Yes, High-Sierra has been out for a while now and most consider it stable. However its really not nor is it as fully developed as Sierra and here's a few nearly non-documented reasons *not* to update to High Sierra - yet.

First and most critical:
There's a "data-growing" bug that has been reported to Apple but not yet been addressed or a fix issued. The issue is that High Sierra slowly and sneakily keeps growing in size in the background, eventually taking up all free space on the installed drive. The common response from Apple so far has been to, "...backup all your data and reinstall the OS using the App Store installer...". That "fix" doesn't work as the OS will eventually start it's sneaky background build-up all over again.

Second:
You can't fix the directory. The guys at Alsoft, makers of DiskWarrior have been working for over a year to come up with a version that will successfully talk to the new APFS volume structure and can't. Apple has yet to release the critical structure information required to make this happen and, according my sources the actual data--code design of High Sierra is actually a moving target.

Unlike every other previously released version of OSX, High-Sierra's core code is not locked and is changing with updates. The most recent change, 10.13.3 actually completely re-wrote some core code which changed the foundation of High Sierra. Not something published nor evident to the end user, but a perfect example of why Alsoft hasn't been able to release DiskWarrior to fix directories on APFS. So that means if something goes horribly wrong with your High Sierra directory the only option you have to do a re-install of the OS. Not exactly a good solution.

(Note: DiskWarrior and be installed and run on High Sierra but it can only fix HFS+ volume directories)

Three:
For those of us who are using external HDD RAID arrays the APFS volume structure both *not* an improvement in data-handling but the reverse, it's worse! There's a lot of documentation about the file-handling difference between APFS and HFS+ volumes, APFS was designed to optimize how SSD's work. That schema actually puts greater headroom loading on HDD-based systems making data-block allocation harder for spinning-disks.

My gut tells me it's this new type of structure that's causing issue 1 above, because the OS is constantly taking snapshots of itself to use as quick-reference points that help in "instant" data access rather than the seek-and-find method HFS+ uses. Makes sense; if every block gets a snapshot then the data-directory is constantly growing, right!

Bottom line: If you're on a Sierra-based system, stay there. I won't go to High Sierra again until Alsoft is able to fix the directory!!

[If you have a system that shipped with High Sierra you're stuck. The mainboard firmware won't allow a retro-grade to a previous OS. If you've upgraded to HS and want to go back, you can. Depending on your situation it might be a hassle, but check the dozens of articles online about the options.]

Good to know.

I recently upgraded from Yosemite to Sierra on my 2009 Mac Pro. For a long time I wanted to update my OS so I could get the latest FCPX but the App store wouldn’t allow me to update past Yosemite. I recently stumbled on a web site that had a special utility to get around it. Downloaded Sierra on a newer mac and when I ran the utility it said nothing needed to be changed and low and behold Sierra installed and has been running without issue.

My advice: heed Robert's advice.

I waited and watched until the current MacOS High Sierra 10.13.4 was out before upgrading from Sierra...it seemed that finally online problem complaints had died down. Maybe not so much; I definitely feel now I jumped the gun.

The 1TB SSD on my mid-2014 15" MBP has the fill-up problem, which I unfortunately hadn't been aware of. Discovered this while trying to edit DV Info Net NAB videos earlier this week. Fun. System sitting at 474GB now...that's a LOT of system, eh?

To be as polite to Apple as I can manage presently: MOST unsatisfactory that this kind of major bug was released at all, much less still not fixed or officially worked around.

Pete,

Get back to Sierra, immediately. With that much OS inflation your Mac will become unusable fast.

There is more than one-way to retrograde, even if you don't have a cloned backup of your OS and apps. I had to do that very method but it worked and I'm back to Sierra and things are grand.

If you don't find a solution that works for you PM me and I'll walk you through the process - but don't delay.

I am on Sierra don’t plan on getting High Sierra now that I read this besides I cloned my Yosemite before upgrading. I’m not sure if they blocked the update for a good reason other than to “encourage” you to buy a new computer or Apple just not caring.

And there are monsters under your bed!!!

Scaremongering. I use High Sierra on three Macs without issue.

AFPS does NOT affect HDDs. It is only SSDs that get AFPS installed on them with the High Sierra upgrade. My 2011 MacBook Air is the only SSD Mac I have. High Sierra did NOT change the file structure however, possibly because of its age or because it was formatted FAT32 so I can run Boot Camp on it.

My 2011 iMac i5 1TB HDD shows no sign of this either. My 2017 iMac i7 1TB Fusion Drive shows no sign of this. These are both NOT AFPS formatted.

I think the issue may not be as widespread as the OP has thought it to be, but if you are running a relatively new MacBook, it is probably something of which you should be aware.

Tim,

1. There IS a detriment to APFS formatted volumes that live on HDD's. Many have incorrectly assumed that if the boot drive was auto-formatted APFS (because it's an SSD) that all other volumes need to be as well.

2. The other related issues are in point of fact all about the APFS format. High Sierra does run (mostly fine) on an HFS+ volume and does not grow in size because it's *not* APFS.

Apple has quietly admitted - and only to it's third party vendors, that APFS is "...under continual development...". Which as it has been described to me by insiders is a safe way of saying, "...we know there are issues, we're working on it."

If it's fear-mongering then it's as real as it gets with companies like Alsoft, who are continuing the struggle to provide a stable, usable APFS file-system management product. Others in the data-management game are also grinding their teeth, waiting for Apple to finally supply the code they need to finish their HS-compatible products.

Thanks Robert, I had no intention of upgrading anyway. I am very reluctant to upgrade MacOS, my two main systems were on 10.8.5 until about 6 months ago when I upgraded to Sierra. I have so much legacy software that would be too expensive to upgrade so I subscribe to the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" philosophy. :)

I'm standing firm on Sierra 10.12.6.

I run 2 iMacs (at different locations). Soon after High Sierra first came out, I upgraded one of them and left the other on Sierra. I noticed a problem (difference) with the High Sierra iMac almost immediately.

Specifically, I had several hundred still images I'd taken which were on a portable hard drive. On High Sierra, I tried to quickly scroll through all of the photos (using the space bar - if you use the Mac OS, you'll know what I'm talking about) and found that it was taking maybe 5 seconds before an image could be viewed using the space bar. Before High Sierra, it was always instantaneous. Multiply 5 seconds by several hundred photos and it was an excruciating time-waster. I think that this phenomenon might have been due to some of the things which Robert was talking about in his post.

Later, I took that portable drive to the iMac with Sierra and found that it showed each photo instantly. So I knew then that it wasn't a problem with the drive. It looks like High Sierra caused the problem. To be fair, Apple have issued a couple of High Sierra patches since then and that problem appears to have been solved. But that experience left me with a distrust of High Sierra, so I left that other iMac on Sierra. Until about a week ago, when Apple issued new upgrades to FCP X and Motion.

For the first time, these upgrades are incompatible with Sierra and can only be accessed by upgrading to High Sierra. Apple have made some excellent upgrades (in my opinion) to FCP X in recent times so I weighed the possible benefits against the risks and I upgraded the other iMac to High Sierra. And then Robert started this thread a day or two later. Oh, well. It's still more important to me to keep FCP X current. But that's just me. By the way, the High Sierra upgrade also knocked out my old copy of FCP 6, making it incompatible. Not that I'd used it for years anyway (it was just a bit of nostalgia).

I am running all of my Macs on High Sierra.

First and most critical: There's a "data-growing" bug that has been reported to Apple but not yet been addressed or a fix issued.

I'm not sure what this is. I have never heard of it, I have not had any of my installations of High Sierra take additional space after installation.

You can't fix the directory. The guys at Alsoft, makers of DiskWarrior have been working for over a year to come up with a version that will successfully talk to the new APFS volume structure and can't.

DiskWarrior is a great utility, one that I use myself. This only should apply to your internal SSD drive, so not having DiskWarrior compatibility with APFS volumes should not be a big deal. Your backup strategy should not involve critical files on the internal SSD. If so, you are doing it very wrong. You should not format any other drive besides your internal SSD as APFS. If you do that, you are also doing it very wrong. It should be that DiskWarrior won't fix your root, but it will fix everything else. I primarily use it to redo the directory structure for efficiency on some HFS RAID units I have. That works perfectly fine in High Sierra

For those of us who are using external HDD RAID arrays the APFS volume structure both *not* an improvement in data-handling but the reverse, it's worse!

This is very wrong. You had to intentionally go in and format these RAID arrays to APFS, OSX does not do this automatically. This was a huge mistake and you should immediately backup all the data off of your RAID (using CCC ideally), and reformat it to HFS. Immediately.

Seems to me the issues mentioned here with High Sierra stem from PEBCAK.

There's a "data-growing" bug that has been reported to Apple but not yet been addressed or a fix issued. The issue is that High Sierra slowly and sneakily keeps growing in size in the background, eventually taking up all free space on the installed drive. The common response from Apple so far has been to, "...backup all your data and reinstall the OS using the App Store installer...". That "fix" doesn't work as the OS will eventually start it's sneaky background build-up all over again.


If you bring up the info on your boot drive, what does it show for Available space? Do you see a figure listed in parenthesis marked purgeable? APFS storage on my boot drive (High Sierra) does change over time, but space is ultimately re-collected. Especially if you need to reboot.

For example, I installed a 36 GB application around lunch one day. I started with 500 GB free then went down to 460 GB or so. Made sense. Later that same day, an update was available. So re-installed 36 GB over the existing application install. Available space dropped down around 425 GB. I did need to reboot later, and the available space went back around 460 GB.

Having said that, outside of email, OS caches, system preferences, etc, the boot drive remains fairly static in terms of storage. Largest changes involve applications that are quite sizable. So I've never seen the drive fill up.

Are you perhaps using the main boot drive for data storage too? In my case, all data are to external RAIDs. One main RAID 10 for primary data. A RAID 0 for a scratch disk. And a RAID 1 for backups.

Perhaps there are some tweaks that can be done to the OS to more aggressively re-capture purgeable space if indeed that is the issue you're seeing.

I had to buy a new MacBook before Christmas - it has High Sierra on it and I'm not seeing any snags apart from one app no longer able to be run, when brought back in from the backup, or installed fresh. other than that I've discovered no issues I can point a finger at?

I'm not sure what this is. I have never heard of it, I have not had any of my installations of High Sierra take additional space after installation.

Could this be it? https://discussions.apple.com/message/32740453

Could this be it? https://discussions.apple.com/message/32740453

You mean the Time Machine backups? I don't use Time Machine, so it could be that.

I’ve never used Time Machine. Like most of Apple software it’s not transparent what it’s doing underneath its simple veneer. I wanted to take a snap shot of my OS before doing an update but it said it needed a hard drive larger than 5tb to backup to despite that my os was less than 100gb. I’m guessing it was trying to backup all my archived projects on my secondary drive. I couldn’t figure out how exclude my archive so I ended up using a cloning software instead. I’ve read many complaints about it slowing things down running backup tasks in the background.

The OS-growing issue has nothing to do with Time Machine. (I only use Carbon Copy Cloner for all my clone/backups. Been rock-stable issue-free for years.)

Although Apple has admitted the issue only to third-party developers they haven't confirmed the cause. My gut and years of diagnosing OS-related issues is that it has everything to do with the fact that High-Sierra is constantly making "snapshots" of itself and, copies of changed data. Here's an interesting article recycled many times on the 'net:

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/new-macos-filesystem-how-apfs-works/

Here's excerts from the article that point to what is most likely the underlying cause:

"When you copy a file, APFS creates a new entry in the file system that points to the same bits as the original file. This is not a shortcut — to the Operating System and Applications, they are separate files."

"APFS handles changes differently. Each change you make to a file saves in a separate location from the original file. This process is a native way to support versioning as well. It also means that your original file is still only the single original bits. So is the copy that you made. On your day to day drive, this may not save much space. That may be different if you have files that change frequently."

From all that I've read and the whitepapers shared with me from these third-party developers, Apple seems to have forgotten how to tell the OS to get rid of the obsolete copies/snapshots over time, instead allowing a massive yet not-user-accessible library of hidden reference files that keeps growing on itself. Like a central cache file gone beserk.

The whole point of this snapshot-happy OS as Apple's own marketing indicates, was to make file copying/changes near instant and to supposedly speed up file transfers etc. (Albeit only on SSD installations.) I see the logic behind the design, they just forgot to write code for managing all these hidden copies.

As has been told to me more than once, Apple's core HS code is a constant moving target; they are working on refining this new APFS structure. The ".3" update which was massive and took a very long time to apply, is witness to this "we're working on it..." note given to the developers as to why they haven't been able to consider core code "gold" yet.

Eventually it will all get sorted out - it has to, otherwise the OS will keep eating itself to the point of "data extinction", where there's no free space left on the installed drive. But for now my advice remains: Get back to Sierra asap and, if you haven't made the "upgrade", don't.

To wit, there is no must-have about HS that makes it mission-critical to do work. Although there are some "new" features on certain Apple-branded applications that are only operable in a HS environment, don't be fooled into thinking you're behind the times working on Sierra. I know of several post/edit houses that are still on El Capitan and are doing just fine.

But for now my advice remains: Get back to Sierra asap and, if you haven't made the "upgrade", don't.

My High Sierra install is running just fine with no issues, so for myself and those like me, why get back to Sierra ASAP?

I've had High Sierra running on my mid 2010 Mac Pro for months with no problems, except my machine is a bit long in the tooth.

As mentioned above, maybe this is just related to SSD drives. I hope they get that taken care of. At some point in the next 6-12 months I'll be switching from a desktop to laptop,

I don't post here as much as I'd like to (or used to), but I do have considerable experience with Apple computers since the early '90's and I am a former Apple employee. I'm also the former Moderator of the Apple forum here on DVInfo, back when Chris had moderators for each of the forums.

I've been using High Sierra since it came out, on multiple machines (iMacs and MacBook Pro's) and like the posters above me, I am not experiencing any the issues referenced by the OP. I would suggest doing what I do when a new OS comes out and that is to create a seperate partition on your disk for the new OS. Finish all open projects before doing any upgrades and make backups of original files etc. Don't rush into upgrades blindly, but also don't NOT upgrade blindly.

I also find several comments difficult to fathom. High Sierra will not automatically convert a HDD or external SSD's to APFS from HFS+ without really jumping through hoops. If you own a RAID, consult with the manufacture of the RAID before upgrading. Most of the major RAID companies issued cautionary updates advising customers not to force the upgrade of their RAIDs to APFS. These advisories should not be ignored.

Your mileage may vary and I don't mean to sound like I'm lecturing, but I find a lot of information in this thread misleading or not based in factual evidence.

I also find several comments difficult to fathom. High Sierra will not automatically convert a HDD or external SSD's to APFS from HFS+ without really jumping through hoops. If you own a RAID, consult with the manufacture of the RAID before upgrading. Most of the major RAID companies issued cautionary updates advising customers not to force the upgrade of their RAIDs to APFS. These advisories should not be ignored.

This is correct. I'm primarily a software developer and thus have read the various developer notes too about each OS release. Conversion to APFS is not automatic. And, as an owner of three external RAIDs, I kept all of them on HFS+.

I still contend that those with the issue may have lots of data being written to the main boot drive. Best to double-check just what applications may be doing that. In my case, virtually all data is on external RAIDs. The largest storage size changes to the boot drive come with installation of software. The boot drive of course still has a ton of writes going on, but mostly very small (e.g. incoming emails, preference file changes. Basically any change primarily to ~/Library/

Ironically - yesterday my MacBook did an update. It often does these, but this was a big one, and now it reports my Microsoft Office is now in need of updating. Grrrrrr.

Here's proof in the pudding that in point of fact, High Sierra does "grow" in the background with all the snapshots it takes of itself, rendering huge free-space unusable:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/solution-reclaim-storage-back-from-system.2073174/

The guys at Daisy Disk have noticed this same issue and created a built-in utility to reclaim all that space:

https://daisydiskapp.com/manual/4/en/Topics/SystemTooBig.html

In short, it's not a bug instead, HS is allowed to take up to 80% of the usable space on the SSD it's installed on with all the snapshots it creates. (Note: These are NOT Time Machine backups).

Most people don't know this is happening because on an SSD technically there wouldn't be a performance degradation or at least one that shouldn't be noticeable in normal use. But if you're tasked with high-end 4K video editing and, depending on your physical setup this could in fact be a deal-killer issue when it comes to free space.

If you're knowledgeable with TERMINAL commands you could use the one mentioned in the macrumors forum to delete these files. Or for $10US you can use Daisy Disk's utility method.

I have no idea if Mojave is going to follow this same schema, but considering the guys at Alsoft still haven't been able to create code to run DiskWarrior on HS things look foggy for OSX future code.

And...

The guys at Bombich (Carbon Copy Cloner) have also utilized a method for recovering freespace due to snapshot storage. There's also a method for managing the retention policy - how often OSX creates a snapshot. Could be someone might create TERMINAL code for stopping snapshots altogether someday!

https://bombich.com/kb/ccc5/leveraging-snapshots-on-apfs-volumes

Robert, isn't this a feature of APFS as opposed of High Sierra? I'm sticking with Sierra, but was under the impression that installation of APFS was optional in High Sierra.

Was just reading a thread at MacRumors where someone installed the Mojave beta on the stock 5400RPM hard drive in a 2014 Mac Mini and is getting 35MB/sec read and 7MB/sec write speeds! I have one of these machines and it clocks at about 100MB/sec read and write with Sierra. I know beta software is not optimized, and these are slow disks... but that's crazy!

I'm sticking with Sierra, but was under the impression that installation of APFS was optional in High Sierra.

It's not really optional. It won't convert spinning drives to APFS, but if you have an SSD, you really have to finagle your way around the High Sierra installer in order to get it not to do that. I did it with my iMac, but it's not the easiest workaround.

To be clear:

When installing High Sierra on an internal SSD the installer will ONLY allow for an APFS format. Only during the Beta did you have an option for HFS+ or AFPS.

High Sierra *only* creates these annoying background snapshots on an APFS formatted SSD. So if for example you have a spinning-disk HDD that you've installed HS on, then it won't be APFS and those automated snapshots are NOT created.

So far there are manual TERMINAL commands that can delete the snapshots and recover the lost free space or, as I mentioned both Daisy Disk and CCC have built-in utilities to do the same.

(NOTE: CCC's version seems to be dealing with only the "snapshots" that CCC creates during backups. I know, now we're talking about 2 different kinds of snapshots now - the ones created by OSX and what CCC creates. Keep that in mind and READ the documentation from CCC.)

Microsoft tried this same schema years ago with so-called internal backups just after Win98 and it was a disaster too. And then Apple not to long ago introduced "versions" in OSX with regards to saving multiple versions of the same document and other files - just in case you wanted to go backwards. Now this automated "saved last state" for the OS is just... arghhh. The code-monkeys at Apple have gone overboard with trying to make OSX fool-proof for the non-power user.

(It sure would be nice if there was a "pro" version of OSX without all the necessary bells and whistles like all the "i" apps, screen animations/fades etc and just concentrate on getting work done. Hmmm, MS has different versions of Windows - why not?)

The non-pro/power user of OSX won't know or care about the free space being chewed up, but my advice is that if you're using High Sierra then keep tabs on future posts about code to *disable* snapshots altogether and, in the meantime use Daisy Disk to clean up your SSD from time to time. Most especially if you need to install new software or, make a new partition for Boot Camp for example.

So I'm about to get a new iMac which will arrive with High-Sierra installed. It will have a 2TB "Fusion Drive".

My current old iMac is on "El Capitan". I use it for FCPX with projects on a number of "conventional" external drives. I will be using the same drives with the new Mac for new FCPX projects.

Do I need to worry about the issues (mainly above my head) which raised here?

Ron

I don’t think you need to worry about any APFS issues on that new machine. Unless I’ve missed something, APFS doesn’t support Fusion drives yet, although Apple has said that it will in the future. So I think your internal drive will be formatted as HFS, which has been the Apple standard for many years. Now there may be other issues with High Sierra that aren’t related to APFS... I decided to skip it and have kept my machines on Sierra.

Just curious... did you have an urgent need to get this new machine? There are lots of rumors that Apple will release a whole bunch of new computers in September or October, including a new iMac with improved graphics.... https://www.macrumors.com/2018/07/11/apple-product-updates-fall-kuo/

When installing High Sierra on an internal SSD the installer will ONLY allow for an APFS format. Only during the Beta did you have an option for HFS+ or AFPS.

You can technically still do that now, I just did it a few months ago with a new iMac, but it involves running the High Sierra installer via Terminal commands and it's not for anyone who isn't comfortable tinkering around with Terminal.

I've read that you can also just install the operating system on an external drive, which will default to HFS. Then you can use Carbon Copy to clone the external to your internal drive. This would take longer, but sounds pretty simple.

I wanted to update fcpx on my 2009 macpro but it required an os upgrade which in turn a different hard drive format depending on the type of drive. I quickly came to the conclusion the headaches outweighed the merger benefits (for me).

Hey if that's the case, sign me up!! Do you have a link to those commands? That would solve one of two biggest issues I have with HS.

Here's one of the guides I used.

How to Skip Converting to APFS When Installing macOS High Sierra (http://osxdaily.com/2017/10/17/how-skip-apfs-macos-high-sierra/)

Problem solved!!!

Here's what I did:

1. I used Carbon Copy Cloner to copy my Sierra install which was on an internal SSD in my late-2014 iMac over to an external HDD (spinning disk).

2. I booted from that HDD and went through the High Sierra install routine (took a super-long time).

3. After installation finished I rebooted again into the HDD, made sure the format stayed HFS+ and verified that all my apps were working properly and any new updates were installed. (Apple Pro Apps had an update)

4. I then used CCC to re-clone from that HDD BACK to my original SSD in my iMac.

5. I booted from the internal SSD, verified it was still HFS+, ran all my critical apps (Davinci Resolve Studio 15 being the biggie) to ensure proper operation and, voila!

Now I've got all the benefits of High Sierra minus the annoying and stupid APFS issues.

And the best part? DiskWarrior can talk to and repair High Sierra *because* it's still HFS+ format!!

I'm a happy camper.

It's not really optional. It won't convert spinning drives to APFS, but if you have an SSD, you really have to finagle your way around the High Sierra installer in order to get it not to do that. I did it with my iMac, but it's not the easiest workaround.

Internal SSD will be converted. Spinning HD will not be automatically converted, whether internal or external without forcing the update. External SSD will not be automatically converted without forcing the update.

Hey if that's the case, sign me up!! Do you have a link to those commands? That would solve one of two biggest issues I have with HS.

The other way to go back is to remove the SSD and reformat the drive externally, restore the data and then reinstall in the computer. This is fairly easy to do in laptops, requires special tools with iMacs and Mac Mini.

Jeff, why can't you just do what I suggested above? Install on an external drive and clone back to the internal? I have cloned disks in both directions for other reasons with Carbon Copy. Couldn't be easier. Or is there some reason that won't work on High Sierra?

I think the new MacBook Pro has the SSD soldered to the logic board, so you won't be able to remove that. :-)

Good question. Apple could turn that method off in the future. Apple could eventually force a check of the formatting of the boot drive at startup and force the startup to be APFS. Folks just need to be aware that things are progressing and changes are coming whether "we" like them or not.

There may be yet another simpler - and not-so-obvious way to avoid the snapshots-from-hell:

From Rob at Barefeats: He noticed that Time Machine is responsible for making all the snapshots (as noted in the articles I shared). If you uncheck, "Back Up Automatically" then it doesn't create snapshots.

And, if you go into "Options" and select the drive you want TM to ignore, this further prevents any auto-snapshots being made.

See screenshots.

For me however, I needed to keep my SSD as HFS+ so that DiskWarrior can fix the directory, should it need it. Alsoft to date still doesn't not have the code to fix an APFS formatted volume. I'm hoping that by the time Mojave is gold that they'll have DW 6 available.

I avoid using TimeMachine all together, just too many issues with it I've seen from others. I would recommend Carbonite or Dropbox, and don't be afraid of just wiping your drive and re-installing your OS.

There may be yet another simpler - and not-so-obvious way to avoid the snapshots-from-hell:

From Rob at Barefeats: He noticed that Time Machine is responsible for making all the snapshots (as noted in the articles I shared)

I'm confused now, since earlier you stated...

The OS-growing issue has nothing to do with Time Machine.

The time machine snapshot issue is not new, it has been discussed for years. But MacOS has been pretty good at freeing up that space when it was actually needed for something. I've been using Time Machine on my laptop for the past 7 years or so and haven't had any problems. I have an Apple Time Capsule and it constantly backs up over wifi. Has come in handy a few times when I accidentally deleted something. But I have a separate Mac just for video editing and have time machine disabled on it.

I use Carbon Copy to make bootable clones of all my Macs as well. I would never actually restore a full computer from a Time Machine backup unless all my other options failed, it's just too slow for that kind of thing.

Since I was finally able to get a fast FIOS internet connection last year, I now have 4 different computers with a total of about 8TB of data that are continuously backed up to the Cloud with BackBlaze as well.

don't be afraid of just wiping your drive and re-installing your OS.

That was always the standard solution for any problem with a Windows computer... which made me happy that I used Macs! I got my first Mac in 1985 and I don't ever recall having to wipe and re-install the operating system. But I have a friend who does it every few months. For some reason he's convinced that it solves all kinds of strange problems (that nobody else seems to have). :-)

Boyd,

My initial research was skewed; I was digging in the wrong direction. It wasn't until those recent articles posted that I had clarity about exactly how/why the OS was growing.

I never use TM, never trusted it and so never looking into it's preferences, but lo and behold the answer was always right in front of me. Bah... and my ex said I wasn't perfect. Hmmmm....

So this really was never a bug per-se it's obviously intentional and, there's a way around it - thankfully. I'm just glad there's an easy and simple solution; I was beginning to think that Sierra was going to be the last Mac-based OS I'd use! whew...

But I have a friend who does it every few months. For some reason he's convinced that it solves all kinds of strange problems (that nobody else seems to have).

Your friend is right. I don't have commonly reported issues both with new OSes and updates of software like Creative Cloud. I see a lot of things reporting on similarly configured systems that I have that I don't encounter. Now, every few months is overkill, if that's what he's truly doing. I only do it for new OSes iterations (such as High Sierra from Sierra).

No, apparently he actually does it every few months. I know, because I happen to make maps that require the installation of some open source software, and he uses them. So invariably he contacts me because he can’t remember how to install the software. So evidently he is doing a clean install, then installing his applications and copying his user files back. He’s very set in his ways about this, and I have given up asking why. ;-)

Like I said, I have been using Macs since 1985. I managed an office full of them in the 90’s. Have 3 Macs that I use everyday at home. But I’ve never needed to do clean installs of the operating system to fix a problem. Perhaps it has to do with the software I use, or maybe it’s because I don’t visit “certain” websites? :-P

But seriously, I am very slow to upgrade to a new version of MacOS. I stayed on 10.8.5 for many years until I finally decided to switch to Final Cut Pro X from legacy FCP.

But seriously, I am very slow to upgrade to a new version of MacOS. I stayed on 10.8.5 for many years until I finally decided to switch to Final Cut Pro X from legacy FCP.

That's probably why.

Finally beat this “Huge System Storage” thing. From the Apple discussion threads, seems there isn’t one specific cause but the common theme is buried, or hidden, files/folders/volumes.

I tried everything I dared while away from home for 6 months with only my affected MBP with me, to no avail.

Once home, I finally broke down and installed free-to-try OmniDiskSweeper, which immediately identified a 374GB “in progress” Time Machine backup from, not coincidentally, right before I noticed my SSD unexpectedly near-full; it was showing as a hidden volume, not visible in Finder.

I deleted that hidden volume and thought at first it didn’t work, but lo and behold an hour or so later that space became available again, both in Get Info and About This Mac > Storage. My knowledge of macOS is miniscule, but guessing it just took time to re-index the SSD in the background.

While digging online, I did see other short threads pre-dating High Sierra with similar problems, so it seems that this is just a matter of whatever buried files (in some cases, GB of google mail drafts or huge numbers of text files for some errant application), or hidden folders/volumes that get left behind. In my case, it presumably was the failed Time Machine backup.

I’ll post this info over on the longest Apple Discussion about this. If you have this problem, you should be able to find that thread by keywording “macOS High Sierra – Huge System Storage” in the Apple discussion area.

Moving onward, I did upgrade my Macbook Touch Bar to Mojave and I'm having a good experience on it. Definitely a stable OS for an initial release.

That's good news. Any further comments on FCP and/or PPRo performance?

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/adobe-creative-suite/536344-ppro-2019-v13-cuda-working-high-sierra.html