Other Users & Shared taking up 318GB on my internal drive!

Other Users & Shared taking up 318GB!


We are two users on a practically new Mac mini M2.

Total file size of Applications, Library, System and users folders is 160 GB.

There is a shared folder in users but is is 600 KB

I have no idea how the whole drive is full.

I have used the following command to clean up Time Machine backups :

sudo tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 9999999999 1

Even grand perspective shows some large unused space on the drive.

Mini M2 Pro Mac OS Tahoe 26.1

Mac mini (M2 Pro, 2023)

Posted on Dec 19, 2025 7:15 PM

Reply
4 replies

Dec 19, 2025 7:51 PM in response to David Pelletier-Burns

Apple’s Storage display tries to group data by category, and usually fails. Most people have a large, unexplained value for “System Data”. This is the first time I’ve seen a problem with “Other users & shared”.


The most likely explanation is 3rd party software that creates its own user. This is common for traditional Unix software, but rare for macOS. The only Mac app that I know that does this is the PostgreSQL database server.

Dec 19, 2025 8:13 PM in response to David Pelletier-Burns

"Other Users & Shared taking up 318GB on my internal drive!: [...]Other Users & Shared taking up 318GB![...]"

-------


Thanks for the screenshot.


Unkown Space Taken Up:

I'm seeing 6 volumes. So, it's as if it is partitioned, into separate volume. So, you might be able to delete them --but, do that and its all gone. Is Boot Camp used here.

  1. Go Here: Add, delete, or erase APFS volumes in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support
  2. Scroll to: Erase an APFS volume
  3. As it Rads: When you erase a volume, all the data on the volume is permanently erased, and the empty volume remains in the container.


View Disk Utility in Recovery Mode:

So, booting into Recovery Mode, and then clicking Disk Utility, does it look any different?


Screenshot of Top-Right Corner on Second Image:


Dec 20, 2025 7:35 AM in response to David Pelletier-Burns

Hey thanks, TheLittles. You got a good eye. I missed that detail. I'm not running boot-camp on this machine. I'll try editing the drive in safe mode, but I don't see any other volumes. But, I'll backup everything and probably reconfigure from scratch.

———-


You are welcome.


Getting your Items Back:

If you start from scratch, use Time Machine Backup. Then, use Migration Assistant to get items off of the backup file.


As for apps, you may need to reinstall third-party apps. When my Mac crashed oh not so long ago, I contacted the Developer, and they gave me a new License Key, telling me that it belongs to me. So, ask them for a new key -that’d be their call.

Other Users & Shared taking up 318GB on my internal drive!

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.