How to reduce 'System Data' usage on Mac mini M1 for more internal SSD space?

Question

How to reduce 'System Data' usage on Mac mini M1 for more internal SSD space?

WHAT ARE THE WAYS TO REMOVE THAT DATA?

AT LEAST I KNOW THAT MAC OS IS ABOUT 33.54GB AND MY SHARED INFORMATION IS ABOUT 1.22GB BECAUSE I DONT SHARE ANYTHING WITH ANYONE I ONLY USE THIS OPERATING SYSTEM FOR MYSELF.

ANYWAYS, I HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING AND EVERY SINGLE LITTLE DETAIL ONTO THE SYSTEM BUT YET NOTHING SEEMS TO REMOVE THAT LARGE FILE SYSTEM DATA CONTAINER OR WHATEVER IT IS. 310.21 GB

SO MY QUESTION IS... DOES THIS DISAPPEAR WHEN YOU UPDATE TO THE NEW MAC OS? OR IT CARRIES OVER?

I AM TRYING TO HAVE MORE SPACE ON MY INTERNAL SSD.

MAC MINI M1 2TB INTERNAL STORAGE (MANUFACTURE SSD CAPACITY)

USED 1.21TB / FREE SPACE 784.51GB + 310.21 GB OF USELESS USE OF STORAGE CAN GIVE ME 905.28GB OF USE. WHICH WILL REST 1094.72 GB OF FREE SPACE...

PLEASE CAN ANYONE HELP ME?! 😭

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: SYSTEM DATA 130.21 GB

Mac mini, macOS 15.5

Posted on Aug 12, 2025 05:58 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

steve626

Level 6

13,035 points

Aug 13, 2025 08:27 PM in response to Adam_Electric

Adam_Electric wrote:

.. i wish there was a way around to fix this i do need more space..

There is, but to really understand your storage, you need to get past the Mac's built in approximate and non-specific utility and use a commercial tool (e.g. not free). One example that I am familiar with and use is Daisy Disk. If you run it as Administrator, it will drill down and show you where every GB is on your Mac. For me, it identified some old iPhone backups, some device updates for an iPhone and for a Garmin device, and a downloaded map for the Garmin device. I was able to delete over 100 GB. My daughter used it (the license allows for use on several Macs) and she found some old Lightroom catalog backups and removed nearly 200 GB. "System Storage" is a catch all for a hodge podge of files, some of which you can control (e.g. delete), some of which you cannot. You need a tool that more clearly identifies what comes from what.

There are free tools that some this also but they are not as easy to use as Daisy Disk. Daisy Disk will drill down to hidden as well as true system folders that the user should not touch, so that is a danger, that the user might delete something that should not be deleted.

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Answer 2

Aug 12, 2025 06:21 PM in response to Adam_Electric

WHAT ARE THE WAYS TO REMOVE THAT DATA?

AT LEAST I KNOW THAT MAC OS IS ABOUT 33.54GB AND MY SHARED INFORMATION IS ABOUT 1.22GB BECAUSE I DONT SHARE ANYTHING WITH ANYONE I ONLY USE THIS OPERATING SYSTEM FOR MYSELF.

ANYWAYS, I HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING AND EVERY SINGLE LITTLE DETAIL ONTO THE SYSTEM BUT YET NOTHING SEEMS TO REMOVE THAT LARGE FILE SYSTEM DATA CONTAINER OR WHATEVER IT IS. 310.21 GB

SO MY QUESTION IS... DOES THIS DISAPPEAR WHEN YOU UPDATE TO THE NEW MAC OS? OR IT CARRIES OVER?

I AM TRYING TO HAVE MORE SPACE ON MY INTERNAL SSD.

MAC MINI M1 2TB INTERNAL STORAGE (MANUFACTURE SSD CAPACITY)

USED 1.21TB / FREE SPACE 784.51GB + 310.21 GB OF USELESS USE OF STORAGE CAN GIVE ME 905.28GB OF USE. WHICH WILL REST 1094.72 GB OF FREE SPACE...

PLEASE CAN ANYONE HELP ME?! 😭

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

(sorry i suffer from dyslexia sorry about the title, in the body of the paragraph is the real amount of the SYSTEM DATA.)

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: SYSTEM DATA 130.21 GB

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Answer 3

Aug 12, 2025 06:24 PM in response to neuroanatomist

love your sarcasm but i now have a trend to type in caps lock on, i apologize since this can be misinterpreted and annoying to some users, but oh God i do suffer from dyslexia and my sight is not that great lol but thank you! i was able to manage 27gb of free space yet still 310 have been stored.. i wish there was a way around to fix this i do need more space..

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Answer 4

Aug 12, 2025 07:25 PM in response to Adam_Electric

System Settings > Storage is not especially reliable or useful for determining your space allocation unless you dig deeper than the surface. For example, on one of my MacBook Pros, it reports that Applications take up 240 GB of space, but looking at the Applications folder they only take up about 40 GB. However, in my user Library's Applications Support folder there is an invisible cache file for my cloud storage service that is 200 GB in size. On that Mac, System Data is about 115 GB and of that, about 40 GB are mail attachments in MS Outlook.

The bottom line is that System Data is composed of your data, just stored in ways that are not readily categorized in the list of System Settings > Storage.

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Answer 5

Aug 12, 2025 08:02 PM in response to neuroanatomist

i was able to locate some 27.20 some gigs of pure mail from the within the mail app and i was able to gain that space back by deleting it, it was a pain in the butt to find it, but omg i hope apple comes up with something else a way easier to manipulate that system data and be able to remove it within the same macos system or at least a 3rd party app to make it easier.

Thanks for explaining me i am still doing some research. Probably it is my icloud as well that i have it linked to my mac, not sure but i will look into it.

Thanks for explaining me about ms outlook i will look forward into that as well, into those directories. 👏

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Answer 6

Aug 13, 2025 02:26 PM in response to Adam_Electric

Seriously, if you're concerned about 30 GB, then you're going to be worrying about this storage thing for the rest of your life. You need to get a fast external hard drive and move a bunch of stuff to it.

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Answer 7

Old Toad

Level 10

214,296 points

Aug 13, 2025 02:44 PM in response to Adam_Electric

Typing in all caps is considered by most to be the equivalent of yelling is is bad manners.

System Storage used to be called the "Other Category": see this post by me..

You can reduce it somewhat by deleting the local snapshots of the boot drive with Disk Utility like this:

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Answer 8

Aug 13, 2025 03:17 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Its 310 gigs not 30 😭

so i really dont mind buying an external ssd at least that runs the same as the internal ssd. I am willing to pay about 1grand or more i really dont carr i just want to have peace of mind…

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Answer 9

Aug 14, 2025 06:48 AM in response to Adam_Electric

Adam_Electric wrote: … so i really dont mind buying an external ssd at least that runs the same as the internal ssd. I am willing to pay about 1grand or more i really dont carr i just want to have peace of mind…

SSDs can run less than $100/TB. I've always thought two small ones are better than one big one-- if one dies you haven't lost everything. Stick with name brands. I've tried some off-brands, with catastrophic failures.

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Answer 10

Aug 15, 2025 12:51 PM in response to steve626

Daisy disk? I heard of it in another post.

omg it even deleted hidden lmfiles! That’s awesome because its showing you the true ppowers!

well maybe there is things there i dont need but of omcourse i will be very very careful and before deleting something i will investigate before making a move

thank you very much! Definitely checking about it

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Answer 11

Aug 15, 2025 08:59 PM in response to neuroanatomist

i did the doctor thing from mail and was able to delete about 30 gigs more so in total from old toad and your post i got already about 50GB FREE so those are very good news! i want to see at least in use about 20Gb of "SYSTEM DATA" in use.

Anyways i can see finally the light at the end!

All of you thank you! this journey is getting better and better! 😃

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Answer 12

Aug 16, 2025 06:21 AM in response to steve626

So i want to say to everyone that helped me in this journey, THANK YOU!

This does not mean i am screaming @old toad. (hehe) i am just being happy and thankful to everyone that has helped me to understand how "system data" works.

This Apple Community, its Gold! Everyone in this community is amazing people! They are very educated very polite and very helpful!

I am extremely happy and optimistic ever since i understood the "snapshots" through "disk utility" as well "daisy disk" also understanding how "mail" app can store so many gigs of useless information over the time.

Using the "connection doctor" i was able to gain back about 30 Gigabytes.

Everyone this thread is closed my doubts my frustration has become happiness and optimism!

Thank you everyone in this post that helped me on every single way!

I left a mini clip showing how i was able to remove the "Purgeable Space" demonstrating that everything that happened in that video was with the effort of every single one of you!

Team work, DOES, make the dreamwork!

Thank you everyone, once again!

😃😄😊🙂✌️👍👏💪

https://youtu.be/MzQ2awLbe3A

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Answer 13

Aug 12, 2025 06:05 PM in response to Adam_Electric

As to your apparent problem, System Data is mainly your own data stored by various applications in the ~/Library and /Library folders. A prime example is email attachments, but there are others.

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