Affinity affecting Mac storage

[Jeeves]

Hi folks. 

My computer storage is maxing out at the moment so I'm doing a clear out. I have my Affinity Designer files mostly on the desktop 3GB, and of course the application itself 2.45GB, and an Application Support library file at 4.7GB.

But I have found a file in the following location which is 31.2GB!! Can I do something with this??

Private / Var / Folders / 18 / (code number) / T / com.seriflabs.affinitydesigner 

TIA

[MikeTO]

FWIW the only com.seriflabs.affinitydesigner file I can find on my system is with the same files for publisher and photo in <username>/library/group containers/<gibberishtext>.com.seriflabs/appinfo and the files are less than 200 bytes.

[Jeeves]

I have that doc in that location too - but with .appinfo appended to it. 

I don't want to go messing with that huge file I have unless I know my files will still open 😬 Do you know if Serif have a support line / ticket system at all?

[MikeTO]

Yes, those are .appinfo files.

I just checked and private/var/folders is for system cache files. I haven't been running Affinity since I rebooted this morning hence I have no Affinity cache files. You may have been working a long time so you have big cache files. If you restart your computer the file should disappear.

Here's one article on the subject but I can't vouch for its accuracy: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/mac-folders-never-touch/

[Old Bruce]

Hi @Jeeves,

I make it a practice to never toss anything out from the hidden folders.

[Jeeves]

12 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

Yes, those are .appinfo files.

I just checked and private/var/folders is for system cache files. I haven't been running Affinity since I rebooted this morning hence I have no Affinity cache files. You may have been working a long time so you have big cache files. If you restart your computer the file should disappear.

Here's one article on the subject but I can't vouch for its accuracy: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/mac-folders-never-touch/

This is a big help - thanks. I almost never turn off the Mac tbh although 32GB does sound excessive ... I'll sure up what I have open first and let you know if it works! Cheers. 

[R C-R]

9 hours ago, Jeeves said:

But I have found a file in the following location which is 31.2GB!! Can I do something with this??

Very likely, the items in this folder using significant amounts of disk space are sample files you opened from the Welcome > View Samples window. If so, you can identify them because each will have the .afdesign extension & the filename will be the same as what you see in the Welcome > View Samples window.

For example, I just opened the 'Staying Home' & 'Totem' sample files from that window in Mac AD 1.9.3, then closed & quit AD. This is what that folder shows in Finder:

If I restart my Mac, they will be deleted, but for the sample files only, you can delete them without causing any problems.

Just guessing but you probably have a lot of these samples in that folder, so for you the simplest (& safest!) way to reclaim the disk space is just to restart your Mac.

[Jeeves]

Hi all.

Just to follow up - I closed down the Mac and the huge folder was empty after restart. I've only ever opened one of the sample files so not sure that could be the main source of the issue. Hadn't shut the Mac down for a long time though - at least 2-3 months. Even still, I still think that's crazy - I'm by no means a heavy user.

I guess the only solution is to shut down once per month! 

 

[Old Bruce]

3 minutes ago, Jeeves said:

Hi all.

Just to follow up - I closed down the Mac and the huge folder was empty after restart. I've only ever opened one of the sample files so not sure that could be the main source of the issue. Hadn't shut the Mac down for a long time though - at least 2-3 months. Even still, I still think that's crazy - I'm by no means a heavy user.

I guess the only solution is to shut down once per month! 

 

I have never had a machine run for a month without accumulating problems.

I aim to shut down every day, I try to only leave the machine on if there is a job running that will take several hours to complete. I also try and remember to run a Safe Start here on the Mac every couple of months, this clears out a whole bunch of the cruft that has accumulated.

[MikeTO]

In the old days I shut down my computer when I wasn't using it but these days Macs can be treated like iPhones, leave them on all the time and let them restart themselves when the system needs to update itself. Regular users shouldn't have to worry about these things now.

However, this can lead to large cache sizes so if you're tight on space it might not be a bad idea to restart every so often to clean them out. But if you're that tight on space you might want to look at offloading some of your files to external storage so you don't have to worry about it.

I'm currently shutting down my MacBook Pro when I'm not using it due to a battery issue but otherwise wouldn't bother.

[Old Bruce]

2 hours ago, MikeTO said:

but these days Macs can be treated like iPhones, leave them on all the time

With all due respect, I have to quote the exasperated mother to her hulking teenage son "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should."

I stand by my "Shut it down every day" is a better strategy in both short and long term than "leave it on until...."

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, MikeTO said:

In the old days I shut down my computer when I wasn't using it but these days Macs can be treated like iPhones, leave them on all the time and let them restart themselves when the system needs to update itself.

In the best of all possible worlds, that might be true but down here in the real one, restarting a Mac that is not performing as expected is still a safe & effective remedy for many kinds of issues.