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Mac Storage Full? What "System Data" Really Is

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Alex Rivero

Lead Performance Engineer

calendar_today July 27, 2026
schedule 5 min read
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Opening System Settings > Storage reveals a mysterious grey bar labeled "System Data" consuming 40GB to 100GB+ of disk space. Here is what System Data actually contains and how to safely reduce it.

pie_chart What Actually Lives Inside System Data?

  • Application Caches: Xcode derived data, browser caches, Slack, Electron logs.
  • Time Machine Local Snapshots: Automatic background backups waiting to sync.
  • Old System Logs: Stale log archives in /private/var/log.

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