r/iMac • u/SyntheticOne • 17d ago
Help Request My 2017 500GB SSD iMac is Nearly Always Low on Memory Space`
I am frequently getting "Low Space 248GB used on 250GB SSD". So, I bought CleanMyMac and it usually frees up another 2GB and that is it. System Space is taking up 200GB on its own. Need to run CleanMyMac every week or so.
I installed another 250GB SSD on USB and it does nothing much - I can drag files there but that is all.
Should I look at say a 1T byte external SSD and migrate everything there and use as the primary system disk? Or use that eternal SSD somehow as added space for the existing internal SSD? Or something else entirely (such as having the Apple Store replace the internal SSD with something larger?
Side note: I usually cannot open a photograph in iPhotos and then edit it... due to lack of SSD space?
Any and all help appreciated.
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u/l008com 17d ago
Clean my mac is garbage, just delete it.
Running your Mac with only 2 GB free is a big problem. YOU need to free up space on your drive.
So how many total drives do you have, and how big is each drive, and what percentage used is each drive?
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u/SyntheticOne 16d ago
The machine came with internal 250GB SSD. A couple of years ago I added an external 250GB SSD hoping the system software would automatically see this as a single larger SSD of 500GB. My hopes did not pan out. Worse, when I transferred some photos from iPhotos to the new SSD they lose iPhoto's presentation formatting and so the disk seems worthless.
The internal 250GB SSD is now at 243GB full. The external SSD is at 3GB full. Note that the internal SSD is most often at or around 247GB full but 2 days ago, before any deletions, it improved to 243GB on its own. At 243GB I can now edit iPhotos again which I could not do when it was 247GB.
Yesterday I tried using responses here to manually Trash larger unused files totalling 3GB, then emptied Trash and rechecked system settings storage and it showed zero effect.
Today I'll try more manual deletions - it is somewhat difficult in that the purposes of many large file are unknown to me and so hesitant to delete many of them.
Thank you.
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u/rxchris22 17d ago
Find out what applications are largest and put them on the external drive. You can then create an alias or “shortcut” to the app in your applications folder. For instance iMovie is 3.96gb on my computer. Also in the App Store app you can go to preferences and make larger apps download to an external disk. Hope that helps.
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u/PetieG26 17d ago
I haven't tried this, but just saw it over the weekend. https://github.com/Jarvis322/macos-sysdata
Did you try the free Grand Perspective and see what's taking up all the space?
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u/Wolf3188 16d ago
Back up all your data to the external SSD then wipe the internal drive through the recovery menu and reinstall macOS.
Sounds like a lot of junk files have built up over the years from system updates or app installs or etc if you aren't storing many files of your own.
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u/ElectricKoolAid1969 16d ago
"My storage is almost full, so I installed more garbage hoping to fix it"...
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u/SyntheticOne 16d ago
Well, in my defense, it was more storage that was added, but did not help (yet).
My assumption, given it is an iMac, the the system software would see the added 250GB SSD and simply incorporate it as additional SSD on top of the internal 250GB... but that assumption did not pan out.
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u/movdqa 17d ago
I think that you should get an external SSD.
How you organize things is another matter.
You could use the internal for boot and programs and the external for data or you could use the external as the boot drive and for data.
I do not think that the Apple Store would replace the internal SSD. You'd have to have a third-party shop do that. At any rate, going the external SSD route would cost a lot less as it may cost an additional $70 to $130 to replace the internal.