Mac System Data Large After macOS Ventura Update? (Fix?)
Mac System Data large
Mac System Data takes up a large amount of storage space after macOS Ventura Update? You’ve recently upgraded to macOS 13 and are seeing high or huge values between 30 GB and up to 80 GB of storage blocked by the system?
System Data Large in macOS Ventura?
This issue has been reported by Jose:
“System data takes up way too much space after ventura update! almost 40gigs. is it normal?”
We’re seeing values of 10-15 GB on our own devices but have found similar complaints on Reddit:
“System Data is absurdly large after Ventura update…74GB”
How To Fix macOS Ventura System Data
There’s not much that you can do about this. First of all be patient and allow the update to sync in for a couple of days. After everything gets properly indexed System Data storage values might drop.
According to this thread on Apple’s Discussion Forums any time macOS is updated, the process starts by making a copy of the APFS system volume (Macintosh HD) to a snapshot!
The snapshot is then updated, and when completed, it’s signed & sealed to become the “new” Macintosh HD in the new OS version.
macOS Ventura should eventually purge unnecessary System Data usage as more storage space is needed. This happens naturally over time or you can achieve it manually by using a third-party Mac cleaning software and get the appearance that you’re actually having more space on your computer.
Is System Data still taking up too much storage after macOS Ventura update? How much? Do you have a better solution or other problems to report? Share your feedback in the comments!
Related: For more macOS 13 issues and their available workarounds please check our extended review.
My Mac Mini M1 wit 512 GB SSD storage was full. Only 19 GB remained. Seems over 330 GB was used as System data! It was so bad that I couldn’t use my Mac anymore. I’ve erased the SSD and am installing a new system and all my apps … not funny.
Uhh, sorry to hear this. When did it spike like that? After the Ventura update?
I have a 500GB M1 Mac mini and I created a 30GB APFS volume to install Ventura. Now my disk utility says I have 430GB free space but when I try to download anything I get a message that disk is full and download cannot procede. I’m wondering if all my files tried to stay on the APFS volume. I installed “CleanMyMac” but the problem remains. I’m thinking of wiping the disk and starting over.
Would appreciate a follow up. Have you managed to fix it?
Likewise here. I have a 500GB drive (I know, I should have paid for the bigger disk) and my system data is 376GB. I am hesitant to add a 3rd party utility because they tend to spray invasive files all over your drive.
Thanks for sharing. That’s massive system data storage usage.
My 2019 iMac now has 996.82 GB of System Data. I did just recently upgrade to 13.1. Tempted to just do a clean install and start over.
Thanks for sharing. Let us know if the clean install solves it.
I have no idea what happened but after upgrading to Ventura 13.2 my system data exploded. it’s now at 579.5GB on a 1TB machine. that is RIDICULOUS and I’m not sure how to fix it.
same issue after ventura 13.1. system data went up to 330gb. i spent days deleting files from hd. could not get it below 280gb. i shut the mac off. (not restart) 2 times and system data is now at 6.8gb. try to figure that out.
Thanks for sharing. That sounds like an easy fix! Anyone else having similar success with this method?
Just updated today and have the exact same problem, insane amount of newly added ‘system data’ in the storage taking up 70% of my storage on Macbook Pro’s harddrive. ridiculous, what is this crap?
Have you managed to fix it? Would appreciate a followup.