System storage is REALLY big

Any Google Chrome product(s)?

These guys at Goo always make my day LOL.

More seriously, many other hogs like this can be the guilty party. I've no further idea for the moment.

It seems that the problem you have is widely reported. The best thing is probably to fill a bug report to Apple:

https://developer.apple.com/bug-reporting/

(public access by simple registration) (you may have to go to a special registration screen in order to make your regular Apple ID a valid Apple developpers ID).

Regards.

Almojgar wrote:

To the contrary, that's exactly like I said: it could be any Apple hog wallowing in our system, and you are trying your old trick at random, here and there.

I was able to reproduce and solve exactly the same problem reported by TBHededal. I did that on Jul 16, 2018 at 10:47 AM, so my "old trick" isn't even 24 hours old yet.

The infamous Spotlight is indeed ONE of them, and I sincerely hope for you (and for TBHededal) that your advise(s) will work here much better than in the thread you cited.

There is no problem with my advice in that thread. The OP in that thread has not responded. I certainly hope that people do not start deleting their Time Machine backups in a mistaken hope that it corrects a problem that is only cosmetic.

I was even able to reproduce the problem just now. This time, I was quicker on the screen capture. My "System" usage went from:

to:

In about 10 seconds. I did not delete any Time Machine backups. I did not delete any files. All I did was click the "Sweep" button in Omni Disk Sweeper.

you just enter in the top 5 of my blacklist.

You are not in the top 5 of the many people whose blacklists I am on.

I will henceforth help you to cease selling your own products on this forum.

Are you saying that I should modify the advice that I give so that I stay off people's blacklists in the hope that they will promote my app? Wouldn't that make me dishonest and my app untrustworthy? That seems like a counter-intuitive strategy.

Hello TBHededal,

Local snapshots are only for notebook machines. Your iMac win’t have them. They are also inly for APFS.

Your Spotlight index has just gotten corrupted. See this thread (Local Snapshots of Time-Machine) for an identical problem. Don’t be misled by the title. That was yet another case of someone following misinformation on the internet and getting themselves confused instead of simply describing the problem and asking for a solution.

The correct solution is to just rebuild your Spotlight index. I found this easy to do by running Omni Disk Sweeper (https://www.omnigroup.com/more/). You don’t have to make any changes, Indeed, you should not make any changes. Just let it run and watch as your “System” usage magically returns to a reasonable amount.

Almojgar wrote:

If you had taken a minimal attention to other posts than the only ones that were being matching you personal inferences, you'd have noticed that I regularly advise your app since I am here, not because you are an interesting person, but because this app works properly.

I checked. You have mentioned it twice. Once it helped the OP find a solution. In the other case, it would also help to show the OP that there is no problem.

It's you who are using a counter-productive strategy in trying systematically to promote your own experience vs. the (very rare, here) attempts to solve really a problem by exploring all possibilities.

On the contrary, you are the one who is attacking me for suggesting alternative solutions. All users of Apple Support Communities should feel free to provide their own advice if they think it will help solve someone's problem. We are also free to point out if someone else's advice is potentially dangerous or ill-advised. If you have more questions about this policy, feel free to consult the Apple Support Communities Use Agreement.

Oh, by the by, having his main disk totally fillen, by macOS itself, with tons of pointless @$#$p is NOT "only cosmetic" (dammit).

All indications are that this is a Spotlight problem that incorrectly classifies files as "System". This is a well-known problem that has existed for years. The only thing interesting about these recent threads has been how easily I could reproduce this problem and demonstrably solve it.

I think that etresoft's analysis of the problem is worth to be followed: Spotlight.

The method you have chosen is described here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/ht201716

It's easy to do, but can take a while....

Regards.

Until a minute or two ago, I was "almost" 100% persuaded that these "snapshots" could exist only on APFS file system, not HFS+, but... at the point we are... could you check however (no sudo)

tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

Regards

Hi,

HFS+ according to what I read on your pictures (Mac OS Extended).

It's normal as these "snapshots" are likely to appear only on APFS volumes. (I just wanted to be sure that, by a fateful fate, Time Machine didn't manage to put such "snapshots" on our disks by another way/reason).

Regards

To the contrary, that's exactly like I said: it could be any Apple hog wallowing in our system, and you are trying your old trick at random, here and there.

The infamous Spotlight is indeed ONE of them, and I sincerely hope for you (and for TBHededal) that your advise(s) will work here much better than in the thread you cited.

PS: by the by, you just enter in the top 5 of my blacklist. I'm perfectly aware that you don't care a f. about that, but I will henceforth help you to cease selling your own products on this forum.

Have a good day.

If you had taken a minimal attention to other posts than the only ones that were being matching you personal inferences, you'd have noticed that I regularly advise your app since I am here, not because you are an interesting person, but because this app works properly.

It's you who are using a counter-productive strategy in trying systematically to promote your own experience vs. the (very rare, here) attempts to solve really a problem by exploring all possibilities.

Oh, by the by, having his main disk totally fillen, by macOS itself, with tons of pointless @$#$p is NOT "only cosmetic" (dammit).

quote: "All indications are that this is a Spotlight problem that incorrectly classifies files as "System". This is a well-known problem that has existed for years. The only thing interesting about these recent threads has been how easily I could reproduce this problem and demonstrably solve it."

I agree with you on that point (like on many others, besides) but I'm not certain (yet, my opinion can evolve) that it is the only responsible of all that disk' free space monopolisation mess.

Hi, welcome to the club.... 😕

(choose your camp, lol)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8464016

Regards.

Deep apologies of using you like this as a guinea pig for my lab, but...

Please turn off “Time machine” wait for few minutes and check space again.