I.T. GUY NEW TO MAC - INCREASING DISK USED SPACE - WHY ?

[dgian]

hello to the community ! I am new to apple MacBooks (even though I ve been working as an I.T. for 11 years now).

my quick question which must be easy for you guys is this:



Used space on my new M1 MacBook Air is constantly growing is size !

(please have a look at screenshots)

I have iCloud off and automatic updates switched off as well.



but still I can't figure out what keeps taking on size on the disk and the occupied space keeps growing constantly.



it is currently 29.3gb (on the 3rd day of use)

I do understand that apps take 2gb approximately, macOS is 15,76gb and system data 10,9gb.

why is disk space constantly being reduced without any new items taking up that space and how can I prevent it from growing up ?

thanks for your time !

 

[joevt]

System logs and Spotlight indexes?

How fast is it growing? Is some of it returned when you restart (may be some temporary stuff)?

I don't think you should worry about it until it gets near full.

 

[Fuchal]

System and app caches; snapshots if you have time machine on

 

[chabig]

You MacBook is a tool. Don't frustrate yourself over the details of how it works. Don't waste your time trying to micromanage disk space, battery charge, component temperatures, swap space, memory use, etc. Just use it.

 

[dgian]

System logs and Spotlight indexes?

How fast is it growing? Is some of it returned when you restart (may be some temporary stuff)?

I don't think you should worry about it until it gets near full.

thanks for replying really appreciate it !
possibly system logs. I assume about 300-400mb per day. haven't restarted it coz I ve read about MacBooks that there is some minor stress on its components for every restart so I have it on sleep the last 4 days I own it. I suppose its temporary stuff as you say.

where should I look to clean them up ?

 

[dgian]

System and app caches; snapshots if you have time machine on

@Fuchal thanks for replying I think you are right it must be system and app caches. how do should I clean them up ?

 

[dgian]

You MacBook is a tool. Don't frustrate yourself over the details of how it works. Don't waste your time trying to micromanage disk space, battery charge, component temperatures, swap space, memory use, etc. Just use it.

@chabig I know what you mean but as an i.t. admin for the past decade and my first experience with macOS with this device many questions arise especially due to the fact that the hdd is 256gb and I don't want to fill it up with junk. hence I purchased a 1tb nvme ssd and a usb type c enclosure to save apps and data. but the way storage fills up is awkward for a windows user who doesn't know what to clean up.

 

[Fuchal]

@Fuchal thanks for replying I think you are right it must be system and app caches. how do should I clean them up ?

The system will clean them up as necessary, no need to mess with them. They will just regenerate if you delete them. The logic in MacOS is generally that it will use space until space becomes limited, and then it will auto clean up unnecessary data like caches.

If you are interested, check the various Caches folders - ~/Library/Caches, /Library/Caches, /System/Library/Caches as well as Containers

 

[chabig]

where should I look to clean them up ?

I understand your interest in how things work, because of your background and curiosity. I share that too. But you really don't have to do anything. If you have any Unix experience, that will help you understand how Macs work at lower levels. The Mac has periodic scripts that run daily, weekly, and monthly, that clean up those logs.

You will likely find much of the Mac information at this website very interesting:

The Eclectic Light Company

Macs, painting, and more

eclecticlight.co

 

[dgian]

The system will clean them up as necessary, no need to mess with them. They will just regenerate if you delete them.

If you are interested, check the various Caches folders - ~/Library/Caches, /Library/Caches, /System/Library/Caches as well as Containers

@Fuchal really appreciate your help man ! thank you for the info shared

 

[joevt]

haven't restarted it coz I ve read about MacBooks that there is some minor stress on its components for every restart so I have it on sleep the last 4 days I own it.

I leave my Macs on all the time (some without sleep except the display)
If the sleep is deep enough then it's basically restarting when you wake up.

possibly system logs. I assume about 300-400mb per day. I suppose its temporary stuff as you say.

where should I look to clean them up ?

They should clean themselves up. old logs are gzipped. Even older logs are probably deleted. There are periodic tasks to handle this stuff.

 

[dgian]

I leave my Macs on all the time (some without sleep except the display)
If the sleep is deep enough then it's basically restarting when you wake up.


They should clean themselves up. old logs are gzipped. Even older logs are probably deleted. There are periodic tasks to handle this stuff.

@joevt don't you think I should restart my M1 Air say every 2-3 days ?

 

[rbwca]

The other obvious thing to do is look at TimeMachine settings to see what is being backed up on your Mac.

Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support (CA)

Automatically back up what's important: Photos, email, music, and more.

support.apple.com

 

[dgian]

@joevt @rbwca @chabig @Fuchal OK just another quick question to all of you: just installed Bitdefender antivirus and thinking of whether is stresses the M1 ssd disk due to more read/write cycles.

Do you use any antivirus software to your Macs ?

 

[Bandaman]

@joevt @rbwca @chabig @Fuchal OK just another quick question to all of you: just installed Bitdefender antivirus and thinking of whether is stresses the M1 ssd disk due to more read/write cycles.

Do you use any antivirus software to your Macs ?

I use Malwarebytes. The scan generally lasts 10 seconds or less. Also you are way over-stressing about read/write cycles.

I’m a tech too, but you don’t need to worry about the mundane details like you do on Windows. I own a Mac because Windows is what I generally fix for people. The Mac lets me not worry about all that crap.

 

[joaomlneto]

@joevt @rbwca @chabig @Fuchal OK just another quick question to all of you: just installed Bitdefender antivirus and thinking of whether is stresses the M1 ssd disk due to more read/write cycles.

Do you use any antivirus software to your Macs ?

I've been using MacBooks as my daily driver for 11 years now (I'm a fellow IT guy) and haven't felt the need to install Antivirus and, so far, haven't really been infected (at least that I have noticed).

I believe the main factor is that exploits for macOS are not as popular as for Windows (due to platform popularity).

If you're careful and don't browse suspicious websites, execute suspicious applications nor fall for email spam/phishing, you should be OK.

---

Regarding the disk space: the system will do some "setting up" in the first days of usage (mostly indexing, and iCloud synchronizations). I wouldn't worry about it for the first week.

macOS is quite efficient at using resources (read: efficient means it will make use of them if there is any benefit), and will clean up quite well after itself after it's done with them, or if it thinks you'll need the disk space.

Current disk space usage in `~/Library/Caches`:

My personal experience is that I never really had problems with macOS using too much disk space, nor too much RAM (if I really need it). For example, my Macbook Pro with 32GB RAM easily caches 20GB+ of files in RAM if I'm not needing it. When I spin up 10 VMs (~24GB RAM), the amount used to cache files drops to ~3GB.

 

[Bandaman]

Also, forgot to mention, you can easily take care of things that are unnecessarily eating up disk space by clicking the  logo on the top left of your screen > About This Mac > Storage > Manage

I believe the main factor is that exploits for macOS are not as popular as for Windows (due to platform popularity).

I'm not sure what kind of tech you are if you actually work on computers individually for people, but this simply isn't true anymore. There are tons of Macs out there now and people have every reason to exploit them now for the very mindset that you have. The people that easily get malware on Windows also get them on Macs through the same type of behavior. My cousin's computer had so much malware that if it was an animal, I would have shot it to put it out of its misery. And I've had many clients like this. People prone to getting bad things on their computers will always manage to do so. Obviously Macs don't get them as often as Windows, but it does still happen.

 

[joaomlneto]

I'm not sure what kind of tech you are if you actually work on them individually for people, but this simply isn't true anymore. There are tons of Macs out there now and people have every reason to exploit them now for the very mindset that you have. The people that easily get malware on Windows also get them on Macs through the same type of behavior. My cousin's computer had so much malware that if it was an animal, I would have shot it to put it out of its misery. And I've had many clients like this. People prone to getting bad things on their computers will always manage to do so. Obviously Macs don't get them as often as Windows, but it does still happen.

Please feel free do say I'm wrong (ideally by providing verifiable sources), but I don't see the need to attack me at a professional level. Just to clarify, I don't work on tech support (except for family and friends). Was just reporting my experience and giving an opinion. Again, your mileage may vary.

Just did a quick Google and (1) macOS malware is indeed rising quickly, but (2) is still has a relatively small 'market' share.
Whether you want to adjust it to be proportional to each OS market share is up to you.

Major operating systems targeted by ransomware 2020 | Statista

This statistic depicts the list of major operating systems targeted by ransomware in 2020.

www.statista.com

Windows Computers Were Targets of 83% of All Malware Attacks in Q1 2020

AV Test shows that Windows computers are the most vulnerable to malware attacks and are targeted more than any other operating system.

www.pcmag.com

Operating System Market Share Worldwide | Statcounter Global Stats

This graph shows the market share of operating systems worldwide based on over 5 billion monthly page views.

gs.statcounter.com

 

[rbwca]

@joevt @rbwca @chabig @Fuchal OK just another quick question to all of you: just installed Bitdefender antivirus and thinking of whether is stresses the M1 ssd disk due to more read/write cycles.

Do you use any antivirus software to your Macs ?

I've been using Macs since 1985 and have never felt the need to install an antivirus software. I do have MalwareBytes and have not had any detections.

 

[Bandaman]

Please feel free do say I'm wrong (ideally by providing verifiable sources), but I don't see the need to attack me at a professional level. Just to clarify, I don't work on tech support (except for family and friends). Was just reporting my experience and giving an opinion. Again, your mileage may vary.

Just did a quick Google and (1) macOS malware is indeed rising quickly, but (2) is still has a relatively small 'market' share.
Whether you want to adjust it to be proportional to each OS market share is up to you.

Major operating systems targeted by ransomware 2020 | Statista

This statistic depicts the list of major operating systems targeted by ransomware in 2020.

www.statista.com

Windows Computers Were Targets of 83% of All Malware Attacks in Q1 2020

AV Test shows that Windows computers are the most vulnerable to malware attacks and are targeted more than any other operating system.

www.pcmag.com

Operating System Market Share Worldwide | Statcounter Global Stats

This graph shows the market share of operating systems worldwide based on over 5 billion monthly page views.

gs.statcounter.com

I wasn’t attacking you on a professional level I was asking what kind of tech you are, if you are one that works on computers individually for people or not, I wasn’t insulting your tech prowess or professionalism, but I now realize my response sounds condescending from how it was worded, but that wasn’t my intention. As for evidence, that would be from the tens of thousands of Macs I’ve worked on, with a good portion of them being infected with malware. People with a tendency to get malware like to click on and install literally everything they see. Most of the malware was mostly harmless, except for browser hijackers that can steal data, but the only real one of concern these days is ransomware.

Worse than all of these though that I’ve seen a sharp rise in is Indian scammers, which doesn’t require malware at all, just scaring people into doing what they want.

 

[chrfr]

@joevt don't you think I should restart my M1 Air say every 2-3 days ?

There is no particular need to restart a Mac that often. My work Mac is sitting at just shy of 14 days uptime. I last restarted it to install the latest macOS update.

 

[dgian]

I've been using MacBooks as my daily driver for 11 years now (I'm a fellow IT guy) and haven't felt the need to install Antivirus and, so far, haven't really been infected (at least that I have noticed).

I believe the main factor is that exploits for macOS are not as popular as for Windows (due to platform popularity).

If you're careful and don't browse suspicious websites, execute suspicious applications nor fall for email spam/phishing, you should be OK.

---

Regarding the disk space: the system will do some "setting up" in the first days of usage (mostly indexing, and iCloud synchronizations). I wouldn't worry about it for the first week.

macOS is quite efficient at using resources (read: efficient means it will make use of them if there is any benefit), and will clean up quite well after itself after it's done with them, or if it thinks you'll need the disk space.

Current disk space usage in `~/Library/Caches`:
View attachment 1956978

My personal experience is that I never really had problems with macOS using too much disk space, nor too much RAM (if I really need it). For example, my Macbook Pro with 32GB RAM easily caches 20GB+ of files in RAM if I'm not needing it. When I spin up 10 VMs (~24GB RAM), the amount used to cache files drops to ~3GB.

@joaomlneto many thanks for the extensive reply and the time you dedicated to explain everything.

 

[Bandaman]

There is no particular need to restart a Mac that often. My work Mac is sitting at just shy of 14 days uptime. I last restarted it to install the latest macOS update.

I only ever restart to install an OS update or if a newly installed app needs to restart. I always just put it to sleep.

 

[dgian]

Also, forgot to mention, you can easily take care of things that are unnecessarily eating up disk space by clicking the  logo on the top left of your screen > About This Mac > Storage > Manage



I'm not sure what kind of tech you are if you actually work on computers individually for people, but this simply isn't true anymore. There are tons of Macs out there now and people have every reason to exploit them now for the very mindset that you have. The people that easily get malware on Windows also get them on Macs through the same type of behavior. My cousin's computer had so much malware that if it was an animal, I would have shot it to put it out of its misery. And I've had many clients like this. People prone to getting bad things on their computers will always manage to do so. Obviously Macs don't get them as often as Windows, but it does still happen.

@Bandaman I get what you are trying to say and at all the business I ve worked as an i.t. admin I haven't left not a single pc/server/laptop without bit defender antivirus. I would like your opinion on the resources required by bit defender on m1 MacBook Air since for windows I see about 250mb of Ram required by the process during idle (i.e. no full scan tasks).
I just want to preserve that new type of soldered ssd on m1 air...

 

[jezbd1997]

thanks for replying really appreciate it !
possibly system logs. I assume about 300-400mb per day. haven't restarted it coz I ve read about MacBooks that there is some minor stress on its components for every restart so I have it on sleep the last 4 days I own it. I suppose its temporary stuff as you say.

where should I look to clean them up ?

there's no real stress restarting it? where are you getting your made up info from. as someone else said just use it