Library Containers Mac Storage
So, your Mac is running out of storage. You try to figure out what’s taking up your disk space by clicking the Apple logo on the top-left of the screen, selecting About This Mac, and hitting the Storage tab.
@Micro Are you sure you're looking in /Library (the Library folder in your home directory) and not /Library (at the root of the startup disk)? Unless you're on a really old OS, you will have a Containers folder because that's how app sandboxing works. – grg ♦ Oct 26 '17 at 18:07. Mar 11, 2020 Do you wonder what is Other storage on Mac and why does it eats up so much space? Along with the answer to this perplexing question, we also have tips and trick on how to clear the Other storage on Mac. Just like the “Other” on iPhone and iPad, it is home to a number of files, cached data and more.This section houses a mix of junk and important files. Jan 04, 2020 How to Move Your iTunes Library. You can move your iTunes library to a different folder, computer, or drive. Here's how to do it, even in macOS Catalina, which ditches iTunes for the Music app.
To your surprise, you see a yellow bar representing “System” that seems to occupy way more space than you think it should. In the example above, it only shows 207 GB, but take a look at this Apple discussion — some Mac users report that System Storage takes an astonishing 250 GB.
Worse yet, you have no idea what’s included in “System” storage, because clicking the “Manage” button brings you to this System Information window… and the “System” row is greyed out.
Why does my Mac system require so much space?
What does it contain?
Is it safe to remove some of those system files?
How do I regain more storage space?
Questions like these may easily get to your head. Although my Mac now has a good amount of disk space available, I’m always wary of files that are taking up more space than they should.
I have no idea why “System” is greyed out while “Documents,” “System Junk,” “Trash,” etc. allow you to review the files based on size and type. My hunch is that Apple does this on purpose to prevent users from deleting system files that could lead to serious issues.
What Files Are Included in System Storage on Mac?
During my research, I found many people report that Apple counts iTunes backup files and app caches (e.g. Adobe video cache files) in the System category.
Since it’s greyed out and we are unable to click on that category for deeper analysis, we’ll have to use a third-party app to assist.
CleanMyMac X is perfect for this kind of analysis. Since I tested the app in our best Mac cleaner review, it immediately came to my head when I saw “System” was greyed out in Storage. Note that CleanMyMac isn’t freeware, but the new “Space Lens” feature is free to use and it allows you to scan your Macintosh HD, and then show you an in-depth overview of what’s taking up disk space on your Mac.
Step 1:Download CleanMyMac and install the app on your Mac. Open it, under “Space Lens” module, first click the yellow “Grant Access” button to allow the app to access your Mac files and then select “Scan” to get started.
Step 2: Soon it’ll show you a folder/file tree and you can hover your cursor over each block (i.e. a folder). There you can find more details. In this case, I clicked “System” folder to continue.
Step 3: The file breakdown below indicates that some Library and iOS Support files are the culprits.
The interesting part is that the System file size shown in CleanMyMac is much smaller than the size shown in System Information. This puzzles me and makes me believe that Apple definitely has counted some other files (not real system files) in the System category.
What are they? I have no clue, honestly. But as reported by other Mac users who experienced the same issue, they said Apple also considers app caches and iTunes backup files as System files. Move addictive keys library mac torrent.
Out of curiosity, I ran CleanMyMac again for a quick scan. That app found 13.92 GB in iTunes Junk. Further review revealed that the junk files are old iOS device backups, software updates, broken downloads, etc.
But even after adding this amount to the original system files returned by CleanMyMac X, the total size is still a bit less than what’s returned in System Information.
If cleaning the System Storage is still not enough to bring your Mac available disk space to a normal level (i.e. 20% or more), see below.
What Else Can I Do to Reclaim More Disk Space?
There are tons of ways out there. Here are a few of my favorites that should help you get back a decent amount of space quickly.
1. Sort all files by size and delete old large files.
Open Finder, go to Recents and look at the Size column. Click on it to sort all recent files by file size (from large to small). You’ll have a clear overview of what items are eating up a large amount of space, e.g. From 1 GB to 10 GB, and from 100 MB to 1 GB.
On my MacBook Pro, I found a few large videos that could be transferred to an external drive.
Note: If the Size column doesn’t show up, click on the Settings icon and select Arrange By > Size.
2. Remove duplicate files.
Don’t forget those duplicates and similar files! They can stack up without you being aware of it. Finding them is sometimes time-consuming. That’s what Gemini 2 is designed for. Simply select a few frequently used folders (e.g. Documents, Downloads, etc.) in the main zone of Gemini.
It then scans them and returns all the duplicate files that might be worth removing. Of course, it’s always a good practice to review them before doing so. You can also read more from our detailed Gemini review here.
Wrapping It Up
Ever since Apple introduced the Optimized Storage feature, Mac users got the option of saving space by storing content in the cloud. Apple also has several new tools that make it easy to find and remove unneeded files.
That bar under the Storage tab is beautiful. It does allow you to get a quick overview of what’s taking up the most space on our hard drive. However, it still lacks insights into the “System” category as it’s greyed out.
Hopefully, the guides above have helped you figure out the reasons you’ve got so much “System” data, and most importantly you’ve reclaimed some disk space — especially for new MacBooks pre-installed with flash storage — every gigabyte is precious!
We use iCloud to free up the space on Mac or devices. It seems this is a duplication of storage between iCloud and local drive. That is absolutely annoying. If you've noticed this is happening to your Mac, then just keep reading. This article will explain why the problem occurs and offer you a solution to fix the problem.
Why iCloud Takes Up So Much Storage of Your Local Drive?
There are two types of cloud-based storage systems that can interact with the desktop. The first way is synchronization which is how Dropbox works. A local file such as a photo or document is stored on several devices such as different computers through cloud service, and that copy of file is also stored on the cloud service.
The second way is that files are stored on cloud servers but you can use a local drive or another interface to gain access to the files in the cloud. This means that you can download the files on demand, make changes to it and the changes will be replicated on the cloud once you upload it to cloud. Yet, the file on the local drive can be removed without affecting the one on the cloud.
The latter way is how iCloud works. iCloud Drive helps you access the files on iCloud. Most of the time this feature is there to protect the data on your computer from loss and save storage on your computer as well. However, some people find this doesn't save space at all, the photos and files are still occupying large storage of their computers. Next we will tell you how to solve this problem.
How to Fix iCloud Drive Taking Up Too Much Space?
You can not only upload the data on your computer but also the data on your iOS devices to iCloud. For example, if you turn on iCloud Photo Library on your iPhone or iPad, then the photos and videos on these devices will all be copied to iCloud Photo Library which employs the iCloud service. When you turn on iCloud Drive on your Mac or install it on your PC, and enable iCloud Photo Library in Photo Settings, then the photos and videos will be downloaded to your computer . All the full-resolution images will be also stored on your computer. This gets your iCloud Drive taking up too much storage of the local drive on your Mac and PC.
You can do something to save the space. iCloud Photo Library offers 2 options: Download Originals to this Mac and Optimize Mac Storage. You can go to Photos > Preferences > iCloud and then enable Optimize Mac Storage. In this way the full-resolution images will be kept on iCloud and only the optimized ones can be found on your computer. This will save local storage.
Selectively Export Photos from iOS Devices to Computer
Library Containers Mac Storage Space
Some people use iCloud Drive and iCloud Photo Library in order to transfer the photos from iOS devices to computer for other uses, so they enable Download Originals to this Mac. If you don't want iCloud Drive to use up the space on your Mac or PC, you can find another way to copy the photos from your iOS devices to Mac or PC. You can transfer only the photos you need instead of all the photos on your device. This will greatly save the space of your Mac. The best tool to help you do that is iMyFone D-Port. This backup and restore tool comes with a feature that allows you to export data from the iPhone/iPad/iPod touch to the Mac or PC selectively. This means that you can pick and choose the necessary files to transfer to the Mac or PC.
Before we use the D-Port Pro to transfer data to your Mac, we thought we'd share some of its other features. They include the following;
iMyFone D-Port iPhone/iPad/iPod Data Exporter (iOS 12/11.4/11.3/11.2.2 Supported)
Key Features:
- You can export 18 types of data from iOS device, not just photos but also some other types of data such as WhatsApp data, WeChat data, contacts, notes, messages, etc.
- You can also extract 18 types of data from iCloud and iTunes backup.
- It is also a backup tool. You can backup a single app such as WeChat, WhatsApp, and Message.
- You can choose to restore an iTunes or iCloud backup partially without overwriting all the other data on the device using the Pro version of this tool.
Follow these simple steps to export data from your iPhone to your Mac using iMyFone D-Port Pro.
Step 1 Install iMyFone D-Port Pro to your computer and then launch it. On the main window, select 'Backup & Export from Device.' Connect the iPhone to the computer and ensure that the program detects the device. Now, click on 'Export Data'.
Step 2 In the next screen, you should see a list of data types. Choose the type of data (Photo) you want to export. You can choose more than one type if you want. Click 'Next' and the program will begin scanning the device for the selected data.
Step 3 When the scanning process is complete, you will see all the photos on your device. Select the images you want to export to the Mac and then click 'Export' to save them to your computer.
With iMyFone D-Port, you can also save iCloud storage. We not only store photos in iCloud Photo Library which employs iCloud storage, but also make iCloud backup which takes up iCloud storage as well. This duplicates some content in iCloud and takes up double storage. Therefore you can extract the data especially the photos/videos and other basic data types such as contacts, notes, messages, and other messenger apps like WhatsApp, WeChat, Kik, etc from your iCloud backup, then delete the iCloud backup you don't need anymore, which saves a lot of storage space.