and nothing else.

High Sierra production drive - 58.5 GB

High Sierra only - 17.3 GB

And on the HS only drive, that's everything. System, Library, Applications, etc.

You may have a runaway process that is causing Console to go crazy saving mountains of useless data.

Shame on this forum for limiting my ability to thank someone!

That's just the way it's setup, and has been for quite some time. The person who started the topic can award one Solved, and two Helpful marks.

However, a somewhat recent addition is any post can be marked Helpful by any other users. When that particular post gets 5 or more Helpful clicks, it then also gets a Helpful star.

GingerKoko wrote:

I found the Log Connection Activity Logs and it shows 94GB used.

Well there is 94 GB you can retrieve. You would be safe to delete all those logs.

Disable log connection activity in the Connection Doctor

Don't forget to empty your trash, reboot if necessary to recover your HD/ SDD free space

Most apps would have trouble managing a 94GB file.

The logs would be sequential. It may be that one failed to complete, for example if there had been a crash. Or maybe you have lots of chunky attachments.

Either way, the logs can be deleted. You could even delete the Gmail account and then add it again. Your emails are held on the Gmail server and your Mac Mail client is accessing that repository.

GingerKoko wrote:

please verify it is safe to delete all those logs listed there?

They are just log files— you are safe to delete all those .txt files to regain HD space.

Please follow through an uncheck the box in the Connection Doctor

and empty your trash / restart if necessary.

When you say "fresh startup" do you mean after a complete shut down, or just Sleep?

The Mail issue sounds like it's related to incomplete refresh.

Are the email messages via IMAP or Gmail?