User level: Level 1 (5 points)Is there anyone who has the same issue? And what can I do about it?
After the Golden Gate update, suddenly enormous system files growing.. before the update 65GB, after 190GB!
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: Golden Gate update
Posted on Sep 22, 2026 11:11 AM
User level: Level 9 (72,871 points)Oct 20, 2026 11:28 AM in response to Jakob02
You should aim to have 15-20% of your total internal storage as free space (~30-40 GB as an absolute minimum). If you do not have enough free space on your Mac’s internal storage, then here are some steps to take to safely free up space:
Free up storage space on Mac - Apple Support
Optimize storage space on your Mac - Apple Support
How to free up ‘System Data’ and other st… - Apple Community
"System Data" comprises your data, but they are typically hidden files that Spotlight cannot assign to a specific category like Documents or Applications. Examples include Outlook attachments, iOS updates, Cloud storage caches, etc. Starting with macOS 27 Golden Gate, System Data also includes what macOS used to call ‘purgeable’ storage – system caches, Time Machine snapshots and some other data, though the user had no control over the purging. Trying to manually clean out hidden files in System Data is likely to cause more problems than it solves, macOS hides those files for a good reason. Follow the steps in the linked articles above.
On macOS 27, separate ‘purgeable’ space is no longer reported, and instead those data are now considered as used space. They are also now included in System Data, accounting for the apparent increase you (and others) have noticed. You didn't lose space, macOS just categorizes things differently now than on Tahoe.
More detail on this change in this User Tip:
System Data and Free Space Changes in Gol… - Apple Community
The best advice is to just ignore the System Data category. ‘System Data’ is merely a catch-all category for files that Spotlight cannot assign to specific categories like Applications, Documents, Photos, etc. In fact, what is now shown as System Data used to be reported as ‘Other’, Apple changed the label in macOS 12 Monterey. System Data probably sounds better, but Other was closer to reality.
User level: Level 10 (85,896 points)Sep 22, 2026 4:58 PM in response to Jakob02
A simple restart this morning reduced mine from 70 GB to 54 GB.
Also use Disk Utility to see how many "snapshots' are stored. Info here:
View APFS snapshots in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support
User level: Level 1 (52 points)Sep 22, 2026 6:13 PM in response to Jakob02
That's normal for updating to Golden Gate.
Due to MacOS Golden Gate, Spotlight will be rebuilding its Spotlight Index and Search. After a long while of your Mac being turned on the GB within System Data would go down again and stay that way (for me it rose past 50 GB then after a while it went back to 33.16 GB.
User level: Level 9 (53,902 points)Sep 22, 2026 11:31 AM in response to Jakob02
Hi,
Try to startup in Safe mode, then normal boot could solve your issue.
1) Shut down your Mac.
2) Turn it on and immediately press and hold the Power button (or Touch ID) until you see "Loading startup options."
3) Select your startup disk, hold the Shift key, and click Continue in Safe Mode
User level: Level 6 (17,937 points)Sep 22, 2026 4:17 PM in response to Jakob02
May be typical. Mine went from 47GB to 121 GB. For me I have a large drive so has little impact.
User level: Level 1 (8 points)Oct 20, 2026 11:25 AM in response to Jakob02
So... My system data shows 1.18TB used after upgrading to Golden Gate. I had 1.5TB of available space on my computer before and now I have 25GB. WHAT!
Originally posted at discussions.apple.com/thread/256362785