Caught the culprit of macOS system data
by Poster
May 20, 2025
42
Terminal input
```
diskutil list
```
Focus on
```
APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 10.3 GB diskXXXX
```
[Online information shows] (https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/11/macos-11-0-big-sur-the-ars-technica-review/# page-11) From * * Catalina * * A security mechanism is introduced to handle update files, which increases with time and update frequency. mac will automatically manage and regularly remove redundant files in this volume, but the actual experience is that the system will only allow it to continue to grow. * * The faster the system is updated, the larger the directory will be * *.
The cleaning method is to temporarily close the SIP mount directory. For details, the directory can be sorted out. Currently under research... If V friends find other findings, please feel free to share them below.
Replies
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Anonymous6430 May 20, 2025(base) ➜ ~ diskutil list grep com.apple.os.update- 2: APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 14.8 GB disk3s1s1
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Anonymous6431 May 20, 2025APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 11.2 GB disk3s1s1 Last January's m3pro... updates were basically beta
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Anonymous11005 May 20, 202511.2 G m1pro 14, always update the system
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Anonymous82 May 20, 2025If you want to clean it up, you will clean it only if the hard disk is less than 5GB left, and the hard disk and the system will not be in charge
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Anonymous8633 May 20, 2025The system data takes up more than 90 GB, and the beggar version of Mac mini is almost full. I updated to macOS 15.5 and gave me 50GB. Now it takes up more than 40 GB, and the hard drive is spacious.
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Anonymous6432 May 20, 2025APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 14.8 GB disk3s3s1
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Anonymous1695 May 20, 2025Maybe it's because I just bought it for a short time, and I've updated it several times. Current APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 11.3 GB disk3s1s1
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Anonymous11006 May 20, 20256: APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 15.4 GB disk1s5s1
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Anonymous10551 May 20, 20252: APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 11.2 GB disk3s1s1 I don't know if I can delete it either..
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Anonymous6433 May 20, 2025Lets me restart updates every day, haven't updated yet: APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 16.1 GB
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Anonymous6434 May 20, 2025APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 11.2 GB disk5s2s1
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Anonymous6435 May 20, 2025This Snapshot keeps growing, probably because the Time Machine is turned on but the backup disk is not connected, right?
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Anonymous10404 May 20, 2025It's a bug, and it won't be cleared if the update fails. I ended up reinstalling the system before and ate 200g. It works fine after reinstallation.
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Anonymous2879 May 20, 2025APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 10.3 GB disk3s1s1
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Poster May 20, 2025Reply to everyone in a unified way @ Anonymous4452 Windows can obviously delete it for you in minutes, and it can basically be completely eliminated, but macOS is different, it is hidden by default @ Anonymous4454 macOS is really not good, it's all a computer environment @ Anonymous3017 is the actual occupation @ Anonymous4456 In addition to not knowing that batch, there are also a group of elephants who turn a blind eye to the room. Specific case keywords systemdata ios @ Anonymous3004 You you have a lot to check this, go to [Disk invenory] @ Anonymous4459 updates too diligently? @ Anonymous82 Jailbreak sees the truth. The system is not a bird at all. Both iOS and macOS are like this. They don't delete cache, dump, memory debug and other files. @ Anonymous8633 This size is still not normal @ Anonymous6435 has nothing to do with Time Machine @ Anonymous10404 will not be clear even if the update is successful
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Poster May 20, 2025@ Anonymous10551 Mount it and take a look. I deleted it too fast before and forgot to write down the directory. At present, I can't reproduce it here 🫠
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Anonymous10551 May 21, 2025@ Poster Let me remember first. At present, 1T only uses more than 100 G. This has little impact on me. If it is not enough, I will clean it up later. Thanks for sharing
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Anonymous1901 May 21, 2025APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 22.5 GB Why are you all only 10G +
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Anonymous6211 May 21, 2025With SSV enabled, this snapshot is the current running system. csrutil authenticated-root
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Anonymous3741 May 21, 2025@ Poster ‼ ️ This is not a backed-up pre-update system snapshot, but a disk mirror of the actual system volume. Using both disk utility and diskutil, you can see that the relationship between this snapshot and the system volume (that is, the system read-only volume) is exactly the same size. In fact, macos is booted from this disk image, so this snapshot is marked in disk utility It is "APFS Startup Snapshot • APFS (Encrypted)/macOS 15.5 (24F74)". The important thing to say again: this is a disk mirror of the system's read-only volume, which cannot be cleaned and cannot be cleaned up This is the cleverness of today's macos: the Macintosh HD looks like one volume, but it is actually two completely separate volumes, the read-only system and the user-accessible data