Photos App takes up all my storage on Mac

I prefer to use English user interface although it is not my native language because it makes searching info and instructions easier :-]

In my setup the topmost item is the internal 1 TB device "APPLE SSD AP1024M Media", and under it APFS "Container disk1" and on the top right it reads "Shared by 5 volumes" which means that the Container disk1 is shared between those 5 volumes:

1. HD (I prefer a short name without spaces) i.e. the System volume that mere mortals can not modify. The system makes a sealed "snapshot" from it when the system boots so no rogue app can modify the system.

2. HD - Data i.e. the data volume which is the users, erm, use. #1 and #2 are presented on the Desktop as one disk.

3. VM (I guess that is the otherwise invisible virtual memory volume).

4. Preboot (I guess an invisible volume that helps in the boot process).

5. 1 Not mounted (I guess some system related volume).

> My Mac runs very slow and is super irresponsive.

So it seems the Fusion drive (i.e. a smallish fast SSD + a larger slow old-style spinning HDD) might be OK after all.

But your free space is quite low at 19 GB so that might very well explain the slowness because the Mac can not properly "breathe". If the free space gets any lower the Mac might get slow to respond or even unconscious.

To prevent that you should move the largest files to an external drive (and rememeber to backup also it). Usually that means copying the Photos library or other such large files or packages to an external APFS or MacOS Extended -formatted disk (FAT, exFAT etc non-Mac volumes are not supported and might corrupt the library!).

NicolaiBangsgaard wrote:

About This Mac -> Storage info says that Photos take up a huge part of the 1TB Fusion Drive.

I never look what that "Storage" says because it is often misleading. Instead, check free space via Disk Utility or Finder folder's Status bar.

APFS is a great filesystem but it is also sometimes difficult to calculate how much space each item consumes. Duplicating huge files on the same volume takes very little time and essentially no space. But after you make changes to the duplicates, it gradually takes more space. So calculating the sum of files gets tricky and different views give different estimates how much all files take together.

MAC OS System Data using a lot of storage - Apple Community

There are other macOS views and 3rd party apps that might help finding large files.

Best way to clean, organize and free up H… - Apple Community

NicolaiBangsgaard wrote: …I'm confused why, under the 1.02 TB square it says 'Shared by 5 units'. Any idea what this means?

Note that mine says that, too. If, on yours, you look under "Fusion Drive," there are 5 things. I have guessed that this is the 5 it refers to.

As with Matti's comments, I sometimes include one of my favorite quotes,

The numbers just aren't precise, "They're more like guidelines, anyway."

I like that he tied this to the APFS file system-- that seems exactly right.

Also referring to Matti's comments,I keep my Photos Library on my internal drive, but I've moved lots of files to a small portable external SSD (36.6g, 7x4x1.3 cm) that I can carry around with my MacBook. Photos requires background processes to be running almost constantly, but Word, Excel, Keynote, and such documents don't.

I never had a Fusion drive, either. But I notice that the article that Matti Haveri referred to says:

If you see a drive labeled Fusion Drive, your Fusion Drive is working and this article doesn't apply to you.

I clearly see the "Fusion Drive" label, so it doesn't seem like that is the problem. Why do you think that Photos is the cause of this? Unfortunately my Danish (and pretty much any non-English language--I'm an uncultured American, after all) is lacking, so I'm not sure what leads you to that.

The Disk Utility seems to say "Tilgængelig:" (Accessible) is 850 GB, is that right? and it also says 937 GB used, is that right? Used and Accessible add to 1.8TB! Sounds crazy. Mine looks like this:

with 828GB available, and 1.25 TB Used, which is close to 2 TB, which isn't so crazy.

You might try this article:

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support

which does a hardware test of the Mac.

See what it says, and let us know what you figure out or what we can puzzle over…

Hej, it seems that is a Fusion Drive and maybe it has gone bad. I have not used such so I'd wait others to chime in. But do make a backup and check related info.

How to fix a split Fusion Drive - Apple Support