available room on SSD on my Mac mini M1 disappeared quickly

[David Ris]

Hi ---

I am using 13.5.1 on my Mac Mini M1 with a 1 TB SSD.   The available space on the drive decreased from 400 GB to 100 GB quickly.  I recall having the same issue about a year ago.   Possibly related to a Forced Quit of  LR which created a very large backup file on the SSD.  I was able to delete the backup.

I realize this may not be enough info for a diagnosis.   Please let me know what additional detail is needed to find a solution.

Thanks!

[JohanElzenga]

Could be anything and not necessarily related to Lightroom Classic at all. The first thing to check is the cache folder:

Users/YourUserName/Library/Caches

Do note that the User/Library folder is hidden by default. Here's how to unhide it: https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/access-hidden-user-library-files.html

Another good method of trying to find out is to use an app like DaisyDisk.

[David Ris]

Thank you Johan,

I use OmniDiskSweeper which is somewhat similar to DaisyDisk.  (which looks very interesting to me, so I will be adding it to my toolkit later.)

I looked in the folder:  Users/Myname/Library/Caches/ Adobe/Lightroom/Cache/.   "Get Info" showed only about 1 gig in that folder.   So that is not the culprit.  Should I be looking elsewhere?

Thanks again!

[dj_paige]

Are you talking about Lightroom (Lr icon) or Lightroom Classic (LrC icon)?

I would imagine you should be looking everywhere on the disk.

Where are the photos themselves stored?

[David Ris]

Hi DJ -- I am using Lightroom Classic (LrC icon / 13.5.1).   All of the images are stored on an external HD. 

[JohanElzenga]

Download the free version of DaisyDisk and run it. It can show you large (hidden) files. I'm not sure if the free version can remove those files as well, but at least it can tell you what may be going on.

[Ricky336]

Hello,

If you have done a force quit of Lightroom Classic, then there is a place you can look at. Look in LocalLow folder - Users/your name/ AppData / LocalLow/Adobe/CRLogs and dumps. You just might find a few gigabytes worth of crash files.

You will have to enable Show Hidden items to get access to the AppData folder.

Recently after I wondered where all the space was going I found I had around 95 GB of dump files.

So it could be worth a look there.

[Ricky336]

Of course, this is for Windows, but there may be something equivalent for a Mac.

[JohanElzenga]

On a Mac these should be in Username/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CRLogs and dumps. I can't check it right now because I type this on my iPad.

[David Ris]

Thank you.   No luck finding a folder Username/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CRLogs and dumps. I will keep looking ...

[JohanElzenga]

There is Username/Library/Logs/Adobe, but on my system that folder is not very large.

[David Ris]

Thanks Johan -- Like you, that folder is not very large.

I found some old Lightroom Catalogs that I thought I'd deleted previously.    I will delete those, although they account for only about 10 gig in total.

In the library, I also found 7 GB in iTunes, all for iPad Software updates.   (my iTunes music files are on an external drive.)     Can I delete the iPad Software updates?  

I will download and run DaisyDisk to see if it finds anything that OnmiDiskSweeper missed.

Thanks again for your help.

[Ricky336]

I don't use a Mac, but just maybe this might help!

(From Copilot)

Crash dump files for Adobe applications on a Mac are typically found in the following locations:

1. General Crash Reports:

   • ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/
   • ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/

2. Specific Adobe Application Logs:

   • For Adobe Acrobat/Reader: ~/Library/Logs/Adobe/Acrobat/
   • For Adobe Creative Cloud: ~/Library/Logs/AdobeDownload/

     Specific Lightroom Classic Logs:

     • ~/Library/Logs/Adobe/Lightroom/

To access these folders, you can use the Finder:

1. Open Finder.
2. From the menu bar, select Go > Go to Folder.
3. Type the path (e.g., ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/) and press Enter.

These locations store logs and crash reports that can help diagnose issues with Adobe applications¹²³.

You may have to unhide these files.

[JohanElzenga]

In the library, I also found 7 GB in iTunes, all for iPad Software updates.   (my iTunes music files are on an external drive.)     Can I delete the iPad Software updates?  

By @David Ris

In do believe that this is very old and no longer the way that iOS app updates are done, but check the dates of these files to be sure. 

[David Ris]

Thank you Johan - the iPad app updates are in the trash.

[Lumigraphics]

It could be a lot of things. OmniDiskSweeper or DaisyDisk should show you in detail where the room is going.

For Lightroom Classic, previews will take up a huge amount of drive space, its easy to go over a TB. Consider moving the catalog to an external SSD.

[David Ris]

Thank you Lumigraphics, that is a good suggestion.   I've already moved the catalog to the same external drive that has my photos.   I plan to try DaisyDisk, as OmniDiskSweeper is not finding anything out of the ordinary that is eating disk space.  

[David Ris]

Thank you!   This one is closed.    The culprit was the crash report logs.    DaisyDisk provided the necessary intel.

[Ricky336]

I did mention that the culprit may well be in the CRlogs!