Clean Up Mac System Library

07.04.2020
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Many people would use iTunes to copy music on disc and that's a perfect idea. But as time passed by, people would find that their iTunes library is getting out of hand. After years of use it may be full of duplicates or, even worse, links to tracks that are no longer there. There are the tracks that are in iCloud and the various playlists that you created years ago which can make your iTunes a mess. How to bring order to your music, movies, apps and more? How to clean up iTunes library on your computer? If this sounds familiar, if your iTunes library is utterly disorganized, it's time to get your iTunes in order. In this article, we will offer you some suggestions on how to clean up music and audio files in iTunes step by step. If you follow the advice in this article that applies to you, your iTunes library will be much improved, and you'll have taken steps to keep it organized moving forward.

The answer ultimately lies with Apple, which could let iCloud Photos users designate multiple libraries (a la Time Machine), a backup library, or other strategies. For now, you either need to trust in Apple, switch to an external drive, or reduce the images you sync with iCloud Photos. Photos has its own Photos trash, so when you remove pictures, they don't go to the normal trash bin, but to the Photos trash within the app. So as you delete pictures you don't reduce the size of the app until you empty the Photos trash. Mar 18, 2020  Quit Photos. In the Finder, go to the external drive where you want to store your library. In another Finder window, find your library. The default location is Users username Pictures, and it's named Photos Library. Drag your library to its new location on the external drive. Reduce size of photos library mac. May 26, 2015  If not, deleting photos will not reduce the library size much, since the original photos are stored outside the library and will not be deleted, when you delete photos. To check for referenced files, create a smart album with the rule 'Photo is Referenced'. Mar 18, 2020  If your Photos library won't open, or if Photos behaves unexpectedly, the Photos library repair tool might resolve the issues. Follow these steps to use the Photos library repair tool: Hold down the Option and Command keys while you open Photos on your Mac. In the dialog that appears, click Repair to start the repair process.

How to clean up Mac with CleanMyMac X: Download CleanMyMac X (a link to a free edition of the app) Launch the program. Go to the Large and Old Files section on the menu. Review the details, select what to clean and then click Clean. Remove old iOS backups. Having your files backed up is a wonderful thing. Jul 22, 2015  Many tools in the App Store just won't do the trick, so I'm here to show you some root-level-access ways to clear, reduce and delete the 'other' section on your Mac and free up hard drive space.

  • CleanMyMac is highest rated all-round cleaning app for the Mac, it can quickly diagnose and solve a whole plethora of common (but sometimes tedious to fix) issues at the click of a button. It also just happens to resolve many of the issues covered in the speed up section of this site, so Download CleanMyMac to get your Mac back up to speed today.
  • Oct 07, 2019  In macOS Mojave or earlier, choose Apple menu System Preferences, click iCloud, then click Options next to iCloud Drive. Store in iCloud turns on the Desktop & Documents Folders and Optimize Mac Storage settings. In Photos, choose Photos Preferences, then click iCloud. Store in iCloud selects iCloud Photos and Optimize Mac Storage.
  • Jun 08, 2017  By default, maintenance scripts runs in a scheduled period to clean up these system logs and temporary files. If your Mac is shut down or in sleep mode during the period, the maintenance scripts will not run automatically. You have to run the scripts manually. How to clean up system logs and temporary files manually.
  • Besides, you can also use iPhone Data Transfer and iPhone Data Transfer for Mac to back up iTunes to computer before you begin to clean up iTunes library. This tool will help you make a backup of the contacts, text messages, photos, notes, etc. On your computer. Step 2: Delete and Clean Duplicates Choose View Show Exact Duplicate Items.

Steps to Clear iTunes Library Easily and Quickly

Step 1: Back Up Your iTunes Library

You need back up the iTunes library before you clear it up. Enter 'File > Library > Consolidate Library' to copy all data files to the iTunes Music folder. Then move the folder to an external drive or another folder on your device.

By default Windows users will find iTunes Music in /Documents and Settings/username/My Documents/My Music/iTunes/iTunes Music. For users running Mac OS X the iTunes music is in /Users/username/Music/iTunes/.

Besides, you can also use iPhone Data Transfer and iPhone Data Transfer for Mac to back up iTunes to computer before you begin to clean up iTunes library. This tool will help you make a backup of the contacts, text messages, photos, notes, etc. on your computer.

Step 2: Delete and Clean Duplicates

Choose View > Show Exact Duplicate Items. Matches are based on the song name and artist. If you have multiple versions of the same song, you can hold the Alt or Option key (for Mac OS X) or the Shift key (for Windows) and choose View > Show Exact Duplicate Items. This will show only duplicate songs having the same name, artist, and album.

Duplicate items will be sorted next to one another. Review each item to determine which one you'd like to remove from your library. You can compare the track length, date added, genre, play count, size, bit rate, and more to help you determine which item you'd like to keep and which item you'd like to remove. After that, you can select the duplicate you want to delete. Remove it by choosing Edit > Delete. When it's done, your iTunes library will be much cleaner than before.

Related: You can also use the MobiKin iOS Data Cleaner to clean junk files in your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with ease.

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So, your Mac is running out of storage. You try to figure out what’s taking up your disk space by clicking the Apple logo on the top-left of the screen, selecting About This Mac, and hitting the Storage tab.

To your surprise, you see a yellow bar representing “System” that seems to occupy way more space than you think it should. In the example above, it only shows 207 GB, but take a look at this Apple discussion — some Mac users report that System Storage takes an astonishing 250 GB.

Mac library application support folder. Worse yet, you have no idea what’s included in “System” storage, because clicking the “Manage” button brings you to this System Information window… and the “System” row is greyed out.

Why does my Mac system require so much space?

What does it contain?

Is it safe to remove some of those system files?

How do I regain more storage space?

Questions like these may easily get to your head. Although my Mac now has a good amount of disk space available, I’m always wary of files that are taking up more space than they should.

I have no idea why “System” is greyed out while “Documents,” “System Junk,” “Trash,” etc. allow you to review the files based on size and type. My hunch is that Apple does this on purpose to prevent users from deleting system files that could lead to serious issues.

What Files Are Included in System Storage on Mac?

During my research, I found many people report that Apple counts iTunes backup files and app caches (e.g. Adobe video cache files) in the System category.

Since it’s greyed out and we are unable to click on that category for deeper analysis, we’ll have to use a third-party app to assist.

CleanMyMac X is perfect for this kind of analysis. Since I tested the app in our best Mac cleaner review, it immediately came to my head when I saw “System” was greyed out in Storage. Note that CleanMyMac isn’t freeware, but the new “Space Lens” feature is free to use and it allows you to scan your Macintosh HD, and then show you an in-depth overview of what’s taking up disk space on your Mac.

Step 1:Download CleanMyMac and install the app on your Mac. Open it, under “Space Lens” module, first click the yellow “Grant Access” button to allow the app to access your Mac files and then select “Scan” to get started.

Step 2: Soon it’ll show you a folder/file tree and you can hover your cursor over each block (i.e. a folder). There you can find more details. In this case, I clicked “System” folder to continue.

Step 3: The file breakdown below indicates that some Library and iOS Support files are the culprits.

The interesting part is that the System file size shown in CleanMyMac is much smaller than the size shown in System Information. This puzzles me and makes me believe that Apple definitely has counted some other files (not real system files) in the System category.

What are they? I have no clue, honestly. But as reported by other Mac users who experienced the same issue, they said Apple also considers app caches and iTunes backup files as System files.

Out of curiosity, I ran CleanMyMac again for a quick scan. That app found 13.92 GB in iTunes Junk. Further review revealed that the junk files are old iOS device backups, software updates, broken downloads, etc.

But even after adding this amount to the original system files returned by CleanMyMac X, the total size is still a bit less than what’s returned in System Information.

If cleaning the System Storage is still not enough to bring your Mac available disk space to a normal level (i.e. 20% or more), see below.

What Else Can I Do to Reclaim More Disk Space?

There are tons of ways out there. Here are a few of my favorites that should help you get back a decent amount of space quickly.

Clean Up Mac System Library System

1. Sort all files by size and delete old large files.

Open Finder, go to Recents and look at the Size column. Click on it to sort all recent files by file size (from large to small). You’ll have a clear overview of what items are eating up a large amount of space, e.g. From 1 GB to 10 GB, and from 100 MB to 1 GB.

On my MacBook Pro, I found a few large videos that could be transferred to an external drive.

Note: If the Size column doesn’t show up, click on the Settings icon and select Arrange By > Size.

2. Remove duplicate files.

Don’t forget those duplicates and similar files! They can stack up without you being aware of it. Finding them is sometimes time-consuming. That’s what Gemini 2 is designed for. Simply select a few frequently used folders (e.g. Documents, Downloads, etc.) in the main zone of Gemini.

Mac Clean System Files

It then scans them and returns all the duplicate files that might be worth removing. Of course, it’s always a good practice to review them before doing so. You can also read more from our detailed Gemini review here.

Wrapping It Up

Clean Up Mac System Library Mac

Ever since Apple introduced the Optimized Storage feature, Mac users got the option of saving space by storing content in the cloud. Apple also has several new tools that make it easy to find and remove unneeded files.

That bar under the Storage tab is beautiful. It does allow you to get a quick overview of what’s taking up the most space on our hard drive. However, it still lacks insights into the “System” category as it’s greyed out.

Free Clean Up Mac

Hopefully, the guides above have helped you figure out the reasons you’ve got so much “System” data, and most importantly you’ve reclaimed some disk space — especially for new MacBooks pre-installed with flash storage — every gigabyte is precious!