System Folders

I have found two System folders in my document folder. They appear to be identical and add-up to over 13Gb of disk space. Is that where the main System folder should reside? I am trying to clear up space and worry about the fact I may have multiple System folders on my HD and therefore would like to Trash the excess one(s)!
Thanks in advance for the help.

If you double click the hard drive icon you should see something like this:
Applications
Documents
Library
System
System Folder (if you have Classic installed)
Users
There should not be a System folder anywhere else, and there had better be one at the root level!
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Similar Messages

What to do with Previous System Folders?

First of all, Happy New Year to all!
I just spent two days doing an "Archive and Install" on my iMac at the advice of an Apple Genius who checked out my iMac at the Apple store. He said my iMac was running very slow but couldn't find any reason for it.
The first "Archive and Install" took six hours on the 30th, and then it was several more hours to get the software back up to speed with all of the updates. But after all of that, my system ended up in the Kernal Panic screen on start up. So today I got on the phone with Apple Care and they had me boot up with the Leopard Install DVD in the drive, holding down the C key. That worked, but I was back to square one with my Archive and Install.
The second try yesterday took another 6 hours, and then it took several hours to get my software back up to speed again. The Apple Care guy told me the Install should only take an hour, so that right there tells me something isn't right. Anyway, here I am after two very long days, with my iMac at least functioning again, albeit not faster as I had hoped. It's still running slow as molasses. This post has taken me forever to write due to only being able to type three or four letters, then wait for SBOD to stop spinning, then another two or three letters. It's so frustrating.
But, my main reason for posting here is to ask two questions.
1. The two "Archive and Installs" left me with two "Previous System Folders" on my hard drive that are almost 21 GB's!! I had 74 GB's free before and now have only 53. Can I dump those folders and get my space back? I sure hope so. If so, how do I safely do it?
2. The three folders on my dock at the right end; Applications, Documents, and Downloads, used to be in nice neat folders with symbols on them indicating what they are, but now they're just plain folders with stuff sticking out of the top of them, and in the case of the Applications folder, the Address book app is sitting on top of the folder, rather than inside of it, and all I see is the Address book icon, not the folder. How do I get those folders back to normal? I hate the way they look now!
I'm very frustrated that I'm having all of these problems with my iMac, but grateful at this point that I extended my warranty before the first year was up. I'm definitely going to have to take it back in for more help. I don't think it should take four minutes for iTunes to start up and shut down, four minutes for iPhoto to shut down, or two minutes for a photo to open up in iPhoto after clicking on it, etc., etc. I have the Spinning Beach Ball of Death spinning way more than it should! I'm tired of constantly having to wait for it to stop so I can continue.
Ironically, I installed two more Gigs of RAM less than six months ago so that I would have a faster computer, but I never really noticed a difference. Although it wasn't this slow the first few months.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can answer my two questions up above, and thanks for listening to me while I expressed my frustration.
Deb

Hi Deb,
This may be ten days late, and way, way too long, but you might want to try some of these suggestions, especially if AppleCare, or someone else, hasn't fixed it for you. You'll probably need to print out all this stuff. It's all stuff I've found useful in similar situations. There is no particular order to check things, but you might want check the utility "Activity Monitor" first and then try setting up a new account. That has worked for me.
Launch "Activity Monitor" (found in the utility folder inside the root Applications folder) and click on the CPU column to see if some background process or another application is running and using a large percentage of the processor's time. Also check the RAM columns to see if something is using a lot of the available RAM. If there is something that doesn't seem right, you can select it and double click the questionable item - a dialog box will appear that allows you to quit. That may solve the problem of spinning "pizza wheels" of death without a restart. At the least you'll have a good question to ask AppleCare (though they'll definitely suggest Activity Monitor.
You may also want to set up a new account in Apple Menu/System Prefs/Accounts with a different name and password. Then within that account try launching some apps from the Root Applications folder. They may now work in the new account. You can also install some apps you use most within the new account. Those apps will be placed in the Applications folder within the new home folder of the new account - NOT in the root Applications folder (the one you see when you double click the hard drive icon).
If you haven't set up a new account before it will seem strange when you first startup. Nothing is the same - the desktop, dock, etc will be like when the machine was new. But often, using the new account, and finding the sluggishness is now gone, tells you the problem was in the old account - even if you can't find what the problem was. The old account is still there. But setting up the new account will take some additional drive space if you reinstall applications.
Whatever you do, *_don't just delete the old account_* as that will also delete all your documents, videos, photos, etc. You can copy or move between accounts with your administrator password. The Library folder in the old Home folder will contain a lot of stuff you may want to keep, but also can contain the corrupt file that caused the sluggishness problem. You may want to copy the contents of different User/New Acct Home folder/Library folders a little at a time and reboot after changes. If the sluggishness reappears, then pull out the last items you put in and try to narrow it down.
If you don't want to set up a new account initially try some of these suggestions. Uninstall and reinstall the major applications that run slowly. Use the uninstaller that comes with the app. If there is none, then just reinstall and restart. That might solve the problem. Reinstall whatever apps you need. Can't hurt and may eliminate some file corruption.
After you restart, and BEFORE you launch any application, press and hold the Cmd (Apple) Key and then hit tab. You will see which apps are running in addition to the Finder. If there is stuff you didn't launch, keep pressing Cmd-Tab which will highlight each application. When selected, you can quit the application [Cmd-Q ]. Or just release the Cmd-Tab keys with the app selected and it's name should appear at the top left of the menu bar. There, you can pull down the menu and quit it (or press Cmd-Q). If it doesn't quit try to Force Quit [Opt-Cmd-Escape]. Try not to quit the Finder. Then launch the apps you need and see if they are still sluggish.
If there was stuff running and you don't know why, check your Account (Apple Menu/System Prefs/Accounts). Accounts is the first item on the System row (next to last row down). Click Accounts and when it opens, click the the account you're using (if there are more than one). Then click the Login Items tab near the top of the window. You'll see a list of apps that launch whenever you start up (sometimes in the background). If you don't recognize some of what's there you can remove them using the [-] icon. You'll have to unlock the account with your password and then re-lock it to prevent others from changing stuff.
Restart or log-out and log-in and see if the machine is faster without one or more of the removed items. There are things that are best not touched, but you'll probably know by their names. Pretty much anything you'd add will be found in the Applications or Utility folders. Other stuff is added by applications when they are installed. Make a list of whatever you remove if you have to add it back. If an application needs something you removed, you may be asked to reinstall the app.
That's it - hope it helps.
MartyP

I no longer have access to system folders that allow me to remove old or incorrect PAGES templates. Need to find out how to do that. The only way I can do it now is to blank the template and replace the bad template with a blank.

I no longer have access to system folders that allow me to remove old or incorrect PAGES templates. Need to find out how to do that. The only way I can do it now is to blank the template and replace the unwanted template with a blank. It was previously possible to go to MY TEMPLATES and remove the unwanted templates. I don't if this issue is before or since installation of 10.8 (a nightmare in my case, which led to significant failure issues). And because I haven't tried to remove templates since finally managing to install 10.8 (now at 10.8.4), I don't know if this is typical of the newer OS or a problem. I've been a Mac user for more than 25 years, but I think I'm nearing the end of the road. By the way, I've never needed to do this before because the manuals always offered an answer... they don't seem to do that anymore. In any case, I don't know how this works... I'd prefer an email reply if that's possible. But that would probably be too easy, and I don't know how to get a reply.

Thanks, I appreciate the help. I think this is one of the problems Apple is creating by changing the OS so often. I had fomer colleagues at [a major aerospace contractor] who told me that so many original files were ultimately lost because of the deadly change in the "Save As" operation that they are now afraid of every OS update. Apple has badly damaged their support base with that very prominent company (they won't update now until they've fully examined and understand changes in the pre-conditioned nature of OS computer functions), and they are a whole lot less enthaled with Mac-related equipment/software. Can't blame them, I too used orginal files that way (as easy-to-use templates), and lost some important files before I realized what was happening (to late to revert). Companies should not have to retrain employees each time an OS gets an update, it's can be very expensive several different ways. They learned a painful lesson with that one. And because I'm now retired and don't use multiple devices, I need iCloud like I need a hole in the head... but I'm told there's no way to keep Apple out of my computer. Fortunately, because of major problems when initially installing Mountain Lion, one hold-over of the hardware/software damage I experienced was that iCloud can no longer access my computer even though everything else is working fine again. That was the only "good luck" I had as a result of that expensive nightmare.

[Vista only] file IOException in system folders...

i get IOExceptions thrown if attempting to write to system folders. this behavior only occurs in windows vista when User Account Control is ON. if i turn it off, the error goes away.
windows xp, 2000 and mac os x are all fine. damn vista!
as far as i know, most programs get this access by invoking the annoying user account control popup (do you want to give this program permission to execute?) or the like. this seems to be automatically invoked for .exes but not with .jars. is there a way i can invoke this permission for my java.exe / javaw.exe program?
at the moment, the only workaround i have is a popup asking users to disable User Account Control. i think all would agree this is a poor solution. its not even a solution. its an embarrassing workaround...
any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance!
-mark
example below.
import java.io.BufferedWriter;
import java.io.FileWriter;
import java.io.IOException;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;
public class VistaFileIO
public VistaFileIO()
String startMenuPath = "C:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\Programs\\javaFile.txt";
String randomSystemFolderPath = "C:\\AppData\\Default\\AppData\\Local\\javaFile.txt";
if (writeToFile(startMenuPath) && writeToFile(randomSystemFolderPath))
    JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,
      "\n\n Successfully wrote both files.\n\n", "Success!", JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE);
public static void main (String[] args)
new VistaFileIO();
boolean writeToFile(String path)
try
      BufferedWriter fout = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(path, false));
      fout.write("tying to write some text!");
      fout.newLine();
      fout.close();
      return true;
catch (IOException e)
    JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,
      "\n\n Couldn't write to the file '" + path + "'\n\n" + getStackTrace(e),
      "IOException Caught", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
    return false;
static String getStackTrace(Exception e)
     String trace = "\n";
     StackTraceElement[] stack = e.getStackTrace();
     for (int i = 0; i < stack.length; i++)
         trace += "\n" + stack;
return trace;

While Vista is not my OS of choice, I like how it actually forces people to think about security ('though it might be better if they didn't just think of it as another annoying message box, but one can't have everything).
Why do you need to write to a system file area anyway? The only valid reason I can think of is if you are trying to write an installer. And if you do that and can't find documentation on how to do that, then you're probably better of to just use an existing one, since writing an installer is far more complex and tiresome as sounds.
Especially with things like UAC in Vista.
Just grab one of the existing (Java) installers (google helps find them!) and be done with it.
If you're not writing an installer, then I'd be curious to know why you need to access those directories.

Multiple System Folders in Operation! Consolidation Tips?

Hi from a first-wave Mac OS 6 user (Started with a Plus and 20MB External; )
An obviously stupid situation is plaguing my longtime PMac G3/266 running OS 8.6.
(Yes I DO run OSX latest versions on other machines - this is a legacy system i maintain for various reasons incl. access to otherwise orphaned files & apps).
Long story condensed...Have 2 Seagate internal HDs running. Newer one ('07: ) was installed with intent to use for backup and extra storage. Somehow along the line
TWO System Folders became active and over time of course some elements of one System have become intermingled with the other. Goal here is, as sensibly/simply as possible, unify a single system...whether that's back to 8.6, or migrating everything i NEED to an OS 9.2 drive (wiser i suppose). It has been SO long
that I don't even remember the fundamentals of migration from OS 8 to 9...but
complicating matters is this multiple Sys Folder issue.
Don't want to lose currently-active preferences... data-access to stuff like
Filemaker Pro files with time-sensitive current data like invoicing etc.
All this said, any pointers on how to proceed, to effectively keep the current status of everything in current Active use - but eliminate the other System folder wherein some components are affecting apps/docs/files in the OTHER Sys. Folder and..vice versa. This is a fragile process especially when it comes to stuff like email in an old version of Netscape Communicator that I use on this machine. As far as that app., there are multiple User folders but we need to salvage the RIGHT User Profile and Data i.e. i.e., the one that's most current and in-use.
I don't think this is as nightmarish as it might seem on the surface...I'm just looking to map an orderly strategy to approach it. What I really don't want to lose afa the System, is the correct Preferences for the active apps. Again, it seems some apps are drawing info from BOTH System/Pref folders.
BTW DW/DiskWarrior was used for Directory creation on the newer of the drives, in case that's of any relevance.
I was thinking of just picking up another HD, putting it in another, newer desktop (AGP/G4) and then migrating everything from both HDs on the older 8.6 OS machine to the newer machine which would be on 9.2.2...but under the circumstances, not sure that would be simple/straightforward unless I first resolve the duplication thing with what's on the "dueling 8.6 HDs" machine.
Sorry I didn't really shorten a long story after all but thanks and appreciation for any advice if you've read this far.
MikeE

Don Archibald wrote:
Hi, Mike -
…TWO System Folders became active….
Two System Folders may be present on the machine, but only one can be active at any given time.
Are the two System Folders each on a separate drive? Or are both on the same drive?
If each is on its own drive, then the active one can be identified in several ways. The easiest way is to look at the drive icons on the right-hand side of the desktop - the icon for the boot volume (meaning the drive whose OS is in use) will be the one on top. If this is constant through reboots, then there is no change in which OS is being used, and its contents will be the most current.
Many folk have multiple OS's available on their machines. Usually they are segregated by being on different volumes (a volume - an unpartitioned drive, or a partition of a partitioned drive).
For example, I have two hard drives in the G4 I'm using. One drive has been partitoned into four volumes, the other into five volumes; in addition, I have a full-time external firerwire drive. This gives me 10 separate volumes. All could be bootable if I had an OS on each; I do have OS's on 7 of them, so I have 7 bootable volumes. One is a full duplucate (backup) of my primary boot volume, including the OS (OS 9.1); others are of different OS versions or configs, used for testing purposes or for specific needs.
There is no cross-contamination in this arrangement; prefs are updated, etc., only in the System Folder for the active OS, meaning the one then running the machine.
Hi Don, thanks for writing.
+> Are the two System Folders each on a separate drive? Or are both on the same drive?<+
The two System Folders are on each on separate drives.
+> If each is on its own drive, then the active one can be identified in several ways. The easiest way is to look at the drive icons on the right-hand side of the desktop - the icon for the boot volume (meaning the drive whose OS is in use) will be the one on top. If this is constant through reboots, then there is no change in which OS is being used, and its contents will be the most current.+
>
OK, will check that. Trying to get a handle on what is going on here. Several anomalies that i need to identify the cause of. For a simple example - Old "Stickies Notes" will boot up one time and on next restart, a default startup with that app. appearing "as-new" -- i.e. no prefs at all...no database connectivity and specific "stickie-notes" that would otherwise show up under one System's startup.
Honestly it's as if the System will startup randomly from either one Folder or The Other...and/or....choose Prefs from One or The Other each time.
Just trying to get everything to jive under one singular System with no influence from the Other.
Will look at the drive icons on reboots to try and single out the most-current and hopefully can sort things out that way. As I say, I'm willing to simply move the whole "universe" from both Drives up to a single new OS 9 environment, if i can find a way to do it relatively easily.
Thanks again
Mike

System folders in different languages

Hello. I got a new iMac late 2012 and my System folders appear some in English (Music, Sites) and some in Spanish (Pública, Descargas, etc.). I want them all in Spanish. What must I do? Thanks in advance.

For example: I want to make an account for me with
Tiger in English, and another one for my wife with
Tiger in Japanese. Is that possible?
Yes. You can choose any of the available OS X localizations for any user account you set up.

Uploading file: Browse System Folders?

Hi there.
When uploading a file, is it possible to browse
the system folders such as tmp, etc, and bin?
And with saving things with TextEdit, why can I not
browse, and only save in preset folders?
Thanks,
Troy

Hey Troy!
With the uploading and the TextEdit yes sometimes it doesn't allow you to just browse wherever you want. (Unless someone else knows a trick?)
You just have to work around it if there's not a full browse option made available. You can always save some folders on the left side of your Finder window if that helps?

Change system folders name in mavericks

Hi all, there is a way to change the system folder name in Mavericks as described in this article? http://www.macworld.com/article/1046866/renamesystemfolders.html
Thank you

Hi,
Just in case someone search for this argument.
I wanted to change system folders name because some folders wasn't translated in my language in OSx (it's a long story the "why").
Now I just find a solutions in this article: http://www.cnet.com/news/home-and-system-directory-names-not-translating-in-os-x /
So I'm happy to say "thank you touch command"
Thanks again,
br
fulvio

Previous system folders hav 10gb on an 80mb disk could not repair vol

I'm trying to install Virtual PC. It seems to hang and the reason I suspect is there isn't enough disk space. Can I delete the previous system folders? I shouldn't need them for anything I can think of. There are two of them 5gb each.
I have another problem I ran disk repair and it said one vol could not be repaired in red but it did say 1 vol was repeaired. I'm not sure what this means since there should only be one vol on my hard drive? When I ran disk repair I got the following messages:
Checking HFS+ vol
checking Extents overflow file
checking catalog file
Reserved words in catalog record incorrect data
checking multi-linked files
checking catalog hierarchy
checking extended attributes
Invalid leaf record count should be 6706 not 549
checking vol bitmap
checking vol info on Mac HD
Repairing vol
the vol was repaired
1 HFS vol repaired
1 vol not repaired
I have MySQL Server and PHP installed. I just upgraded from Tiger to Leopard. I need VPC to run and I need space to install Windows on the Mac HD but I'm wondering why disk repair could not repair 1 vol and why it thinks there were two volumns.
thanks in advance,

Is there a second partition for Virtual PC, or other use?
In Disk Utility, each partition should be listed below the main line (with the Drive name/size).
If there are two (or more) then you have multiple volumes.
The one named "Mac HD," that was repaired, is almost certainly your boot volume, so look at the other(s).
See what the format of each is, by clicking on it and looking at the bottom. If it's not some flavor of Mac OS Extended, then DU likely can't repair it.

Moved Public Folders - 4 System Folders wont Remove

I have moved Public Folders from one Exchange 2007 Server to another Exchange 2007 Server using the ./movereplicas script. All Folders have replicated ok, but on the old server which I want to decomission I am unable to remove the public
folder DB because it says not all folders have replicated.
If I run Get-publicfolderstatistics on both servers I am left with 4 system folders on the old server. These seem to have replicated across to the new server ok - the item count is higher on the new server.
I have tried running the script again, but these 4 folders never get removed. The folders are OAB, Store Events which have an item count of 0 on both serversthese two are higher on the new Public Folder DB.
Hope someone can advise
Thanks
Dave

Hi,
If they're system folders you don't need, like those other than SCHEDULE+ FREE BUSY, OFFLINE ADDRESS BOOK and EFORMS REGISTRY (if you use Organizational Forms), then you can delete them.
Based on the description, it looks like the four system folders have replicas on another Exchange 2007 server, you can just delete these system folders.
Best regards,
Belinda
Belinda Ma
TechNet Community Support

2 system folders (temporary/partial migration)

1 - I am using a (temporary) loaner Mac Pro as my own PowerMac blew its power supply. I wanted to access certain Apple apps (mail, iTunes, and various files) from my old internal boot drive, which I installed on the loaner Mac Pro. I have noticed some errors and remembered that I now have two system folders. I attempted to rename the system folder from my old boot drive, but can't rename the folder, even though I changed the permissions to read/write for everyone. How can I rename that folder?
2- Is it possible to access my Apple mail, iTunes, iCal etc. from my old drive without performing a full Migration to the Loaner Mac Pro? I plan to return the loaner Mac Pro soon, and do not wish to have my personal apps/data installed on it. Is it possible to create a new User and access the apps/, music etc. from the old drive?
thanks

"Clone the loaner system drive, then pull it. "
Sorry, I don't completely understand your suggestion. Are you saying I clone the loaner System to the Internal Drive from my Power Mac? If so, how do I rename the old System Folder that is on that drive now, which I a currently unable to rename?
Thanks, & please excuse my ignorance of these procedures

Previous Systems Folders

I have 2 Previous Systems folders on my hard drive, each with an Applications, Library, private, System, and Users folder. Some are empty, but like the Applications folder is full of Mac software. These folders are in addition to the normal folders of Applications, Applications (Mac OS9), Library, System X, Systems Folder 9, Updaters, User Guides and Information, and Users.
Can I dump the Previous Systems folders and free up some valuable hard drive space?
Thanks,
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

You can, as long as you have verified all the data from the previous Archive and Installs that you want to keep has been moved over to the current Users folder, and Applications folder. That means checking your iTunes library, iPhoto library, and any documents you stored. Typically if you Save User and Network settings all of them should be moved over. If you ever didn't save User and Network Settings, it might be a problem. Also the contents of the Shared folder which AOL uses may not have been moved over, if you use AOL.
The quickest way to get rid of those folders once you verified all the data is moved over, is first to backup your data, and then use http://www.macosxcocktail.com/
Note, Cocktail is a multipurpose utility which should only be used for troubleshooting and forcing deleting folders when you are familiar with what you are deleting. A lot of its functions which some claim are good for maintenance may actually cause more damage than good if used at the wrong time.

Hidden files as a system folders

hello,
Few months ago, i added folders into my ipod as a hard disk.
the problem is this-
Few weeks ago, the folders has been "gone". That's what i thought at first.
But then, when i scanned my ipod for viruses, i saw it's scanning the folders that has been "deleted". and the ipod is clean from virous.
So i tried to type the name of the folders in the link line and it worked.
I discovered that the folders has been changed some how to be a kind of a system folders and i can't see them unless i'm changing it trough the folder option.
but then when i see the files hidden, i can not change the folders back into a regular status.
I really need help. I'm on a big trip and my ipod is my hard disk.
i tried to talk with people who have the same problem and they also waiting for a solution.
hope to get an answer soon.
liroy.

"Thank" you apple for supporting my problems.
I'll know where to shop next time when i'll search my new techs..

Archiving "Previous Systems" folders (unsuccessful)

I have been trying to archive "Previous Systems" folders on DVD to get them off my hard drive where they're taking up space.
Every time I try to burn them to DVD using OS X's Burn facility or Toast, it starts to burn, but eventually says something along the lines of 'Some of the files could not be burned because you do not have sufficient privileges.'
I tried to compress them using OS X's .zip compress tool as well as just about every third party compression tool available, but got a similar message.
Does anyone know a way to successfully archive on an external medium (DVD) "Previous Systems" so they aren't sitting there taking up room on my hard drive?
Any help is appreciated.
-Mike

you should simply delete that folder once you know everything on your system works. there is no reason to keep it around or back it up.

HT201250 Time Machine stopped backing up system folders

A couple of months ago, Time Machine stopped backing up my System folder and my Library folder. What is going on?

ttimshell wrote:
i'm sorry, i don't understand. i went to "time machine preferences" and "options." under options are all my external hard drives, and that's it. you said, "if THEY'RE shown there, select them . . ." what is the "THEY" that you're talking about?
Your system folders. Some people don't want them (and/or other things) to be backed-up.
i don't see any option to change what time machine backs up and what it doesn't back up.
That's where you can tell it not to back up certain things, or to back up external HDs. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #10.
I don't recall seeing those folders not being backed-up unless they were specifically excluded. Is your Applications folder getting backed-up?
Perhaps the preferences file has been damaged. Try a "full reset" of Time Machine, per #A4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
EDIT: Note that when TM does back them up for the first time, it will be a fairly large backup, and seem pretty slow. That's because those folders contain many thousands of mostly small files.
Message was edited by: Pondini

System Folders

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for