There's a Library folder for the system and there's also a Library folder for each user. Using that I can account for half of System Storage. Then do the same thing with the Library folder. So the first place I want to look is at the computer level and look at the System folder and use Command i to get info and then see how big that is. Now I happen to know that System Storage is going to be in both the System folder and the Library folder. But you have complete control to be able to look in the folders on your Mac and figure out what's what. There's a lot taken up by System Storage. Now unfortunately if you go to Manage and you look you're just going to be told the same thing. Now even though 50 GB of System Storage is now allocated to iCloud Drive, 40 GB still seems too big, right. As it gets more information about what's in the System folder it says, ah I can break this out and put it in another category. So it sees that as being part of the System folder. The thing is that in one of the Library folders is an actual folder that can change the data for iCloud Drive files and other things. So iCloud is actually accounting for a lot of what was previously seen as being System. You can see it took a big chunk and it put it into iCloud Drive. So if we wait long enough we will see it change. If it finds something that belongs in another category it will move it to that other category. What it's doing there is that it is looking in the system and library folders and it's figuring out what's inside there. But if you wait long enough eventually it will begin to divide things out. I really think there should be a little message there stating still calculating or something like that. It's still just shows you that it's at 90 GB in System Storage and leaving you to guess what's wrong. So you can see now it's still not updating, it's still not updating. It's still going to try and figure some things out. But what they don't do is they don't wait because it's still calculating. They figure something's wrong and they go to investigate it or not investigate it or complain or whatever. A lot of people make the mistake of stopping here. When it first does this System Storage looks huge. Then after a while it starts to divide up in sections. You'll see that you get a kind of general like used and not used.
#Apple why is mac system storage high how to#
Well, I'm going to tell you why you probably see it as looking really big, why it's probably not as big as you think, and how to find out what really is taking up the space.įirst, looking here notice what happens when you first go to Storage. Why does the system storage on my Mac take up so much space? If you go into About My Mac and then go to Storage, then go and look at the bar for System Storage, sometimes it can look alarmingly big.
It's asked in other forums all over the place. Online, on the Apple discussion groups I get asked it. Video Transcript: This is a question I hear over and over again.
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