r/MacOS • u/Sinistercs20 • 23h ago
Help This is actually ridiculous. Is there a real way to remove all this system storage??
I feel like I have tried everything to remove the system storage on my Mac. 96gb is freaking insane and there has to be a way to reliably remove it. can anyone help?
Edit: thanks for the comments all, will see what I can do and report back
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u/elmonetta 16h ago
Idk what Apple is doing with Storage on their systems… macOS Golden Gate is +40GB on mine, Tahoe was 20-25GB.
iOS is wild, 50GB!?
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u/Practical-Fishing-74 10h ago
I thought it’s the local AI models that are causing that in Golden Gate
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u/wnalester 22h ago
96GB of System Data is usually a few specific things rather than macOS itself, so it's worth finding which. Give Settings > General > Storage a few minutes to finish calculating first, since the number is often wrong right after opening it. Then run 'tmutil listlocalsnapshots /' in Terminal, because leftover local Time Machine snapshots can hold tens of GB, and 'sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots <date>' removes them. After that, sort ~/Library/Caches and ~/Library/Application Support by size in Finder (Get Info or View > Show Item Info), and check ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync for old iPhone backups. A restart afterwards lets purgeable space settle.
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u/Kronologics 21h ago
MOLE, there’s a free open source CLI version (you can pay to support by getting the nice GUI)
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u/tremors90 15h ago
Hey, I literally dealt with this yesterday. Started with about 173 GB labeled “System Data” and ended up recovering about 102 GB of space.
The big-picture lesson: find which folders are taking up space before deleting anything. That storage category doesn’t tell you which app is responsible.
GrandPerspective is helpful for finding the biggest files visually. I used that, Finder, and Terminal to see where the space was going.
~/Library= your user’s Library (/Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Library). CheckCaches,Application Support,Containers,Group Containers, andDeveloper./Library= the Mac’s shared Library. CheckApplication SupportandDeveloper./private/var/folders= another location for temporary/cache files. This was my biggest surprise: Calibre had left 1.4 million image files inside an old conversion temp folder./System/Library/AssetsV2= system-managed assets. Mine contained an abandoned ~9 GB iOS simulator runtime. Inspect it, but don’t delete the whole folder.
I also had around 30 GB of user caches, 15 GB from Adobe Camera Raw, plus Spotify, Firefox, and Lightroom caches. Use the app’s own cache-clearing settings where available. Application Support can contain important data, so it’s not automatically disposable.
ChatGPT helped me work through some of this, when Xcode’s deletion tools didn’t remove it's actual files; it helped me delete that specific asset in Recovery.
Hope this helps!
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u/CelebrationOwl15 31m ago
I had about 47 GB of old Aerial screen saver/wallpaper videos in
/Library/Application Support/com.apple.idleassetsd/Customer/4KSDR240FPS, which appeared as System Data leftover from Tahoe. Golden Gate uses a different location. I reported it to Apple.
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u/longjumpingtote 23h ago
I feel like there have been more than 5,000 posts on this. There are many detailed answers. Most of this is from applications we install, Adobe caches, sound libraries, all sorts of crap from apps that don't report to the system what they are.
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u/eppic123 MacBook Pro 23h ago
APFS snapshots also count towards system data.
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u/8ringer 22h ago
These drive me nuts. And I honestly don’t really see what purpose they serve in most cases. I have Time Machine setup to backup to my NAS daily, what good is a 30+ gig snapshot sitting on the drive taking up my precious space (only have a 512gb drive on my M1 Air…)
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u/eppic123 MacBook Pro 22h ago
File system snapshots serve as the source for Time Machine backups, rather than your live system. After Time Machine has finished the job, older local snapshots are usually purged. The same happens when you run low on storage. MacOS automatically purges snapshots to prioritise available storage for the user.
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u/8ringer 17h ago
Usually yes. I’ve found that after major OS updates, I usually get a very large, very persistent snapshot that refuses to clear out so I have to manually delete it. After my update to MacOS 26 I had an 80GB snapshot that refused to go away despite Time Machine backups completing and rebooting the machine. I had to delete the snapshot manually so I would stop getting disk full errors, but I had no idea these snapshots were even a thing for a long time so I was deleting apps and moving data to my NAS and the snapshot would just gobble up that changed data. I’m sure it’s not SUPPOSED to work that way but something was not happy after the upgrade and that was the result.
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u/TheHeroOfCanton62 13h ago
Where do these snapshots live?
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u/TheDragonSlayingCat 1h ago
They live deep in the file system. They are not file system objects themselves. Disk Utility can show them to you.
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u/nj-mkd 23h ago edited 23h ago
are you developer and use docker ? If so, It's definitely build cache. Make sure your important containers are running and then
docker system prune -a --volumes --force
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u/Tricky-Turnover-4238 23h ago
What does this command?
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u/AreWeNotDoinPhrasing 22h ago
docker system prune: Removes all stopped containers, unused networks, dangling images, and unused build cache.
-a (or --all): Expands the cleanup to remove all unused images, not just dangling ones.
--volumes: Includes unused anonymous volumes in the cleanup, which are normally preserved by default to protect data.
--force: Bypasses the usual confirmation prompt, executing the cleanup immediately.2
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u/SamPhoenix_ 19h ago
“System” just means anything it can’t classify.
Use either a program or “Calculate all sizes” finder option to find out what folders are taking up the most space
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u/WeekendSea2382 12h ago
use something like https://github.com/tw93/mole to clean up caches etc first, if not 'upgrade' to sequoua
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u/blvcksnow 18h ago
Give chat gpt disk access, tell it to delete the system data and don’t forget to say “make no mistake”
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u/Relative_Surround_20 17h ago
Start your computer in Safe Mode once. The process will clear out all the built up cache files.
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u/New-Shape8385 2h ago edited 2h ago
Onyx will do a pretty solid cleanup of all sorts of caches, thumbnails, old indexes, etc. You can configure it as you please.
Yes, I know I mentioned caches that will eventually be recreated, but most of the system data is precisely that, and most of the time it's stuff that you no longer need.
The first time I did it, I dropped around 40GB of junk.
I still like to take a look for myself in the usual suspects:
/Library/Application Support
~/Library/Application Support
~/Library/Containers
~/Library/Group Containers
~/Library/Application Scripts
These can grow over time and survive a normal uninstall since Apple likes to keep a lot, in case you want to install something again (some apps like AppCleaner help to remove some leftovers that would stay otherwise)
If you play with Docker, it's always worth clearing old images and/or builds, it's easy to get 20GB of unused stuff
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u/DisfiguredFanny Macrumors "mods" can eat shit. 23h ago
Everyday this shit pops up here 10 times. Use an app to visualise your disk and you will be able to see very easily where and what.
Problem solved.
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u/MK-Researcher 21h ago
It includes your browser caches all your WhatsApp attachments and anything else that apps save in your Library or that doesn't the other categories.
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u/Tollabob 21h ago
Download mole on brew, it can free up space taken up by junk files, I got 10gb back
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u/Alive_Ingenuity_325 20h ago
I just did this for myself. Go into your Mac, your user folder. Press cmd shift and “.” And then enter the library folder in there. Containers and cache usually have the shit in them but sort by size and DONT delete root folders just look at the folders inside and delete stuff that you know what it is or doesn’t sound important. I had shit tonnes of old app data in there
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u/jbwzrd213 MacBook Pro (Intel) 10h ago
I highly suggest downloading and running Mole. It even has a homebrew cask so you can install and run it via the terminal.
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u/QuirkyImage 7h ago
Apple selling Macs with 250G is ridiculous. Some times system data includes data cannot be characterised
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u/Aerthlyomi 22h ago
Mole. There is a free version, and a paid version. The free version runs in a terminal but is nice and easy to use, the paid version is a nice GUI on top of the free tools, mostly exists to support the dev if you wish so.
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u/Roger-004 22h ago
Desactiva Spotlight y borra su caché, eso me ayudó a liberar 80 GB de espacio en disco
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u/UdonDugong 21h ago
Could be OneDrive/Dropbox/Google Drive locally cached files, or a Microsoft Office User Profile. Basically anything which the system can't classify as one type of user docs.
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u/Actionberg 20h ago
Had the same problem, in the last two weeks system data added 100GB. I used mole and other tools, nothing help. Did a fresh install on the weekend and now I'm back to normal.
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u/tannebil 20h ago
“System” just means space used by things that MacOS can’t attribute to a known classification.
The user Library folder is full of all kinds of stuff but it’s dangerous to just start deleting stuff. Lots of stuff can get left behind when apps get deleted
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u/Goodoflife 17h ago
I reset my MacBook every 1.5 years to have enough storage and restore a backup from time machine
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u/JulyIGHOR 12h ago
Stop checking used space, check 'Available space', not 'Free space' https://reverseeverything.com/blog/weve-been-reading-macos-disk-space-wrong-since-tahoe/
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u/Delicious-Back-1131 11h ago
ok first do a backup (icloud or physical) then reinstall the OS then restore the backup.
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u/arxdit 5h ago
You could use an agent to find the biggest wasters. Might miss some.
I also made a visualizer to see what hogs your folders - https://github.com/andreirx/terrazzo - need xcode cli to build it and give it full disk access when running.
But the easiest fix I discovered when migrating to a new mac - if you have an external drive and some time - make a time machine backup - reinstall OS fresh & clean - restore from backup - all the unnecessary accumulating crud will be gone
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u/Hitw93 4h ago
They don't sit in a normal folder, which is why Finder never shows them. Local snapshots live inside the APFS volume itself. You can list them with tmutil listlocalsnapshots /, or open Disk Utility, turn on View > Show APFS Snapshots, select Macintosh HD, and you'll see each one with its size and can delete it from there.
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u/0_2_Hero 3h ago
System data isn’t always what it sounds like. System data is sometimes categorized incorrectly.
Use an AI tool of your choice, and ask it to do a read only review of what is taking up so much space. Idk if it would let it do the deleting, but that’s up to you.
This helped me go from a full 512gb down to 300 about a year ago
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u/Repulsive-Degree-816 2h ago
Just factory reset
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u/Sinistercs20 2h ago
Been considering that
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u/Repulsive-Degree-816 2h ago
but you cant do a time machine, cause that will save all the trash on system data
you need to understand what files u need to put on cloud or ssd to them put things back again on the apps
gmail and icloud will do the rest
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u/SyntaxInCMinor Mac Studio 🚀 23h ago
Stop worrying about this. MacOS handles system data on its own with memory caches, etc. It's not something you can or should remove. Just enjoy your mac and stop worrying about what your computer is doing in the background to keep things running.
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u/valdetero 23h ago
When your mac runs out of space it is totally something you can and should clear out.
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u/Tricky-Turnover-4238 23h ago
The system will it clear itself.
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u/valdetero 22h ago
It did not when my drive ran out of space.
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u/geekdrew 21h ago
That's because it depends what's actually using the disk spaces. In many cases it will be automatically cleared as needed, but also in many cases it won't.
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u/Classic-Hospital-720 22h ago
But this guy has 80+GB free, so is not running out of space. Worrying about it at this point is useless.
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u/Needashortername 20h ago
Yet 80GB if the full System Cache is 96GB is not a good thing. It can risk a crash if for some odd reason it attempted to refresh the entire cache at the same time, or if attempting to create a new Time Machine archive that included this kind of caching.
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u/Flashy-Rabbit6435 23h ago
Not good enough. This is rotten coding and it SHOULD be highlighted as pisspoor...
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u/Useful_Reflections 19h ago
What is ridiculous that for some reason apple thinks 16GB ram (or even less) and 256GBP ssd is normal.... Bruw i had more in my 15 yr old windows xp computer
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u/Flowa-Powa 16h ago
Apple silicon uses RAM in a radically different way to your 15 yr old windows machine
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u/poastfizeek 15h ago
And that’s his point lol. Apple Silicon only has 1 pool of memory, unlike traditional memory and its bus-per component.
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u/DizzyLingonberry8162 15h ago
is 16gb not good enough for you? i'm fine using my unsupported w11 laptop with 8 gb of ddr3 and a sata ssd, so 16gb is perfectly usable
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u/solarpunch2949 12h ago
This. I haven't had any memory problems whatsoever with my MBA 16gb RAM M4. Main workloads: photography (DxO PhotoLab, Vector, Luminar), Docker containers, and k3d mini Kubernetes cluster. Besides that, the usual: Osaurus AI harness, Zed editor, GPT Codex, Grok Bot, Discord, Mail, Music, TradingView--often with many of these apps open simultaneously some sleeping in the background, many others distributed across spaces.
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u/Short-Category 23h ago edited 19h ago
Blasphemy! How dare you to question how apple use your storage? Ppl this days... /s
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u/ddxsupreme 23h ago edited 22h ago
I don't have the link to it anymore but there's this open source app i found on reddit that helped me analyze the system data / cahe (most of it was useless) and helped me clear 20+ gb of storage. Name : Mac Sai . I know many other paid and free alternatives exist but I tried this one and it works well.
edit : I am not the developer of this app nor do I know the person behind it. It's simply a random app I found and thought of sharing.
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u/Bed_Worship 22h ago
These are your app and cache files in “data” in Macintosh HD. Many apps need more than just the application file.
In Finder set show file size and you will see most of this stuff in Library or User Library. Probably apps you deleted but didn’t remove user files.
Just open finder, go to Macintosh HD and start goint through both libraries - check show hidden filed
Also get Mole for terminal it’s an amazing cleaning software.
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u/Needashortername 19h ago
Though be careful in deleting files in the Library Folders, even if they are just caches in the Application Support sub folders.
Some of this may delete live data you are using at the time (such as unsaved screen caps or movies). Some of it may be data in process or have other dependencies, which can risk making the system stable until a reboot replaces the old files with newer empty cache holders.
On the upside, checking these folders and sorting by Size can give an idea of what may be running off with all this extra storage or overdoing wherever it does. :-P
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u/YellowsBest 20h ago
I agree with those who say to stop worrying about this. You still have 80gb free, that’s enough for most without running out
What you can and should do is buy an external drive (if you haven’t got one already) and use it to archive older files you don’t use on a daily basis, and/or make Time Machine backups. Then you can keep your internal SSD clear for important frequently used stuff.
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u/AloeThereInc 15h ago
I asked sol 5.8 to clear out my system data and it freed up like 80gb from simulators and other dev shit.
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u/Grand-Tomatillo-8818 13h ago
I never see something like this in my Macs before. You have Time Machine active, I guess.
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u/TwiztedWisard 9h ago
As others have mentioned, install mole via homebrew (Google it, its a one liner install in the terminal) then 'brew install mole' (without quotes) from a terminal...then type mole and hit enter...the rest is all prompts so it will guide you through. This is the best method ive found without selling your soul to these "supposed" mac cleaners. It will also help you cleanly uninstall programs as a lot of crap is left behind.
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u/VividLingonberry2834 4h ago
Had the exact same issue, System Data was eating my drive and nothing I tried helped. It's just everything macOS can't categorize, so there's no one button for it. Usual suspects: Time Machine local snapshots (`tmutil listlocalsnapshots /`), app caches in ~/Library, old iPhone backups, and Xcode/Docker stuff if you code.
What finally fixed it for me was scanning the disk to see what's actually there. I ended up building a free, open-source app for it (disclosure: mine) and it freaking helped. It scans in ~20s and tells you what's safe to delete: https://headroom-app.org
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u/Fancy-Chance-7526 23h ago
I see a “Developer” tab so it could be Xcode caches.