iMac Retina 5K Mid 2015 running macOS High Sierra v. 10.13.5 reporting 394 gb of system files, 352 gb of iOS files using a 1 Terabyte hard drive. Is that normal? How to free up some space? I have already purchased iCloud space and two 4 Tb external drives. Thank you.
Do you backup to a Time Machine drive? The System Files being large is possibly due to Time Machine making local snapshots on your drive. Seems to do it whether you have a external backup drive or not. The iOS files are likely iPhone backups.
You can check the Time Machine local backups if you're comfortable with the Terminal.
Solution: Reclaim storage back from "System" | MacRumors Forums
The first post shows how to list them all in the Terminal. The second post by WeaselBoy shows how to delete them.
You can delete some iPhone backups from iTunes > Preferences > Devices.
Hope this helps.
Do you backup to a Time Machine drive? The System Files being large is possibly due to Time Machine making local snapshots on your drive. Seems to do it whether you have a external backup drive or not. The iOS files are likely iPhone backups.
You can check the Time Machine local backups if you're comfortable with the Terminal.
Solution: Reclaim storage back from "System" | MacRumors Forums
The first post shows how to list them all in the Terminal. The second post by WeaselBoy shows how to delete them.
You can delete some iPhone backups from iTunes > Preferences > Devices.
Hope this helps.
It also could be that Spotlight is categorizing the storage incorrectly. That storage meter is essentially useless because of that.
Other things that can show up as System Files are log files. They should all be very small. However, sometimes the logs get "stuck" and are not deleted when they should be. If they are not being rotated out, they can grow very large.
Omni Disk Sweeper does a good job listing all the files and their sizes. That would give you a better understanding of what is using lots of space if it is limited to a few very large files.
Thank you! I deleted the several old iOS backups, and when I tried to change my Time Machine back up to the new external hard drive and then changed it back, it fixed the huge system files. I also purchased Dr. Cleaner Pro that helped to remove unneeded files. Now I have 724.13 GB available on the local drive.
blzlovr wrote:
[...]
I also purchased Dr. Cleaner Pro that helped to remove unneeded files. Now I have 724.13 GB available on the local drive.
Ouch!!!
Beware of any programs with "cleaner" in their names, or that claim to "clean", "optimize" or some similar words regarding your mac...
Glad you got it sorted @blzlovr.
iMac System Files Too Large
