How to Clear System Data on macOS

Learn how to reduce the System Data storage category on your Mac by managing cache files, log files, and local snapshots using Terminal and Finder.

1. Check storage consumption. Click the Apple menu and select System Settings. Navigate to General > Storage to view the breakdown of your drive usage, specifically the size of System Data.
2. Delete local Time Machine snapshots. Open Terminal from the Utilities folder. Enter 'tmutil listlocalsnapshots /' to identify stored snapshots, then run 'sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots [date]' replacing the bracketed text with the specific snapshot identifier.
3. Clear temporary cache files. Open Finder, select Go in the menu bar, then choose Go to Folder. Enter '~/Library/Caches/' and move unnecessary contents to the Trash to clear application-specific cached data.
4. Remove system log files. Navigate to the folder path '/Library/Logs/' and '/var/log/' using the Go to Folder tool. Delete the contents of these folders, excluding the subfolders themselves, to purge accumulated system logs.
5. Restart the Mac to finalize changes. After clearing caches and logs, select Restart from the Apple menu. A reboot forces the macOS to refresh its file indexing and clear temporary pointers that hold space in the System Data category.