How can I free up space on my MacBook Pro running macOS 14.3?

mdbonnell wrote:

MacBook running 14.3. I only have a few GB of space left out of 2TB. 1.2 TB is "System Data"

See this article for instructions for freeing up storage space: Free up storage space on Mac - Apple Support

You cannot directly manage the contents of the “Other”. That is done by macOS, and the “Other” varies in size depending on the current state of your Mac.

Here are some things you can do to clear space on your HD:

• Empty the Trash in the Dock. 

• Empty the trash in the Photos app.

• Delete unused and unneeded installers from your downloads folder and desktop.

• Transfer files that you don’t use daily to an external drive. Files that take up the most room are movies, images and music.

• Force Time Machine to delete local snapshots:

About Time Machine local snapshots - Apple Support

This from Apple on the subject of storage management:

Free up storage space on your Mac - Apple Support

And this for a better, more thorough explanation:

What is “Other” and what can I do about it? - Apple Community (Kappy)

Using Disk Utilities >> View >> " Show all device "

Maneuver to the " Data " Volume on left

Provide a Screen Shot then post the image using the Image Insertion ( Second to last icon )

For a more complete overview of the Drive and usages

Also provide a screen shot similar to the Second Image below

Just want to be absolutely clear

Disk Utilities will provide a much more accurate account than any of the other reporting methods available

You will notice in below

System Data technically, has a mount point /System/Volume/Data 

With a mount point of /System , this Volume( not partition ) is part of the Operating System and can not be deleted - full stop

It is where your User Account (s)  was made when the computer was First Setup as New

First Image

Second Image

System Data (which used to be called “other“) is mostly your data stored within app containers.

What is “Other” storage on a Mac, and how… - Apple Community